This event is now Open Until 20th December 2026 at 5pm.
2026 NBF WRITING COMPETITION: UNLEASH YOUR WILD IMAGINATION!
Get ready to let your creativity soar at the 2026 NBF Writing Competition, where we’re on a mission to spotlight the brightest young writing stars! Our festival thrives on celebrating fresh talent, and this year, we’re thrilled to launch a FREE TO ENTER competition. This year’s theme is on TRANSFORM. Only your imagination will limit you on the how and why for this theme (and the 500 word limit!) Remember your deadline date!.
Two Categories:
– Secondary Students: Craft a tale in up to 500 words
– Primary Students: Spin a story in up to 500 words
Unleash your voice in poetry or prose, and write in English, Scots, or Gaelic—we’re here for it all!
Prizes:
Get 1st, 2nd, or 3rd place in your category and you’ll win a prize (stay tuned for the big prize reveal)!
How to Enter
Write a brilliant story or poem! This can be written in English, Scots or Gaelic. Make sure you format your entry properly in a PDF file. This makes sure that it stays on the page the way you want us to view it (this is particularly important if you have written a poem). Put your name, your class group, your teacher’s name and your school name in the footer so we know who has sent in the entry. Make sure you email a copy to our email address and please don’t send a google drive link. We will let you know we have received it. Entries will be read over January and a short list announced just around the February half term.
Terms and Conditions
1 Entries should be on the theme – TRANSFORMATION
2 Work submitted should be prose or poetry only – no A.I entries please
3 Entrants should be persons normally living in the Highlands or Moray only.
4 All entries must be made electronically, by email to nbfinverness@gmail.com
5 Please submit your work as a PDF only
6 Only one entry per person
7 Submissions from under-16s should be submitted by either a guardian or a teacher. School submissions should also include the child’s name, school name, school year group, and school teacher’s name in the footer.
8 Deadline for entries is 20th December 2026 at 5pm.
9 All results are published on the NBF website. Winners will be notified through the originating email address.
10 Winners will be judged by NBF committee members.
11 The judges’ decision is final, and no correspondence will be entered into.
12 No feedback will be available.
13 Copyright of any NBF competition entry remains with the author. Still, NBF reserves the unrestricted right to publish the winning and runner-up entries on its website and in any related material for PR purposes.
14 Entries should be in English (or English dialect), Scots or Gaelic and should not have been published or accepted for publication elsewhere.
15 Entries that have won or are under consideration in other fiction competitions are not eligible.
16 Entries must not contain defamatory, obscene, offensive, or any other unsuitable material; NBF reserves the right to disqualify entries containing such matter. Entries should be suitable for reading at NBF 2026 for audiences of all ages.
17 Entries should be original works and should not be a translations of another author’s work or infringe on the rights of any other party.
18 NBF accepts no responsibility if entrants ignore these terms and conditions and agrees to indemnify NBF against any claim by any third party from any breach of these terms and conditions.
19 Data gathered via the competition shall only be used for the purpose of the competition and shall be deleted 28 days after the 2026 Competition Awards
We welcome entries from all genders and nationalities who normally live in the Highlands or Moray.
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