Lorraine Mace

Write Away! November 2008

Text Box: Click, Send, Compete Many competitions now offer electronic payment methods, but it seems few also have the facility to submit entries online. This usually means overseas writers have high postal charges to add to the entry fee. The following are all top rate competitions, with excellent prizes, and the option to enter by e-mail attachment or through their website submission process. Multi-category Competitions Biscuit Publishing offer annual competitions for flash fiction, poetry and short stories. www.biscuitpublishing.com/comp/competitions.htm The Bridport Prize is a prestigious competition with both short story and poetry categories. www.bridportprize.org.uk/index.htm The Writers Bureau has an annual short story and poetry competition with a first prize of £1,000 in each category. www.writersbureau.com/competition/index.htm Fish Publishing has a whole raft of competitions including flash fiction, short stories (in various categories) and poetry. www.fishpublishing.com/writing-contests.php The Jacqui Bennett Writers Bureau runs quarterly short story and poetry competitions. www.jbwb.co.uk/competition.html The Yeovil Literary Prize is unusual in having a novel category in addition to short story and poetry prizes. The organisers have the intention to include a stage play competition. www.yeovilprize.co.uk Winning Writers is a USA-based website offering a variety of poetry and prose competitions. www.winningwriters.com/index.php Short Stories Only The Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook is running a short story competition, which is open to published and aspiring writers alike. www.writersandartists.co.uk/?id=-1679 Momaya Short Story Competition is an annual event. www.momayapress.com/contest.htm Pulp.Net has themed competitions, but is also open to short story submissions. www.pulp.net/about/submission-forms/send-story.html Glimmer Train is a prestigious literary magazine based in the USA. They run several competitions each year with differing word count categories. www.glimmertrain.com/writguid1.html The Commonwealth Broadcasting Association runs the Commonwealth Short Story Competition every year. It is has various categories depending on residency and/or citizenship. www.cba.org.uk/awards_and_competitions/index.php Poetry Only The Poetry Society holds a National Poetry Competition. This is one of the most important on the literary calendar. www.poetrysociety.org.uk/content/competitions/npc/ The Arvon International Poetry Competition 2008 is open to all poets around the world. There are no line or subject matter restrictions. www.arvonfoundation.org/p88.html Books Only The CWA Debut Dagger holds an annual contest which has led to publishing success for many debut crime writers. www.thecwa.co.uk/daggers/debut/index.html The Biographers Club Prize is sponsored by the Daily Mail to support first-time writers working on a biography. This is open to any writer who has not received a commission for their work. http://biographersclub.co.uk/prize/ I hope some of you get short-listed in these competitions, or even win. I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you. Write Away! Notes from the Margin


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