Our 10th Annual FundsforWriters Essay Contest

Theme for 2011: "Diligence"

Oh my gosh, has it been a decade since we started this contest? How phenomenal is that? What's phenomenal is looking back and seeing where I was in 2000 when I started FundsforWriters. I wrote for simple sanity's sake, each and every night when I arrived home from a stressful day job. Today, twelve years later, FundsforWriters has 40,000 readers and has received the infamous Writer's Digest 101 Best Websites for Writers recognition eleven times. That's diligence.

Your definition of diligence, however, might involve a personal relationship, a child, a career, a manuscript. Maybe you weathered a difficult phase in your life, and now that you've come out on the other side relieved yet wiser, stronger and empowered.

In this day of instant publishing versus traditional, of impatient waits for answers to query letters, the theme of Diligence seemed most appropriate. No, you don't have to write about self-publishing versus traditional. Just make Diligence the clear, ultimate, and striking point of your nonfiction essay.

The Entry Fee Option

A major different between FundsforWriters' contest and other writing contests is the option of paying an entry fee. Some writers don't believe in fees and other can't afford them. So we offer a no entry fee category. Others, however, are willing to submit the $5 entry fee in order to vie for the higher prize purse. Take your pick.

The Prize Money

ENTRY FEE CATEGORY - First place - $400. Second place - $100. Third place - $50.

NO ENTRY FEE CATEGORY - First place - $50. Second place - $25. Third place - $15.

Last year's 351 entrants made this contest a resounding success. It's when I read those essays that I realize why I do this contest. People pour their hearts into these pieces, these stories. Some raise a tear. Some send a shiver. Some make me wonder why some individuals aren't well-published and known across the Web. I see the souls of people striving to spin words into stories, turn thoughts into communication. I see them teaching school, selling insurance, fixing computers, fighting crime, taking care of elderly parents, carpooling kids, and going through life like everyone else. But in their bedrooms, studies and kitchens, they dig down into themselves to enter contests like this. They want to write.

Contests offer a barometer. Everyday people and seasoned scholars can enter the same competitions, both trying to step up another rung on that ladder. Even honorable mention is hope. It's a nod that what you fight to pen words at night, on weekends, at dawn before the family is up, your effort is deemed worthy.

I'm honored to be a part of that process and look forward to your submissions.

(Scroll past Sponsorships for Contest Guidelines)

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The Door is Open for Contest Sponsors

If you've advertised with FundsforWriters, you quickly appreciated the loyalty of its readers. Your resulting hits, sales and sign-ups more than compensated for your already reasonable advertising cost. The testimonials on our ad page speak volumes. That's why we offer sponsorships for the Annual FundsforWriters Essay Contest. Take a moment to see if one of these opportunities fits your budget and marketing plan. Contact Hope via email if any questions.

Platinum Sponsor - One Slot Available - It will go fast.

• The contest will be referenced as the Annual FundsforWriters Essay Contest, sponsored by ***fill in name***

• Marketing material to other venues and websites will reference sponsor.

• Logo and ad copy to appear near the top of each of the three newsletters July thru December 31, 2011.

• Logo banner to appear on each web page on the FundsforWriters website July thru December 31, 2011.

• Logo and ad copy to appear at the top on the Annual Contest page.

• Valued at over $1,500 per regular FundsforWriters ad rates.

Platinum Sponsorship $500

 

 

Gold Sponsor - Five Slots Available

• Logo and ad copy to appear in each of the three newsletters July thru December 31, 2011.

• Logo banner to appear on each web page on the FundsforWriters website July thru December 31, 2011.

• Logo and ad copy to appear on the Annual Contest page.

• Valued at over $1,000 per regular FundsforWriters ad rates.

Gold Sponsorship $300

 

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Contest Guidelines:

What to Put In/On your Email Submission:

1. The title of the essay (do NOT use the theme as your title)
2. Your name.
3. Your email address.
4. Note Entry Fee or No Entry Fee category.
5. The word count.
6. The essay itself in the body.

Guidelines:

