Short Short Story Competition

The Writer's Digest Short Short Story Competition
Writer's Digest is no longer accepting entries in the 8th Annual Short Short Story Competition. Winners will be notified by February 11, 2008 and will not otherwise be made public until they are announced in the June 2008 issue of Writer's Digest.

 

Winners of the 7th Annual Writer's Digest Short Short Story Competition were listed in the June 2007 issue of Writer's Digest. Click here for a full list of winners.

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The Writer's Digest 11th Annual Short Short Story Competition

We're looking for fiction that's bold, brilliant...but brief. Send us your best in 1,500 words or fewer.

But don't be too long about it—the deadline is Thursday, December 1, 2010.

PRIZES
First Place: $3,000 and a trip to the Writer's Digest Conference in New York City
Second Place: $1,500
Third Place: $500
Fourth Through Tenth Place: $100
Eleventh Through Twenty-Fifth Place: $50 gift certificate for Writer's Digest Books

* The names and story titles of the First-through Tenth-Place winners will be printed in the May/June 2011 Writer's Digest, and winners will receive the 2011 Novel & Short Story Writer's Market and Agents, Editors, and You: The Insider's Guide to Getting Your Book Published. Plus, all First through 25th place winners will receive a free copy of the 11th Annual Writer's Digest Short Short Story Competition Collection.

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The Rules

1. The competition is open to manuscripts of 1,500 words or fewer. Entries outside the word limitation will be disqualified. For entries submitted via regular mail, type the word count on the first page of your entry along with your name, address, phone number and email address. No refunds will be issued for disqualified entries.

2. The entry fee is $20 per manuscript. You may enter as many manuscripts as you wish. If you are submitting your entry via regular mail, you may send one check (in U.S. funds) and one entry form for all entries. We accept checks or money orders, Visa and Mastercard for all entries submitted online or via regular mail. There will be a $10 charge for all returned checks or declined credit cards. Credit cards will be charged within 90 days of the contest deadline. Charges will appear on your statement as “F+W Contests.”

3. All entries must be in English, original, unpublished, and not submitted or accepted elsewhere at the time of submission. Writer's Digest reserves one-time publication rights to the 1st- through 25th-place winning entries to be published in a Writer's Digest publication.

4. If you are submitting your entry via regular mail, all entries must be typewritten and double-spaced on one side of 8-1/2 x 11 or A4 white paper. Manuscripts will not be returned. Entries must be stapled.

5. Entries must be postmarked by December 1, 2010.

6. Winners will be notified by February 14, 2011. If you have not been contacted by this date, you may assume that your entry is not a finalist and may be marketed elsewhere.

7. Enclose a self-addressed, stamped postcard with your entry if you want to be notified of its receipt. We cannot notify you personally of your story's status before the winners are announced. If entering online, you will receive a confirmation email for each entry you submit.

8. Winners' names will appear in the May/June 2011 issue of Writer's Digest magazine. Afterwards, their names and story titles will be posted at www.writersdigest.com.

9. The following are not permitted to enter the competition: employees of F+W Media, Inc., and their immediate families and Writer's Digest contributing editors and correspondents as listed on the masthead.

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FAQ

Q: Is it okay to have illustration pictures on the cover?
A: Please send the text only

Q: If there is a word count, how many words per page am I allowed?
No preference

Q: How large of print is allowed?
No preference

Q: Are pen names allowed?
Pen names are fine. Write your pen name on all forms etc. so there is no mistakes on credits. Please be advised that we only need your real name if you are chosen as a winner (in order to issue prizes).

Q: What if I am not a U.S. resident?
WD writing competitions are open to non-U.S. residents as well. Please refer to the entry form and guidelines. All entry fees are due in U.S. Dollars.

Q: Is there an age limit for entrants?
No

Q: What if I wanted to submit only part of my novel into the competition ( to stay with in the maximum number of words)?
If you submit a portion of a novel please understand that it will be judged as a complete story, not part of another work, so it needs to be a complete story in and of itself.

Q: When will winners be notified?

Top Award Winners will be notified by mail before February 14, 2011. The top 10 winners will be listed in the May/June 2011 issue of Writer's Digest. The top 25 winners will be listed in the 11th Annual Writer's Digest Short Short Story Competition Collection and at www.writersdigest.com after the June issue is published.

Q: What are the word count requirements?
The competition is open to manuscripts 1,500 words or fewer.

