AFTER the success of its inaugural event last year, Bournemouth Writing Festival is set to return for a second year with 101 events on its calendar. 

Taking place from April 26 to 28, the festival aims to provide events across the town in an Edinburgh Fringe style to give back to the community to rediscover Bournemouth's creative scene. 

Festival director, Dominic Wong, said: "Maybe you wouldn't initially think it but Bournemouth as a hub of underground creatives that's bubbling under the surface. 

"I want Bournemouth to become the place to come because we have such a rich history of literary people with connections to Mary Shelley, Robert Louis Stevenson, who wrote Jekyll and Hyde here, and J.R.R Tolkien, who holidayed at the Hotel Miramar."

Although still in its infancy, Dominic is immensely proud of the attention it has gathered.

Twenty six per cent of festival visitors came from outside of Dorset last year and this year's festival competitions have already received international attention with entries from as far as Australia. 

Dominic said: "We have a poetry and flash fiction writing competition with the theme of lines in the sand. Since it's launched we've had entries from Australia, Dubai, Ireland, Canada and more. It's going crazy.

"It's amazing to be able to showcase the amazing things we have in Bournemouth. We're more than just a beach and you're going to meet creatives and people like you." 

All entries into the poetry and flash fiction competition will be made into an anthology published by Dorset-based publishing house, Dithering Chaps, and judged by two creative writing lecturers from Arts University Bournemouth. 

The festival also has a schools writing competition for children within Dorset which has been endorsed by Chris Packham in a short video. 

Happening across the town, the festival also offers 1-2-1 sessions with some of the biggest literary agents in the UK which is quickly selling out.

The festival will finish with a huge array of talent from writers and artists from art community groups. 

For more information on the festival's schedule, speakers and ticketing, visit its website.