The winner will have a guided day on one of the JMT's properties

A conservation charity has issued a final call for entries to a writers’ contest.

The deadline for submissions to the John Muir Trust’s Wild Writing competition is next Monday, 18 January. Entries in English or Gaelic will be accepted, and the winners will be announced at t the Fort William Mountain Festival next month.

The competition is now in its third year, and 2010’s winner will be chosen by author and folklorist Margaret Bennett.

The theme for entries is experience in wild places, either fiction or non-fiction. There is also a section for children’s poetry. The winner will be awarded a guided day out on one of the JMT’s properties. The Gaelic section winner will receive a copy of An Leabhar Mòr, the Great Book of Gaelic, by Theo Dorgan and Malcolm Maclean.

Sarah Lewis, organiser of the Wild Writing competition and John Muir Trust conservation officer for Nevis, said: “This competition highlights the close connection we have with wild places. We have run the event for three years and we hope that more and more budding writers will take part in the coming years. It is great to get children involved with wild places from an early age so the children’s poetry competition is particularly rewarding.”

Further details are on the John Muir Trust website.