Q: How do I order books published by F+W Media?
www.fwbookstore.com/category/writers-digest

Q: How do I subscribe to Writer's Digest?
visit www.writersdigest.com and click on the link

Q: Are there other writing competitions?
Yes! Visit www.writersdigest.com/competitions for other competitions for writers  

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Privacy Promise
Occasionally we make portions of our customer list available to other companies so they may contact you about products and services that may be of interest to you. If you prefer we withhold your name, simply send a note with your name, address and the competition name to: List Manager, F+W Media, Inc., 4700 East Galbraith Road, Cincinnati, OH 45236.

Writer's Digest Short Short Story Competition Online Entry Form

Writer's Digest Short Short Story Printable Entry Form  

Bartleby Snopes

A Literary Magazine

The Second Annual Bartleby Snopes Writing Contest:

                                      "Dialogue Only"

Prizes: A minimum of $290 will be awarded, with $250 going to first place and $10 to our four honorable mentions. Our five finalists will also appear in Issue 5 of the magazine due out in January 2011. Last year we awarded $450 in prize money. For every entry over 25, an additional $5 will be awarded to the first place story. Update (9/5/10): Our current grand prize is up to $525, and we are also now offering $25 to the second place story.

The Rules: Compose a short story entirely of dialogue. You may use as many characters as you want. Your entry must be under 2000 words. Your entry does not have to follow standard rules for writing dialogue. Your entry cannot use any narration (this includes tag lines such as he said, she said, etc.). These are the only rules. Manipulate them however you see fit.

The Winner: The winning entry will be the story that most effectively uses dialogue to deliver a powerful and engaging story.

Judges: All finalists will be chosen by the Staff of Bartleby Snopes. In the final round we will have help from our special guest judges Rae Bryant (Moon Milk Review) and Kevin Dickinson (Writers' Bloc Magazine).

Entry Fee: $10 for unlimited entries (only one entry allowed at a time; see Response/Notification section for more details). Entry fee is due at time of submission and will be collected through Submishmash (you may pay using a credit card or with Paypal). Note: We must have at least 25 entries or the contest will be cancelled and all entry fees will be returned. 

Deadline: All initial submissions must be received by September 12th. Winners will be announced by October 12th.

Response/Notification: Our contest runs with a rolling rejection process. We will always keep our five favorite stories. You will be notified immediately if your story falls out of the top 5, and you will have the opportunity to resubmit. There is no extra cost for subsequent submissions, but you may only submit one story at a time. September 26th is the final day for resubmissions. 

Submission Guidelines: All entries should be submitted using our Submishmash page: http://bartlebysnopes.submishmash.com/submit. Your name, contact information, bio and word count should appear in a brief cover letter and at the end of your story. The title of your document should be the same as the title of your story.

No simultaneous submissions or previously published stories are allowed. If your story is discovered to be simultaneous or previously published, you will become ineligible from competition in the contest and your entry fee will be forfeited.

By submitting, you are stating that you are the sole author of the work and that it has not been published before. Work posted on blogs, message boards, personal websites, etc. all counts as previously published material.

For regular submissions, please see our Submission Guidelines page.

Children's Book Finds Hope In Haiti's Rubble

September 9, 2010

Listen to the Story

Download edwidge_danticat_npr.mp3

Morning Edition

[7 min 20 sec]

 

Eight Days: A Story of Haiti
By Edwidge Danticat
Illustrated by Alix Delinois
Hardcover, 32 pages
Orchard Books
List price: $17.99

September 9, 2010

When a massive earthquake struck Haiti, killing more than 230,000 people, it was almost impossible for grown-ups to avoid the tragic headlines.

Now, nine months later, Haitian-born author Edwidge Danticat has found a way to share the earthquake story with an audience that was largely shielded from it — children.

Danticat has written a children's book about a 7-year-old boy named Junior who gets buried in the rubble of his Haitian home during the quake and is rescued eight days later.

She tells NPR's Linda Wertheimer that she began writing the book, Eight Days: A Story of Haiti, in an effort to explain the ordeal to her 5-year-old daughter.

"When the earthquake first happened, my 5-year-old … kept asking us about her [Haitian grandmother]," Danticat says.  "She eventually blurted out a question like, 'Is Grandma under her house?' "

She says that because she and her husband were so wrapped up in and worried about their Haitian family members, they didn't get around to answering their daughter's questions until now.

