Senior writers from B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan and the Yukon are getting an extra month to submit their work to the third annual Cedric Literary Awards.

The deadline extension to June 1 is due, in part, to an increase in expressions of interest following the expansion of the competition beyond BC to Alberta, Saskatchewan and the Yukon.

Cedrics executive director Veronica Osborn says, 鈥淭he increase in enquiries about this year鈥檚 competition, especially those from writers in the three additional jurisdictions, tells us there is definitely interest in taking part but that we perhaps didn鈥檛 allow enough time for the good news to reach everyone.鈥�

The competition鈥檚 organizers also believe that the previous May 1 deadline was not realistic given that early spring can be a particularly busy time for many people.

Emerging senior English and French-speaking writers of fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry, as well as First Nations writers, are asked to log on to the website at www.thecedrics.ca/ submissions to review complete competition guidelines, with a view to submitting their manuscripts no later than midnight June 1, 2017.

The Cedric Literary Awards is a juried writing competition that encourages and celebrates the creative talents of writers, age 50 and better, who have a lifetime of experience to share. More than 300 emerging writers have entered work in the writing competition since 2015.

A prize of $3000 goes to the winner in each of the four categories: fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry and First Nations writing.