Cheshire Prize | University of Chester

Cheshire Prize for Literature 2025/26

This year's competition is now closed. Winners will be announced at our awards evening on July 2nd with guest speaker Ele Fountain.

Ele Fountain worked as an editor in children’s publishing where she was responsible for launching and nurturing the careers of many prize-winning and bestselling authors, and was shortlisted for the British Council’s Young Creative Entrepreneur Award.

She lived in Addis Ababa for several years, where she wrote her debut novel, BOY 87, which went on to win four awards and was nominated for ten more, including the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize and Carnegie Medal. Her second novel, LOST, was a Guardian Children’s Book of the Year. FAKE has been selected as a BookTrust Future Classic. WILD was a Financial Times Best Book of the Year. Her latest novel, STORM CHILD, was a Times Book of the Week. Her books have sold to 13 countries worldwide and received over 30 award nominations between them.

She has talked about books and reading on Woman’s Hour, BBC Radio London, BBC Radio Scotland, BBC World Service, and to anyone who happens to be passing. She speaks regularly at schools and literary festivals, delivering talks and workshops drawing on 20 years’ experience in the publishing industry. Ele currently holds a post as RLF Fellow at University of Reading.

All entrants will be sent details of the awards evening via email closer to the time. You can also book tickets here

For details of the competitions for future years:

Please read the full terms and conditions for full details of the competition and to see the criteria for each category.

Any queries about the competition or to be added to the mailing list should be emailed to cheshireprize@chester.ac.uk or phone 01244 511344.

An Anthology of each year's winners and shortlisted entries is published by the University of Chester Press. Please see catalogue.

History of the Prize

In 2003, the then High Sheriff of Cheshire approached the University of Chester to establish and run a Cheshire Prize for Literature. Since then, it has grown to become one of the premier competitions in the area, fostering the literary talents of both new and established writers.

Until 2018 year it was operating on a triennial cycle of short stories, poetry and children’s literature, and the prize was open to adults with a connection to Cheshire. It is one of the few free-to-enter literary competitions and offers a cash prize for the winners, but also the opportunity for the best entries from the previous year to be published by the University of Chester Press in an anthology.

In 2019, we worked with Sir Phil Redmond to introduce a scriptwriting prize. In 2020, we introduced categories for children as we wanted to encourage creative writing at all ages. This year’s competition features four categories: short stories, poetry, children's literature, and scriptwriting.