Feminist Flash 2011

Enter our feminist fiction writing competition - judged by a panel of noted feminist writers - to win £100, 1 yr BUST Magazine subscriptions & get your blog and writing promoted. Start writing!

Competition closing date: 30 November 2011. Enter now!

Slut shaming. Contraception. Body dysmorphia. Ladette culture. Impossible Disney princesses. The glass ceiling for women in everything from banking to comedy. Acid attacks in S Asia. Systematic rape in Sierra Leone. FGM. Saudi women permitted to vote but not drive themselves to the polling station. Being told it's, uh, you know, dude, a little bit uncool to call yourself a feminist. Feminism is prevalent in all aspects of society and affects, ooh, pretty much 100% of the population!

To promote feminism in writing, Mookychick is proud to announce a new annual writing competition, FEMINIST FLASH 2011. It's dead easy to enter, and you should. Right now! Channel your inner Dorothy Parker / Caitlin Moran / Margaret Atwood / Naomi Wolfe and you'll win wealth, fame and a 1 year digital subscription to BUST Magazine.

LOOK AT THE GORGEOUS PRIZES WE'RE GIVING AWAY!

First Prize

• £100 (or your country's equivalent)
• Publication with a link to your blog on Mookychick
• 1 Year digital subscription to the fabled BUST magazine!

2 x Runner-Up Prizes

£25, Publication on Mookychick, 1 Year digital subscription to BUST magazine!

10 x Shortlisted Prizes

Publication on Mookychick.

All featured works will be linked to your blogs. We'll be spreading the love.

HOW TO ENTER

1) Entry is free. Of course. Other writing competitions may have entry fees, but not Mookychick.

2) First, you need an online presence you can post work on: A blog, a Tumblr, a DeviantArt account, a website to call your own. A place where you can put words.

3) Next, you need to create a haiku, poem or flash fiction under 200 words. Maximum word count per entry is 200 words. Your poetry or fiction needs to relate to an aspect of feminism!

What is a haiku, we hear you cry? It's a very short, very structured poem (ie, 3 lines: 5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables - we know that's not technically how it works, but let's not get snarky, eh?) Hang on, you want an example of a feminist haiku? Okay, since you asked...

Feminist haiku example #1 Patriarchy smash A joyous endeavour, yeah? Not a violent sport

Feminist haiku example #2 First date. Doing great until he called me a whore. Feminist? Nuh-uh.

4) Post your competition entry on your blog.

5) In this same post, you must copy and paste the following bolded text under your entry:

This is an entry for the Mookychick blogging competition, FEMINIST FLASH FICTION 2011. Enter now.

("FEMINIST FLASH FICTION 2011. Enter now" should link to http://bit.ly/femflash)

This is an entry for the Mookychick FEMINIST FLASH FICTION competition. Enter now.-->

6) Email competitions@mookychick.co.uk with your entry. Make the email subject header FEMINIST FLASH 2011. In the body of the email, please include 2 things: The URL of your entry and your name.

7) You can enter the FEMINIST FLASH FICTION contest as many times as you like! Just make a new post for each entry (be sure to include the link underneath) and email us with the entry's details.

MEET OUR PANEL OF JUDGES

Shortlisted entries will be judged by our panel of noted feminist writers and activists...

Lena Chen is a queer and feminist activist, the founder of The Ch!cktionary, and a self-described "reluctant sexpert". A blogger and personal essayist, she started her writing career with the controversial Sex And The Ivy, a blog about her sex and love life at Harvard.

Julie Zeilinger is founder and editor of the teenage feminist blog The FBomb. She also loves brunch, is fluent in sarcasm and wishes her life was the movie WHIP IT.

Kaite Welsh is an author and journalist. She has written for The Guardian, Diva, Bitch and others, and is an occasional contributor to Radio 4's Woman's Hour, where she discusses LGBT issues. Her fiction has been nominated for several prizes, including the Cheshire Prize for Fiction and the Gaylactic Spectrum Best Short Story award.

NOW... IT'S UP TO YOU. ENTER. SPREAD THE WORD. WE LOOK FORWARD TO WIT, PASSION, INTELLIGENCE, FURY, GOOD HUMOUR, DISGUST, JOY... EVERYTHING. GOOD LUCK!