Competition rules

Short Story:

  • Word limit: 2,000 (no minimum word count).

  • Entrants may submit only one story.

Memoir:

  • Word limit: 2,000 (no minimum word count).

  • Entrants may submit only one memoir piece.

Poetry:

  • Maximum line count per poem: 40 lines

  • Entrants may submit up to three poems. Please save each poem as a separate document.

All categories:

  • Entrants must live within the  TS15, TS16, TS17, TS18, DL12, DL13, DL14, DL15, DL16, DL17, DL1, DL2,  DL3, DL4, DL5 postcode regions. (These postcode restrictions are part of the terms of the funding supporting this project.)

  • All submissions must be in English.

  • All submissions must be the original work of the author and must be unpublished.

  • All submissions must be clearly linked to trains and railways in some way.

  • Only submissions in 12 pt Times New Roman and double-spaced will be accepted.

  • Submissions are judged anonymously. The author’s name or identifying information should not appear anywhere on the entry document.

  • Authors can enter more than one category of the competition. However they cannot enter more than one short story or more than one memoir piece.

  • Authors can enter up to three poems.

  • We do not accept submissions written by, or in any way created with the use of, AI writing tools such as ChatGPT.

  • The author’s name, address, telephone number and email address must be included in the entry email.

  • Submissions must not contain anything defamatory, obscene, illegal or otherwise inappropriate.

  • Entrants must be aged sixteen or over.

  • Deadline for submissions is midnight on Sunday 15th December 2024. Entries sent by post must be postmarked prior to this date. Any postal entries postmarked after the closing date will not be considered.

  • The judges’ decision is final and no individual correspondence can be entered into.

  • The shortlist for each category will be announced in April 2025.

  • The winners will be announced in July 2025 at a ceremony in Hopetown.

  • Please keep a copy of your entry. Submissions cannot be returned.

If you have any queries, please contact writeontrackcomp@gmail.com, with ‘QUERY’ in the subject line of the email.

This competition and its corresponding events are a project by Stop Write Hear, and have been made possible with the support of Tracks Darlington, and through funding from S&DR Heritage and Community Fund, Bishop Line Community Fund and Creative Darlington.