The Evening Standard, in association with NETFLIX, has announced its inaugural Stories Festival and competition to inspire a new generation of storytellers.  The festival will take place from 24-26 September at Picturehouse Central in London where the competition winners will be announced.

The ‘What’s Your Story?’ competition will seek the best new storytellers from across the UK; people who can grab attention with their words through dialogue, lyrics, poetry, or prose. There will be two categories: young adults who are 11-17 years old and adults who are18 and over 18. The deadline for submission of this competition is 30 June.

It will be judged by panels drawn from across the creative industries. Judges include Singer, songwriter, activist, and author Will Young, Alexi Wheeler of Netflix and Phoebe Luckhurst, Features Editor of the Evening Standard and author of forthcoming debut novel The Lock In, for the Young Adult category, and Anne Mensah VP for Original Series Netflix and Katie Law, Evening Standard Books Editor in the Adult category, alongside Sam Parker editor-in-chief Penguin.co.uk and Bea Carvalho, head fiction buyer, Waterstones.

Prize winners will receive a writing mentorship, be published on standard.co.uk, and have the opportunity to present their work at the Stories Festival in September. 

To enter the competition, storytellers can apply via www.stories.standard.co.uk/competition

To pre-register for the program launch and ticket release visit www.stories.standard.co.uk