Contests, Contests, Contests!

Instructional Humor Essay Writing Contest: Submit your 250-500 word humorous instructional essay to win an Amazing Creativity Tool Kit. Check out the Coaching Your Creativity Web site for details. Deadline April 1, 2010.

The Writers’ Union of Canada’s Postcard Story Competition is open for entries up to 250 words. Entry fee is $5, with a $500 grand prize. Deadline is fast approaching: February 10, 2010.

Writer’s Digest is holding it’s 79th Annual Writing Competition. Lots of categories, including poetry, essays, short stories and scripts. Deadline is June 1, 2010. Early bird deadline is May 14, 2010—add $5 to the entry fee for all manuscripts submitted after this date. Entry fee is $15 for first poem, $10 for each additional poem submitted in the same online session. All other entries are $20 for first manuscript, $15 for each additional manuscript submitted in the same online session.

Contests, Contests, Contests!

Before we get to the actual contests, here are some words of advice about contests in general:

Nathan Bransford, Literary Agent has some words of advice (including read the fine print) in his post All About Contests. There's also a link to the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Contest there too (January 25-February 7).

InkyGirl also advises that Before entering writing contests, ALWAYS read the fine print.

Kathy Temean at Writing and Illustrating has some Tips for Winning Writing Contests.

Now for the contests!

• The Writing and Illustrating blog has a list of contests that offer Chances to Win Publication, Money, Prizes & Critiques, including one from LeapFrog Press, which has an adult fiction category as well as a children's. 
• Thanks to InkyGirl for this Xtreme Travel Stories quarterly contest. "The XtremeTravelStories.com quarterly writing competition is a skill-based contest where participants submit either a Travel story or free-lance report in any language, topic or category the author desires." Winners receive $100. This quarter's deadline is March 1, 2010.
• The Cup of Comfort and REDBOOK are teaming up for the Your Love Story Contest. The grand prize winner receives $1000 and a full set of Cup of Comfort books, plus an excerpt will be published in REDBOOK and the full story in A Cup of Comfort for Couples. Three runners-up will receive $150, and all other selected stories will receive $100. Deadline is April 20th.

Good luck!

Contests, Classes and Calls for Submissions!

Contests!

Act quickly or this one will be gone: Grand prize is a free Sony Reader Pocket Edition, and second prize is an evaluation of 20 pages of your work by Rachelle Gardner, Literary Agent. Check out the Words that Move Me contest on Rachelle's blog, Rants & Ramblings on Life as a Literary Agent. Contest Deadline: Friday, December 11, 2009.

Freelance Switch brings you this list of Holiday Giveaways, Freebies and More! Included are seasonal drawings and files and $7000 worth of giveaways from AppStorm.

Found on the Practicing Writing blog, the First Annual Spirit First Meditation Poetry Contest. Poetry submissions may be of any length and any style but must have a theme of meditation, mindfulness, stillness, or silence. First prize is $150. Contest deadline: January 31, 2010.

Do not forget to check out the Creative Writing Contests blog for lots more contests to enter.

Calls for Submissions!

Dream of Things is accepting essays on a variety of projects. Themes include holidays, awe-inspiring travel stories and role models. They will consider previously published essays, especially if they've never appeared in an anthology.

Classes!

Linda Formichelli from The Renegade Writer offers a free writing teleclass every month. This month, the class will take place on Tuesday December 15th from 8:30pm - 9:30pm ET. The topic is Secrets to Essays that Sell with Amy Paturel.

Breadloaf Writers' Conference readings and lectures are available for free! on iTunes. If you don't have iTunes on your computer, you can download that (for free!) too. Thanks again to Erika at Practicing Writing for sharing this.

Not really a class, but still a learning tool: About Freelance Writing shares this video about writing by Natalie Goldberg.

Blog Roll-Up: Best of the Week's Writing Blogs

I discovered two new blogs this week thanks to QueryTracker.net: Creative Writing Contests and Storytellers Unplugged.

Writing & Editing

C. Patrick Schulze offers some advice about How to Increase the Pace of Your Writing and 8 Tips for Writing Compelling Imagery.

Write to Done discusses the Importance of Being Trivial. The post refers to using details in non-fiction writing, but it pertains to fiction as well.

Storytellers Unplugged made my blog roll with this post: Three Editing Tips. Originally written for NaNoWriMo writers, it's still good advice for any piece of fiction.

Agents

Rachelle Gardner, Literary Agent invites us to take a look over at her side of the fence in her post/rant: Agent Query Policies: Stop the Griping!

Mixing Business with Pleasure

Quips and Tips for Successful Writers offers these 6 Ways to Promote Your Blog or Book With Your Email Signature (or even your bookstore?) while Jane Freidman at There Are No Rules posts 10 Fun Things at Writer's Digest.

