New poetry and prose competitions for writers are announced this week by PENfro Book Festival.

This year, the festival’s prose competition is aimed at new novelists - the top 10 entries in the First Chapter competition will win expert help and feedback advice on their work. For some, this could be the starting point towards landing a longed-for publishing deal.

The top prize winner will get their First Chapter comprehensively reviewed by David Llewelyn, a respected literary scout and talent spotter. David will also work with the winner over several months to help them to reach a publishable standard for their novel. He will also give extensive valuable feedback to the second and third prize-winners; and seven other finalists will win a face-to-face or written review.

PENfro’s open poetry competition has been a great success for the past three years and is on again - with an increased prize fund, while entry fees remain the same. Top prize is now £300, and entry is £4 a poem.

Poetry competition guest judge this year is Jonathan Edwards, whose first collection, My Family and Other Superheroes (Seren) won the Costa Poetry Award and the Wales Book of the Year People’s Choice Award. He was poet-in-residence at the Dylan Thomas Boathouse in 2015. His poems have won prizes in the Cardiff International Poetry Competition, the Ledbury Festival International Poetry Competition and the Basil Bunting Award.

Jonathan said: “It’s a great honour to be judging the PENfro Poetry Competition. It’s a wonderful festival, which is very close to my heart, and it’s a great pleasure to be involved in this way. I look for work which is accessible, entertaining, which makes me smile or laugh, but which also packs a real emotional punch and is memorable.”

Jackie Biggs, PENfro chair and competition organiser, said: “I am very pleased to announce our two first class judges for these competitions - and they will both read all entries. We have been able to increase the prize fund for poetry this year and, while we are not offering cash awards for the new First Chapter competition, the prizes for the top ten entries have a terrific value all their own - feedback from one of the most experienced talent scouts in the business.”

The contests are open now. Closing date for First Chapter entries is July 15; for the poetry, entries close on July 31.

Full details are here for poetry: http://penfrobookfestival.org.uk/competitions/poetry and for the First Chapter competition: http://penfrobookfestival.org.uk/competitions/first-chapter

Winners will be announced during the 2016 PENfro Book Festival, which is being held at Rhosygilwen, Cilgerran, over the weekend of September 9-11. Shortlisted candidates in the Poetry competition will be invited to read their entries at a spoken word event at PENfro on Friday, September 9, where the top three winners will be announced by Jonathan Edwards.

• This year’s PENfro Book Festival will run from September 9-11, at Rhosygilwen, near Cilgerran, and will include a varied range of workshops for writers; and guest readings, talks and discussions with leading authors.