Author: Peter

I'm a retired civil servant in Surrey, UK and long-time blogger. These days I'm spending more time writing stories and doing other creative stuff

December 2023 Competitions

November 21, 2023

Rather slim pickings this month for competitions – December always seems to be quiet, especially in the UK. Perhaps everyone is saving their creative energy for really great Christmas cards? Anyway, here we are.

  • The St Louis Writer’s Guild is again offering the stingiest prize: $15 to enter, but the top prize is $50. Maximum 3,000 words and the deadline is 1 December.
  • The Breakwater Review contest, with the same deadline, costs only $10 to enter and offers a decent $1000 prize. You can go up to 4,000 words.
  • The Skobeloff competition is free, but your only prize is publication. They want stories of love and romance up to 5,000 words long, and you’ve got until 10 December.
  • The Masters Review is looking for chapbooks, between 25 and 45 pages. It’s $25 to enter but you could win $3,000 plus 75 copies of your chapbook to give to friends and relatives. (Or use as a sort of taster with novel submissions? Maybe not.) The deadline is 17 December.
  • For the Jacob Zilber prize from Prism magazine you need up to 4,000 words and an entry fee of $35: top prize $1,500, and the deadline is 21 December.

The rest all have deadlines of 31 December, possibly something to fill those empty days between Christmas and New Year.

  • The Letter Review has an entry fee of $20 and a top prize of $5,000: stories up to 5,000 words.
  • Boulevard magazine will take up to 8,000 and charge $18, offering a prize of $1,500.
  • Finally, the Danahy Fiction Prize from the Tampa Review costs $20 to enter with a prize of $1,000. Stories up to 5,000 words.

So ends another year of authorial competition. Merry Christmas!

Out of the Ordinary

November 9, 2023

My Woking friend Heather Cook is having a Zoom launch for her first poetry pamphlet ‘Out of the Ordinary’ on 2 December, hosted by Wildfire Words. There are some 2 minute open mic slots for anyone who’d like to read a short poem or two and I’ll be doing a couple of sonnets (he said negligently, as though he wrote sonnets all the time). Free tickets to attend or read (all online) can be booked here https://wildfire-words.com/heather-cook/#book-launch

Hals at the NG

October 25, 2023

We went to see the National Gallery’s blockbuster exhibition of the work of Frans Hals, a good follow-up to our visit to his museum in Haarlem (and in fact we met a few old friends again).

Hals is notable for the lively characterisation of his portraits. A note in the exhibition rightly says that nobody painted nonchalance like Hals, but his people are also completely believable and full of energy.

He’s also known for the loose style he adopted, especially in his later years, when a few slashing diagonal strokes of the brush would skilfully suggest lace or fabric. It was this trait that endeared him to Van Gogh and other later painters. Look at how the details of this gent, convincing at a distance, are just rough and sketchy brushstrokes close up.

November 2023 Competitions

October 22, 2023

A selection of writing competitions I might enter during the coming month.

First, a few with deadlines on 1 November.

  • Scribble’s annual competition is for stories up to 3,000 words that must begin with the words ‘’He had an uneasy feeling as he inserted the key…’ £5 to enter, top prize £100.
  • The Caledonia Novel Award is for completed works of at least 50,000;words, but initially you are required to submit the first 20 pages with a synopsis. It’s £25 to enter and the first prize is £1,500 plus a residential course.
  • Reed Magazine’s John Steinbeck Award looks for up to 5,000 words. $20 to enter, first prize $1,000. Entries need not relate to Steinbeck.
  • The Commonwealth Short Story Prize is free to enter for people living in Commonwealth countries. There is a prize of £2,500 for the winner in each region plus £5,000 for the overall winner. Stories must be between 2,000 and 5,000 words.
  • F(r)iction wants 1,001 to 7,500 words: entry is $15 and first prize $1,000. You have until 3 November.
  • Liars League has a pub-based contest, free to enter. Winning works are read in the pub (in London) where the author is awarded a night of free beer. They’re looking for 800 to 2,000 words on the theme ‘Hearth and Home’ and you’ve got until 5th November.
  • The Neilma Sidney prize, from Overland (‘Australia’s only radical literary magazine’), is about travel. $20 to enter and the prize is $5,000: send up to 3,000 words by 10th November. If you’re writing about marginalised communities/identities you are asked to say whether you are a member of those groups.
  • The Wonderland competition looks for 1,000 to 2,500 words. It’s £5 to enter but the only prize is publication:and it seems you have to email them asking to enter, all of which will probably put me off bothering. The deadline is 12th November.
  • Curious Curls want stories about curiosity. $2.50 entry for a $250 prize: word limit 10,000. Enter by 15thNovember.
  • Ironclad asks for stories up to 6,000 words on the theme ‘dusk’. £6 to enter, prize £100 plus publication. Deadline 16 November

The rest have a deadline of 30th November.

