Bestseller Claire to judge writing contest for Lymington Centre £1m fundraising

BESTSELLING author Claire Fuller will judge a creative writing competition in support of the Lymington Centre’s £1m appeal.

Budding authors can submit a short story up to 2,500 words on the theme ‘community’ or a flash fiction of up to 500 words related to the centre.

Claire will select the winners and present the prizes at an awards ceremony in June. She said: "I'm delighted to be judging this competition in aid of the community association appeal.

“I'm really looking forward to reading the entries, and I'm sure it's going to be difficult to pick the winners.”

The competition is being organised by the Lymington Writers group, which first met in the centre after attending classes run by Brockenhurst College. They now gather there weekly.

Group member Colin Johnson explained: “I met Claire at the Winchester Writers Festival last June, when I attended a workshop she led on how to write a short story.

“She has an open, friendly personality, so when we planned the competition, I had no hesitation in asking her to judge the winners. I was delighted that she agreed immediately!

“We wanted to produce an anthology of our own work, to sell in aid of the appeal. Then we decided to open this to anyone with an interest in creative writing.”

Colin added: “Our open competition offers local people a chance to see their writing in print.”

There are cash prizes up for grabs and all shortlisted entries will be published in the first Lymington Anthology later this year.

Money raised by the competition will go towards the community association’s plan to modernise the centre’s facilities with a £2m refurbishment for which it needs to raise half with the rest to come from match-funding.

The closing date is on 20th March and submissions can be made online or at the centre’s reception.

Full details are available at lymingtoncommunity.com/lymington-writers-creative-writing-competition/.