WRITERS from across Somerset are being challenged to take part in three competitions ahead of next year’s Words in Watchet Literary Festival.

The annual festival, which will be the second held in the town, takes place across Friday to Sunday, February 21 to 23.

Events catering for book lovers of all persuasions will be held in and around the town centre and speakers will include Damien Boyd, Anna Buckley, Hazel Prior, Nigel Phillips, and Fiona Williams.

There will be poetry and storytelling, together with workshops for adults and children interested in becoming involved in creative writing.

Tickets for some events can already be booked online here.

In the meantime, the festival organisers are running three competitions for which entries need to be received by January 5, for poetry, crime stories, and flash fiction, each of which carries cash prizes for winners, runners-up, and third-placed entries.

Each challenge is for over-18s who must be resident in Somerset and must not be helped by artificial intelligence, the penalty for which will be expulsion and a lifetime ban on entering any further festival competitions.

Poems can be on any theme and in any style, with a maximum of 40 lines, including any title and epigraphs.

Crime stories must be no more than 2,000 words, plus a title.

Flash fiction stories have to be told in 50 words or fewer, plus a title.

Entries need to be submitted by email to [email protected] or post to 14a Wedlakes Watchet, TA23 0JL, and more information can be found on the festival website.

Winning and selected poets will be asked to read at the festival’s Spoken Word event on the Saturday.

Festival spokesperson Rachel Irven said: “Now the long dark evenings are approaching, why not settle down at home and exercise your creative muscles.”