Month: May 2025

Here We Are

May 27, 2025

Went with Elizabeth (thanks to her) to see Sondheim’s last work Here We Are, currently at the National Theatre. For Sondheim’s many fans, this last musical, left in draft form at his death, is a must-see, but it’s an entertaining evening for anyone.

It’s based on two Bunuel films: The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie and The Exterminating Angel, but transplanted to America and infused with a New York sense of humour. In the first part the characters just can’t seem to get brunch: in the second they somehow cannot leave the room. Meanwhile they are covertly involved in a drug cartel and a revolution is brewing.

Bunuel’s originals, though surreal, had a dream-like logic which is missing here, but in compensation you get the wisecracking humour. You don’t expect to come out of a late Sondheim show humming the big melodies, but if you’re not a grouch you’ll enjoy the singing.

To me Sondheim represents the pinnacle of the curious trend that briefly saw the Broadway musical turn away from its song-and-dance razzle-dazzle roots towards something much more intellectual. That all stopped when Andrew Lloyd Webber put strong stories and popular tunes back in place, but we were left with some interesting works – and this is a decent final addition to the portfolio.

June 2025 Competitions

May 21, 2025

Another look at forthcoming writing competitions I might enter. A lot of them have deadlines at the end of the month this time.

  • The Salamander Prize is for stories up to 7,500 words. Entry is $20, top prize $1,000 and the deadline is 1 June.
  • The Halifax Ranch award is for pieces between 2,000 and 6,500 words: $20 entry and a decent $2,500 prize. Deadline 1 June.
  • The Writer’s Digest has a word limit of 4,000. Entry is $35 and the top prize is $1000 – awarded in several categories with lots of lesser prizes. The grand overall winner gets $5,000. The deadline is 3 June.
  • Write by the Sea looks for up to 2,500 words, entry is €10 and the winner gets €500 plus a weekend pass to the festival in the delightful Irish town of Kilmore Quay. You’ve got until 6 June.
  • The MTP prize has a deadline of 10 June, and a word limit of 3,000. £9 to enter and £1,000 prize plus publication for top entries in a chunky anthology. MTP sells publishing services but based on my experience, you will not be pressured to buy them.
  • The Uncharted competition is for novel extracts of up to 5,000 words. $20 entry and a prize of $3,000. The deadline is 15 June.
  • Chaotic Creators want up to 2,000 words. £10 to enter gets you a chance of winning a rather paltry £50.00. The deadline is 23 June.

All the rest have a deadline of 30 June.

  • The Moth is back, looking for up to 3,000 words: entry is £15 and first prize £3,000.
  • The Wells Festival of Literature looks for up to 2,000 words: entry is £6 and the prize is £750.
  • The old faithful Henshaw competition, now run by Hobeck Books, has a maximum word count of up to 2,000, entry £6 and top prize £200.
  • The Katherine Anne Porter competition is for collections of stories totalling between 27,500 and 50,000 words. $25 entry and a prize of $1,000 plus publication.
  • Now one that isn’t fiction – the Writers’ College invites amusing essays of up to 600 words on the theme of ‘The Worst Writing Mistake I’ve Ever Made’. Perhaps I’ll tell them about the entry I sent to the Costa Coffee awards that had the characters meet in Starbucks. This one is free to enter and there’s a prize of NZ$200.
  • WriteTime is one for the oldies – over 60s, in this case. Only 1,500 words is required, £5 to enter and a £100 prize – a little improved on previous years but still well short of a life-changing sum.
  • The redoubtable Chris Fielden is again running his (now biennial) To Hull and Back competition for a humorous piece (which unusually, can have been published before). Up to 2,500 words: it’s £12 for one entry with reduced rates for additional ones. Besides £1,000, the winner is published in an anthology which has as its cover a picture of them riding a motorbike through Hell – or maybe just Birmingham, because Chris solemnly straps a copy to the front of his own bike and rides it from his home in Bristol to Hull where he is acclaimed by cheering crowds (I imagine).
  • Hysteria look for up to 1,000 words: £5 gets you a crack at a mere £75, albeit with the promise of publication.
  • I’m not sure I correctly understand the Page Turner competition which seems complex. There are many categories, but for a story I think they want up to 10 pages: entry fees start at £40 (?) but depending on the package you opt for it could be much more. I think the prizes are $1,000 (why the entry fee is in sterling and the prize in US dollars is just one of many unplumbed mysteries).
  • The Hastings Book Festival returns with a free contest looking for 2,500 words and offering a prize of £250.
  • Cranked Anvil has the same word limit, but charges £6 entry and has a prize of £300.
  • The Letter Review seeks stories up to 5,000 words: for a $20 entry, winners (2-4 of them) share a pool of $1,000

Do let me know if you achieve recognition in any of these, but do not try to enter Periscope’s Paired Fiction prize, because they’ve been overwhelmed by entries and are not accepting any more.

Restoration of Anne Boleyn

May 19, 2025

This figure, a modern carving on a modern house, became a bit of a landmark in Carshalton. It was removed for restoration a long time ago, but today Anne is back!

Why Anne Boleyn? She stands opposite ‘Anne Boleyn’s Well’ by All Saints’ churchyard, but in fact the history is garbled: the well was originally associated with the local Boulogne family, not connected with the Boleyns (or Bullens as they were more prosaically known).

Nice to see her back, though.