You are invited to write a fictional short story set at least 10 years in the future. Imagine how everyday life in Manchester might be affected by future technological and scientific advances and/or environmental and population changes. How will we communicate with each other? Where will we work? How will we travel? What will we eat? We want to read your unique vision of a future Manchester.

Winning entrants will have their stories published in an anthology which will be presented by author Julie Bertagna at a Manchester Children's Book Festival event on Friday 6th July 2012 at the Museum of Science and Industry. The overall winner will receive a pocket video camera.

The competition will be judged by representatives of the Manchester Literature Festival and Manchester Children’s Book Festival and the overall winner will be selected by Julie Bertagna (author of the acclaimed Aurora trilogy for young adults) who will be providing some top tips on how to get started with your story at a special competition launch event at the Midland Hotel on Saturday 15th October.

• Entrants must be aged between 12 and 16 on 31/8/2012 to enter the competition
• Entries must be the writer's own work
• Entrants must live in the North West region of England
• Stories should be between 500 and 1000 words in length and typed on A4 paper or sent as an email attachment (Word document please).
• The deadline for entries is 5pm on Monday 5th March 2012

To submit by email: please send your story as a Word document attachment together with a completed Entry Form (download below) to admin@manchesterliteraturefestival.co.uk with "Future Manchester" in the the subject heading.

To submit by post: please send a typed copy of your story together with a completed Entry Form (download below) to:
Future Manchester Competition, Manchester Literature Festival, Beehive Mill, Jersey Street, Manchester M 4 6JG.

Entries received after the deadline will not be considered.

Here you can find reading lists and future scenarios developed by writers and local scientists to help spark ideas for Future Manchester stories. If you would be interested in hosting a Future Manchester creative writing workshop with an author and/or scientist in your school please email admin@manchesterliteraturefestival.co.uk.

We asked some local scientists to suggest plot scenarios for Future Manchester stories based on their own research and you can download their ideas together with some suggested Discussion Points below.