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The Canterbury Tales Writing Competition 2025-26: Happily ever after?

Thank you to everyone who entered our “Happily ever after?” writing competition. We absolutely loved reading all your poems and stories. We hope that you enjoyed our competition and will continue to write in the future. Please see our website for details of our latest competition.

Finally, a big thank you to all the teachers, teaching assistants, librarians, parents, guardians, and all those who have supported our competition.

All prize winners have been contacted via their schools or guardians.

The winners can be read here.

2025/26 Competition Judging

The judging of The Canterbury Tales Writing Competition 2025/26: Happily Ever After? competition is well under way. We hope to make an announcement by the end of the summer term. Winners will be contacted via their schools and then announced on our website.

New Competition Launched!

We are very excited to launch our 10th annual writing competition for schools. The 2026/7 competition is on the theme of Transformations. Full details can be found on the competition page.

Writing Back to Chaucer (2024)

If you would like a copy of Writing Back to Chaucer (2024) which published the winners of the first five years of The Canterbury Tales Writing Competition please follow this link.

The Chaucer Heritage Trust is very excited to launch its 10th annual writing competition for schools. The 2026/7 competition is on the theme of Transformations. Full details can be found on the competition page.

If you would like to receive a competition poster for your school or library please contact us at admin@chaucer.org.uk.

If you would like a copy of Writing Back to Chaucer (2024) which published the winners of the first five years of The Canterbury Tales Writing Competition please follow this link.

Thank you once again to all the students, teachers, support workers, parents, guardians, and librarians who support our competitions.

Entry is now closed for The Canterbury Tales Writing Competition 2025/26: Happily Ever After?

Thank you to all the students who have submitted entries. We’ve had an amazing response and cannot wait to read your poems and stories.

Thank you to everyone who has supported our competition, especially teachers, teaching assistants, librarians, parents, and guardians. We are really grateful for your support and enthusiasm.

The Judging Process

We read every entry carefully, and therefore the judging process is a lengthy one. When we have chosen our winners we will contact them via their schools or, in the event of home schooled students, via their parents or guardians. We will then make an announcement on our website. We hope to be able to do this in the summer term.

Next Competition

Our next writing competition will be launching soon. Please monitor our website for announcements.

The Chaucer Heritage Trust is delighted to have supported a production of Martin Riley’s adaptation of The Canterbury Tales performed by the Scunthorpe Little Theatre Club at the Plowright Theatre in Scunthorpe in May earlier this year. You can learn more about the production here.

We hope more groups will be encouraged to apply to our drama grant scheme. Each year we will offer grants up to a maximum of £10,000 to support a production inspired by the life and works of Geoffrey Chaucer.

Please see our website for more information.

Thank you to everyone who entered The Canterbury Tales Writing Competition 2024/5: Surprise, surprise! We really loved reading all your poems and stories. Thank you also to all the parents, guardians, carers, teachers, teaching assistants, librarians, schools, and libraries who have supported the competition. We are really grateful for your support. Winners have been contacted via their schools.

The winning poems and stories can be read here.

We have now launched our latest competition on the them of ‘Happily ever after?’ Full competition details can be found here.

 One final note. In 2024, we recently published the winners of the first five years of the competition as a book. If you would like a copy please get in touch.

The Chaucer Heritage Trust is very pleased to launch its ninth annual writing competition for schools and home educated students inspired by the works of Geoffrey Chaucer, considered by many England’s greatest medieval poet. The special theme of the competition is ‘Happily ever after?’ Full competition details can be found here.

The Chaucer Heritage Trust was founded in 1992 and aims to further interest, understanding and appreciation of the works of Geoffrey Chaucer, his life and times, and influence. Our writing competitions, which began in 2017, have inspired thousands of poems and stories from young writers around the world. All previous winners and highly commended entries can be read on our website. In 2024, we published the winners of the first five years of the competition. If you would like a copy please get in touch.

Thank you to everyone who has supported our competitions over the years, especially all the young writers. We cannot wait to read your poems and stories!

Entry is now closed for The Canterbury Tales Writing Competition 2024/25: Surprise, Surprise! We cannot wait to read your poems and stories.

Thank you to everyone who entered and to all the parents, guardians, carers, teachers, teaching assistants, librarians, schools, and libraries who have supported the competition. We are really grateful for your support.

Judging Process

We read every entry carefully, and therefore the judging process is a lengthy one. When we have chosen our winners we will contact them via their schools or, if home-schooled students, via their parents, carers, or guardians. We will then make an announcement on our website. We hope to be able to do this in the summer term.

Thank you once again, and do monitor our website for announcements concerning our next writing competition.

The Chaucer Heritage Trust is extremely excited to announce the publication of our first volume.

Writing Back to Chaucer (2024) is a wonderful collection of poems and stories comprising the winners and highly commended entries from the first five years of The Canterbury Tales Writing Competition.

Please see our publications webpage for more information on how to get a copy.

Thank you to everyone who entered The Canterbury Tales Writing Competition 2023/24: Being Part of a Group.

The winning entries can be read here.

We had so many wonderful entries this year and want to say a huge thank you to everyone who entered. We hope that you enjoyed our competition and will continue to write in the future.

Finally, a big thank you to all the teachers, librarians, parents, guardians, and others who have supported our competition.

The Chaucer Heritage Trust