• Not to exceed 750 words.
• Essay/nonfiction only. Includes memoir, creative nonfiction, journalistic nonfiction...nonfiction period. NO fiction, poetry or children's writing.
• Receipt deadline Midnight (Eastern Time), October 31, 2011.
• Email entry to hope@fundsforwriters.com. (No fax or hard copy submissions.)
• No attachments to emails. Embed in the email itself. (Viruses are nasty creatures.)
• Entry fee $5 or ZERO dollars. Payable via PayPal or check. Put name, email address and essay title with check if you send via mail. Make checks payable to C. Hope Clark or FundsforWriters.
• Note ENTRY FEE or NO ENTRY FEE on your submission. 
• Same piece cannot be submitted in both ENTRY FEE and NO ENTRY FEE categories.
• No changes/alterations to an already submitted piece. The second edit will be deleted.
• Must be original and unpublished.
• Must be in English but entries accepted internationally. Entry fees must be in US dollars.
• No limit to the number of submissions.
• All writers must be 18 or older.
• Do not bother with SASE for winners lists. Winners posted on website and in newsletters.
• Single or double-spaced accepted.
• Winners and public notified by December 1, 2011.
• Winners published in December 2, 2011 FundsforWriters newsletters.
• Winners paid via check or PayPal. If you are from a country where that is a problem, please do not enter.
• Other submissions will be considered for publication but will be paid the standard rate of $45 if selected.
• Judges are selected from Hope's peer group of writers, authors and journalists, still pending, but the finalists are chosen by C. Hope Clark.
• Final determination of winners is not negotiable.
• You do NOT have to be a FundsforWriters reader to enter the contest.
• You will not be added to any sort of mailing list.

$5 Entry Fee Option

 

 

Direct any additional questions to Hope Clark at hope@fundsforwriters.com . Checks can be mailed to: C. Hope Clark, c/o FundsforWriters.com, 140A Amicks Ferry Road, Box 4, Chapin, SC 29036

 

Study Finds Black Students

Are Not Prepared For College,

Trail White Students

By Dismal Margin

September 9, 2011 

By: Shani K. Collins, Your Black World

 

The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education recently reported a significant racial gap between Black and White students’ in their level of preparedness for the ACT.  Subsequent findings show that only 35 percent of Black high school students are prepared for English courses, compared to 77 percent of White students. The report also found that 54 percent of all White students were prepared for mathematics.  Black students were four times less prepared compared to their counterparts.

In addition, only 6 percent of Black students achieved benchmark scores in the area of science.  This finding is largely different from the 37 percent level of preparedness of White students.  The most alarming statistic found that only  4 percent of Black students were ready for college in all subject areas.  On the other hand, statistics showed that 37 percent of White students were prepared in all subject areas.

The results in ACT achievement between Black and White students were measured over a 5 year period.  The findings are baffling, and suggest the need for changes in the educational system.   A lack of preparedness for college can negatively influence the college retention and graduation rates among Black students.

Shani K. Collins is a freelance writer.  You may visit her at www.shanicollins.com

SNOW FALLING ON CEDIS

 

 

BOMBASTICELEMENT.ORG PRESENTS:

 "Snow Falling on Cedis", a blog-comic strip about a bunch of immigrant kids from West Africa. They find themselves living on the snow slopes of a valley glacier in one of the remotest parts ofAlaska after their parents migrated in search of jobs in the region's booming hospice and elderly care industry.

Far from home, the kids fill their snow days dropping 'wisdom' on many things Africa-related. Lots of hilarity and punditry ensue.

Updated 3 times a week (Mon, Wed and Fri).

Enjoy & Share.

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Africa: European Films

Exploring African Immigration

Reuters' Silvia Aloisi on director Emanuele Crialese's "Terraferma" (Mainland), which screened at the Venice film festival. The film explores how the lives of a fisherman and his family on a remote island off the Sicilian coast are transformed when they rescue a pregnant Ethiopian woman at sea and hide her in their house. Excerpt:

...Crialese decided to make the film in 2009, after reading the story of an African woman who was one of only five survivors on a crammed boat that spent 21 days drifting at sea without assistance before running aground on Lampedusa."I was hypnotized by her face, her expression. She had just been through hell, three weeks at sea, with people who saw them, got close and threw them water and then abandoned them again. And she looked as if she had arrived in heaven," he said. Crialese offered the woman, identified only as Timnit T., the part of the pregnant Ethiopian in Terrafirma, a film which is a clear indictment of the crackdown on illegal immigration by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's government and its ill-preparedness in the face of a humanitarian emergency.

"...she looked as if she had arrived in heaven," Crialese's description of the pregnant Ethiopian migrant literally gets painted on screen in another immigration film that screened at Venice. Check out the nude beach meets garden of Eden opening scene of Belgian filmmaker Nicolas Provost's The Invader (starring Burkinabé actor Issaka Sawadogo and Italian actress Stefania Rocca). Tambay's preview - here.

More stuff: an Italian graphic novel about another Ethiopia migrant - here. More or the depiction of racism in Italian cinema - here. More immigration cinema: S&A previews + trailers for Maggie Peren's Color of the Ocean (Germany) and Aki Kaurismäki’s Le Havre (Finland). Erwin Wagenhofer's Black,Brown and White (Austria)

 

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Watch Trailer For Award-Winning

Race Identity Doc “Colour Me”

Here’s the trailer for Colour Me, a documentary examining the way we define race.  It screened at this year’s San Francisco Black Film Festival and won the “Bronze Palm Award” at the 2011 Mexico International Film Festival.