"I wrote this story to try to explain to her what had happened," Danticat says, "but also to find a kind of hopeful moment in it so it wasn't, at least to a child, all devastation."

Danticat's book opens with Junior's rescue eight days after the earthquake, then goes on to describe what he did during his eight days in the rubble. He flies a kite with his best friend, Oscar, who was with him during the quake.  He plays a game of marbles with neighborhood kids. But, of course, none of that actually happened.

Read An Excerpt:

'Eight Days: A Story Of Haiti'

"It's a mix of imagination, but also memory, because one of the things I kept wondering about the children [was] what kept them still — because I have two small children and they don't stay very still very long," Danticat says. "I was wondering what resources they would pull on, and that's how I came to this use of imagination for Junior."

Danticat says that while the book isn't intended for very young kids, it can be therapeutic for their older peers.

"I've read it to some children in Haiti and what I've seen when I've read it to different children is that a conversation begins, and we start talking openly about sad things," Danticat says, "not only the earthquake, but other things that sadden children."

She says she has found that there are a lot of Haitian children who can relate to the story of a little kid buried in darkness, not knowing if he'll be rescued.

It's a sad story, and it gets even gloomier on Junior's fifth day in the rubble when he imagines playing soccer with his friends. After the game they all sit down to rest, but Oscar — Junior's best friend — is tired and goes to sleep.  He never wakes up after that.

_______________________________________________

photo by Nancy Crampton

Edwidge Danticat was born in Haiti and moved to the U.S. with her family at the age of 12. She currently lives in New York.

"A lot of children were in that situation," Danticat says. "When I read it to this particular group of children in one of the camps, one of the little girls raised her hand and said, 'Come on, tell me straight: Did Oscar die or not?' And it's funny, especially in the midst of tragedy like this, children seeking directness and facing an adult that's trying to go around it. But for a lot of these children — even Haitian-American children who are removed from what happened — there's still the reality of lost loved ones and you can't pretend that it didn't happen."

Danticat says the book isn't based on one real story so much as it is derived from many, including that of Danticat's cousin — who was lost in the rubble along with his 10-year-old son.

Still, the author says that at its core, Eight Days is a hopeful story.  Illustrated with the bright and colorful paintings of Alix Delinois, the book shows the countryside outside Port-au-Prince in the classic style of Haitian painting. It's a portrait of a pre-earthquake Haiti that's largely gone today — but that still survives in Haitian memory.

"When you live outside of the place where you were born, there is a tendency to idealize it," Danticat says of the lost Haiti.

"But what's great about memory, what's great about art," she says, "is that we can reinterpret and re-create and hopefully dream a better world."

At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Rape, and Resistance--A New History of the Civil Rights Movement

 

 

A groundbreaking book by Danielle L. McGuire. The author gives us the never-before-told history of how the civil rights movement began; how it was in part started in protest against the ritualistic rape of black women by white men who used economic intimidation, sexual violence, and terror to derail the freedom movement; and how those forces persisted unpunished throughout the Jim Crow era. Black women's protests against sexual assault and interracial rape fueled civil rights campaigns throughout the South that began during WWII and went through to the Black Power Movement. The Montgomery bus boycott was the baptism, not the birth, of that movement.

 

"Part of the Dream for National Reconstruction": Haitian Refugee Camps Model Future Society

Submitted by Other Worlds on Thu, 08/26/2010 - 08:33

 Elizabeth Senatus is coordinator of a community-run, women-led refugee camp that emphasizes creativity and cultural expression. Photo: Beverly Bell.

By Beverly Bell

While it should never be the case that a high percentage of the Haitian population remains living in refugee camps seven months after the earthquake, still camp residents have managed to create in a few of those  camps a small-scale model of the type of future society that many would like to see. This includes democratic participation by community members; autonomy from foreign authority; a focus on meeting the needs of all; dignified living conditions; respect for rights; creativity; and a commitment to gender equity.

The Petite Rivière Shelter Center (CHHPR by its French acronym) camp, near the epicenter of the earthquake outside Léogâne, contains some of those elements. For one thing, it is run by a group of women whose full attention is on the well-being and dignity of the community.

