Wednesday, 19 of June 2013
COMPETITIONS
Short Story and Poetry -Entry Fee £5, Prizes £500, £200 and £100 plus a local
prize of £100
Judges - Della Galton (Short Stories) and Sean Borodale (Poetry)
Crime Novel (our fastest growing competition) Prize – introduction to a publisher plus £100
Judge – Janet Laurence
Closing Date
31st July 2013
For full details please visit our website (www.wellslitfest.org.uk) or phone
01749678411
The Luke Bitmead Bursary, a writer’s prize for unpublished novelists is currently open for submissions (deadline 2nd August).
The prize was set up in memory of the first novelist to ever be published by Legend Press, who tragically died in
2006 aged just 34.
The award, now in its 6th year is the UK’s biggest prize for unpublished writers.
The winner receives £2500 and a publishing contract with Legend Press.
For details please visit http://forward.legendpress.co.uk/mainsite/luke-bitmead-bursary.html
Do take a look at the blog on Fringeworks’ website. They have several anthologies open for submission.
The Last Diner (closing date 30th June) – “As the title suggests, we are looking for gruesome stories set in food establishments. Cafes, Diners, Motels, Restaurants, Take-Aways, Tea Rooms, wherever you might eat in public. The Last Diner is specifically geared to attracting horror stories between 3,000 and 6,000 words in length.”
NeaDNAthal (closing date 20th July) – “As the title suggests, we are looking for stories which involve the reappearance of Neanderthal Man in the modern age. A sort of Jurassic Park for cavemen. NeaDNAthal is specifically geared to attracting Science Fiction (SF) stories between 2,500 and 6,000 words in length.
Stories can be contemporary, set in the recent past (as far back as the Victorian age), or set any time in the future. They should revolve around the return of Neanderthal man, possibly by DNA recreation, and should take account of the impact such a reappearance may have, either upon the neanderthals, society, or both”
Cadavers (Closing date 19th August) “As the title suggests, we are looking for stories about the dead. Not the walking dead. Not the undead. Dead bodies. Cadavers is specifically geared to attracting stories between 3,000 and 6,000 words in length.
Stories should be set in the real world, and must revolve around the adventures of bodies post-mortem. Think Johnny and the Dead, Weekend at Bernies, the Bodysnatchers. Stories can be humorous, horrific, Fortean, bizarre or mysterious.”
http://www.fringeworks.co.uk/blog/ for full details
Here are some details about the Winchester Writers’ Conference Competitions:
The competitions include Writing for Children, the Short Story, the Shorter Short Story, Poetry,
Haiku, Feature Articles, Slim Volume, Small Edition, Crime Fiction,
Lifewriting, Retirement, The First Three Pages of the Novel, Sustainability of
the Environment and the Young Writers Poetry Competition. Something for Everyone!
The entries must be original and unpublished work, written by one author, submitted using a
pseudonym and must not have won an award in any previous competition.
Self-published work is acceptable. Copyright remains with the author. The
deadline is 24 May, 2013 for all competitions, except the Young Writers’ Poetry
Competition, which has a deadline of 19 July. Sixty-three prizes and five
trophies will be awarded at the Writers’ Awards Ceremony on June 22nd,
during the 33rd Winchester Writers’ Conference. In addition, the
winner of each competition will be published in the Winchester Writers’
Conference anthology,The Best of 2013, published in the autumn. For the
competition booklet, please follow this link: http://www.writersconference.co.uk/ or
contact us for a printed copy.
On the website, please see the programme for the 33rd Winchester Writers’ Conference, 21 –
23 June, followed by In-Depth Workshops on 24 and 25 June. Seventy three
authors, literary agents, commissioning editors, poets, screenwriters and
industry specialists will be giving 15 workshops, 14 Masters’ Courses, 55 Talks
and over 700 one-to-one appointments. Plenary speakers are Julian and Emma
Fellowes, of Downton Abbey fame. Their niece, Jessica Fellowes, will present
the after-dinner talk Saturday evening,Behind the Scenes at Downton Abbey.
This year, groups of eight or more registering together receive a 20% discount!
To view both the full conference programme and competition booklet, please
follow this link: http://www.writersconference.co.uk/
Looking forward to welcoming you!
Wells Festival of Literature hope you’ll be interested in their annual competition. There are
almost £2,000 of prizes to win for Short Story, Poetry, and Crime Novel entries,
and with the Crime Novel the winner gets an introduction to an agent!
Judges are all successful authors – Sean Borodale, Della Galton, and Janet Laurence.
Full details are on the website, www.wellslitfest.org.uk.
You can enter on line or download an entry form to enter by post.
Don’t delay – deadline is 31 July!
CALL FOR PLAYS from UK writers
Gi60 The One Minute Theatre festival celebrating 10yrs of tiny plays
To celebrate ten years of Gi60 live on the UK stage we are looking for ten one minute
plays (one for each year) from British writers who have never had work
performed as part of the festival
Gi60 (Gone in sixty seconds) is the world’s only International One Minute Theatre Festival
and this year Gi60 celebrates ten years of tiny plays live on the UK stage.