Directed by Sherien Barsoum, the film follows motivational speaker Anthony McLean and his groundbreaking mentorship program for black teens in Brampton, the most demographically changing Canadian city. While challenging his students to analyze and abandon the stereotypes they have accepted, Anthony is forced to critically examine his own identity.

The film is still on the festival circuit but for future updates please check out the film Facebook page HERE or go to colourmethefilm.com.

Cynthia posted

>via: http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/archives/watch_trailer_for_award-winn...

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Film: "Black Brown White"

co-starring

Clare-Hope Ashitey (Austria)

"Black Brown White" is an Austrian feature film about a young Nigerian woman (Jackie) who is on the run across Sahara heading north, hoping to find a way of reaching Switzerland and finding the father of her son, a Swiss UN-employee who was once based in Nigeria. She is hoping he will provide education for her son. 

Jackie is played by 24 year old Clare-Hope Ashitey who is a British actress of Ghanaian descent. The film is produced by Allegro Film from Austria and is released on February 2011. 

Synopsis

Don Pedro (Fritz Karl) is a 35-year-old truck driver. Together with his paraplegic partner Jimmy (Karl Markovics), he operates a small freight shipping. Over the years they have devised an elaborate, nifty but also illegal system whereby they smuggle African refugees to Europe. 

Jackie (Clare-Hope Ashitey), a young Nigerian woman, is on the run across the Sahara going north, her son Emanuel (Theo Caleb Chapman) at her side. 

Their destination is Geneva, where the boy’s father, a Swiss UN-employee, lives. At the border between Africa and Europe, Pedro, Jackie and Emanuel meet for the first time.

But Jackie refuses to be treated as the other fugitives, who are locked in a hidden compartment in the truck. Against his better judgment, Don Pedro goes along with her request and together they make their way to Europe.

 

 

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Ethiopia/ Italy:

Comics, Immigration and

Remembering Hugo Pratt

Preview! Now Dig This:

Art and Black Los Angeles

1960-1980

 

 

This October the Hammer Museum will present Now Dig This! Art and Black Los Angeles 1960-1980, a comprehensive exhibition that examines the incredibly vital but often overlooked legacy accorded to the city's African American visual artists. Now Dig This! comprises 140 works from 35 artists that have rarely been shown in a museum setting and includes early pieces by now well-established artists as well as works once considered "lost." The exhibition will be up October 2, 2011-January 8, 2012.

 

Now Dig This! is curated by Kellie Jones, associate professor in the Department of Art History and Archaeology at Columbia University. Jones’s writings have appeared in numerous exhibition catalogues and publications including NKA, Artforum, Flash Art, Atlantica, and Third Text. Most recently, she curated Energy/Experimentation: Black Artists and Abstraction, 1964–1980 (The Studio Museum in Harlem, 2006). Current book projects include, Eye-Minded: Living and Writing Contemporary Art (Duke University Press 2011) and Taming the Freeway and Other Acts of Urban HIP-notism: African American Artists in Los Angeles in the 1960s and 1970s (forthcoming from The MIT Press).

 

Afrikan History Week

in Oslo Norway

- 15-18 Sept 2011

(with Omar Sosa)

 

Afrikan History Week Norway 2011 is taking place 15 - 18 September at Riksscenen (Schous Plass) in Oslo.

The festival is a Pan-Afrikan celebration of Afrika, Afrikan history and the Afrikan Community in Norway. This year the festival celebrates its’ 7th consecutive year!

Afrikan History Week includes cultural events, concerts, films, seminars, workshops, debates and more. Special guest this year is Latin Jazz pianist and Grammy nominee Omar Sosa.

Program

Thursday 15 September
Film and discussion. A roundtable discussion with four speakers presenting their perspectives on the uprising in the light of global events over the past year: From Karthoum via London to Oslo.

Friday 16 september
Indaba Seminar Theme: Perspectives on gender and multiculturalism (full day academic conference), with Lecturer: Prof. Obioma Nnaemeka, an international expert in gender and women's studies

Friday 16 september
Street Prophets
(Hip-Hop og poesi) (Hip-Hop and poetry). The "Street Prophets" event is a vibrant meeting with new poetic expression from the streets of Oslo. Five hip-hop artists are challenged to perform, rhymes, songs and rap lyrics accompanied by percussion, guitar and turntables. With Norway's most popular Hip Hop group Danny & Pumba.

Saturday 17 september
Africa Live with Omar Sosa. Latin Grammy and Grammy nominee Omar Sosa is known to cross boundaries in different genres and compose music with elements ranging from African traditional music, Latin rhythms and electronica with African-Cuban jazz in the bottom!