Another notable factor is that the camp was started and remains run by Haitians, both those directly impacted and grassroots allies.  Most Haitian camps are managed with the heavy involvement, if not leadership, of foreigners, either non-governmental organizations (NGOs) or individuals. Certainly, outside help has proven crucial to these displaced people who frequently struggle on the edge of survival.  But in Haiti’s thousand-plus camps, that help has all too often come in the form of management that represses Haitian decision-making and participation, as well as the potential for community advocacy for a systemic response to the crisis based on justice for homeless survivors.

Part of what makes the Petite Rivière Shelter Center camp work so well is that it is composed of members of a preexistent community which relocated en masse after the earthquake. Relations are based on knowledge, if not always full trust, among individuals. The relationships have made it possible for governing committees to quickly emerge and function well, and have allowed agreement on a set of rules to maintain calm and order. Strangers trying to enter the space are questioned and may not be allowed in, thus offering security from violence and theft.

Another advantage this camp has is its physical environment; it sits in fields under a grove of lush mango trees, in a clean, quiet, rural area. Elsewhere, more than a million people are forced to lodge in smog-choked median strips amidst whizzing traffic; in remote, broiling deserts; or in overcrowded urban spaces with no sanitation or utilities. Survivors remain in these inhumane locales because neither their government nor any agency has initiated better options for them, and they have no funds to make other plans on their own.

  Elizabeth Senatus is an unemployed journalist who now serves as general coordinator of the Petite Rivière Shelter Center. Below is her description of how the camp functions. 

This camp started on January 12, the day of the earthquake.  In shock, everybody in the area went to sleep in a field without sheets or anything. They spent three days like that, affected emotionally and psychologically because of the strong aftershocks. Some people were scared because of the rumors that it was the end times, that God was coming. Some didn’t even bother to find out if their houses were collapsed or if they had people who died; they just went to the field.  After four days, they came to this area under these mango trees; they made little houses out of sheets.

I heard that these people were abandoned and humiliated. I use my leadership and met two or three friends who were from Léogâne. We decided we couldn’t let this situation continue. I asked them to help form this committee, and that’s how we started.

One thing that makes this camp different from most others is that we formed the management committee - not an NGO but young volunteers who believe that Haiti is a country like any other. What’s also different here is the close collaboration between the members of the committee. It has 16 members; I’m the general coordinator and we also have a general secretary, plus coordinators of other committees like human rights and civil protection, public relations, communications, and evangelism. We didn’t wait for people to come give us orders; we organized it.

The camp management committee was formed by invitation quickly because we were in an emergency situation. It wasn’t a favorable time to have elections because it was a disaster.

We’ve used what resources we have. We don’t wait for millions to arrive, we just create. There’s lots of creativity. We’ve done extraordinary things with the means we have at hand. That’s how we established a children’s space, for example. There are Canadian military who were building an orphanage behind us, and another woman and I went and asked them for materials for the children. They gave materials, some tools, and a case of blue plastic tarps. CARE gave us tarps to create a children’s space, too, and a podium. We used cement blocks from the collapsed houses to build that space. We use that space for dancing and theater, too.

We borrowed a drum from a vodou priest. We had people dancing with the drum, like an old lady who lost her son. You know in Haiti, folklore is a big deal. The drum is the sign of music and the sign of happiness; it allows people to recreate. The drum makes everybody dance; even if you have problems, you dance.  We started the folkloric group dancing like this in the ancient way, everybody dancing and singing like crazy with no control. We had kids who went down to dance for May Day by the sea; we even signed a contract with a team from Canada for one of the little girls to go to participate in a cultural event in Canada in August.

We had people living in misery under little sheets. You know the world was seeing Haiti’s image through little sheets. And it kept raining. People from elsewhere asked me, “Elizabeth, how can they survive like this?” I said, “It’s all because of the drum.”

At that time we had more than 150 people, and every time it rained all the people had to go like sardines under one big tarp that someone had borrowed to create a health center. So we used the tarps the Canadians gave us to create spaces for kids to sleep with their parents. Later MUDHA [the Movement of Dominican-Haitian Women] approached an international agency and helped us find tents.

Besides the drumming and dancing, we do theater to help people’s state of mind, popular theater that expresses what’s happening in the community. We help farmers organize, we have a women’s group, we have an education space for kids because a lot of schools were destroyed and some of the kids had never gone to school. We don’t follow the same pedagogy as a formal school because we lack the means.  We do something like the club where the kids can learn and recreate.  We have workshops [like jewelry-making] where people learn skills that can help them economically.

