Archive for category Competitions
Travel Writing Competition
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Competitions, Non-fiction, Travel on August 23, 2015
I’m just back from a holiday walking in the Yorkshire Dales.
We covered about 100 miles in a week and it was typically British. We saw sheep, cows, rabbits, moles (dead), enjoyed cooked breakfasts in hospitable B&Bs and made a bee-line for tea and cake in any cafes we passed. There was also some British rain.
So, it was rather appropriate that on my return I found an email from Steve Hanson of seniortravelexpert.com announcing their latest travel writing competition. The theme is ‘Travel and Water’.
Steve says, “The theme ‘Travel and Water’ is deliberately wide and we accept fictional as well as factual entries. In our last writing competition – ‘City, Town or Village’ – one of the winning entries was fictional and one of the runners-up was a poem. It is free-to-enter, has a prize of £100, maximum 750 words and closing date December 31st, 2015.”
Ten runners-up will each receive a firstwriter.com voucher worth £10, allowing them to take out a free subscription to firstwriter.com, providing access to details of hundreds of publishers, literary agents, writing competitions and magazines.
So what are you waiting for? Most holidays involve travel and water in one form another. All the competition details are here. Get writing!
The Short Story Competition 2015
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Competitions, Short Story on June 7, 2015
The Short Story Competition 2015 is now open for entries. The competition has been running annually since 2011 and ‘… showcases the best short stories from around the world.’
First prize is £300, second prize is £150 and third prize is £50. The winners will be published on the website and may be included in a future anthology. The competition has an open theme and the word limit is 1,000 to 5,000.
Entry fee is £5 via PayPal and the closing date is 15th September 2015 – so it could be a nice project to work on over the summer.
Don’t forget to check the full submission guidelines.
Good Luck!
A Disappointment, An Award and Kobo Writing Life
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Competitions, Non-writing, Successes on April 23, 2015
A few weeks ago I told you I was on a shortlist of eight for the Kobo-Silverwood Books-Berfort Open Day Writing Competition. I heard this week that I didn’t reach the final three. Congratulations to those who did: Phoebe Powell-Moore, Edward James and Sarah Channing Wright. Curiosity will definitely make me buy the winning novel when it’s published later this year.
It’s not all bad news though. As some of you may have seen on Facebook, I was awarded the Hwyl Stone (pictured) for Most Improved Speaker by Sutton Coldfield Speakers’ Club
. This was a nice confidence boost. The stone is supposed to have similar properties to the Blarney stone and was collected in Wales and made into a trophy by a former member.
Finally, to show I’ve no hard feelings against Kobo, here’s some interesting stuff from Kobo Writing Life:
- A useful blog post looking at Goal, Motivation and Conflict – the three essential things for every character. Without these it’s difficult to move the story forward.
- There’s also a good post on why you should enter competitions. Take a look at it if you’ve been dragging your feet lately and not submitting anything.
- Kobo are now running a Romantic Novel competition. It’s free to enter and the winner gets a publishing contract with Mills and Boon. Closing date July 14th 2015.
Kobo do seem to do more to help and motivate writers than Amazon KDP. Or have I just missed the Amazon stuff?
Two Poetry Competitions
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Competitions, Markets, Poetry on March 31, 2015
Poempigeon is running a free competition on the theme ‘Awakenings’. Poems can be any form and any length. To enter, register on the site and upload your poem. Closing date is 30th April and the prize is a £25 Amazon voucher.
The thing I like about Poempigeon is that it’s an interactive site, so other poets can read and comment on your work. Everybody likes a nothing-to-lose freebie, so, even if you don’t usually write poetry, why not have a go?
Carillon is running a sonnet competition (any style, any subject) to raise money for Worldwide Cancer Research. Entry fee is only £2 and 80% of the entry fees will be shared among three winners (each getting a minimum of £25 but could be much more). The winners will also receive a subscription to Carillon. Closing date 1st August 2015. All profits will go to the charity.
Carillon also accept submissions of articles, stories, fillers and writing news. Payment is a contibutor’s copy of the magazine.
Finally, I’d like to say ‘thank you’ to everybody who took the time to comment and congratulate me on my shortlisting. It never ceases to amaze me what a warm and friendly lot writers are, despite us all competing with one another for ever decreasing markets.
It’s the taking part that counts
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Competitions, Non-writing, Short Story on March 3, 2015
‘It’s the taking part that counts’ is a phrase often bandied about to make people feel better if they don’t win or get placed in a competition. Mostly it just washes over us and we’re still fed up that we didn’t get a prize. Perhaps we even think about throwing in the towel and not bothering to enter any more competitions. Last week I had an experience that made me truly agree that it’s not the winning, it’s the taking part that counts.
