This autumn, ChipLitFest is delighted to be part of the YIMBY Festival. YIMBY stands for Yes In My Back Yard and it's a festival run by the community, for the community. Money raised will be distributed to local organisations including ChipLitFest and the ACE Centre to support the work we do with children and young people in and around Chipping Norton. On Fri 29 Sept, we will be hosting a evening with a very special literary guest, to be announced, and on Sat 30 Sept we will be running children's events all day - there will be storytelling, illustration and story writing workshops all for FREE. On Sun 1 Oct, the ACE Centre is hosting a Musical Gala Concert with West End stars. Tickets for the Gala are already on sale, details here.

Generously sponsored by pennyshorts.com, a website devoted to fresh, new short stories, ChipLitFest's annual short story competition saw hundreds of entries from across the world. Shortlisted by a dedicated team of volunteer readers and then judged by Martyn Waites, the award-winning crime writer, our three winning stories are now available for all to read. In first place is Jane Buffham's Below the Line, Jan Harvey's Ghost was the runner up and Cathryn Haynes' The Closed Cabinet was placed third. Martyn commented, "all three winners demonstrated a real grasp of storytelling, there's so much to enjoy". Congratulations to all three and those that made the shortlist. Thanks to all the entrants for supporting the competition - we'll be back for 2018!

At ChipLitFest we operate a profit share scheme that means all participating authors are entitled to an equal share of our operating profit. Recently, there has been a growing call for authors to be fairly remunerated for their work at literary festivals, after all - no authors, no festival - and we strongly believe that all our authors are entitled to fair payment for the work they do. We are a small, young literary festival and our profits are not substantial but by creating an environment where the authors feel truly valued we will benefit and enlarge our audiences and, in turn, increase the profit we have to share. Read more about the scheme here. 

Generously funded by The Book Trade Charity, School Shorts is the third volume of children's short stories that the Festival has published. In Nov 2016, years 5 & 6 children from Chadlington and Great Tew Primary Schools worked with award-winning author Candy Gourlay and were inspired to write their own amazing stories. Candy's books are laced with legends and myths and she encouraged the young authors to create their own myths and origin stories which we collected to make into a book. The Book Trade Charity funding meant that all participating children were given copies for free and enjoyed a wonderful book launch, photos can be seen here. ChipLitFest is committed to providing opportunities for local children to develop and nurture their love of reading and writing.