Writing Spirit Short Story Competition 2011
Writing4all, Ireland's premier writing website, is delighted to announce the 3rd Annual Writing Spirit Short Story Competition, to be judged by Christine Dwyer-Hickey.
The contest is open to all nationalities and all genres. The prize-winning stories, along with merited stories will be published in an anthology at the end of the competition.
What's the prize?
First Prize: €1000, Second Prize: €200, Third Prize: €100
When's the deadline?
The contest opens 1st March 2011, and runs for four rounds throughout the year. The submission deadlines for the competition are as follows:
First round: 30th April
Second round: 30th June
Third round: 30th September
Fourth round: 30th November
Each new round begins immediately after the end of the previous round (i.e. you may enter at any time from 1st March to 30th Nov).
At the end of each round, the best stories, as chosen by a panel of judges will be shortlisted for the award. Each round's shortlist will be announced on the Writing4all website (www.writing4all.ie)
At the end of the competition, the judges will choose the six highest-ranking stories from the shortlists. The top three winning stories will be chosen from these six stories by the Grand Judge, novelist and short-story writer, Christine Dwyer-Hickey.
How long/short can my story be?
Stories should be no more than 4,000 words max - but there is no minimum word count, and flash fiction is welcome. Stories should be typed, double spaced on one side of A4 (or equivalent) paper.
The judge
Christine Dwyer Hickey is an award winning novelist and short-story writer. She is the author of The Dublin Trilogy: The Dancer, The Gambler and The Gatemaker which span the story of a Dublin family from 1913 to 1956. Her novel Tatty was short-listed for Irish Book of the Year in 2005 and was also long-listed for The Orange Prize. Her latest novel, Last Train From Liguria, is set in 1930s Fascist Italy and Dublin in the 1990s and was published in June 2009 by Atlantic Books (UK). The paperback edition of Last Train From Liguria was issued in 2010. Tatty was been nominated for The Irish Book of the Decade competition. She is a member of Aosdana.
What's the entrance fee?
€7 per story
Where do I send my story or stories?
Entries may be submitted by post to:
The Writing Spirit Award 2011
Spade Enterprise Centre
North King Street
Smithfield
Dublin 7
Republic of Ireland
Alternatively, you can submit your work by e-mail to info@writing4all.ie
Entries must be pasted into the body of the email; attachments will not be opened. Entries must also clearly have the words "The Writing Spirit Award 2011” in their subject lines to prevent being treated as spam.
Receipt of email submissions will be acknowledged. If you have not received an acknowledgement one week after submitting by email, please send a query to info@writing4all.ie
Receipt of postal submissions will also be acknowledged (if an email address is provided in the cover letter). Please allow for the time it will take for postal entries to be received.
Multiple entries are allowed throughout the period of the contest. Entries will be judged anonymously by our judges. You may submit any number of stories and have any number of them on the shortlist.
Entries are welcomed from ALL nationalities, and the judges are keen to see work from as many countries as possible; however, entries must be in the English language.
Story Rights and Conditions
Entries to the competition must NOT have been previously published in the English language, including electronically. However, entries CAN have been posted on the Writing4all website or similar sites of a workshopping nature and do NOT need to be removed from the relevant site. Work of this nature does not qualify as 'previously published'. The work to be judged will be the version submitted to the competition as per the instructions above. Entries found to have been previously published in English will be disqualified from the contest. Stories previously published in languages other than English are eligible to enter the contest.
Entries in each round must NOT be submitted or published elsewhere in any format until those stories that have been chosen for the shortlist are announced on the Writing4all website after each round. If your story has not been chosen for the shortlist after the round in which it was entered, you are free to submit them elsewhere.
Stories that are chosen for the shortlist after each round must NOT be submitted or published elsewhere for the duration of the competition and until after the contents of the short fiction anthology have been chosen and announced on the Writing4all website. Shortlisted stories found to have been submitted or published elsewhere before the announcement will be disqualified from consideration for the Award and the anthologies.
The decisions of the judging panel, and thereafter of the Grand Judges, are final. No correspondence will be entered into in this regard.
How do I pay?
All stories entered to the Writing Spirit Award 2011 must be accompanied by an entry fee of €7 (euro).
By cheque/postal order
For entries from within the Republic of Ireland, the €7 entry fee may be paid by cheque or postal orders. These should be made payable to Writing4all Ltd, and sent to the postage address above.
By PayPal
Payment may also be made securely and easily via the PayPal button below this section. Note, you do NOT need a PayPal account to use this option. PayPal accepts payment from all major credit and debit cards and is internationally recognised as a fast, easy and secure way to make online payments (see www.paypal.com).
You may use PayPal to pay for entries submitted by post or email. For entries paid by PayPal, please include your unique Transaction ID code (which will look something like 98B96318D4186023G) in your cover letter (for both postal or email entries). This code is provided to you by PayPal as you complete the payment process and allows us to validate your payment.
Thank you for your interest in the competition and the very best of luck!
Click the button below to submit the competition fee via Paypal