The themes for the May 2021 Short Story Competition are: Spring and Give Back

1. All entrants must be aged 60 or over by the closing date for the competition (14th June 2021).
2. Multiple entries are permitted. No short story should individually exceed 1500 words in length (excluding the title). Please indicate the word count at the end of the story.
3. Short stories must be submitted in English and must be your own work (no translations of others’ work and no ‘erasures’ of another’s text).
4. No short stories submitted should have been previously published/broadcast/e-published or posted online in any form. Entries are to be completely original.
5. Entries must be submitted online. Please use the online form and payment process to submit your details. If this does not work, please email them to admin@autumnvoices.co.uk on an appropriate document format such as a Word document or PDF using at least 12pt font. Entries submitted by email should be accompanied by a separate cover sheet with your name, age, address, email address, and title of your entry or entries. Payment can be made using the following bank details:
   
   Name: Autumn Voices
   Branch: The Direct Business
   Sort Code: 80-22-60
   Account number: 19310661
   
   
6. Each short story should be submitted (either through the online submission option or via the Autumn Voices email address) on a separate document. If submitting by email, multiple entries should come where possible via a single email with all relevant files attached or limited to as few emails as possible for clarity. Only one cover sheet is required for several entries by the same person, but it must state the number of stories submitted in total and the titles of each, so that we can be sure we have received all relevant story files.
7. Double or single spacing is acceptable. No name or anything which could identify the author should appear on the story pages. The competition administrator will log all entrant details in a confidential sheet and anonymise the entries in a numerical system before passing them to the judge to be read impartially.
8. No Autumn Voices staff members are permitted to enter the competition.
9. Entries will not be returned electronically so please save a copy of your entry.
10. No alterations can be made to an entry once submitted.
11. The judge’s decision is final. The judge cannot enter into correspondence regarding entries with any of the competition entrants.
12. Closing date for the competition is midnight on 14th June 2021.
13. No entrant can win more than one prize.
14. The entry fees are:

Autumn Voices members: £5 for the first story and £3 for each story thereafter
Non-members: £7 for the first story and £4 for each story thereafter

Example: A member submitting 3 short stories would pay £11 to enter (£5 for the first story and £3 each for the other two) and a non-member would pay £15 for the same number of entries.

14. Failure to comply with the above rules will result in automatic disqualification.
15. The copyright of each story remains with the writer. The winners and runners-up agree, however, through entering the competition, to grant Autumn Voices permission to publish their winning poems on the Autumn Voices website, Autumn Voices social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, and in the Autumn Voices monthly newsletters.

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