We made uniforms for May 18 [Flag Day], and with our sense of patriotism we went to the street. The kids wore red and blue uniforms [the colors of the Haitian flag] to give a lesson to hypocritical NGOs and an apathetic state who’s not responding to our needs. We showed them that what our ancestors left us as our heritage, we still have it. The kids marched in the street, singing the national anthem, and everyone – parents, people from the diaspora, students and teachers from other schools – accompanied us in the streets.  People thought that the organizing had to have been done by a big school in Léogâne; they couldn’t believe that a camp of displaced people could do that.

Like I said, we use whatever resources we can find. For example, for the dance trainer and the two drummers, we pay their transportation fees to come here by motorcycle. We collect money between ourselves to do it because we don’t have money from NGOs or from the government. We’ve never even been visited by a government representative, not even once after January 12. We’ve told other camps with committees not to wait with a begging bowl but to create, to go out looking for what they need.

The women’s organization Shining Star came about when I sat down with several women who were dancing together. They exchanged about their lives, about what they used to do when they went to the market together. Men were sitting around not participating, so one afternoon I said to the women, “Why don’t we form a women’s organization?” We did it. Our first activity was for Mother’s Day, with all the mothers of the camp. CARE helped us find 200 gifts for 200 mothers. We also got support from a German mobile clinic and MUDHA. We did theatre; the mothers were in it. The kids and adults danced, and we had a buffet where everyone ate. This was Shining Star’s first action as a women’s organization.

The women of Shining Star are shadow advisers to the camp committee. Most of the camp committee is women, too; the men are a little apathetic. You know that society is made up of men and women and we need the balance, but you also know that Haitian women are really put down. It has taken so much effort for women to become doctors and lawyers and such. We want to hold that balance. But we don’t exclude the men.

We know that in this camp, within the families under the tents, women are being abused by their husbands. This is the reality even though these same women stand up when we do women’s activities.

[Regarding rape] I would say this area is calm. The residents were living together before. They know each other, there are things they won’t do. If something like a rape of a woman or girl were to happen, it would be by someone from somewhere place.

We have a mission here to prevent children and young girls from falling into danger. We don’t allow young girls to have their own tents here that would attract young men and facilitate rape. Here kids stay with their parents in their household. That’s how we try to limit sexual violence.

I think it’s true that the role women play in this camp make it different, but I don’t think that male chauvinists see it that way. Frankly, if we didn’t have a group of women in this committee we would have failed already. Holding together people who are living under a piece of sheet, homeless, is not easy. The men are crossing their arms and waiting. The women get dressed and go out to see what resources we can find, while the men are waiting to see what we bring back.

We’ve done so much with this site. When we look at the conditions in some of the camps in Port-au-Prince, we’d have to say that we’ve created a model for how things could be in camps. Others could look at our way of organizing the camp and use it to do something in a bigger scale. We think that our camp could form part of the dream for national reconstruction.

It’s about understanding, patience, educational, training. It’s also about wisdom, credibility and all that to succeed. Yes, you could say we’re a model.

Many thanks to Agathe Jean-Baptiste for translating this interview.

 

US soldiers 'killed Afghan civilians for sport and collected fingers as trophies'

Soldiers face charges over secret 'kill team' which allegedly murdered at random and collected fingers as trophies of war

Andrew Holmes, Michael Wagnon, Jeremy Morlock and Adam Winfield are four of the five Stryker soldiers who face murder charges. Photograph: Public Domain

 

Twelve American soldiers face charges over a secret "kill team" that allegedly blew up and shot Afghan civilians at random and collected their fingers as trophies.

Five of the soldiers are charged with murdering three Afghan men who were allegedly killed for sport in separate attacks this year. Seven others are accused of covering up the killings and assaulting a recruit who exposed the murders when he reported other abuses, including members of the unit smoking hashish stolen from civilians.

In one of the most serious accusations of war crimes to emerge from the Afghan conflict, the killings are alleged to have been carried out by members of a Stryker infantry brigade based in Kandahar province in southern Afghanistan.

According to investigators and legal documents, discussion of killing Afghan civilians began after the arrival of Staff Sergeant Calvin Gibbs at forward operating base Ramrod last November. Other soldiers told the army's criminal investigation command that Gibbs boasted of the things he got away with while serving in Iraq and said how easy it would be to "toss a grenade at someone and kill them".

