Hastings Book Festival Competition 2025

• Deadline: 10pm on 30 June 2025
• Entry Fee: Single entry fee is £8.25; Two entries: £15; Three entries £21 (Max one entry for creative non-fiction)
• Prizes: 1st prize £250, 2nd prize £100, and 3rd prize £50
• Word Limit: Stories up to 2,500 words; poems up to 40 lines; creative non-fiction up to 1,000 words
• Eligibility: Entrants to all competitions must be a minimum of 18 years old at time of entry, but the competition is open to all, including non-UK based writers.
• Judges: Short Story, Jen Calleja (Poetry), Creative Non-Fiction
• Category: James Young (Short Story), Poetry, Sam Davey (Creative Non-Fiction)
• Competition Website: hastingsbookfest.org/competitions

The annual Hastings Book Festival Competition launched on 31 March 2025 and closed on 30 June 2025. With prizes for short stories, poems and creative non-fiction, there’s something for everyone, with extra options for those living in Sussex or near Hastings.

The categories and prizes are as follows:

The main Hastings Book Festival Writing competition is for writers of short story and poetry and can be on any theme. Entries are welcome from anywhere in the world.

The Sussex Prize is for writers living in East and West Sussex and one will be chosen from the shortlisted entries of each of the categories for the main competition.

The Founder’s Prize is for emerging writers living within a 20-mile radius of Hastings and St Leonards-on-Sea. It is for works of creative non-fiction and the theme is ‘REFLECTIONS’. This will be limited to one entry per person with a maximum of 50 entries overall.