Each year we hold five internal competitions that go towards our Writer of the Year award. Members suggest and vote on what genres and themes these will be and usually include a short story, poem, non-fiction piece, something dialogue-based and a ‘wild card’ which can be anything. Judges are asked to give individual constructive criticism on each entry before announcing the results. Points are given for the top four placings in each competition, with one point for unplaced entries. The member gaining the highest total over the five competitions is the Writer of Year.
We also hold an open theme 3000 word maximum short story competition, the Catherine Cookson Cup, in honour of our first patron. This is open to members who have attended at least four meetings beforehand.
For the past ten years the group has also run the prestigious Legend Writing Award, a national competition for short stories and also 100-word flash fiction. This was set up by David Gemmell, our late patron, who named it after his first, and favourite, award-winning book ‘Legend’. Donations from profits each year have been made to Great Ormond Street Children’s Charity. It has been decided that this year, 2010, will be the last and the competition will then be closed. The results and an announcement about this will be posted on the competition website Legend Writing Awardin the New Year.