A prestigious writing competition is now open for entries for the William Soutar Writing Prize. This highly regarded annual writing competition, organised by Culture Perth and Kinross, alternates between poetry and short stories. The competition attracts writers from across the globe as well as many local Perth and Kinross entrants.

This year our competition will have five categories, adult, children 9 to 11 years, 12 to 15 years, children 9 to 11 years (in Gaelic medium), and 12 to 15 years (in Gaelic medium).

Adult entries can submit poems in English or Scots, to compete for the first prize of a prestigious writing course. Previous winners have gone on to achieve further writing success with some having work published. Children can submit poems in English, Scots or Gaelic to compete for first place prize of an iPad. All winning and shortlisted entries will be published in eBook format and available to borrow from the Culture Perth and Kinross eBook catalogue.

The competition has always secured a high calibre of judge including poet and former Festival Director of StAnza Brian Johnstone, and well-known writer and broadcaster Billy Kay. This year is no exception with award-winning Scottish writer Samuel Tongue secured to read through all adult entries and select the winners. For our children and Gaelic competition Marcas mac an Tuairneir will be judging entries and select the winners.

Samuel won a New Writer’s Award from the Scottish Book Trust in 2013 and is an accomplished poet, with two collections published and work translated into Latvian and Ukrainian. He is co-editor of New Writing Scotland, poetry editor of Glasgow Review of Books and project coordinator at the Scottish Poetry Library. He has a keen interest in how language can be used to shape our responses to our internal and external worlds.

Marcas Mac an Tuairneir is a critically acclaimed Gaelic poet published in numerous journals and short listed for the Wigtown Gaelic Poetry award three years running from 2015. He won the prize outright in 2017 after taking home the Baker Prize for Gaelic literature in 2015. He is the Gaelic editor ‘The Poets Republic’.

The William Soutar Writing Prize is free to enter with the closing date for entries of Friday 1 February 2019.

Entry forms and competition rules are available from local libraries or can be downloaded from the Culture Perth and Kinross website.