Evesham Festival of Words' annual short story competition is now open for entries.

The competition has three categories: eight to 11-year-olds, 12 to 15-year-olds and 16 years and over.

The two junior categories are free to enter and it costs £5 per story to enter the adult category.

The judges are all authors in their own right and include Elizabeth Spencer (8-11s), Ann Evans (12-15s) and Chris Hill (adult category).

Festival chairman Sue Ablett said: “If the 2019 competition is anything to go by we shall again have great fun in reading the entries and it will be another tough job for our judges to come up with their short list and the eventual winners.

"The competition is now in its fifth year and goes from strength to strength and I congratulate everyone who takes the time and trouble to tap into their creativity to enter.”

The 2020 competition has no specific theme which means that stories can be on absolutely any subject and in any writing genre. The rules for this year’s short story competition will be uploaded to eveshamfestivalofwords.org today.