Sunday 18 september
Prince & Princess (kids party)

Place: Schous Kulturbryggeri bygg J/K, Trondheimsveien 2, Grünerløkka, Oslo Norway

Website: http://www.afrikanhistoryweek.com/

Some vids of the artists in the Afrikan History week 2011

Danny & Pumba - Dagdrømmer - Norwegian Hip Hop

Omar Sosa - Light In The Sky

Norwegian slam poetry artist Sarah Ramin Osmundsen - Spoken Word Poetry: "Sound is Power", Emmanuel jal concert Oslo, Cosmopolite.
 

 

Bonus

Omar Sosa - "Ternura" from album his "Mulatos". The album was recorded in Paris in 2004 and combines elements of Middle Eastern, North African, and Indian music.

 

 

 

Field Notes:

The Photography of

Carl Van Vechten

 

W.E.B DuBois, 1946

 

Billie Holiday, 1949

By Kristy Tillman

Carl Van Vechten (1880-1964) primarily known as a music/dance critic and novelist gained a reputation as a theatrical and society photographer during the time of the Harlem Renaissance. Based in New York City, after completing a stint at the New York Times, Van Vechten took great interest in black artists and writers of the time period; documenting many who are considered canonical figures in the black collective as subjects of his work. Many of the sitters, such as W.E.B DuBois, Billie Holiday and Alivn Ailey, were acquaintances of Van Vechten. He primarily photographed them in his studio portrait style, in private sittings, and also at social gatherings. It was also not unusual for Van Vetchen to implore bright colorful backgrounds and elaborate costuming in his photography.

 

 

Alvin Ailey, 1955

 

Mary McLeod Bethune, 1949

Langston Hughes and Horace Cayton at Fisk University, 1947

Eartha Kitt, 1954

 

Prince Etuka Okala Abutu of Nigeria. 1946

More about Van Vechten

Van Vechten is credited as being a patron of the Harlem Renaissance, having contributed to black theatrical productions and penned narratives about black life in Harlem such as his controversial book, Nigger Heaven. The book received a mixed reception from Harlemites, as reported by author Wallace Thurman in his 1926 review that appeared in Fire!!. The title, labeled as satirical commentary by Van Vechten himself, initially drew ire from the black community. In addition, many felt that Nigger Heaven portrayed black Americans in a largely negative light drawing upon sweeping generalizations and stereotypes of sexual, gambling and alcohol. W.E.B DuBois would eventually contribute a wholesale dismissal of the book in the NAACP Crisis. It should be noted that the text also had its share of defenders in Langston Hughes and James Weldon Johnson, who lauded the piece in Opportunity, the official journal of the National Urban League.

 

Carolyn Malachi

Carolyn Malachi

“Beautiful Dreamer”

Thursday Sep 8, 2011 – by Clutch

Short Story Competitions

   

    We run two competitions per year. The first runs from the 1st of January until the last Friday in April. The second runs from the 1st of July until the last Friday in October. The word count limit is 4000 words.

    The October 2011 competition is OPEN.

     First Prize is $300.

     Open to anyone.

     Fiction of any genre to 4000 words per submission.

     Winner will be published on this web site.

     Closing dates are:

The 28th of October 2011.

The 27th of April 2011.

     Submissions will only be accepted for the current competition.

     Submissions must be typed or printed in a Times style typeface, 12 point, double spaced, left justified, single sided, titled and numbered, on white A4 (or equivalent) paper, with a margin of at least 2.5cm.

     Entry fee is $10, or $8 for Students*
      *To be eligible for the Student fee, a photocopy of you student card or completion certificate is required with your entry.

     Payment is by cheque or money order only, payable to Raspberry & Vine.

     Send your entries to:

          Raspberry & Vine
          PO Box 2217
          Wattletree Road PO
          Malvern East       3145
          Australia

     Download the Entry Form (PDF file, approx. 48k - Acrobat Reader 5 or above required).
     A MS Word version is available here.
     General Rules are attached to the entry form.

     Please read the General Submission Rules.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Call for Papers:

Fourth International Maroon Conference

Fourth International Maroon Conference, “Independence,” in Charles Town, Portland, Jamaica, June 20-24, 2012

 

This multidisciplinary conference seeks papers that explore treatments of Maroon culture in history, literature, ethnography, anthropology, sociology, archeology, political theory, cultural studies, film, linguistics, art, music, and theatre.  It strives to examine the values and practices of maroons and marronage and the ways they have influenced and transformed the Caribbean, Canada, South America, Europe, the United States and Africa. With its theme of “Independence,” the conference links the Maroon defeat of the English in 1739 with the fiftieth anniversary of Jamaican independence from England in 1962 to celebrate both events. Offering a unique combination of scholarly panels and cultural performances, the Fourth International Maroon conference aims to increase awareness of Maroon contributions to contemporary societies, bringing together descendants of Maroons with scholars interested in Maroon heritage and indigenous cultures.

Please send abstracts by 15 November or inquiries to fbotkin@towson.edu