Maximum 500 words for 8-15 year olds
Maximum 1000 words for adults.
Please give your story a title, which can be different from Hidden Treasures as long as that is clearly the theme.
All entries will be read by members of the DLF committee and the top stories put forward to category judges:
Children’s category judge: Barbara Henderson (award-winning author of children’s novels and adult non-fiction; she also works as a drama teacher and visits schools as an author and storyteller).
Adult’s category judge: Vaseem Khan (author of two award-winning crime series and books in a series featuring Q from the James Bond franchise; he was the Chair of the UK Crime Writers’ Association in 2023–25).
Monday 9th March 2026. Entries received after this date will not be considered.
Winners will each receive a £30 book token and the opportunity to have their story published in I’d Rather be in Deeping magazine.
Winners
of the Adult category.
First Place Claire Richardson
Second Place Joshua Parker
Third Place Athena Constantinou
First Place Claire Richardson
Highly Commended Anthony Gibbs
Highly Commended Yvo Henniker Heaton
Winners
of the 8-15 category.
First Place Siddhi Garg
Runner Up Angelyn Anna Johny
Third Place Isabelle Crisp
Your story
A fictional story, written in English. It should not have been published before or submitted to another competition. It should be your own original work and not AI assisted.
Poetry will not be considered.
How to submit your story
Your story should be typed on a Word document and emailed to: enquiries@deepingsliteraryfestival.co.uk
No handwritten entries accepted.
Please number your pages and include your exact story title at the top of each page.
Please do not include illustrations.
Please include a separate ‘front sheet’ with details of:
Adults: Full name, address (and/or email address).
Children: Full name, as well as a name and address (and/or email address) of your representative (parent, guardian or schoolteacher).
NB: All personal information will be used for the duration of this competition only and will not be disclosed to third parties without written consent. Personal information will not be held by the Deepings Literary Festival or its associates once the purposes of the competition are complete.
All stories remain the writers’ own copyright.
Deepings Literary Festival reserves the right to publish winning entries in I’d Rather be in Deeping magazine.
Selected stories may be included in an anthology to be on sale to raise funds for future Deepings Literary Festivals.
Published stories may be copy-edited for presentation and punctuation.
In the event of publication, authors agree to be named as the original creator of the work.
Any stories not conforming to the above specifications will not be accepted.
The judges’ decisions will be final.
