Win a University Place with this short story competition

The University of East London is breaking new ground with their free fiction competition, running for the first time this year. Open to young people aged 16-19 living or going to school in one of London’s 32 boroughs, the first prize (along with some cash) is a university place. PLUS anyone wanting to enter gets the chance to attend free editing workshops.

The theme of CityLife Prize for Fiction for Young Writers is a goody: The City. And in case there is any doubt, it is clear they mean not any old urban landcape, but London. There are no restrictions on topic or genre (as long as you don’t forget what you’re supposed to be writing about) and the maximum word count is a decent 5,000 words.  That is quite long for a competition of this nature but probably reflects the fact that the winner should not only come up with a cracking short story but also show that they can produce a sustained piece of work WITHOUT WAFFLE. The editing workshop will help there.

What are they looking for? The following statement comes from the university’s competition website:

The future of our cities should be decided by our younger generations, the people expected to live in them for the longest; not by policy-makers, politicians, corporate chains or transnationals.

But remember they are looking for fiction not an essay.

We want the prize to inspire new writers to think imaginatively about London and to influence the cultural landscape of the city, said UEL Professor of Creative Writing Tessa McWatt.

THE PRIZE The winner will receive £500,  a place on UEL’s BA (Hons) Creative and Professional Writing course, subject to interview, and the story will be published on the university’s creative writing website. Nine runners up will be given the chance to attend a fiction masterclass.

 DEADLINE March 15 2017

An editing workshop is running on February 18, 2017

That gives plenty of time to write and re-write and study every rule and condition on the UEL website.

By the way, on the website it says writers must be aged between 16 and 19 at the time of submission so students who are 15 now may be able to enter if their birthday falls before March 15 .