One soldier said he believed Gibbs was "feeling out the platoon".

Investigators said Gibbs, 25, hatched a plan with another soldier, Jeremy Morlock, 22, and other members of the unit to form a "kill team". While on patrol over the following months they allegedly killed at least three Afghan civilians. According to the charge sheet, the first target was Gul Mudin, who was killed "by means of throwing a fragmentary grenade at him and shooting him with a rifle", when the patrol entered the village of La Mohammed Kalay in January.

Morlock and another soldier, Andrew Holmes, were on guard at the edge of a poppy field when Mudin emerged and stopped on the other side of a wall from the soldiers. Gibbs allegedly handed Morlock a grenade who armed it and dropped it over the wall next to the Afghan and dived for cover. Holmes, 19, then allegedly fired over the wall.

Later in the day, Morlock is alleged to have told Holmes that the killing was for fun and threatened him if he told anyone.

The second victim, Marach Agha, was shot and killed the following month. Gibbs is alleged to have shot him and placed a Kalashnikov next to the body to justify the killing. In May Mullah Adadhdad was killed after being shot and attacked with a grenade.

The Army Times reported that a least one of the soldiers collected the fingers of the victims as souvenirs and that some of them posed for photographs with the bodies.

Five soldiers – Gibbs, Morlock, Holmes, Michael Wagnon and Adam Winfield – are accused of murder and aggravated assault among other charges. All of the soldiers have denied the charges. They face the death penalty or life in prison if convicted.

The killings came to light in May after the army began investigating a brutal assault on a soldier who told superiors that members of his unit were smoking hashish. The Army Times reported that members of the unit regularly smoked the drug on duty and sometimes stole it from civilians.

The soldier, who was straight out of basic training and has not been named, said he witnessed the smoking of hashish and drinking of smuggled alcohol but initially did not report it out of loyalty to his comrades. But when he returned from an assignment at an army headquarters and discovered soldiers using the shipping container in which he was billeted to smoke hashish he reported it.

Two days later members of his platoon, including Gibbs and Morlock, accused him of "snitching", gave him a beating and told him to keep his mouth shut. The soldier reported the beating and threats to his officers and then told investigators what he knew of the "kill team".

Following the arrest of the original five accused in June, seven other soldiers were charged last month with attempting to cover up the killings and violent assault on the soldier who reported the smoking of hashish. The charges will be considered by a military grand jury later this month which will decide if there is enough evidence for a court martial. Army investigators say Morlock has admitted his involvement in the killings and given details about the role of others including Gibbs. But his lawyer, Michael Waddington, is seeking to have that confession suppressed because he says his client was interviewed while under the influence of prescription drugs taken for battlefield injuries and that he was also suffering from traumatic brain injury.

"Our position is that his statements were incoherent, and taken while he was under a cocktail of drugs that shouldn't have been mixed," Waddington told the Seattle Times.

Bettye LaVette - A Change is Gonna Come

Hondo was born in 1936 in Ain Oul Beri Mathar in the Atar region of Mauritania. His mother was Mauritanian and his father Senegalese.^[1][2] In 1954 he went to live in Rabat, Morocco to train to become a chef at the International Hotel School there.^[3][4] He emigrated to France in 1959 and found work first in Marseilles and then in Paris, variously as a cook, farm labourer, waiter, dockworker and delivery man.^[5][6] He found that he, and otherAfrican immigrants, were unable to find jobs in their chosen professions, and in the menial jobs they could find, were paid less than the French.^[7]The difficulty of making a living during this time, as well as racism he experienced, eventually provided inspiration for his films, including Soleil Oand Les 'bicots-Nègres' vos voisins.^[8]

Hondo began to take classes in acting and directing, and studied under French actress Françoise Rosay, acting in classic plays by Shakespeare,Molière and Jean Racine.^[9][10] He was unable to fully express himself with French repertoire theatre, and in 1966 formed his own theatre company with Guadelopean actor Robert Liensol.^[11][12] Named Shango (from Shango, the Yoruba god of thunder), and later Griot-Shango, the company produced plays relating more to the experiences of Black people, including work by René Depestre, Aimé Césaire, Daniel Boukman and Guy Menga.^[13][14][15]

