Watch J.G. Ballard talking about his life with Hari Kunzru

Are you a budding designer who would love to see your work on the cover of a book? Or are you a fan of the author J.G. Ballard and would relish the chance to add your mark to one of his novels? Well now is your chance.

To celebrate the release of Ballard's new autobiography, Miracles of Life: From Shanghai to Shepperton, published on February 4, 2008, Times Online has teamed up with publishers Harper Collins to give you the chance to redesign the cover of his 1973 novel Crash.

The competition will be judged by Ballard, who will chose the winning design from a shortlist of six selected by the Harper Collins design team. The winner will see their design used on a limited edition of Crash, due to be published in September 2008. The five runners-up will each receive a copy of the autobiography.

All designs must be 197mm x 129mm in size, and include the book title, the author's name, the Harper Perennial logo and this quote, ‘A work of very powerful originality. Ballard is amongst our finest writers of fiction’ Anthony Burgess.

The rest is up to you.

There are three ways to enter.

Email your design to books@timesonline.co.uk

Upload it to Flickr

Post to J.G. Ballard design competition, Times Online, Times House, 1 Pennington Street, London, E98 1TT.

The competition is open to residents of the UK and Eire aged 16 and over only. Only one entry per person. We cannot return or acknowledge submissions.

Include your name, address, and a daytime telephone number. If e-mailing an attachment, please make sure it is in jpeg, gif, pdf, bitmap, or psd file format and include contact details in the body of the e-mail. Submissions must be received by 5pm on Wednesday, April 30, 2008. Winners will be notified by May 28, 2008 and announced on May 30, 2008.

For full terms and conditions click here

Find out more about JG Ballard and buy his books at waterstones.com

Competition Update:
Because we were overwhelmed by the tremendous quality, as well as the sheer quantity of entries, the judging of this competition is taking a great deal longer than originally planned. We wil be posting a picture gallery of the most impressive images from the very strong shortlist later this month.

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