DAILY ECHO poet-in-residence Polly Clark is appealing for anyone who entered the recent short story competition to re-submit their stories.

More than 200 entries for the "City Mystery" competition were received by Polly, who had organised the competition for a forthcoming Daily Echo creative writing special.

Unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond the Echo's control, some of the entries have gone missing.

To be absolutely sure that everyone who entered gets their chance to win, Polly is appealing for everyone who entered to send their entries to her at the address below, or by e-mail by the new closing date of May 17.

Polly, who has overseen the Echo's creative writing postbag for the last two years, said she was "extremely upset" by the loss of the stories.

"I don't know how this can have happened. The stories were originally going to be published in the creative writing magazine on May 18. It just means we've had to delay the magazine by a few weeks.

"We're really sorry for the inconvenience, but I'm hopeful that we'll copies of all the entries.

"This also means that if you narrowly missed the original deadline or thought you would like to enter or didn't have time, you now can."

The theme of the competition is "A City Mystery". Stories must be no longer than 1,500 words.

The judge of the competition is acclaimed novelist Russell Celyn Jones, who is currently also one of the judges of the Booker Prize.

The problem was not at the Daily Echo, so please send your entries to us as before.

Entries to the poetry section in the same competition have now been judged, results of which were published in the Echo on Saturday and on the website.

Winning entries to both categories will be published in the next Daily Echo creative writing special, published with the Echo on Saturday June 8.

As well as the winning stories, the magazine will feature interviews and articles about creative writing. Lots more entries to the competition will also be published on the Echo website.