Somewhere To Send Your Work

A couple of writing competitions for you to enter. (And thanks again to British Council for forwarding this information) :

CAN YOU TELL A GOOD STORY?

The BBC World Service - British Council International Radio Playwriting Competition is closing on 31 March 2009. If you’ve got the knack of telling a good story and want a challenge, try your hand at writing radio drama! The winner will receive £2500 and a trip to London to see their play being recorded.

THE BRIDPORT PRIZE

The Bridport Prize is one of the top open writing prizes worldwide - in both prestige and prize money. Submit your poems and short stories by 30 June 2009 to stand a chance to win!

(Well, a Malaysian won the Bridport last year! Lightning can't strike twice in the same place ... can it?)

Send Your Writing Here

Need somewhere to send your work?

Chiew-Siah sent me word of the Edwin Morgan International Poetry Competition 2009, Britain's richest poetry prize (the main winner gets £5000). The closing date is June 2.

Writers Digest have announced their annual competition where prizes are awarded in 10 categories :

* Inspirational Writing (Spiritual/Religious)
* Memoirs/Personal Essay
* Magazine Feature Article
* Genre Short Story (Mystery, Romance, etc.)
* Mainstream/Literary Short Story
* Rhyming Poetry
* Non-rhyming Poetry
* Stage Play
* Television/Movie Script
* Children's/Young Adult Fiction

Both competitions are open to everyone, and there is (Yusof will be thrilled to hear!) no age limit. However, there is a fee for submission.

Win 1,001 Nights with 1,001 Words

Preeta spotted this competition at Abebooks and reckons some of you will probably want to give it a go. (Please note though it is only open to UK Residents - a fact I overlooked when I posted this up yesterday.) :

Penguin has worked their magic on The Arabian Nights, and AbeBooks.co.uk has a very special competition prize for one lucky booklover - one of the just-released 3,000 special limited edition box-sets of The Arabian Nights: Tales of 1,001 Nights - to give away.

To stand a chance of winning, simply write us a short story. Anyone can enter, child or adult. All you have to do is let your imagination flow and you could win. It can be about anything - fiction or non-fiction - but must be exactly 1,001 words in length (not including title). Oh yeah... don't be boring. Scheherazade kept herself alive with 1,001 entertaining tales and we're looking for short stories that share the same adventurous spirit as The Arabian Nights. The most entertaining 1,001 word story will win.

Robert Douglas-Fairhurst in the Telegraph says of this new edition :

For anyone who wishes to enter the labyrinth of the original stories, however, there is no better gateway than Malcolm Lyons’s new translation. It may take up three fat volumes, but hardly a word is wasted in this outstanding combination of storytelling and scholarship.

Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award

Chet sent me this link to Amazon.com's Breakthrough Novel Award which :

... brings together talented writers, reviewers and publishing experts to find and develop new voices in fiction.

It goes on to say :

If you're an author with an unpublished novel waiting to be discovered, visit CreateSpace to learn more about the next Breakthrough Novel Award and sign up for regular updates on the contest. Open submissions for manuscripts begin in February 2009.

Malaysian authors are among the nationals of 20 countries eligible to take part. The grand prize winner gets a full publishing contest with Penguin and US$25,000 advance against royalties, and a trip to Seattle for each of the three finalists.

See the website for rules and FAQ's.

Write Something Beautiful, Win a Gold Ring

Sophie Briquet of French on-line advertising agency heaven wrote to tell me about a writing competition which you might like to enter. The agency works to promote luxury brands and in particular the well known place Vendome Jeweler, Boucheron.

Sophie writes :

Following the “delits d’initiés” (literally insiders trading) evening organized at place Vendome during the which Boucheron invited a few privileged french bloggers, Boucheron is organizing a literary contest called “Quatre” . The contest invites one to write about precious moments of lives. Unforgettable moments or memories or simply dreams.

Here is the concept of the contest in a few words :

• Write a text where you reveal a moment of intimacy that you consider to be precious
• Any form is accepted (song, poem; dialogue, short story, simple prose, haiku…)
• Your text is limited to 2,500 characters (spaces incuded)
• You can write in French, English or Japanese
• Duration of the contest : 15th May - 30th June

The most beautiful texts will be published on the website alongside interviews of well known French luxury celebrities such as Inès de la Fressange , Aïssa Maïga, Isild Le Besco. The jury will select the most beautiful testimony (one for each language) of precious moment and the winners will receive the precious ring from the Quatre Ors collection.

Further information and the rules cn also be found on the website.

Maggie Wins Txtlit

Bernice sent me an e-mail telling me that one of her ex-creative writing students from CENFAD, Mag Tan Yee Mei (who, as Maggie Tan, wrote a story Theatre des Marionettes which appeared in Silverfish New Writing 5) has won a UK writing competition for a romantic micro story submitted by SMS.

Biggest congrats from me too.

