WRITERS’ NEWS
80 APRIL 2020 http://www.writers-online.co.ukBitesize Stories runs
a monthly flash
fiction contest for
stories no longer
than 999 words, and
a drabble contest
for stories of exactly
100 words. Entry is
free and the outright
winner gets £30.
Website: http://www.
bitesizestories.co.ukStruggling online
retailer The
Book People has
collapsed owing
£2.1 million to
creditors. It went
into administration
in December.Writers Sarah
Ladipo Manyika,
Will Eaves and
Chris Power will
join Dr Frances
Wilson on the
judging panel for
this year’s £10,000
Goldsmiths Prize,
which celebrates
mould-breaking
novels. Sarah
was shortlisted
in 2016 and Will
in 2014 and 2018.
In 2019, eligibility
was extended
to international
citizens resident
in the UK or
Ireland. The
winner was Lucy
Ellman’s Ducks,
Newburyport.
Submissions, by
publishers, close on
27 March.‘Writers of the
quality of Kafka and
Gogol do not run
away from reality.
They have too much
integrity, both as
artists and human
beings, to indulge
in escapist flights.
Especially sensitive,
they are especially
vulnerable, and they
escape nothing...
The artistic value of
their work endures
because it is also
a part of reality.
It is conscious,
uncompromising,
personal, true. It is
life.’
Anna KavanFLASHES
Southword bound
GLOBAL LITERARY MARKET
PDR Lindsay-SalmonSouthword Journal is an Irish print
literary journal published by the
Munster Literature Centre. The
editorial team are proud of the
journal’s reputation and welcome
international submissions to
publish along side their Irish
writers. Do read the journal – there
is plenty online – to see what they
publish. Submissions are open now
to fiction submissions; poetry subs
open in December.
Submit fiction, no more than5,000 words, or up to six poems, as
doc, docx, rtf or txt files. No reprints,
multiple or simultaneous subs.
Response time is ‘before the end
of June’. Payment is €40 per poem
and €250 per short story published
in our new print editions. Payments
to contributors outside Ireland
can only be made through Paypal.
All contributors also receive a
complimentary copy.
Website: http://www.munsterlit.ie/
Southword%20Journal.htmlGo for the big win
The International Welsh Poetry Competition 2020 is
open for entries. Running alongside the competition are
the inaugural Poetry Book Awards.
The judge for the 14th International Welsh Poetry
Competition is Sally Spedding.
There is a first prize of £500 and second and third
prizes of £250 and £100. The winners and seventeen
runners-up will be published online and in an
anthology.
The entry fee is £6 for one poem and different rates
for entries of more than one poem.
The closing date is 31 May.
Website: http://www.welshpoetry.co.uk- The Poetry Books Awards is a new annual award
for the best poetry books
produced by indie writers
and self-published authors,
or independent and small
presses.
Both print books and
ebooks may be entered.
Books may have been
published in any year, but
must still be in print.
The prizes are £200, £100 and £50.
Entry is £25.
The closing date is 30 June.
Website: http://www.poetrybookawards.co.ukWelsh poetry and a new award
The Bridport Prize 2020 is inviting international
entries
The categories are:- Poetry: the prizes are £5,000, £1,000, £500 and
10 x £100. Enter original, unpublished poems up to
42 lines. The entry fee is £10. - Short story: the prizes are £5,000, £1,000, £500
and 10 x £100. Enter original, unpublished short
stories for adult readers up to 5,000 words. The entry fee is £12. - Flash fiction: the prizes are £1,000, £500, £250 and 3 x £100. Enter
original, unpublished flash fiction up to 250 words. The entry fee is £9. - Peggy Chapman Andrews First Novel Award: the prizes are £1,500
plus a year’s mentoring from The Literary Consultancy and a detailed
judge’s critique, £750 plus a full manuscript critique and TLC Industry
Day, 3 x £150 plus a 50-page manuscript appraisal and Industry
Day. Enter between 5,000 and 8,000 words from the opening of an
unpublished manuscript plus a 300-word synopsis. Writers entering must
not be represented by a literary agent. The entry fee is £20. - Young Writer Award: a new award for 2020 with a prize of £500 for
the highest-placed writer aged 16-25 in any category. - Dorset Award: £100 for the highest-placed writer from Dorset in any
category.
Winners will be published in an anthology.
The closing date is 31 May.
Website: http://www.bridportprize.org.uk
The BPA First Novel Award 2020 is
inviting entries.
The Bluepencil Agency’s competition
for unpublished novelists has a first prize
of £1,000
The competition is for unpublished
and unrepresented novelists in any genre.
The winner gets £1,000 and an
introduction to a literary agent. The
runner-up prize is a manuscript review
and agent introduction, and the third
prize is agent introduction.
The judges are literary agents Caroline
Wood and Carrie Plitt of Felicity Bryant
Associates and author Anna Hope.
To enter, send the opening chapters up
to 5,000 words and a 300-word synopsis
of an original, unpublished novel
manuscript. Shortlisted writers will be
asked to submit 20,000 words.
The entry fee is £20 per novel.
The closing date is 31 May.
Website:
https://bluepencilagency.com/Sharpen
your pencils