Member Blogs

Diane's added a pic of one of her paintings on Pens, Paintings and Paper. She still has a houseful of sick kids and is sick herself, but still managed a post: Let it snow, let it snow in which she mentions Clare's successful book launch.

NaNoWriMo is over and you can read my thoughts on the experience over at The Three-Ring Circus: NaNoWriMo winner? There are also some great Market Directories for both fiction and non-fiction, and hopefully you'll find a secret Quick Tip by day's end.

Do you have a favourite blog that you'd like to see included in the Blog Roll-Up? Send me a link!

Contests and Markets

Contests!

Career Transition Story Contest: Write a story about changing careers for a chance to win $500 from WorkLifeGroup. Deadline: January 30, 2010.
 
Discovering the Undiscovered competition for Novels & Memoirs: Grace Notes presents this new annual contest. Winner will have their manuscript published plus either a $1000 cash prize or a $500 prize plus a standard royalty agreement. Early Bird Deadline: January 1, 2010. Final deadline: April 15, 2010. Save $5 on the $35 entry fee if you enter by the early bird date.

Markets!

This one's an older link, but still worth a look. It's from Writers' Digest: Get Inside the Top 30 Short Story Markets.

Integrative Ink offers this directory of markets for your short stories, conveniently separated into paying and non-paying markets.

Here's another directory with guidelines for over 300 Short Story Markets.

Happy submissions!

Contests, Classes and Calls for Submissions

Contests!
Editor Unleashed/SmashWords "Why I Write" essay contest: I know I posted the link before, but now the official rules are up and the contest is open. 50 best essays will be included in a "Why I Write" anthology, and the grand prize winner pockets $500. Deadline: December 31st.

Equisite Corpse Collaboration Award: Thanks to C. Hope Clark for posting this one on her blog. Entry fee is $10. The winning collaborative team receives $500 and publication in a forthcoming issue of Washington Square and/or on the website, depending on the medium of the selected work. Submit one collaborative project (two or more creators). Some portion, or the entirety, of the work must include creative writing (fiction or poetry). Deadline: January 1, 2010.

There were lots of other great contests listed on last week's Contests! Contests! Contests! post.

Classes!
The Renegade Writer is offering another free teleclass: Breaking into Food Writing on Wednesday, November 18th from 8:30-9:30pm. Monica Bhide will discuss how to break into writing about food, where the opportunities for writers are, and what skills you need and how to develop them. There will be time for a Q&A at the end. Also, Monica will be making a special offer for teleclass attendees only!

Calls for Entries/Markets for your Writing!
Rethinking Every Magazine, a magazine about personal, life-altering change, wants your stories of self-initiated change. Pay is $100. Submission guidelines are available online.

Random House offers a list of literary markets that accept submissions.

Do you write for kids? Kid Magazine Writers has an informative website that includes a directory of children and teen markets.

Duotrope's Digest has an extensive, searchable database of magazines accepting submissions. You can search by genre, pay rate and more.

Writer's Gazette features markets, calls for submission and contests, all in one place.

Contests, Contests, Contests

Agent-judged contest! I'm not sure if there is a prize other than being noticed by Anna Webman, agent at Curtis Brown, Ltd. During QueryTracker.net's last similar contest, one of the winners went on to sign with the literary agent in question. Send the first five pages and a synopsis of your complete YA novel for consideration. Contest starts November 10th, and only the first 70 entries will be accepted.


C. Hope Clark from Funds for Writers shares this contest that's a little different: You know how you set the volume on the TV at a comfortable level and then BAM! a commercial blasts through? Well, SRS Labs wants you to write a 500-word story about that experience. Three winners will receive a VIZIO Home Theater Speaker Bar featuring SRS TruVolume and their stories will be eligible to be chosen as the creative motivation for a future SRS commercial. Details are on Hope's blog. Deadline: November 17, 2009.

Women on Writing hosts a quarterly flash fiction contest. Enter your story of between 250 and 750 words for a chance to win prizes. Entry fee is $10. A critique is also available at an additional cost. The contest judge is literary agent Noah Lukeman of Lukeman Literary Management Ltd. Full contest details are available on the WOW website. Deadline: November 30th.

Show your thanks and win a free essay writing course from Amy Paturel, one of the instructors over at Renegade Writer. Send your essay about what Thanksgiving means to you. Full contest details are available here. Deadline: November 26th (American Thanksgiving).


Glimmer Train is looking for unpublished stories from writers whose stories have not appeared in publications with circulations of over 5000. Entry fee is $15. First prize wins $1,200 plus publication in Glimmer Train. Deadline: November 30th.



