2019 Commonwealth Short Story Prize Writing Contest for unpublished short fiction (£15,000 in Cash Prize)

Application Deadline: 1st November 2018.

The Commonwealth Short Story Prize is awarded for the best piece of unpublished short fiction (2,000–5,000 words) in English. Regional winners receive £2,500 and the overall winner receives £5,000. Translated entries are also eligible, as are stories written in the original Bengali, Chinese, Kiswahili, Malay, Portuguese, Samoan and Tamil. The competition is free to enter.

The prize covers the Commonwealth regions of

1. Africa, 2. Asia, 3. Canada and Europe, 4. Caribbean and 5. Pacific. (See Section 4 for countries in each region).

Eligibility Criteria

• Entrants must be citizens of a Commonwealth country– please see Section 4 for the list of Commonwealth countries. The Commonwealth Foundation will request verification of citizenship before winners are selected. Entries from writers from non-Commonwealth countries (including the Republic of Ireland and Zimbabwe) are not eligible.
• For regional purposes, entries will be judged by country of citizenship. Where the writer has dual citizenship, the entry will be judged in the region where the writer is permanently resident.
• There is no requirement for the writer to have current residence in a Commonwealth country, providing they are a citizen of a Commonwealth country.
• Entrants must be aged 18 years or over on 1 November 2018.
• All entries will be accepted at the discretion of the Commonwealth Foundation which will exercise its judgement, in consultation with the prize chair, in ruling on questions of eligibility. The ruling of the chair on questions of eligibility is final, and no further correspondence will be entered into.
• Entries from previous overall winners of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize are not eligible. Entries from previous regional winners are eligible.
• Entries from current members of staff at the Commonwealth Foundation are not eligible.
• Entries must be unpublished and remain unpublished in any language until 1 May 2019.

Benefits:

• There will be five winners, one from each region. One regional winner will be selected as the overall winner. The overall winner of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize will receive £5,000 and the remaining four regional winners £2,500.
• If the winning short story is a translation into English, the translator will receive additional prize money.

Entry Rules

• Entries,including those in translation, must be made by the original author.
• Entries will only be accepted via the online entry form.
• The deadline for receipt of entries is 1 November 2018 (11.59pm in any time zone).
• Only one entry per writer may be submitted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize.
• The story must be the entrant’s own work.
• The story must be original work and should not have been published anywhere, in full or in part, in any language, before 1 May 2019. Published work is taken to mean published in any printed, publicly accessible form, e.g. anthology, magazine, newspaper. It is also taken to mean published online, with the exception of personal blogs and personal websites.
• Entries previously submitted to the Commonwealth Short Story Prize are not eligible.
• Entries should be submitted in English, with the following exceptions: entries from Commonwealth citizens who write in Bengali, Chinese, Kiswahili, Malay, Portuguese,Samoan and Tamil and who do not have an English translation of their story, may submit their stories in the original language. English translations of short stories written in other languages are eligible if submitted by the writer (not the translator) and provided the translator is also a citizen of a Commonwealth country.
• Simultaneous submissions are eligible as long as the entrant informs the Prize immediately should the story be accepted for publication elsewhere or be selected for a prize.
• Entries must be 2,000 words minimum, 5,000 words maximum (not including title)
• All entries should be submitted in Arial 12 -point font and double line spacing. All pages should be numbered and include a header with the title of the story
• There are no restrictions on setting, genre or theme.
• The story should be adult fiction and must not have been written for children alone.
• Entrants agree as a condition of entry that the prize organisers may publicise the fact that a story has been entered or shortlisted for the Prize.
• Worldwide copyright of each story remains with the writer. Commonwealth Writers
  will have the unrestricted right to publish the winning stories (the overall winning story and the four regional winning stories) in an anthology and for promotional purposes.
• The overall and regional winners will be expected to take part in publicity activities including social media where possible.
• The overall and regional winners will be expected to undertake a mutually acceptable
  programme of regional outreach activities to develop and promote Commonwealth Writers.

If you experience any problems with submission please email writers@commonwealth.int

For More Information:

Visit the Official Webpage of the 2019 Commonwealth Short Story Prize Writing Contest 

Filed Under: Infos, Short Stories, Write Place Contests on Wednesday, 17 April 2019

SUBMISSIONS CALL: SG TRANSLATION MONTH. DEADLINE 4 JUNE 2017

SG Translation Month is national translation movement started by The Select Centre. The aim is to encourage, share and discover new translations of local literary works. The movement comprises a call to submit new translations. The best translation works will be showcased during the TranslateSingapore festival in September (save the dates: 9–30 Sep, 2017) as well as the National Translation Month in New York.

