THE closing date for next year’s Anne Pierson Award for Cumbria Young Writers is Sunday, January 12.

Introduced by new patron Melvyn Bragg, the 2014 award's event will be staged in March at Words by the Water, the annual two-week literature festival at Keswick’s Theatre by the Lake.

Now in its tenth year, further information and entry forms about the award are available from the New Writing Cumbria website or email anne.pierson@btinternet.com.