Scottish Mental Health Festival has a writing competition with the theme Connected, which strikes me as rather exciting. You can enter a poem, a short story, a letter, a diary/blog entry, or a newspaper article. The deadline is March 15 at 5pm, entry is free. I’ve copied the guidelines from their website below, and if you’d like to enter, here’s the link: https://www.mhfestival.com/submission?fbclid=IwAR3DGvywtfvkGD0Wfi0MBErA0SSL5kvWfSrfPhMeU0fZ_8rJcsgSr2WG6w

Writing Competition

Guidelines and Entry Form 2018

GUIDELINES

The Festival:

The 2019 Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival (SMHAF) will take place at venues across Scotland from 3^rd -26^th May 2019. Led by the Mental Health Foundation, the Festival aims to support the arts and challenge preconceived ideas about mental health. 

The Competition:

The SMHAF writing competition is managed in partnership with Bipolar Scotland. 

This year’s theme for all categories is “CONNECTED”. This can be interpreted in any way you choose – the limit is your imagination. There are five categories: 

• Poems
• Short stories
• Newspaper articles
• Diary/Blog entries
• Letters

The closing date for the competition is 5pm on Friday 15^th March 2019. We cannot accept any entries received after this date.

Submission guidelines (please read before submitting): 

1. Entry to the competition is free. 

1. Entrants must be over 16 years of age. 

1. Entries must be typed and in English.

1. Entries must be on the theme of “CONNECTED”.

1. Entries must be the entrant’s own original work.

1. We will accept entries written at any time as long as they have not previously been submitted to Bipolar Scotland’s poetry and short story competitions, or previous SMHAF Writing Competitions.

1. Word count: 

Poems, up to 40 lines

Short stories, between 500 and 2000 words

Newspaper articles, up to 750 words (the article does not have to have been published)

Diary/Blog entries, up to 500 words (this can include be a sequence of entries up to the word limit) 

Letters, up to 750 words

1. We can only accept entry by email: 

Entrants should send a single email with their full name as the subject to smhaffbipolar@gmail.com by 5pm, Friday 15^th March 2019.

The email should include an attached file for the entry form and a file for each entry. Please do not attach folders. The entry should not be typed in the body of the email. It MUST be an attachment. Attachments should be compatible word files only.

Please name each file with the title of the entry. Do not put name, initials or anything that may identify you on any file except the entry form and in the subject bar. 

1. By entering you are agreeing to be published in any media or subsequent anthologies associated with the competition as approved by the SMHAF, however copyright of any work submitted remains with the author.

1. Successful entrants will be notified by Friday 26^th April 2019. The judges’ top ten entries will be invited to the Award evening during the Festival, where they will be invited to read their entry, and the top 3 will be announced. If you have not heard by that date then you have not been successful. Due to a high number of entries we cannot provide individual feedback. 

For further information, and to answer any queries, please contact:

Bipolar Scotland, Studio 1015, Mile End Mill, Abbeymill Business Centre, Seedhill Road, Paisley PA1 1TJ, smhaffbipolar@gmail.com or 0141 560 2050

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Header image from Pinterest.