About Us

The Bedford Competition is an established nonprofit company that runs annual short story and poetry competitions. We are an internationally recognised competition with a carefully curated panel of judges who are either acclaimed writers or agents from renowned literary agencies. All net revenues are used to benefit aspiring writers and to provide funds to literary-leaning  charities.

Reasons to enter our competitions:

  • We are a prestigious international competition founded in 2012
  • All entries are judged anonymously
  • All winning and shortlisted entries are published on our website and in a paperback anthology with global distribution
  • Net proceeds go to helping writer(s) with support to advance their creative writing skills and to provide funds to literacy supporting charities 
  • Your work will be judged by acclaimed writers or literary agents
  • Your success will be celebrated at a special Presentation Event.

Our Competitions:

Each year we award 10 prizes

SHORT STORY COMPETITION MAIN PRIZE – £1500

POETRY COMPETITION MAIN PRIZE – £1500

For the Main Prizes 2nd and 3rd prizes are awarded.

MAIN COMPETITION

2nd PRIZES – £300

3rd PRIZES – £200

For entrants aged 17 and over.

All submissions are entered to the Main Prize.

CYGNATURE SHORT STORY PRIZE – £200

CYGNATURE POETRY PRIZE – £200

Open for entrants aged 17 and over who have not won a prize in the main competition or the Bedford short story category.

BEDFORD SHORT STORY PRIZE – £100

BEDFORD POETRY PRIZE – £100

Open for any Bedford resident who has not won a prize in any of the above competitions. 

SHARE YOUR WORDS WITH US AND THE WORLD

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