Orfordness Lighthouse Writing Competition

 Take part in a unique project to celebrate

Orfordness Lighthouse!

The Lighthouse on Orfordness was switched off forever last June, and the sea is rapidly washing away the shingle it stands on – it now faces a very uncertain future. A writing competition has been launched to celebrate this iconic building.

There are two categories in this competition – fiction and non-fiction, and three age groups – 12 and under (up to 500 words); 13–18 (up to 1000 words); Adult (up to 1500 words). There is no minimum word count, but please do not submit anything over the limit. The competition opened 1^st January 2014 and closes on 31^st May 2014. (Please note there is no poetry category in this competition.)

Competition organiser and Orford resident Liz Ferretti explains. ‘This lighthouse has been helping shipping and fishermen since 1792. We all felt as though we’d lost something when it was switched off. This writing competition is a creative way to celebrate a building that is such a powerful symbol on the Suffolk Coast.”

For this competition, we want you to find inspiration in the Orfordness Lighthouse and the Suffolk Coast, but what you write after that is up to you.

A fiction category entry could be a short story or an extract from a longer work, and be in any genre – crime, literary, adventure, sci-fi... The non-fiction category could be a contemporary journalistic piece, nature writing, or it could focus on history, the people involved in the lighthouse, our changing coastline, the writer’s own thoughts…

There are some fantastic prizes to be won, including brunch for two on the Lady Florence river restaurant, and book tokens. The winning entries will be published in the EADT’s Suffolk Magazine.

This writing competition is part of Touching the Tide, a three-year Heritage Lottery Funded project along the Suffolk coast between Covehithe and Felixstowe, hosted by the Suffolk Coast & Heaths Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).

For more information and for full competition rules, please go to www.touchingthetide.org.uk. Please submit to: Bill.Jenman@suffolk.gov.uk. We prefer email submissions, but if this is not possible then send hard copy to: Bill Jenman, Suffolk Coast & Heaths AONB, Dock Lane, Melton, Woodbridge, Suffolk, IP12 1PE. Please mark all communications “Orfordness Lighthouse Writing Competition”.

ENDS

Notes

1. Touching the Tide project overview

Touching the Tide is a £900k three-year Heritage Lottery Funded Landscape Partnership Scheme along the Suffolk coast between Covehithe and Felixstowe, hosted by the Suffolk Coast & Heaths AONB. The landscape area covered by this project is essentially the Suffolk Heritage Coast, which lies within the AONB. It's a very dynamic environment which is constantly changing and evolving, primarily influenced by the sea, and by the soft, recently deposited, overlying geology. The project period is Spring 2013-Spring 2016.

2. Suffolk Coast and Heaths Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Located on the coast of East Anglia, the Suffolk Coast & Heaths Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) encompasses 155 square miles of wildlife-rich wetlands, ancient heaths, windswept shingle beaches and historic towns and villages. This tranquil and unspoilt landscape is a haven for a wide variety of wildlife and birds, and a fantastic place to explore and discover.