Guest Article – Wrexham Libraries and Wrexham Carnival of Words Team
Wrexham’s literary festival is calling on local murder mystery sleuths to enter their annual scriptwriting competition. The Wrexham Carnival of Words hosts an annual murder mystery evening during its annual festival of books, reading and authors and is calling for scripts to be put forward for the 2027 event.
The competition requires entrants to create a four-part character script plus a confession for two male characters and two female characters and there is ample scope to expand the scenario by setting the scene of the murder and investigation, and the location and the era in which it is set. The competition is free to enter. The winning script will be delivered by four amateur actors who will read/act each character part at the Wrexham Carnival of Words Murder Mystery event on 28 April 2027.
The ability to draw the audience into the murder mystery as they play detective is key. Curating the characters in the script is crucial to the success of the plot, with the narrative arc making it clear where the storyline is going. It will be up to the writer as to how subtle or obvious they want to be with the clues and there will need to be the odd red herring!
The competition will run from 1 August 2026 until 30 October 2026 and will be judged by a well-known and successful local crime writer. There is a prize of £100 in addition to the winning script being performed at the 2027 Wrexham Carnival of Words. The winner will be announced at the public launch event for the Carnival of Words in March 2027.
Wrexham Carnival of Words promotes and encourages quality writing from local enthusiasts and the Murder Mystery evening will be one event in a week-long programme of interesting and varied book-related events. The Wrexham Carnival of Words is an annual literature festival and will take place during the week of 24 to 30 April 2027.
The Murder Mystery Competition is open from 1 August 2026 and entry forms and full guidelines can be obtained from any local library or from the Wrexham Carnival of Words website.