Editor Unleashed and Smash Words are teaming up to present a writing contest with a theme: Why I Write. The 50 best essays will be published in an anthology, and the Grand Prize Winner will receive $500 and promotion on both websites. You can find full contest details on the Editor Unleashed blog. Deadline: December 31st.

Glimmer Train's quarterly Fiction Open contest offers a first prize of $2,000 plus publication in Glimmer Train. The contest is open to all writers. Entry fee is $20. Deadline: January 2, 2010.

CBC LITERARY AWARDS

Closes November 1, 2009

Creative Non-Fiction
Fiction
Poetry

Check out the website:

http://www.radio-canada.ca/prixlitteraires/english/rules.shtml

CONTEST - 3 Day Novel

http://www.3daynovel.com/

Also check out my email.

CONTESTS

Memoir (and) Prize for Memoir in Prose, Poetry, or Graphic
Free
Deadline: August 15, 2009
Guidelines: http://memoirjournal.squarespace.com/general-submissions/

Esquire Fiction Contest

This contest is open to all, and the winning story will be published in a future issue of the magazine (as well as here, the new online home of Esquire fiction).

We encourage you to enter, but you have to follow the rules. The first and most important rule — besides, of course, that the story has to be original — is that the story must be based on one of three titles that we have provided.

The titles are:

1. "Twenty-Ten"

2. "An Insurrection"

3. "Never, Ever Bring This Up Again"

A date, a thing, and a statement. No exceptions. Make of them what you will, do with them something great. But no taking an old story and slapping one of our new titles on it. We'll know, and we won't be happy.

Second rule: Your story cannot exceed 4,000 words. We are serious about that, too.

Other rules: You may submit only one story. The contest begins on May 1, 2009. All entries are due by midnight of August 1, 2009 and must be submitted electronically here at esquiresubmissions.com. (Yet more official rules here.)

First prize: publication in Esquire and $2,500.

ELORA WRITERS' FESTIVAL & CONTEST

http://artscouncil.elora.on.ca/

Elora Writers’ Festival
2009 Writing Competition

Elora Writers’ Festival Writing Competition 2009: Exciting changes!
The sixth annual Elora Writers' Festival Writing Competition takes place this spring, with winners in seven categories announced at the Festival on June 7, 2009. In a thematic departure, this year's competition encourages adults, teens (13-19) and youth (12 and under) to enter their stories, poems and one-act plays on any theme that takes your fancy – your imagination is your only guide.

Call for Entry Form
Frequently Asked Questions
Information Sheet

Short Story & Poetry Competition and now added to the Writers Competition 2009
.
One-Act Playwrights’ Competiton

This year, in conjunction with the Elora Community Theatre, the EWF Writing Competition offers something different: a category for one-act plays.
Jurors for 2009 One -Act Playwrights’ Competition –

Keith Roulston: author of six professionally-produced plays and co-author of two others. He is co-founder of the Blyth Festival where he also served as general manager and for two lengthy terms on the board of directors. He earns his living as publisher of a community newspaper.
Angela Rebeiro: the immediate past publisher of Playwrights Canada Press, and former Executive Director of Playwrights Union of Canada (now Playwrights Guild of Canada). She has worked seventeen years in the theatre community.

Click here for one-act play entry form and details of competition in Adobe .PDF format



Winners in all categories will be announced at the 15th annual Elora Writers' Festival on Sunday, June 7. At last year’s Festival, several of the winners were in attendance, providing a moment of excited celebration enjoyed by winners, audience and our visiting authors too!

Deadline for entries will be May 1 for one-act plays, May 9 for stories and poems
start thinking about getting that story, poem or script into shape for submission.

Freelance Success Stories Contest

Our favourite kind of writing contest: It's open to all writers and it's FREE!

FREELANCE SUCCESS STORIES CONTEST

It's that time of year again when I start asking for submissions to the Freelance Success Stories contest for the next edition of Writer's Market. I love reading about all the successes, but what really gets me every time is just how many routes to success there seem to be.

This year's contest has a deadline of December 31. It's open to any writer and should be between 800-1,500 words in lenth. As usual, there is no entry free. An exciting development is that the first place prize has been increased to $500 along with publication in the 2010 Writer's Market!

Entries can be sent to writersmarket@fwmedia.com with "Freelance Success Stories Entry" in the subject line.

Check out a 2009 Writer's Market for previous winning entries, but success stories have to be nonfiction and personal (your success story, not someone else's). It can be about your first byline, first big sale, moment you realized you made it, odd writing gig, etc.

Good luck!

The Canadian Writers' Contest Calendar 2009 Order Now!