The Select Centre are looking for translations of works from Chinese, Malay, Tamil or English into any one of these four languages, e.g. Malay-to-Chinese, or English-to-Tamil, and vice versa.

The translations must not have been published before, but the source text may have been.

The source text can be of any literary genre – poetry, short story, novel, drama, essay, memoir, travel writing and so on – as long as it is by a Singapore writer. It can be published or unpublished.

You can be both the writer and translator. However, they strongly encourage a writer to work together with a translator.

There is no fee for submission.

For more details of eligibility and how to submit, follow this link.

©Commonwealth writers

Filed Under: Infos, Write Place Contests on Saturday, 13 May 2017

SUBMISSIONS CALL: THE WILBUR SMITH ADVENTURE WRITING PRIZE. DEADLINE 15 MARCH 2017

For more details of eligibility and how to submit, follow this link.

Filed Under: Infos, News, Write Place Contests on Thursday, 23 February 2017

SUBMISSIONS CALL: APPREHENSION MAGAZINE. DEADLINE 5 APRIL 2017

Apprehension Magazine are currently seeking submissions from 14 – 21 year-olds.

They are accepting fiction, nonfiction, poetry and essays for their 2nd issue which is due for release on 15 April 2017.

Deadline for submissions is 5 April 2017.

For more details of how to submit, follow this link.

BY COMMONWEALTH WRITERS

Filed Under: Write Place Contests on Wednesday, 22 February 2017

7 Way Approach to Write your Speech

Writing a presentation can be one of the tedious yet easiest part of our jobs. The tedious part is usually the part whereby you have to prepare for that speech. Apparently, it suddenly becomes  more fun to scrub a toilet than to write your presentation. We’ve all sat down in front of the computer and wasted hours staring at the pulsating cursor while wondering, “What the heck should I talk about?”. Its easy, when you have thought about it and gathered relevant data before getting down in front that computer. 

So here's 7 strategies designed to make your speech writing a lot easier and dandy. 

1) The computer screen is not the best place to start. 

As already implied in the first paragraph, when you have a presentation, do not press the power button of your PC just yet. You need to understand a few things and collect relevant information such as; who is your audience? For what purpose are you making that speech? What are the possible solutions and ideas you can propose in that speech? If you do not have answers to such questions yet, chile....you need to back off from the PC and get back in your mind first.

2) Define your main objective

Don't try to be the speaker of the house without a room. Take one clear, distinct and evident objective and work on it. You will be known and remembered as the one who brought that one specific change,  than when you try to include all the ideas you can think of into one allocution. You will end up sounding like a gossip and boring your audience.

3) Identify with the people's need

Giving a speech is never about you. Don't make a bucket list of all you want to say to your audience before the time is up. Identify with their most in depth distinct need. Spot what they have and what they don't have. Then when you have collected such info; I suggest you work with that 5 loaves and 2 fishes(that is, the information accessible), and you will end up feeding a thousand or more. 

Its about the assemblage not you.

4) Devise your course of action

Don't stand in that platform sounding like a chicken running for President. Do not tell them of the miracles your products have performed in the past and the change it will bring to that lives. 

Rather endear them into action. What is the one step you would want them to take towards achieving your main objective? Bring it to the floor.

5) Spend enough time to prepare

The trick is, for the more times you spent constructing your speech, the less time of the audience you will take. When its 10 minutes long, spend 60 minutes to 5 hours practicing and amending your work each day. A good percentage of  times, even a day before the presentation is to be made, you could find new information or spot an error.

6) Craft a writing model that suits you

This at times depends on your audience and main objective. Use formal and informal models where applicable. But also be as clear as air. You can map out a design off your work and have an overview look of it. Experiment with styles, strategies and outlines. Actually you must see yourself completing your work at this stage before you begin. Hey...you know what they say, what the mind can conceive it will achieve.

7) Make room for others opinions and feedback

You work may always look finished and nice to you. But there could be certain errors you have overlooked or have no idea it was an error in the first place. Get someone outside your friends and family horizon to have an overview of what you have done. Usually its best to hire a coach, or one of your less acquainted experts. 

Okay, there you have it. Don't get caught up with that one grind. Follow this simple guidelines to get working and get done with it. There's always much more to look forward to. *wink* Don't worry you will get used to it.

Filed Under: How To, Write Place Contests on Sunday, 14 June 2015