Milton Keynes is renowned for roundabouts and concrete cows, but it is also a very green city – in a literal sense. The city is home to numerous parks, woods, nature reserves and other settings where the city dwellers can experience nature. This year, Lit Fest adopted Green Spaces in the City as the theme for our third MinK flash fiction and poetry competition.

Writers who live, work or study in Beds, Bucks or Northants were invited to submit a piece of flash fiction of up to 500 words in any genre they chose: sci-fi, thriller, romance, historical fiction… all styles were welcome. Or they could put pen to paper and send us a poem of up to 30 lines inspired by the theme.

Join us as we award the winners' prizes for the best story and best poem in each of two age categories (14–19 and 20+) and launch our third print/e-book anthology of selected entries .

Our Judges
MK Lit Fest would like to thank our 2023 judges for their insights, judgements and generosity:

• Jupiter Jones
• Imogen Robertson
• Patrick Wright
• Steve Kendall
  

Our thanks also to the Open University.