Flipside, the East Anglian literary and arts festival, is launching a writing competition for writers of all ages in a search for inspirational writing about the environment.

 Here’s what you do. Choose any letter of the alphabet and use it in any way you like in a piece of writing on a green theme. Your submission can be a poem or a piece of prose, and could include some visual art. Whatever it is, it should refer to the environment and how to care for it.

First prize: £500 adults (16+), £200 for under 16s and all entries will be considered for inclusion in an anthology.

The competition will be judged by Jackie Kay MBE, the Scots Makar (poet Laureate), an award-winning poet and the Chancellor of the University of Salford; Jon Canter, a novelist and playwright, his work is often heard on BBC Radio 4; and Blake Morrison, poet, Professor of Creative and Life Writing at Goldsmiths College London and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

 Writing Tips

Be exciting and original, play around with the theme and think about what the environment means to you.

Remember that non-fiction doesn’t have to be a serious piece of informative writing; it can include all manner of things – memoir, reportage, polemic, satire or biography.

You’ve got a limit of 500 words, but you don’t have to use all of them!

 The great, late English novelist John Fowles once advised: “At heart, write always for yourself, not for family and friends, for admired teachers, for reviewers or publishers; but make sure you write from your real self, not that one besotted by vainglorious dreams of a future self. One day you will realize that the true rewards of writing lie inalienably in the writing itself.”

Deadline

The deadline for entries is 31st July 2017 and the entry fee is £3 per piece (under 16s free). Further information on terms and conditions and submission guidelines is available here.