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The Luke Bitmead Bursary, a writer’s prize for unpublished novelists is currently open for submissions (deadline 2nd August).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The award, now in its 6th year is the UK’s biggest prize for unpublished writers.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
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The entries must be original and unpublished work, written by one author, submitted using a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!
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.
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
Would you like to write a one act play for the stage and enter it in a competition where short listed plays are given full performance, judged by the audience, considered for publication and given a written assessment by a publishing company?
The winning playwright will also receive a cash prize of £200
Every play will be read in its entirety by a minimum of two judges and entrants will receive two lots of feedback on request, at no extra charge!
A shortlist of up to ten plays will be drawn up and posted on the Sky Blue website. Local actors and a production team will be assembled by professional directors to rehearse the plays for performance at the Junction Theatre in Cambridge 6th and 7th July 2013 where the audience will vote for the winner.
Plays must be submitted on line and full details can be found on our website http://skybluetheatre.com/newplaywriting.php
Words for the Wounded (W4W) is a new charity that raises money via writing prizes and donations for the rehabilitation of wounded servicemen and women. All proceeds will be passed to projects such as Battle Back, funded by Help for Heroes, which uses sports rehabilitation to help wounded service personnel gain independence and confidence.
W4W is launching its first writing prize on Armistice Day, November 11, and is calling for all non-writers, aspiring, and experienced writers to enter. Entries can be up to 400 words, written in poetry or prose, fiction or life story tale. Winners will receive a small cash prize and their entries will be published in the monthly writers’ magazine Writers’ Forum (http//writers-forum/com).
Entry costs just £3.50 and the deadline is March 11 2013, winners will be announced on 6 June (D Day).
Oscar-winning screen writer and author Julian Fellowes and his wife Emma are among W4W’s patrons. Julian says: “Emma and I feel strongly that we must never forget the debt we all owe to these brave men and women. We are honoured to be involved in this wonderful charity.”
Other patrons include Rt Hon Lord Ashdown, Lt. Col J. Dryburgh, authors Katie Fforde, Katherine McMahon, Louis de Bernieres , Sarah Challis and Mark Hodgson, Daisy Goodwin, paralympian Ann Wild OBE, Taryn Lee QC, artist Rowena Hampton, extreme sportsman Hugh Williams Preece, Lt Ian Thornson and Founder/Director of the Winchester Writers’ Conference Barbara Large .
For more information, see www.wordsforthewounded.co.uk or follow them on Twitter @Words_4_Wounded
One of the UK’s largest and oldest writing groups, West Sussex Writers, is pleased to announce the launch of its first national short story competition.
With an open theme, generous word count and well-respected final judge – crime and comedy author Simon Brett – West Sussex Writers hopes to attract the cream of the UK’s short story writers.
Chair of West Sussex Writers, Sarah Palmer, said `We’re very excited to be running this, our first national short story competition. We hope to see entries from across all genres, and from beginners to more experienced writers.’
Maximum word count: 3000
Theme: Open
Closing Date: 31st March 2013
Fee: £5 per entry
Prizes: 1st prize £200; 2nd prize £75; 3rd prize £50
Final judge: Simon Brett
Birmingham Writers’ Group