Wells Festival of Literature

01/04/2026

We are thrilled to announce our competitions are now officially OPEN - open poetry, young poets, short story and book for children. There is plenty of time to get your entries in you have until 30th June for open poetry, short story and book for children and 31st July for the young poets competition.

For all Tcs and Cs and how to enter visit our website :-

Discover the latest results from the Wells Festival of Literature's annual international competitions. Explore winning entries across four categories: Open Poetry, Young Poets, Short Story, and Book for Children.

31/03/2026

COUNT DOWN to our COMPETITIONS OPENING 1st April ..... what's your story?

To enter visit our website and find out all the Tcs and Cs for each section here :-
https://wellsfestivalofliterature.org.uk/competitions/

We can't wait to receive your entries. Good Luck!

31/03/2026

We are thrilled to have Julia Webb as our YOUNG POETS Competition judge for our literature festival 2026. Julia is a writer and artist based in Norwich. She has four poetry collections with Nine Arches Press: Bird Sisters (2016), Threat (2019) The Telling (2022) and Grey Time (2025).

In 2011 she won the Poetry Society’s Stanza competition and in 2018 she won the Battered Moons Poetry competition. She has had two poems highly commended in the Forward Prize (2016, 2022).

Julia has taught creative writing for organisations such as Lapidus, MIND, Norfolk County Council, and The SAW Trust, and in 2016 she was writer in residence on Norwich market.

In 2024 she was commissioned by The National Centre for writing and Living wage Foundation to write a poem for Living Wage Week.

She currently runs real world and email poetry courses, and is a mentor for poets. She is steering editor for Lighthouse – a journal for new writers.

To enter and for all Tcs & Cs visit our website here :- https://wellsfestivalofliterature.org.uk/competitions/young-poets-competition/

31/03/2026

We are thrilled to have Catherine Bruton as our BOOK FOR CHILDREN judge for our literature festival 2026. Catherine is a multi-award winning author of books for children and young adults. Her critically acclaimed No Ballet Shoes in Syria won the National Book Tokens Awards 2019 and the Middle East Book Award, amongst others.

Her most recent title Bird Boy was shortlisted for the prestigious Nero Award, and We Can be Heroes was adapted into a film, starring Alison Steadman and Phil Davies.

Under the pen name Cate Shearwater, Catherine also writes the much loved Somersaults and Dreams series.

She also juggles life as an English teacher and was recently awarded a Fellowship of the English Association and a Teacher Trailblazer Award from the Poetry Society.

To enter and for all Tcs and Cs visit our website here:- https://wellsfestivalofliterature.org.uk/competitions/book-for-children-competition/

31/03/2026

We are delighted to have Carole Burns as our SHORT STORY judge for our literature festival 2026.
Carole Burns is an American writer living in Cardiff. Her story collection The Missing Woman won the John C. Zacharis Award from U.S. literary journal Ploughshares. Her recent novel The Same Country, exploring family, friendship and racism in America, was named a best Welsh fiction book of 2023 by Wales Arts Review.

A freelancer for Washington Post and LitHub, she also published Off the Page: Writers Talk About Beginnings, Endings, and Everything in Between, based on interviews with 43 writers including Jhumpa Lahiri and Colm Tóibín.

She is Associate Professor in English teaching Creative Writing at the University of Southampton.

To enter and for all TCs and Cs visit our website here :- https://wellsfestivalofliterature.org.uk/competitions/short-story-competition/

31/03/2026

We are thrilled to have Clare Shaw as our OPEN POETRY Competition judge for our 2026 literature festival , (They/Them) has four poetry collections with Bloodaxe. Their fourth collection Towards a General Theory of Love (2022) is an exploration of love and its absence: it won a Northern Writer’s Award, and was a Poetry Society Book of the Year.

Their next collection, I Know What I Saw, will be published with Bloodaxe in 2027.

Drawing on their background in mental health and their passion for nature and place, Clare’s writing often engages with the intersections of ecology, resilience and social justice.

To enter and all TCs & Cs visit our website here:- https://wellsfestivalofliterature.org.uk/competitions/

18/01/2026

28/10/2025

Wells Festival of Literature 2025 was a great success and we wanted to say thank you very much to everyone who supported us and we welcomed as audience members and to our wonderful guest speakers who entertained, educated and shared their wisdom.

Thank you to all of our hard working volunteers in all of their job roles for their diligence, enthusiasm and passion for literature, reading and bringing the festival to life for all to enjoy.

A huge thank you to our very generous sponsors:

Chubb Bulleid our principle sponsor
Amba Wells
Basil Powell Shoes
Charlie Bigham's
Chris and Rosie Inge
Clair Watson
Eleanor Decamp
Golden Bottle Trust
John Jackson
Justin Ash
Lodestone Property
Mary Nielsen
Millfield School
Priory Dental
Rathbones
Wells Cathedral School
Westholme Publishing

Thank you to Waterstones Wells for their pop up book shop.

And a very special thank you to our "Friends" of Wells Festival of Literature for their continued support.

25/10/2025

Kit the Poet will be taking your requests for poems Cedars Hall until 8pm today. Don't miss this exciting opportunity to have a poem written for you.

25/10/2025

We were enthralled and delighted to have speaker Anne Sebba with her new book "The Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz: A Story of Survival" at Wells Festival of Literature 2025.

23/10/2025

Our Author lunches have been a great success this year. Thank you to all of our volunteers and the staff at Wells Cathedral School for their hardwork in organsing these popular events.