Maggie is now studying Art History and English Literature at the University of East Anglia. She apparently enjoys writing fairy tales in her spare time, and I bet you any money that she will turn out to be one of Raman's Silverfish "lappers". You might remember Maggie's appearance at reading at Seksan's some time back. She was so shy that Bernice had to read her story for her!

Ohhhh ... Nano ... No, No.

So ... erm ... who's doing NanoWriMo this year??

Good luck!

Kakiscripts Kakistended

The nice people at Kakiseni would like you to know that the deadline for the playwriting competition has been extended till 30 August 2007. (Clickety click to be inspired by the poster.)

Sleepless in KL

Knowing what smooth operators you all are, I'm sure you will enjoy this competition organised by the British Council:

You’re out for drinks at a bar or the mamak. You find your eyes lingering on a particular person across the room. What’s your next move?

You’re at a wedding reception and there’s someone at the next table you’d love to get to know better. How to break the ice without sounding like a cliché?

The first words that you say will determine whether you make it or break it.

Impress us with your best pick up line, the one that never fails, and stand a chance to join an exclusive group session with British psychologist Geoffrey Beattie, one of the official psychologists for UK’s hit reality TV show Big Brother and Professor of the Department of Psychology, University of Manchester . Here’s your chance to spend some quality time with Professor Beattie and pick the brain of one of the leading psychologists of our time. Who knows, you might learn a new trick or two that’ll bring you that much closer to your fairytale ending!

All you have to do is email us your best pick up line by Thursday 9 August 2007 to
events@britishcouncil.org.my. Make sure to also include your full name, contact number and IC number.

An expert in non-verbal communications, Beattie will be in Kuala Lumpur on 16 August and talk about being single and not able to mingle. Can psychology help you to be more successful in the dating game? Why not join us and find out! Read more about it here.

Find out more about Professor Beattie and competition rules at our website!

MiniNovella Fair and Lovely

Think you could pen a romantic short story in Malay in which the female protagonist undergoes a personal transformation in order to reach her goals and dreams?

Fancy seeing your work published and on screen? Check out this competition sponsored by Unilever's Fair and Lovely which has some great prizes.

But sorry, it's only open to female writers over 18!

Afterthought:

What am I doing indirectly plugging a skin whitening product when I actually deplore the desire for artificially fair skin????? Write the story ... but stay brown and lovely!

Here's a lovely Bollywoodish ad for the product to inspire you!

The picture above is from Malaysian artist Anurendra Jegadeva's "homage to real-life Indian heroines in the witty Fair and Lovely Portrait Album series".

KLueful

Many good writing things coming your way from those good people at KLue, including a competition for the best 16 words story. Click the poster to enlarge and read.

Kakiscript Playwriting Competition

Online arts magazine Kakiseni has announced a playwriting competition with generous prizes and are looking for:

... engaging plays that explore and define issues of the Malaysian experience, in all its social, political, historical, spiritual and emotional complexity. Each play must run for duration of around 10 minutes, plus or minus two minutes. Submissions can be plays written in either English or Malay -- or a combination of both -- and must thematically touch on issues concerning Malaysia.

Closing date is Tuesday 31 July 2007 and all the details are here.

Heroic Cicaks

Nic Wong wrote to tell me about Malaysian political and pop culture magazine the CICAK's second annual writing competition.

The theme is:

50 Years, 50 Heroes: Young Malaysians You Need to Know

and it is:

.. a global search for 50 young Malaysian heroes in conjunction with the country’s 50th Independence Day.
Participants will write about and photograph an unsung Malaysian hero who has persevered against all odds to succeed, or has helped his or her friends, family, society or country in unique ways. Be sure to include the challenges your hero faces, and how he or she will overcome them. Make your hero REAL to readers by including his or her goals, passion, ambition and life-experiences. And be creative!

The top 50 stories will be published in a book. Prizes worth RM1,000 will also be awarded to the winners.

theCICAK is collaborating with The Star and Inkyhands, an online Malaysian literary magazine. The competition is supported by Pusat Komunikasi Masyarakat (KOMAS), an organization that promotes community and public education through documentary film-making. A US$2,500 grant from the Swarthmore Foundation at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania will fund the competition.

For a full list of rules, a tasty list of prizes, and more info click here.

And if you want to catch the mucho talented Nic, he will be reading at Seksan's this coming Saturday. (More info about the event coming shortly.)

A Novel Contest with No Entries

We were all a bit perplexed about what was happening with the Utusan Group Literary Prize - remember? Well, I got this interesting news from Teoh Choon Ean (pen-name Cean), who won one of the prizes in the Utusan Group Literature Prize in 2005 for a novel she wrote in just six days. The truth is revealed!