2009 Edition - The Canadian Writers' Contest Calendar gives full listing of Canadian contests arranged by deadline dates. It lists contests for short stories, poetry, children's writing, novels, and non-fiction. If you want to order one of your own....
Fee: $22
Cheques payable to: Brian Henry, 110 Reiner Road, Toronto, On M3H 2L6
Reserve by email: brianhenry@sympatico.ca

TORONTO STAR SHORT STORY CONTEST

http://www.thestar.com/shortstory/rules

2,500 word count
$5.00 entry fee
CLOSES: December 31, 2008

Check out website for further information.

Good Luck to everyone!

Contests & Anthologies

Whispers Publishing

Beginning NOVEMBER 15, 2008, Whispers Publishing will be hosting the Resolutions" writing contest. The contest is open to all writers published and unpublished.

THE DETAILS: We're looking for New Year's Resolution based novellas ranging from 5000-15,000 words. Any genre or time period is acceptable, but the story must revolve around amain character's New Year's Resolution, I.e., to get married, to land amajor role in a movie, etc. Be creative and don't limit yourself. There is no entry fee. The top five winning, contracted novellas will be published before February28, 2009.

REQUIREMENTS: Entry must be a completed, never before published novella Entries should have a minimum of 5,000 words but should not exceed 15,000words and should be double spaced Entries should not include any subject matter which Whispers Publishingdoes not currently accept. Please visit our submission guidelines forfurther information. Prospective entries should be submitted no later than midnight (12:00 a.m) EST on DECEMBER 15, 2008. Entries should consist of a detailed query whichshould include a brief bio, a blurb, word count, and your publishing credits(if any). Each submission should be written in a Microsoft Word document and emailedto whisperssubmissions @gmail.com with the words RESOLUTIONS ENTRY in thesubject line. Your name (both real name and pseudonym if used), address, telephonenumber, and a valid email address must be included with your query. Multiple entries will be accepted.

JUDGING: All entries must be received by December 15, 2008. Judging will begin on December 16, 2008 with the top five winners announcedno later than January 15, 2009. All entries will be judged by published authors and established editors.

PRIZES: The Grand Prize winner will receive $50.00, an award certificate, and acontract for publication. Additional prizes will be awarded as follows: First Place Winner: $25.00, an award certificate, and a contract forpublication. Second Place Winner: $10.00, an award certificate, and a contract forpublication. Third Place Winner: An award certificate and a contract for publication. Additionally, the novella voted best of all entries (regardless of whether or not it is judged to be a winning entry) by our reader group will receive a $25.00 gift certificate to Barnes and Noble or Amazon.

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Call for submissions

Girl Talk: 25 Open Letters to Our Female Friends

BF s. Frenemies. Gal pals. Female friendships are such a unique, fragile entity that there are even words made up to describe them. And if you’re female and reading this, you know all too well exactly why. From the best friend who drops everything for you, to the subtle (or not-so-subtle) underminer, to the one you know will agree with you no matter what, to the one you turn to for the truth about how you really look in those pants, our female friends are our backbones, our saviors, our laugh-so-hard-you-cry-with pals, and sometimes our worst enemies.

Have you ever wanted to tell your former BF how you really feel? Longed to tell The Friend Who Got Away that you were sorry for the way you snubbed her in 8th grade for the popular crowd? Wish you could tell your friend what you really think about her husband? After all, you’ve dished to everyone within earshot, why not address her directly? Well, here’s your chance. For Girl Talk: 25 Open Letters to Our Female Friends, we’re looking for a wide range of stories, in a letter format. Letter topics will include ( just some general ideas to help you brainstorm):

• the one who got away
• the one who you can turn to for anything
• the one who will always tell you the truth
• the one from whom you’ve kept a secret all these years
• the one from childhood that you’ve lost touch with
• the one who died young
• the one who did you wrong
• the one who constantly puts you down, leaving you wondering if it’s just you

The Fine Print:
WHO: Send submissions to editor Megan McMorris at megmc@earthlink.net.
WHEN: Deadline for submissions is January 15. Book will be published in Fall ‘09.
HOW LONG: We aim for a variety of lengths, but try and keep it in the 1,000 to 3,000 range.
WHY: Besides the fun experience of writing the letter you’ve always wanted to send, contributors will receive $100 payable upon publication and two copies of the book (please note: you do keep your copyright, and contributors are encouraged to publish them
as excerpts elsewhere).

http://www.sealpress.com/docs/girltalk.pdf

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Chicken Soup for the Soul Anthologies
http://www.publishingsyndicate.com/PS/Submission%20Guides.htm

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Cup of Comfort Anthologies
http://www.cupofcomfort.com/share.htm

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