Every month we feature different competitions with valuable prizes to help you get your work published.

For published and aspiring writers alike - enter the Writers' & Artists' Yearbook 2014 short story competition and you could win:

• a cash prize of £500

• a place on an Arvon Foundation residential writing course of your choice

• publication of your story on www.writersandartists.co.uk

We're offering you the chance to win £500, plus a place on an Arvon writing course of your choice! All you have to do is enter a short story (for adults) of no more than 2,000 words, on the theme of 'the visit' and email it to competition@bloomsbury.com with "WAYB14 competition" as the subject line.

The closing date is midnight on Saturday 15th February . The winners of the competition will be announced on this site in March 2014.

The Arvon Foundation runs four historic writing houses in the UK, where published writers lead week-long residential courses. Covering a diverse range of genres, from poetry and fiction to screenwriting and comedy, Arvon courses have provided inspiration to thousands of people at all stages of their writing lives. Find out more and book a course online at www.arvonfoundation.org

Don't forget to read the full details, terms and conditions (below) before you enter. Please remember to register on www.writersandartists.co.uk before submitting your entry.

Good luck! 

These are the full terms and conditions for the Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook Short Story Competition 2014.

1. No purchase necessary, but entrants must be registered on www.writersandartists.co.uk.

2. The Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook Short Story Competition 2014 is open to all ages, professions and nationalities.

3. All entries must be original unpublished prose of 2,000 words or fewer.

4. Entries cannot be extracts from longer works.

5. Writers may submit one entry only.

6. Winners will be notified at the email address stated in their entry. Sign-up for the Writing newsletter here if you want to be notified about the winner or check back on www.writersandartists.co.uk. You can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook, where competition updates will also be posted.

7. Entries must be submitted via email to competition@bloomsbury.com with the subject heading: 'WAYB14 competition'

Please include your email address and other contact details in the body of the email. Your entry can appear in the body of the email or as an email attachment.

8. Your entry must be submitted before midnight on Saturday 15th February, 2014. Entries will not be accepted after this date.

9. By submitting, all entrants thereby grant The Bloomsbury Publishing Group the right to publish their entry on www.writersandartists.co.uk in the event of their work being shortlisted and/or winning the competition.

10. The Bloomsbury Publishing Group cannot accept responsibility for entries which are not received or which are received after the closing date due to technical failure or for any other reason.

11. Winners agree to participate in publicity events in connection with the competition.

12. The Bloomsbury Publishing Group and the winners may enter into agreements which will grant The Bloomsbury Publishing Group the publishing, broadcasting, serial and electronic rights in the shortlisted and winning entries.

13. The Bloomsbury Publishing Group reserves the right to change the rules of this competition without notice.

14. The winner of the competition will be notified in March 2014 and the winning entry published on www.writersandartists.co.uk.

15. Prizes must be taken by 31 December 2014 and are subject to availability.

16. The decision of the competition judges will be final and no correspondence will be entered into.

17. Employees of The Bloomsbury Publishing Group, and members of their immediate family, are excluded from participating in the competition.

18. We may, from time to time, inform you of new books and special offers that we think will be of interest.

19. Please send direct competition queries to waybcustomerservices@bloomsbury.com

NOTE:

ALL OF THE COMPETITIONS BELOW HAVE CLOSED.

PLEASE DO NOT ENTER.

THIS COMPETITION HAS NOW CLOSED.

For our latest Writers & Artists competition, we’re looking for you to take inspiration from the likes of Captain Hook, Voldemort, Sauron…even the man who shot Bambi’s mum! 

Yes, that’s right… we want you to write about VILLAINS.

To be in with a chance of winning, we’d like you to submit a piece (of no more than 500 words) that captures the very moment that your main character’s arch nemesis makes their grand entrance. 

Your entry can be a standalone piece written solely for this competition, or it can be an excerpt of a manuscript you’re already working on; it matters not.  All we want to read is that moment your villain bursts into colour. 

Give us description, some action, maybe some dialogue. In short: give us goosebumps.

