For our 2025 annual Creative Writing Competition, MK Lit Fest has adopted the theme of Home. 

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Home can be a literal thing - a personal address, the renting or ownership of which makes it more than just a place to live. It might be a castle, a terraced house, or a tent in the woods. Home can be something you make or remake, and equally something that you leave or lose (whether willingly or otherwise). A 'home' can be somewhere you are put, for a variety of reasons, or a place where you were raised: homes can be literal as well as metaphorical institutions. It can be about family and heritage, or - whether by accident or design - something more individual.

 

Home can be a source of comfort, pride and love, or it can be a source of suffering, conflict and pain. Home can mean somewhere you feel a sense of belonging, or it can be where you are aware that you don't. It can be a single dwelling, a town, a region, a country, a continent... For some, indeed, it can be a proverbial as well as a literal four-letter word. It can be as simple - or as complicated - as a feeling. 

Be bold, be original, and interpret the idea of Home in ways that entertain, enthral, shock, amuse, confound or surprise. 

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Eligible applicants are invited to write a piece of flash fiction writing of up to 500 words in any genre you choose: sci-fi, thriller, romance, journalism, social record, historical fiction… all styles are welcome. Or to send us up to 500 words of creative non-fiction: a story of homecoming or migration, perhaps, or of home-making or -breaking. Or you can put pen to paper and send us poems of up to 40 lines inspired by the theme.

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There will be cash prizes of £25 for the best entries in each of two age categories: 14-19 and 20+.

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In addition, we aim to select the best pieces from your submissions for publication in an anthology that will be available in paperback and e-reader formats. Writers of selected pieces may also be invited to read their work at future Lit Fest events, either in person or online.