His Dark Materials author Philip Pullman to judge story contest

Best-selling British fantasy author Philip Pullman is set to judge a new China-themed short-story competition launched ahead of this year's Liverpool Literary Festival.

The China Stories competition will see school and university students submit 500-word short stories that must be written in English and have a Chinese theme. Pullman, author of the best-selling fantasy trilogy His Dark Materials, will judge submissions in several categories and present winning writers with their prizes at a ceremony as part of Liverpool Literary Festival in October.

The winning authors will have their work published in a special anthology and take part in a writing session with the Royal Society of Literature. Second and third-placed authors will receive vouchers of up to 50 pounds ($71).

"We are looking forward to reading dazzling stories from the talented, creative young people who will be the stars of the future," said Dinah Birch, professor of English Literature at the University of Liverpool.

Children of primary and secondary school age can compete, as can registered University of Liverpool students and students from the Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University in China. The competition is open and the deadline for entering is midnight on July 20.

The competition is part of the China Dream season in Liverpool, a nine-month cultural initiative between February and October that showcases Chinese art, history and music in the Northern city.

China Dream is organized by the city's tourism authority Visit Liverpool in partnership with the University of Liverpool. Several of the 2,000-year-old Terracotta Warriors from Xi'an in Shaanxi province are on display at Liverpool World Museum until October as part of the China Dream season.

Returning for a second time in the autumn, the Liverpool Literary Festival features talks and workshops from several authors including, actor, author and comedian Tony Robinson; crime writer Val McDermid; playwright, novelist and poet Sebastian Barry; and 2017 Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Sally Rooney.

Pullman led a talk at the inaugural Liverpool Literary Festival last year where he discussed his recently released novel La Belle Sauvage: The Book of Dust Volume One. The book is a prequel to books The Northern Lights, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass which form Pullman's His Dark Materials series.

The Amber Spyglass collected several major literary awards, including the Whitbread Book of the Year 2001, and the trilogy as a whole briefly outsold JK Rowling's Harry Potter books in 2002.