The winners of the E Short Story and Poetry ESSP 05 - competition were announced at the Word Market Festival Writers' Day on Sunday in Ulverston.

Both judges, novelist Sarah Hall and poet Graham Mort, were impressed by the quality of entries into the thisisthelakedistrict.co.uk and Word Market second annual competition. Ms Hall, who judged the short story finalists said the quality of writing was very high'. Mr Mort said the standards of poems was very high' and the choices he had to make were difficult'.

The winner of the short story entries was Ulverston writer Gill Nicholson, with Afterwards' and Hove-based writer Kay Sexton was placed runner up with Acorns and Conkers'.

The Poetry winner was Wayne Auty from Lancaster, with The Yellow and Blue Ladies.

"I was very pleased to hear I'd won first prize for my poem, especially since the judge, Graham Mort, is such a highly regarded and accomplished poet himself," said Wayne Auty. "I think the Word Market Festival is extremely valuable to the area, and can only grow richer and stronger with each subsequent one." The poetry runner up was Jo Stoney from Ulverston with Filling in the Gaps.

Project partner Word Market coordinator Linda Graham said "We were delighted to have over 30 entries of such quality, and pleased the winners represented local, regional and national writers."

Kate Whiteside, Web Editor at The Westmorland Gazette said: "Our goals of reaching writers via the Internet and encouraging authors to use the Web for their craft are being achieved."

Winners have their entries published on www.thisisthelakedistrict.co.uk in the Lifestyle Readers and Writers section and on Word Market's web site www.word-market.co.uk, as well as help setting up their own web site, and training opportunities.

The E Short Story and Poetry Competition 2006 details will be also be posted on the sites.