Following the advert on Utusan-Exxon English YA Novel 2006 Contest in April, I thought I might want give it a try again this year. I read the interesting blog comments on such short notice being given and also wondered what was up. I am also aware that most novelists do not write a novel within a month and only crazy ones like moi would attempt a novel in 6 days (2005 entry). So I had a resolution to have a month to work on it (a luxury of time for me!). One thing led to another and then I was caught up in the illness, death, wake and funeral of a close family member when I realised that omigosh I had only a week to go. Being a never-say-die person I decided to still try and a week of frenzied writing started, including writing on Windows Mobile on my Dopod Pro838 PDA during hospital visits, the wake AND the funeral (forgive me). And on the penultimate day I rang Utusan to say I was coming with my script.(It was still unprinted out in my computer then.)

Guess what? It was 3 hours to closing time (April 30) and I was told there wasn't a SINGLE entry yet. So I said to the editor that I thought the lack of entries was because no one usually writes a whole novel in 30 days except perhaps a crazy writer like me. That perhaps the advert should have been out earlier.

Their explanation? .... well, they said that they expected all novelists or would-be novelists to have a novel in progress all the time and they did not expect any novelist to write at the last minute (excuse me, except crazy Cean!). The advert was just to inform writers that they could send in their entries now. So apparently, it will be an ongoing thing like the BM novels and if you have a novel you can send in this month and they will keep it for the 2007 contest. Apparently that has worked for the BM contest for years.

So thinking over that, I guess it makes sense. Now we know the reason for the late advert was the assumption that there will be no last minute novelists. Hahaha still, it's an assumption because I am one. But to be fair, I took a week to write this time but I HAD the idea germinating for a while in my head. Though I must say when I started writing, the story took a life of its own. And hey, if you have small thumbs, try writing on a PDA keyboard. It's so liberating because you can write anywhere!

So, what will happen when there's only ONE entry...frankly...I don't know. And hahaha, in future if you have a writing forum/seminar I might volunteer to talk on How To Write A Novel In A Week! (Hopefully ... And Win A Prize).

Still chuckling over the whole experience...

Warmest Regards,
Cean

So there you are. Get writing. Utusan wants you.

And Cean - we might well take you up on the workshop idea!

The Down-a Worm-Hole-in-Outer-Space Literary Prize

Here's a new spin on a writing competition. Organise one with huge prizes. And then don't tell anyone about it!

Thanks goodness for Lydia Teh, who happened on an advert in the Star yesterday inviting entries for the 2006 (yes, you read that right, 2006) Utusan Group ExxonMobil Prize for Literature Young Adult Novel Competition.

I googled around and tried to find out something about it online, but with no success - not even on the newspaper's website. Curious and curiouser!

Some of the details are missing from Lydia's cutting but I posted about the competition before and guess the address and phone contact still apply. And even though the last date is 3oth April, as Lydia points out, the 2007 should be just around the corner, so get writing.

Write a Nanotale!

The world's #1 short story competition has just launched and we're looking for the world's best stories on life, death, pleasure, pain, - anything goes as long as it is under 1000 words, in English and written by you.

If you think you've got what it takes and you manage to convince the public and a panel of judges, then Ziji will turn you into a published author.

The Guardian has teamed up with Bebo and Ziji publishing and is inviting stories of less than 1,000 words before March 16 2007.

There's nothing in the rules to say writers must be British. Anyway, you're all loyal Guardian readers, aren't you!

And even if you don't want to enter, there is some excellent advice from Ziv Navoth on writing the short story. The author's website is here.

Send Them Stories Out!

The 2007 Commonwealth Short Story Competition is now accepting enties. Ist prize - a cool £2,000! Deadline 1 May 2007.

Rules and further information here.

Don't forget too that the editors of Elarti want your fiction (in English and Malay) and the closing date for Silverfish New Writing 7 is March 31st.

Get writing!!

Writing Vision

News of a new writing award, launched by the University of Hertfordshire in the UK, which accepts entries from around the world. Here are the details:

Welcome to the inaugural UH Writing Award celebrating creative writing and supporting flourishing new talent.

The UH Writing Award is free to enter. Entrants are invited to submit a short story of up to 3,500 words on the theme of 'vision'.

1st prize £1,000 2nd prize £500 3rd prize £300 4th prize £200

The winner will also be able to apply for the UH Writing Award three-year scholarship to the University of Hertfordshire, study commencing in 2007. Eligibility terms and conditions apply, these can be viewed on the Entry Form.

The top twenty stories will be published in an anthology by the University of Hertfordshire Press.

The Entry Form and Rules can be downloaded from the site and the deadline for Entries 15 January 2007. Good luck!

Dark City Two Wants You!

Here's a fun invitation!

Fancy penning a "dark and twisted" Malaysian tale, in the style of Xeus? She's planning a sequel to Dark City (her first print run of almost 3,000 copies has almost finished) but is inviting others to write the stories for a collection to be published in April 2007. If your story gets chosen you will be paid.

Full guidelines and submission details are here.

(Photo nicked from Xeus' blog and taken originally from KLue magazine)

MPH Search for Young Malaysian Writers

MPH has launched its annualcompetition for young writers. Click on picture to read details.