Your piece should be aimed at either children, YA or be a crossover of genres, and we’ve asked YA author Laura Powell (Burn Mark and Witch Fire) to judge the entries.

Whilst Laura delves into the realms of fantasy and witchcraft for her series, it’s up to you where you take your inspiration from. Whether that’s from legend or fact, we want a character that we’re going to remember for all the wrong reasons. 

To read Laura's article on her advice about how to choose a villain, click here.

Competition Details

The winner will receive signed copies of Burn Mark and Witch Fire, as well as a copy of either the Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook 2013 or the Children’s Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook 2013 AND a 20% discount on Writers’ & Artists’ editorial services.

There will be also be two runners-up announced, both of whom will receive copies of Burn Mark and Witch Fire.

In addition, the three winning pieces of writing will be published on the site.

The deadline for this competition is midnight on Sunday 19th May. A shortlist of ten will be announced on Friday 24th May, and the overall winners will be revealed on Friday 31st May.

Please note that those on the shortlist will not be contacted directly, so do ensure you check the site on Friday 24th to see if you’ve made it.

To enter, please email your entry of no more than 500 words to writersandartists@bloomsbury.com by midnight on Sunday 19th May.

The subject line of your email should read ‘VILLAIN COMPETITION 2013.’

THIS COMPETITION HAS NOW CLOSED.

Can you write a story in 200 words or less?

To celebrate the continuing rise of the short story and following on from the huge success of last year’s competition, Writers & Artists and Bloomsbury are delighted to announce another Flash Fiction challenge.

For this year’s competition, we’d simply like you to write a story of no more than 200 words based on the theme of ‘alienation’ and/or ‘the quest for belonging’.

And to tie in with this theme, we've asked Roshi Fernando, author of Homesick, to judge all of this year's entries.

The lucky winner will receive not only a bundle of all our short story collections published from this year and 2012, but also two tickets to see George Saunders discussing his new collection Tenth of December. 

Jon McGregor (IMPAC Award-winning author of Even the Dogs and If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things) will be chairing the event, which takes place on Wednesday 29 May.

Prizes:

1st prize: Bundle of short story collections plus two tickets for George Saunders and Jon McGregor’s event at the Southbank Centre
2nd prize: a signed copy of books by Jon McGregor, D W Wilson & Roshi Fernando
3rd prize: a signed copy of Roshi Fernando’s Homesick

Competition details:

THIS COMPETITION HAS NOW CLOSED.

Our competition will run from today and the closing date is before midnight on Monday 25 March. The winner will be announced on Monday 15 April.

To enter, please email your story of no more than 200 words to writersandartists@bloomsbury.com by Monday 25 March.

The subject line of your email should read ‘FLASH FICTION 2013’.

As the temperature drops and the nights remain dark, we can safely say winter will linger for a while yet. Last summer’s holiday might seem like a distant memory, but reliving it could help you win a fantastic prize!

Thanks to Directline Holidays, we have a Kindle to give away. Perfect if you're a regular globetrotter; the Kindle fits into a pocket and can hold a staggering number of books.

To Enter

Please note that our Travel Fiction Short Story competition is now CLOSED. We are currently considering the entries - the winners and runners-up will be notified by Friday 15th March.

The physical location of your story can have a striking impact on the emotional landscape your characters navigate. The location of your story guides the mood and tone of your writing and can shape your characters' beliefs and behaviour.

We're challenging you to write a short story which brilliantly evokes a location of your choice. We're looking for lush description that amplifies the story, immerses us in another time or place, or renders a familiar location strange. We want to see characters that are wrought in the context of their location and we hope to find a short story with plenty of life, detail and imagination.

The story must be no more than 500 words and entries should be submitted to writersandartists@bloomsbury.com before midnight on 28 February 2013.

Prizes

First prize: An Amazon Kindle e-book reader

Second prize: A copy of Writers' & Artists' Yearbook 2013

About Directline Holidays

Directline Holidays are an online travel agent, which has been established since 1993, and specialises in package holidays to destinations all over the world including Egypt, Italy and the Caribbean.