Many thanks to my (non-writing) friend, Alison, for sending the details of this competition to me.

ReadKirklees are looking for poetry or prose (up to 500 words) with the theme ‘On Your Bike‘.

There are three age groups, 11 and under, 12 – 17 years and Adult. The first prize in each age group is £50 in book vouchers, second prize is £30 in book vouchers and third prize is £20 in book vouchers.

The closing date is Friday 11th July and entry is FREE – so no reason at all not to have a go!

Full details are here.

As you may know, Kirklees is in Yorkshire (where I come from) and there’s another Yorkshire writing competition with a July closing date.

The Friends’ of Morley Literature Festival Short Story Competition closes on 1st July 2014.

This competition has an open theme and up to 3,000 words are allowed (average word length of previous entries has been 1600, so it’s quality not quantity they are after).

Entry to this competition is FREE too!

And, having previously won this competition and met the organiser,  I can personally vouch for its integrity. All the entries are assigned a number to keep them anonymous and then read by a panel who each independently score them for a range of criteria. The top-scoring handful are passed to Gervase Phinn who selects the first, second and third prize winners.

First prize is £50, second prize £30 and third prize £20. There’s usually a nice prize presentation event too.

See here for how to get your entry form.