The Firefly Children’s Fiction Competition (Wales) 2022
Firefly Press is looking for the best new children’s fiction by authors from Wales
There are three categories divided by age group: 7-9 years; 9-12s; 12-18s. Please submit the first 4,000 words of your story with a synopsis.
Longlisted authors will be expected to provide the whole manuscript for the judges to consider.
Only children’s fiction will be admissible. Picture books, fiction for adults, including ‘coming-of-age’ stories, any kind of non-fiction books or collections of poems will not be eligible and will not be read.
This is a competition for a story written in English by an author from Wales – this includes people living in Wales at the time they submit their entry, or people born or brought up in Wales wherever they are living now. You will be asked to explain your connection to Wales if you are longlisted and this is not clearly stated in your covering letter.
Firefly actively welcomes entries by writers from underrepresented communities.
Judges:
The competition winners will be selected by children’s authors Catherine Fisher, Catherine Johnson and Malachy Doyle, and Firefly Publisher Penny Thomas.
Prizes:
The three category winners will each win a one-hour, one-to-one meeting with a Firefly editor to discuss their work.
The overall winner will win a fully funded space on their choice of one of Literature Wales’ Tŷ Newydd Writing Centre residential courses in 2023 (subject to availability).
There is no entry fee. This is to make the competition accessible to as many writers as possible. Please only submit one entry per person.
Deadline: 24 April 2022
Entries must be submitted online as a Word document to competitions@fireflypress.co.uk
No postal entries will be accepted. If you cannot submit online, please contact the competitions email and we will try to find a way to help.
Rules:
1. Your novel must be an original work of fiction intended for one of three categories: 7-9 year olds, 9-12 year olds or 12-18 year olds. You must clearly mark on the story which category it is aimed at.
2. The story must be fiction written in English. No other kind of book, including a short story collection, poetry or non-fiction, will be eligible.
3. Longlisted authors will be expected to provide the whole manuscript for the judges to consider.
4. This is a competition for a story written in English by an author from Wales – this includes people living in Wales at the time they submit their entry, wherever they have lived before, or people born or brought up in Wales wherever they are living now. You will be asked to explain your connection to Wales if you are longlisted.
5. The story must be your own original work, should not have been published before in any form where you received a fee for publication, all rights should be available, and it should not be a translation of another author’s work.
6. Please send us the first 4,000 words of your book and the synopsis (maximum of 500 words) of the whole story. If selected for the longlist you will need to send us the whole script by 20 June 2022.
7. Please submit your work by email in a Word document. Please use a simple font and include no illustrations (though you may include short notes of what would be included in any illustrations where essential).
8. Your entry will be judged anonymously, so please do not include your name in the document itself. Please include a separate cover letter with your name, address, telephone and email, plus the title of your story.
9. No alterations may be made to the story once submitted.
10. Your story will not be returned, so please keep a copy. We are sorry but we cannot enter into any correspondence with unsuccessful entrants about their entries or about the judges’ decision, which is final. If you have not heard from us by 30 July 2022 you can assume your work has not been selected for the shortlist.
11. Copyright of any story remains with the author.
12. Each writer can only submit one entry.
13. The competition is open to any writer who does not have a current publishing deal. We will consider writers who have been published before as well as new authors. If you are unsure if you qualify, please include details on your cover sheet, so we can consider your case individually.
14. The competition is only open to adults over 18.
15. No one who works for Firefly Press is eligible to enter.
16. The meeting with Firefly editors must be taken at a time suitable to both editors and the writer, and must be taken by May 2023. This meeting will be held by Zoom or a similar format, but if this isn’t possible the winner is responsible for any costs for transport, etc.