  • The prestigious Fish contest has an entry fee of €20, a prize of €3000, and a word limit of 6000.
  • Doug Weller is again running his contest for six-word stories: free to enter and a prize of $100. Six words is really not quite…
  • Plaza Prizes want up to 8,000 words: £15 entry with £1,000 as top prize.
  • Prairie Fire, from Canada, look for a maximum of 5,000 words. It costs $34 and first prize is $750.
  • Finally those nice people at Tadpole Press want a mere 100 words: it’s $15 to enter and a generous $2,000 as top prize.

If you get somewhere with one of these, please let me know!

Hidden Century

October 14, 2023

A belated hat-tip to the British Museum’s exhibition of artefacts from the last century of the Chinese Empire – here called the Hidden Century, but also known as the Century of Humiliation because of the way China was forced to accept the domination of people it had regarded as marginal barbarians.

This picture of Queen Victoria might symbolise the encroachment of the West, and of course we are reminded that many Chinese artefacts now in the West were frankly looted during the Boxer War or at other times.

If there’s a single message from the exhibition it might be that Chinese culture remained vibrant and productive, even benefiting from some Western influences. Here are some random items that caught my eye.

October 2023 Competitions

September 23, 2023

Here are the writing competitions I might enter with deadlines in October. 

  • The Jeffrey E. Smith award from the Missouri Review has a maximum word count of 8,500, an entry fee of $25 and a top prize of $5,000: the deadline is 1 October.
  • The Chilling Pen award is for stories of up to 1,000 words: it’s free to enter and you could win $500 – again the deadline is 1 October.
  • Zoetrope want stories up to 5,000 words: entry is $30 and first prize is $1,000. Deadline: 2 October.
  • Ink of Ages is from the World History Encyclopaedia and OUP: they are looking for historical or mythological stories between 1,500 and 2,000 words, with a deadline of 7 October. It’s free to enter, and the prize is $200 to spend in the WHE bookstores plus a choice of some books from OUP.
  • Sleek City Press want up to 1,500 words on the theme ‘I faked my own death’: the entry fee is $20, top prize $2,000 and the deadline is again 7 October.
  • The annual Calvino Prize looks for up to 25 pages of prose in the style of Italo Calvino. It’s $25 to enter with a prize of $2,000 and the deadline is 15 October.
  • Iron Horse want a long story rather than a short one: 20 to 40 pages, in fact. Your $15 entry fee gets you a subscription as a bonus and you could win $1,000. Enter by 15 October.
  • The Wenlock Olympians are again looking for stories up to 2,500 words: £6 to enter and you might win £150 plus a medal! The deadline is 30 October.

The rest of the list have a deadline of 31 October.

  • Eyelands is looking for a full-length novel up to a massive 250,000 words. Entry is $35. If you win your work will be translated into Greek and published, and you will enjoy a five-day stay in Athens.
  • The Bedford competition has a limit of 3,000 words, an entry fee of £9.00 and a prize of £1,500.
  • Fiction Factory is back, asking for maximum 3,000 words, with a fee of £7 and a prize of £500.
  • Sheila-Na-Gig wants literary pieces up to 5,000 words, entry $3, prize $100
  • Southport Writer’s Circle want up to 2,000 words, entry £3, prize £200

If you get somewhere with any of the contests above, do let me know!

Catton’s Telling

September 4, 2023

I am reading Eleanor Catton’s Birnam Wood. I am only a short way into it, but it’s very good, and I should say, very well written.

The thing is, there are great slabs of text, weighty paragraphs, in which she does absolutely nothing but tell you directly what characters are feeling, how their personality works, and what their inner perceptions and experiences are.

Does she lose us? Do these passages lack an essential vividness? No, they are clever, interesting and skilfully done, like good portraiture. Is the book a failure? No, it’s the Sunday Times Bestseller by the Booker Prize Winning Author. Maybe, though, reviews pick up on her weak writing style? On the contrary. The Guardian says Technically, it’s another virtuoso performance.

Yet you and I know that if I presented anything like this to a writing tutor or an editor, either of whom would charge substantial fees for their expert advice, I’d be told Oh dear, Peter! Let me explain the concept of ‘show, don’t tell’. Here are a couple of remedial exercises to help you grasp it.