Cheshire Prize | University of Chester

Cheshire Prize for Literature 2023/24

The winners of the 2023/24 Cheshire Prize for Literature have been announced. They are:

Poetry Primary category: Elidh Whelan, This Year
Short story Primary category: Jack Waring, The Sea of Tranquillity 2132
Poetry secondary category: Marha Blue, Flight Winner
Short Story secondary category: Aisya Imya, A Homage to Home
Children’s Literature category: Glyn Matthews, Stars Come out HP
Adult Poetry category: Helen Kay, Sticking Place
Adult Short Story category: Keith Murray, Return Date
Scriptwriting category: Meryl Walker, Bed

Details of the next prize will be announced shortly.

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 foremost competitions in the area, encouraging the literary talents of new and existing 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 in all ages. In this year’s competition there are four categories, short stories, poetry, children's literature and scriptwriting.

There are three age groups: primary, secondary and over 18s.

Any queries about the competition should be emailed to cheshireprize@chester.ac.uk or phone 01244 5113.