Arundel Literary Festival : March 20th – March 22nd 2026
A celebration of all things literary
Daytime sessions
Friday workshops 10am – 4:30pm in the Studio – see below
Saturday daytime sessions 10am – 6pm in the Red Room – full details here
Sunday daytime sessions 10am – 6pm in the Red Room – full details here
Evening events
Saturday evening festival concert 7:30pm in the Red Room – full details here
Competitions
Poetry Competition
Adjudicated by Denise Bennett
Denise Bennett is a widely published, prize winning poet and has run poetry workshops for over thirty years in community settings. She won the inaugural Hamish Canham Prize awarded by the Poetry Society and has published four collections: Planting the Snow Queen and Parachute Silk, by Oversteps Books, Water Chits by Indigo Dreams and Things I have kept by Cinnamon Press.
Original, unpublished poems on any theme, up to 40 lines
1st prize £200
2nd prize £100
Closing date 23 February 2026
Flash Fiction Competition
Adjudicated by Simon Brett
Simon Brett, West Sussex based author of detective fiction and radio plays, having had a long career as producer-writer for television and radio. A widely published author, best known for his mystery series featuring Charles Paris (20 books) Mrs Pargeter (10 books), Fethering, (21 books) and Blotto & Twinks (13 books).
Original, unpublished work of fiction of up to 500 words
1st prize £200
2nd prize £100
Closing date 23 February 2026
How to enter
Closing date for both competitions is February 23rd. Winners will be notified in early March and invited to read their work, should they wish to, at the final evening event of the Literary Festival on March 21st in the Victoria Institute.
1. Submit £5 entry fee below (per poem or piece of fiction)
2. Email your entry to events@thevictoriainstitute.com – note: don’t include your name on the poem or piece of fiction itself.
Please use events@thevictoriainstitute.com email address rather than info@thevictoriainstitute.com or we may not receive your entry.
3. Include in your email:
– Your name
– Your contact phone number
– Your entry fee payment reference number that you receive by email when you submit your payment
Once the closing date is reached, all entries will be presented anonymously to the judges.
For both competitions, judges decisions are final. Copyright remains with the authors. Minimum age for entering either competition is 16 years. Must be a UK (including Channel Islands) resident.
Writing Workshops
Writing memoir
Dr Suzanne Joinson is Reader in Creative Writing at the University of Chichester and has written two novels and a memoir of her own life growing up in a family deeply involved with the Divine Light Mission.
Her workshop will focus on aspects of memoir writing involving families, use of memory, diaries and other ‘evidence’, and discuss some approaches to planning, researching and drafting which make it a unique genre, different from biography, but which can also involve the recounting of personal emotions.
Cost of workshop £20
Maximum 10 participants
Friday 20th
2pm – 4:30pm
Stilling the Moment
Mary founded Red Door Poets, and is an editor of the poetry journal The Alchemy Spoon. She turned to creative writing following careers in psychotherapy and journalism.
Her workshop is titled ‘Stilling the Moment’. Using poems, prose extracts, exercises and prompts she will offer exciting and fun ways to go deep into memory, to discover new routes to write about experiences, and, by focusing on the senses, will help you find the essence of what you want to write about. Although many examples explored will be poems, this workshop is equally suited to prose writers.
Cost of workshop £20
Maximum 10 participants