A competition for wannabe writers has been started to add works to Canary Wharf’s ‘short story’ dispensers which are temporarily locked up by the lock down.

East London Advertiser: Dispensers at Canary Wharf have printed out 108,000 short stories since they were introduced last year. Picture: CWGDispensers at Canary Wharf have printed out 108,000 short stories since they were introduced last year. Picture: CWG (Image: CWG)

Winners in the over-16s category get their “life in lockdown London” stories added to a permanent library collection alongside Dickens, Lewis Carroll and Virginia Woolf.

“I can’t wait to read all the creative tales,” Canary Wharf Group’s events organiser Lucie Moore said. “It’s the perfect time for a chance to write stories of lockdown life.”

Works or poems running to one, three or five-minutes long should be fictional, she stresses, drawing inspiration from personal discoveries of new skills or even the struggles of self-isolating.

The competition has also been sent to Tower Hamlets schools, with the top 10 entries in the under-16s category put into the “short story” dispensers for the summer family weekend planned later this year — that’s assuming lockdown is over, of course.

East London Advertiser: Tantalising tales that aim to help escape the monotony of commuting through reading scrolls, not scrolling phones. Picture: CWGTantalising tales that aim to help escape the monotony of commuting through reading scrolls, not scrolling phones. Picture: CWG (Image: CWG)

The dispensers print out on demand using eco-friendly papyrus paper, when they’re not locked up.