In the late 1960s, Hondo started taking small roles in television and films.^[16] At the same time, he began to learn the craft of film making by careful observation of the work of others, and began to get work behind the camera.^[17][18] He began his first film, Soleil O in 1965.^[19] Made on a budget of $30,000, Soleil O was financed by Hondo's work dubbing American films into French.^[20] It played at during International Critics' Week at the 1970 Cannes Film Festival where it received critical acclaim.^[21] It received a Golden Leopard Award at the 1970 Locarno International Film Festival.^[22]

Some of Hondo's acting work has been as a voice actor, in films and television series like Funky Cops and Asterix and the Vikings. He has worked on the dubbing of many English language films into French, voicing characters of Eddie Murphy, Danny Glover (on the rare occasions when he was not dubbed by white actor Richard Darbois), Sidney Poitier, Morgan Freeman and Ben Kingsley.^[23] He has dubbed several of Eddie Murphy's films including The Nutty Professor and the part of Donkey in 2001's Shrek.^[24][25]

Med Hondo explains on his website ^[26] that he met with Danny Glover in 1991 and exposed his then current project to him : a biopic of Haitianrevolutionary Toussaint Louverture. An enthusiastic Glover would have then voiced his interest in playing the main part and taking part in the production, before cutting all communication with Hondo and co-writer Claude Veillot. Hondo now claims that Glover's current Louverture biopic project, financially backed by Hugo Chavez, was inspired by his own original screenplay and addressed an open letter to Glover in which he denies assertions from Glover's "Louverture Films" company that the script was a commission paid by Glover to Hondo. Hondo also mentions his meeting with Glover in an English-spoken interview on French international news channel France 24^[27].

—Wikipedia

 

 

_____________________________________________

INTERVIEW

Med Hondo, filmmaker and actor

In this interview, our guest is Med Hondo.

THE F24 INTERVIEW

______________________________________ 

Soleil O (Med Hondo)

A well-educated African trying to survive in Paris realizes the exploitative nature of post-colonial European civilization in this groundbreaking document of immigrant cinema, financed for $30,000 by Hondo's day job dubbing Hollywood movies. In French and Arabic with English subtitles. (1967)

 

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GO HERE TO SEE SOLEIL O

 

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Fiction Writing Competition 2010

• Three Fiction Prizes: $1000, $350 and $150
• First prize includes publication in Quarterly West
• All finalists will be considered by Quarterly West

Judge: François Camoin

Entry fee: $20 per submission

Deadline: September 15, 2010

Manuscripts must be no longer than 7,500 words or 20 pages

Manuscripts must be submitted electronically through the Writers at Work web site via PayPal, below.

François Camoin is author of April, May, and So On and Like Love but Not Exactly, and other fiction, and teaches at the University of Utah. His work appears in Mid-American Review, Missouri Review, Nimrod and Quarterly West

Guidelines:

• Judging is blind. Manuscripts must not contain the name of the submitter.
• Writers are eligible if they have not yet published a book-length volume of original work with a national press in the genre in which they submit a manuscript.
• Only unpublished work may be submitted. Work will be considered published if it has appeared in any print journal or literary magazine or has appeared in an electronic magazine or journal. Posting work on personal websites is not considered publishing.
• Please do not submit work from chapbooks or work published by a vanity press. Self-published work printed for limited distribution is acceptable.
• Current or former students who have studied with the judge in an accredited degree-granting program or institution are not eligible for the competition.
• Previous winners are not eligible in the genre in which they have won.
• Writers at Work Board members are prohibited from submitting manuscripts during their tenure on the board.
• Manuscript should contain a short story or novel chapter

Prizes

• First prize is $1000 and publication in Quarterly West
• Second prize is $350
• Third prize is $150
• All finalist manuscripts will be submitted to Quarterly West for consideration.

Steps to Submit Your Manuscript

• You must pay the $20 entry fee by clicking the PayPal button below
• Follow the steps on the PayPal page to have your payment accepted
• Click the "return" button and you will be redirected to the Submission Page
• Enter your personal information for the contest
• Submit your Manuscript

• Browse on the file selector to access your PC
• Find and select your manuscript file
• Submit your manuscript

Before electronically submitting Manuscripts no longer that 7,500 words or 20 pages, payment of the $20 Entry Fee must be made through PayPal via the following button.

Please use

to pay your entry fee and then be redirected to the submission page

Questions: lisa@writersatwork.org