Gi60 was created by ScreamingMediaProductions artistic Director Steve Ansell in
2003 as part of the ‘Write On’ new writing festival at Harrogate Theatre, the
event became international in 2004 with the assistance of Professor Rose Bonczek
and the launch of Gi60 US live at Brooklyn College, New York.
Each year Gi60 premieres 100 new plays, all of which are recorded and made available on
line at the Gi60 You Tube channel.
When Gi60 started, short form theatre was almost unheard of and often overlooked as no
more than a gimmick. Over the years we have shown again and again that its form
theatre offers a unique opportunity for writers, actors and audiences. It seems
that our efforts over the last decade have not been in vain as short form
theatre is now being embraced by mainstream theatres and companies across the
country.
We already have over 450 play submissions for this year’s festival but to celebrate ten
years of Gi60 live on the UK Stage we are looking for ten one minute plays (one
for each year) from writers in the United Kingdom that have never had their
work premiered as part of Gi60. Each of the chosen ten writers will be featured
on the Gi60 blog and in the Gi60 UK live festival programme as well as having
their work performed by trained actors as part of Gi60 UK Live at the Viaduct
Theatre, Halifax on Saturday June 8th.
Plays can be about any subject as long as the work is totally original and the play lasts
no longer than sixty seconds. If you would like to be one of the featured
writers please submit your play by email to screammedia@yahoo.com by Midnight April
30th with the subject line ‘Gi60 10.4.10’
For full terms and conditions visit the Gi60 blog www.gi60.blogspot.com
In the last decade Gi60 has premiered over 800 new plays (over 600 can be viewed
on the Gi60 youtube channel) Got a minute….
Entry to Gi60 is free and copyright remains with the author. Gi60 is open to anybody, of
any age, from anywhere.
We would like to let you know that The Harry Bowling Prize for New Writing, sponsored by
Headline and MBA Literary Agents, is calling for entries now.
New for 2014
This year we are very excited to announce that as well as our established novel writing prize
we are breaking new ground and have a fantastic new flash fiction prize.
The winner of our novel writing prize will receive a cheque for £1000, an in-depth
editorial consultation and exclusive lunch with publishing experts. While our
flash fiction winner will see their work published online and receive £100.
Recognised by the publishing industry, The Harry Bowling Prize for New Writing was launched
in 2000 and is an established award for talented new writers. Many of our
previous winners have signed successful publishing deals as the result of
winning this prize, including our two most-recent winners. We hope to
continue our successful track record of finding talented new storytellers, who
can inspire and entertain us, just as Harry Bowling did in his bestselling
novels.
Visit www.harrybowlingprize.co.uk for all the information you need about the prize, including details of how you
can enter, top tips on how to succeed and inspiring stories from previous
winners.
Entries close on 30 September 2013 and you can follow us on twitter (@harrybowling) or on
Facebook to keep up to date with all our latest news. The winner will be announced in February 2014.
Encouraging news from TOR UK. They are open to submissions.
If you have a complete and unpublished science fiction, fantasy or horror novel, written in English of between 95,000 – 150,000 words, then take a look here:
http://torbooks.co.uk/2013/01/29/submitting-a-novel-to-tor-uk/
The 2013 Bristol Short Story Prize is open to all writers, UK and non-UK based, over 16 years of age.
Stories can be on any theme or subject and entry can be made online via the website or by post.
Entries must be previously unpublished with a maximum length of 4,000 words (There is no minimum).
The entry fee is £8 per story.
The closing date for entries is April 30th 2013.
Prizes:
1st £1000 plus £150 Waterstone’s gift card
2nd £700 plus £100 Waterstone’s gift card
3rd £400 plus £100 Waterstone’s gift card
17 further prizes of £100 will be presented to the writers whose stories appear on the shortlist.
All 20 shortlisted writers will have their stories published in the Bristol Short Story Prize Anthology Volume 6.
The winning story will, also, be published in Bristol Review of Books magazine.
The 20 shortlisted writers will be invited to an awards ceremony in Bristol in October 2013 when the winners will be announced and the anthology launched.
Any shortlisted writers unable to attend the awards ceremony will be sent their prizes.
The awards ceremony will be part of the 2013 Bristol Festival of Literature.
Judging panel : Ali Reynolds (literary consultant, former Random House editor)
Bidisha (writer, broadcaster, critic) Anna Britten (author and journalist)
Chris Wakling (novelist, Creative Writing tutor)
Full details and rules at www.bristolprize.co.uk
To celebrate Belper’s first Literary Festival, as part of the wider Belper Arts Festival, they are launching a short story competition which offers aspiring writers the chance to have their work published for the first time. Entrants may submit, by 1st March 2013, an original, previously unpublished fictional story on any subject or genre. The maximum word limit is 2500. There is an entry fee of £5 per story. The best story will be published and will receive a prize of £200.00. To obtain an entry form, please contact Kathy kathyf100@hotmail.com
Birmingham Writers’ Group