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READER - The Bedford Competition is a creative writing competition for short stories and poetry. Based in Bedford we are a not-for-profit organisation with our proceeds donated to local and national charities promoting literacy. We also support local writers with annual sponsored writing courses.
Our competition runs from 1st May until 31st Oct. In 2025 we had 2,800 entries from sixty-one countries across the world.
We are a small, local organisation run by a volunteer committee. As the competition has grown in recognition in its sector we need more help.
We are looking people who love to read and/or write to become Readers. We have a volunteer team of around 50 Readers who assist with the initial assessment of Short Stories before they go forward to our Judges. Without our dedicated reading team the competition could not function.
Readers are paired and read a set of short stories, usually 20-30 (3000 words max). Discuss them with an assigned partner and agree a grade and give feed-back on-line
This is a seasonal task between October and December, reading a selection of stories with a reading partner. All work can be done remotely. This work is managed by our Reader Co-ordinator.

If you are interested please contact us or join us at our prize giving event in Bedford on 17th April at the Mercure Hotel 6pm.