First Prize £150 + audio book publication
Second Prize £75 + audio book publication
Third Prize winner £35 + audio book publication
All commended authors will also have at least one of their works published in our 2026 Audio Book Competition (ABC) anthology
Closing date 30 November 2026
Prizewinning & commended work in ABC 2025 Anthology
can be heard & seen here.
Examples of Wildfire’s Audio books
Entries are checked for anonymity, then all are read and heard by Katherine Parsons, triage judge, who will produce a long list of commended collections. The whole team will then review text and audio of the long list and individually vote for the first, second, and third prize winners plus highly commended (shortlisted) entries.
Judges
Competition rules and entry
Writers should enter a collection of 6 or more creative writing works — poems and/or flash fiction. At least 2 of the works must also be entered as audios, each a recording of the writer reading that work. You can make a sound recording at home on most phones, tablets, laptops, of desktop computers. Or you can contact Wildfire Words to book a private online recording session. Further details of either are at this link: Recording your words.
Each prize-winning audio book will be published in 2027
- The contest is open to writers worldwide except volunteers for Wildfire Words/Frosted Fire.
- All entries must be entirely the entrant’s own writing in English. The book as a whole must be unpublished, but any individual works may have been published singly — without any other work of the author’s being published in the same issue or website.
- Each book title entered should be submitted as a single Word or PDF file containing at least 6 works, each either a poem or prose story. Prize winners will be invited to submit more items to make a book with a maximum of 20 items.
- Each work should be no more than 300 words or 60 lines including stanza breaks.
- An audio of at least two works, read by the author, must be submitted either with the text, or afterwards by the closing date. Details of making or sending audio are at: Recording your Words
- You may submit up to three books, completing a separate entry form for each.
- Each entry must have a title which appears at the beginning and must also be the name of the file containing the entry, whether text or audio. The title should connect, in some way, most of the works.
- To maintain anonymous judging, there must be no identifying marks anywhere. Your entry must not contain any work that might be recognized by any of the judges through workshops, mentoring, or public readings. We will match your book title to your email address after anonymous judging is complete.
- Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but must be withdrawn in the event of winning a prize or publication elsewhere. Entry fees are not refundable once an entry has been received.
- Work will not be returned, so please keep a copy.
- We are unable to give feedback on individual entries or on the results of the competition — the judges’ decisions are final.
- Results will be emailed by 31 January 2027 to all who entered and also published on this website and social media.
- The entry fee for your each entry is £9 until 31 October; £12 from 1 November. Payment can be made by credit or debit card or by PayPal account.
- Entries must be paid for, and your text and audio files uploaded, by the closing time of 11.59 pm on 30 November 2026.
Entry Form