My Speakers’ Club asked me to represent them in a Speech Evaluation Contest against two other clubs. This involves giving a four minute speech on the strengths and weaknesses of a ‘target’ speech which all three competitors have just watched. I was a bit reluctant since I’ve only been in the club eighteen months but decided to have a go anyway. My fear was that I wouldn’t be able to think of anything to say or I would dry up or I would speak in a muddled, incoherent way.
On the night, I discovered that one of my competitors runs a public speaking coaching business and the other had been education director of his club for fifteen years. This gave plenty of opportunity for making a fool of myself! Needless to say I came third (i.e. last!) in the competition BUT I was surprised to feel good in the face of defeat. There were lots of positives from the evening: I’d spoken to a larger audience than usual, I’d taken part in a speaking competition for the first time, I lasted the full four minutes, I’d been a ‘team player’ by agreeing to take part and my fellow Club members told me I hadn’t disgraced myself or let down the Club. I came away on a high!
So, what’s all this got to do with writing? It’s to urge you to enter writing competitions even if you think you don’t stand a chance of winning. You will learn and gain experience from each competition entry, it might be writing to a tight deadline, trying to write to a different word count than usual or experimenting with a new genre. Don’t worry about winning, concentrate on the challenge of producing the best work you can.
And to get you started, have a go at one (or more!) of these:
Erewash Writers’ Group New Writers’ Competition – 3,000 word short story. There is a £40 first prize and a FREE basic critique. Closes 26th March 2015.
Nuneaton Writers’ Circle Flash Fiction Competition – free entry. Prize is 1 year’s free membership of Nuneaton Writers’ Circle. Closes 27th March 2015.
Alfie Dog Review Competition – download a story from Alfie Dog during March 2015 and write a short review. First prize £100.
Enjoy the taking part!
Senior Travel Expert Writing Competition
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Competitions, Non-fiction, Travel on November 18, 2014
The Senior Travel Expert Writing Competition will open for entries on November 20th 2014. It’s free to enter and the prize is £100.
Don’t panic if you’ve been nowhere exotic. The theme is ‘City, Town or Village’ and the brief is:
“Submit up to 600 words, non-fiction or fiction, which will persuade the readers of this site to go and visit the city, town or village you have chosen.”
We’ve all been somewhere that we could write 600 words about – even if it’s only our home town. So pick up that pen and have a go!
Visit the Senior Travel Expert website for full details, which should be available once the competition opens for entries on Thursday 20th November 2014. At the moment you can just see a brief paragraph if you scroll down the page.
Good Luck!
The Letters Page
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Competitions, Non-fiction on October 21, 2014
If you want a break from the keyboard and computer screen, dig out your fountain pen (or a biro would probably do) and have a go at this competition:
The Letters Page is asking for handwritten letters for their Protest Issue. The website requests:
Letters of complaint, letters of objection, letters of furious indignation; eyewitness reports from street protests around the world; recollections of recent and not-so-recent protests and sit-ins and camps and campaigns; reflections on the meaning or purpose of protests, and on the use of the letter as a political tool; letters to and from and between protesters and protest sites. These are the letters we’re looking forward to reading in our next issue. We’re looking for letters with a sense of urgency. We’re looking for some news from now.
Somehow, I think me complaining about all the waiting around on last week’s coach trip might not fit the bill. But if you’ve got something meatier to protest about, pick up your pen! Each letter used will earn the writer £100. But be quick, it’s postal submission only and entries must be received by October 29th 2014.
The Letters Page is a literary journal published by Nottingham University’s School of English.
Full details of the competition are here.
RIP David St John Thomas
Posted by Sally Jenkins in Competitions, Events, Non-fiction, Writing on September 9, 2014
Most of you will be aware that David St John Thomas passed away last month at the age of 84. 
David St John Thomas founded Writers’ News 25 years ago and still wrote a regular column for the magazine right up until his death. Prior to that he ran the publishing company David & Charles.
A lot of writers will remember him for his work with the David St John Thomas Charitable Trust. The Trust was created with some of the money from the sale of David & Charles. It ran a wide range of writing competitions and also provided bursaries to students taking part in useful work in the developing world.
It was through the competitions organised by the Trust that David briefly touched my life. I was the winner of the 2006 David St John Thomas Charitable Trust Letter Writer of the Year Award. I met David at the presentation event in Harrogate. He was very friendly and it was a lovely event.
It was the final year that the competition ran and so I was able to keep the silver cup that went with the £100 prize.
This Letter Writing Competition was a wonderful way of encouraging new writers. It entailed compiling a portfolio of letters published in magazines and newspapers over a 12 month period and so was accessible to a wide range of people who may not yet have had success in any other area of writing.
So I’d like to say my own personal thank you to David St John Thomas for the encouragement that that competition win gave to me.
Finally, and in the spirit of encouraging other writers, if you’d like to try out your letter writing skills, this competition offers £30 each month to the writer of the best letter of complaint.
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