Tuesday

Women in Focus 'In My Shoes' Global Blogger Search


Is your writing inspired by the places and events around you? Feeling the need for somewhere exotic to fire your writing passion? Do you love the immediacy of blogging?

Women in Focus are giving two Australian women bloggers an amazing chance to blog from two incredible locations: either New York for Fashion Week or Mt Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.  The winners will author a personal blog, 'In My Shoes', on the womeninfocus.com.au website, giving access to an instant audience for their writing.

Entry requires you to set up a personal blog on the womeninfocus.com.au website and write at least one simple post with the theme 'In My Shoes', then demonstrate your ability to build a following. Entries will be judged on writing skill (60%), social engagement (20%) and blog name (20%).  It's all fun with a great reward at the end. If you win, we are happy to volunteer to be your 'take a friend'!

Entry fee: Free!

Prize:  First Prize: Trip for you and a friend to either New York for Fashion Week or Mt Kilmanjaro for trekking and volunteering (value $20,000); Second Prize: trip to New York or Mt Kilimanjaro for you (value $10,000)

Open to: Australian women bloggers over 18 (for Kilimanjaro) and over 21 (for New York).

Deadline 30 March 2012

Sunday

Humour Verse Competition

When my cousins and I were little, our Uncle Ron used to write funny limericks for us. He even wrote one for me as a wedding gift.  So Uncle Ron would have approved of this writing competition which is open to humorous verse in any style including limericks and poems up to 30 lines.

The organisers are looking for original, unpublished content that makes them smile.

Entry fee: £3 for the first poem, then £2.50 per poem

Prizes: 

Quarterly Deadlines:
  • 31 March
  • 30 June
  • 30 September
  • 31 December

Open to: Writers worldwide, writing in English

RulesGeneral Rules

Saturday

Bridport Prize for Poetry, Short Stories & Flash Fiction

Founded by the Bridport Arts Centre in Dorset UK, this writing prize has been going since 1973.  This was a time when writers belted out novels on manual typewriters, there were fewer than 60 computers connected to the internet and long-distance phone calls were so expensive, we spent the first minute of the call talking about how expensive the call would be.  

Now that we live in a much faster world, a new "Flash Fiction" category has been introduced. If you're a Twitter fan you shouldn't have any trouble creating a complete micro-story using no more than 250 words.

Short story writers have 5,000 words to play with and poets can write up to 42 lines.

Entry fee: £6 per flash fiction, £7 per poem and £8 per story

Prize for poetry and short stories: 

  • 1st £5000
  • 2nd £1000
  • 3rd £500
  • plus 10 supplementary prizes of £50 each


  • Prize for flash fiction: 

  • 1st £1000
  • 2nd £500
  • 3rd £250
  • plus 3 supplementary prizes of £25 each

  • Open to: Writers worldwide (over 16 years old), writing in English

    Deadline: 31 May 2012

    Website:   The Bridport Prize

    Friday

    Reminder - Public Lending Rights

    Just a quick reminder for published authors that the deadline for registering for Public Lending Right (PLR) payments in Australia is 31 March 2012.

    PLR programs provide authors with some compensation for income that is lost "through the free multiple use of their books in public and educational lending libraries". (arts.gov.au)

    PLR programs exist in a number of countries.  Check this list of countries to see if you can register your book.

    Quick Links to PLR schemes

    UK

    Australia

    Canada

    Thursday

    Poetic Republic 2012 Poetry Competition


    Poetic Republic's annual poetry award introduces a uniquely democratic approach to competition judging.  Entries are judged via a rather fascinating and rigorous round-robin process conducted by the participants themselves, who can provide short 'twitter' style comments which are available to entrants after the judging process is complete. Seems a terrific way to get some feedback on your work!

    Poems can be in any style, and about any subject, to a maximum of 42 lines. Entries must not have been previously published. In addition to the cash prize, the top 48 poems along with a selection of comments, will be published in an e-book.

    Entry fee: GBP7 per poem

    Prize:  Single poem prize GBP2000; Portfolio prize (2 poems) GBP1000

    Open to: Poets worldwide (over 16 years old), writing in English
    Deadline 30 April 2012

    Website:   Poetic Republic

    Tuesday

    Fish Flash Fiction and Poetry Competitions


    It's time to flex those writing muscles after the pleasures of Christmas-New Year. What better way to start than with the Fish Publishing Writing Contests?  Short, sharp and very sweet might be just what is needed.

    County Cork (Ireland) based Fish Publishing hosts 4 writing contests a year, with a view to launching talented new writers and getting them into print.  They attract heavyweight Irish writers and poets as judges and patrons and you have the option of paying extra for a full critique of your submission. Michael Collins is the judge for the 2012 Flash Fiction Prize (word limit: 300 words) and US Poet Laureate Billy Collins will judge the Poetry Prize (word limit: 200 words). The Inaugural Short Memoir Award (4000 word limit) will be judged by David Shields

    Entry fee: EUR14 for first entry, EUR6 for subsequent entries. Option to pay extra to receive a professional critique of your submission.

    Prize:  EUR1000 for first prize in Poetry and Flash Fiction contests; EUR2000 for Short Memoir. Other prizes include accommodation at the Anam Cara Writers Retreat in Spain. Winner and up to 10 shortlisted entires selected by the judges in each category are published in the annual Fish Anthology, which is launched during the West Cork Literary Festival each year.  

    Open to: Authors worldwide, writing in English.

    Deadlines 30 January 2012 (Short Memoir)
    30 March 2012 (Poetry and Flash Fiction)
    Short Story 2012 contest to open shortly - check the Fish website

    Website:  Fish Publishing