WORD lovers are being invited to enter this year's PENfro book festival writing competitions.

Writers from west Wales excelled in the festival competitions last year, winning the top prizes in poetry and short story writing, against strong competition from all over the UK.

Entries are now being invited for the 2015 competitions, with a new addition this year being a memoir category.

Competition organiser and PENfro chairman for 2015 Jackie Biggs said:“We were delighted last year that so many fabulous writers from all over Wales, and some from our own area too, proved themselves so strongly in our competitions. It would be great to see similar achievements this year."

Both the open poetry and memoir competitions are now open, with a closing date of July 3.

Last year's poetry winner Katherine Stansfield, of Aberystwyth, is guest judge of the poetry competition and will read all entries, while Cecilia Morreau will judge the memoir. All entries will be judged anonymously.

Katherine won the 2014 competition with her poem ‘The woman on my National Library of Wales library card’, which is now included in her first collection, Playing House (Seren). She has recently won a Literature Wales Bursary to work on her second collection.

Her debut novel The Visitor was published by Parthian in 2013. The book went on to win the fiction prize at the 2014 Holyer an Gof awards.

Katherine grew up in Cornwall and moved to Wales in 2002. She was a lecturer in Creative Writing at Aberystwyth University for several years before making the decision to write full time.

She said: “I am looking for poems that catch hold of me when I first encounter them, and poems that stay with me after reading – images that haunt me, lines that play tunes in my head while I’m trying to get to sleep, ideas that make me see the world anew.”

Cecilia Morreau has recently joined the PENfro Festival committee.

She was the director and founder of Leaf Books, which specialised in publishing short stories, memoir and poetry and promoting new and emerging writers.

Memoir collections published by Leaf included ‘Foresight with Hindsight’ with Diana Mitchener.

Many years of competition judging has led Cecilia to the conclusion that one of the most important things in any piece of writing is the ‘voice’ of the author.

She says: “When you write your piece make sure we hear you. Try to look at one or a few events in detail, focus on something that has significance to you. Any topic is fine - childhood, war, allotments, travel, school, work, community projects. Experienced and novice writers all welcome.”

The entry fee is £4 a poem, £5 a memoir.

The contests are open now and the closing date is July 31st for both. Winners will be announced at PENfro 2015.

Full details can be found at penfrobookfestival.org.uk/8-penfro/56-2015-competitions-intro

Prizes will be presented during the 2015 PENfro Book Festival and the top three entries in each contest will be published on the PENfro website.

This year’s PENfro Book Festival will run on September 12 and 13, at Rhosygilwen, near Cilgerran, and will include a varied range of workshops for writers; and guest readings, talks and discussions with leading authors.