Entering a strange land through a rabbit hole… growing bigger and smaller after eating a mushroom… and a speaking cat? In Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Alice experiences many things that don’t happen in real life. Author Lewis Carroll created a Wonderland full of strange creatures and habits, and nothing is what it seems. Do you like fictional stories like Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland? Now is the chance to write your own fantasy story!

Macmillan Readers have organised a Write about your Wonderland! competition, where we are encouraging English language learners to submit their own fictional story about their Wonderland.

The competition is open to schools and independent learners. The competition is divided into three age groups:

12 years and younger

13 years to 17 years

18 years and older

Students can send in their short story (between 500-1000 words) and/or one drawing based on the theme my Wonderland.

What are the prizes?

Similar to last year’s short story competition, we’ll be putting together a short story collection containing the 15 best stories of this competition (one overall winner plus four runners up per age group).

In the writing category, there will be one overall winner per age group. They will win:

10 printed copies of the short story collection

5 Macmillan Readers of their choice from our current catalogue

£100 worth of Macmillan Education eBook vouchers

The four runners up in the writing category will win:

1 printed copy of the short story collection

£25 worth of Macmillan Education eBook vouchers

In the drawing category, there will be one overall winner per age group. Their drawings will appear on the cover of the collection. They will win:

5 printed copies of the short story collection

3 Macmillan Readers of their choice from the current catalogue

How the competition works:

The competition runs from 5 March 2015 until 31 August 2015 (midnight GMT).

The competition is open to English language learners (EFL, ESL, ESOL) of all ages.

The story needs to be a work of fiction.

The total length of the story should be between 500-1000 words (shorter or longer entries will not be accepted). The story should be submitted in Word format or PDF.

Submitted drawings should be A4 size and in JPG, PNG or PDF format.

All entries must be submitted via our online form. Only one story and drawing per person is accepted.

From all submitted short stories, a panel of judges will select the 5 most creative and original entries that reflect the theme ‘my Wonderland’, per age category. The judges will also choose one overall winner per age category.

From all submitted drawings, the judges will select one winner per age category.

The winners will be announced in November 2015 and in addition to putting together a short story collection, we will also be filming the best stories with a professional storyteller.

The short story collection will be made available to the public for free in PDF format for download on www.macmillanreaders.com and in print form for publicity purposes.

All participants will receive a digital participation certificate at the end of the competition.

Please carefully read our Terms & Conditions before entering as this contains important information about the competition.

SUBMIT YOUR STORY

Here are some tips to get you started:

1. Download our creative writing activities to help you start your story.

2. Have a look at the results of last year’s Short Story competition or the Cultural Readers competition for inspiration!

3. To promote the competition in your school, download and print our Write about your Wonderland A4 poster.

4. Have a look at our A Wonderland of Reading page for more information about the 150 years of Alice celebrations.