SA Writers' College |

2013 Short Story Competition

 

 

 

THE SA WRITERS’ COLLEGE

2013 Annual Short Story Award

For Emerging Writers in South Africa

 

This competition is to acknowledge excellence in creative writing in the Short Story genre. The contest is open to any emerging writer residing in South Africa who has had fewer than four stories/articles published in any format (print or digital).

 

PRIZES:

• First Prize: R 5 000.00 plus entry into one of our short courses

• Second Prize: R2 000.00

• People's Choice Award R 1 000.00

Top five entries will be published on our college site and the top five winners will receive editorial comments on their submitted works.

 

THEME:  Doing the Right Thing

 

GUIDELINES FOR ENTRIES:

• Entry is limited to South African residents only.

• Entrants must submit a story of maximum word count: 2000 words. Any entries exceeding the word count by 50 words will not be considered.

• We aim to support and acknowledge beginner writers, so we only accept stories from writers who have been published fewer than four times in any genre, in any publication (for payment or otherwise). This does not include articles for community or work newsletters where the circulation is under 1000.

• Stories must not have been previously published. Entrants must own full copyright to the story submitted.

• Only one story per entrant is allowed.

• Only e-mail submissions are acceptable, with stories attached as Word Documents. Mark your entry clearly with the subject line: SAWC Annual Short Story Competition, and submit according to rules below.

• If you have not received an acknowledgement of your submission within three days, please re-send your entry.

• All submissions must be sent to Nichola Meyer: Nichola@sawriterscollege.co.za

 

ENTRY FORMAT:

• Your first page of your Word document must include the story title, your name, email address, and total number of words of the entry.

• Do not include your name on any page of your story, except the title page. All entries will be judged blind.

• Make sure your story has been edited and polished according to tips and guidelines provided on our college site under “Writing Resources”.

 View our Archived Competition Entries Here

 

THE JUDGES: Our panel of judges for 2013 include Ginny Swart, Lisa Lazarus, Karen Jeynes, Alex Smith and Sarah Lang.

Ginny Swart has sold over 500 short stories to women's magazines all over the world. On any day of every month she has at least 30 stories out there on editors' desks. Her more serious work has appeared in literary publications in America, South Africa, Canada, New Zealand and on the Web. She is also the author of three romance novels (Ulverscroft Press UK) and a book of short stories (Lulu.com) and a book for teenagers: Nosipho and the King of Bones (MacMillan Boleswa SA). She has an eBook available on Kindle called Something to Read, a collection of short stories. In 2003 Ginny won the esteemed UK The Real Writers' Prize from over 4000 entrants.

Alex Smith is the author of three novels, Algeria's Way and Drinking from the Dragon's Well, both published by Random House Umuzi. Drinking from the Dragon's Well was long-listed for the Sunday Times Alan Paton Award. Four Drunk Beauties, her third novel, was published by Umuzi in 2010.

Alex has had many short stories published in anthologies and journals. Her short story 'Buffalo Panting at the Moon’ was short-listed for the 2007 SA PEN Literary Awards. Most recently her writing appeared in Touch, along with other SA writers, including Henrietta Rose-Innes, Damon Galgut, Andre Brink, and Nadine Gordimer.

Alex was shortlisted for the 2009 PEN/Studzinski Literary Award. She won a silver award at the 2010 Sanlam Youth Literature Awards and has been nominated for the 2010 Caine Prize for African Writing. Most recently her latest novel, Four Drunk Beauties, won the Nielsen sponsored 2011 Bookseller's Choice Award.

Karen Jeynes has an Honours Degree in the Art of Writing and is currently pursuing her Masters in Adapting Austen for the Stage at UWC. Her plays include "Getting There", "Laying Blame", "sky too big", "I'll have what she's having", "Wake Up and Smell the Coffee", and the multi award-winning "Everybody Else (is Fucking Perfect)". Her adaptation of Thomas Rapakgadi's "The Purse is Mine" aired on Bush Radio, and Safm has featured her series "Office Hours" co-written with Nkuli Sibeko, as well as the radio version of "sky too big". She also writes for SABC,and is currently on the writing team for Thabang Thabong and other works in planning.

Her teenage novels, Jacques Attack (co-authored with Nkuli Sibeko) and Flipside, co-authored with Eeshaam September, were released by New Africa Books. She has a children's story published in the new anthology "Metz and Bop and other stories".

Karen also freelances for online and print media, and lectures and consults in Digital Culture and playwrighting.

Lisa Lazarus is a freelance journalist for a variety of publications, including Men's Health, Femina, Psychologies, Shape, Cosmopolitan, Femina, Healthy Pregnancy and the Mail & Guardian. Her memoir The Book of Jacob, co-written with Greg Fried, has  been published by Oshun. She has also published a novel When in Broad Daylight I Open My Eyes (Kwela, 2012) with Greg Fried, under the pen name Greg Lazarus. Lisa tutors both the Magazine Journalism Course and the Memoir Writing Course

Previously she worked as Principal of City Varsity for six years. She has a Masters Degree in Educational Psychology. In 2011 she completed her MA in Creative Writing from the University of Cape Town (cum laude).

Sarah Lang, an award-winning feature writer,  began her career on staff at North & South magazine, and for the last five years has freelanced for around 20 publications. She is a book reviewer of novels, short stories and occasional non-fiction.

Sarah has interviewed everyone from Dame Helen Mirren to sick children and science boffins, and has written hundreds of stories from profiles, entertainment and arts features through to science and business stories.

Awards and nominations include: 2007 Qantas Media Awards: Human Relations winner, 2008 Qantas Media Awards: Science and Technology winner, 2008 Qantas Media Awards: Junior Magazine Feature Writer finalist, The Magazine Awards 2010: Journalist of the Year (Women’s Interest) finalist, The Magazine Awards 2011: Journalist of the Year (Home, Food & Garden) finalist, and The Magazine Awards 2011: Journalist of the Year (Lifestyle) finalist.

Sarah is a booklover with a BA in English Literature from Victoria University of Wellington and a Bachelor of Communications (journalism major) from AUT University.

 

COMPETITION RULES:

• The competition is open to anyone living in South Africa over the age of 16.

• The competition closes at midnight on 31 March 2013, and winners will be announced and displayed on our web site by 30 April 2013.

• Prizewinners will be notified via email as well as on our web site; please ensure you supply a valid email address with your entry.

• Prize money will be paid via electronic transfer.

• We only accept entries written in English.

• Entrant must own full copyright of the piece.

• Writers retain copyright, but give permission for their work to be displayed on our website.

• The judges' decision is final; no disputes will be entered into.

• If your entry has not been acknowledged within 72 hours, please contact us –your mail may have got lost in transit.

• SA Writers’ College reserves the right to extend the competition deadline, or cancel the competition should the entries not be of publishable quality or up to the required standard.