Writers-of-the-Year Competition 2008

Closing date: Monday 14 April 2008

The fifteenth annual Writers-of-the-Year Competition welcomes prose and poetry in all styles, forms and subjects. Past winners include Elizabeth Barrett, Gregory Warren-Wilson, Tessa Rose Chester, Jane Duran, Maggie Butt, Philip Gross, Jill Dawson, Olivia Cole and John Whitworth.

There will be five categories for the competition in 2008:

SHORT POEMS

EXTENDED POEMS AND SEQUENCES

SHORT STORIES

WRITING FOR CHILDREN
(Two Groups: (A) prose for a readership of 8 to 11 years
or (B) for readers aged 12 to 16 years)

FEATURE JOURNALISM

ENTRIES
Entries may be on any subject and in any style. Each entry, across the different categories, is judged in its own context, regardless of length or content. All entries will be judged anonymously. Entries are welcome from anywhere in the world provided that they are accompanied by a sterling cheque for the entry fee. The new category of Feature Journalism welcomes pieces on any topic in any style.

PRIZES
Up to £3,500 in prizes will be distributed at the discretion of the judges. Winners will be invited to read their work or extracts from it at a special event at the Barbican Library in the City of London on Wednesday 8th October 2008. A portion of the prize fund may be allocated as bursaries, awarded to writers from London, for a writing weekend at the Abbey in Sutton Courtenay, Oxfordshire. One of the winning poems will be submitted to the Forward Poetry Prize which carries a prize of £1000. In the category for writing for children, the winning entry will be read by a leading London Literary Agency with a view to future developments.

DEADLINE

Entries must be sent to the address on the entry form no later than Monday 14 April 2008. Entry is now closed.

For acknowledgement of receipt of your entry and/or a list of winners please supply in each case a stamped addressed envelope marked 'RECEIPT' or 'WINNERS'. A list of winners will be posted on this website and winners will be contacted during the week beginning Monday 28 July.

ENTRY FEES

Poems:

Short: £4 for each individual poem up to 80 lines (£10 for 3 entries)
Long: £8 for a sequence (up to 400 lines) or individual poems over 80 lines (max 400 lines)

Short Stories:

£6 per story
£13 for three stories

Writing for Children

£5 per story

Feature Journalism

£3 per entry

CONDITIONS OF ENTRY (PROSE & POETRY)

Length

• Short poem: up to 80 lines..
• Long poem: over 80 lines (max. 400 lines, & no more than ten pages). Sequences should be linked by a unifying theme.
• Short Stories: 50 - 3000 words.
• Writing for Children (A: aged 8 – 12 years) 50 – 3000 words
  (B: aged 12 – 16 years) 50 – 3000 words.
• Feature Journalism:  800 words ( + or - 5 words.)

Format

• Entries to be typed on one side of white A4 paper.
• Poems typed in single spacing.
• Short stories, Journalism, and Writing for Children preferred in double spacing.
• The name of the writer must not appear on the manuscript/s.
• The pages of poem sequences and prose should be numbered.
• Short Story, Journalism, and Writing for Children entries must have the word count on the front page.
• Entries from London residents who wish to be considered for a bursary should mark their entry 'London'.

General

• Entries must be in English and the original work of the entrant.
• Entrants are advised to keep copies.
• Entries must be accompanied by an entry form. Photocopied entry forms are acceptable. One entry form can cover multiple entries.
• Any number of entries is allowed from any one author.
• Entries must be accompanied by the correct entry fee in sterling.
• Entries (or parts of entries) may have been previously published in a magazine or journal but not in a collection or anthology. Responsibility lies with the author to ensure that reprinting of any previously published work is acceptable.
• Copyright remains with the author but reserves the right to first publication after the Competition closing date.
• Manuscripts cannot be returned under any circumstances and does not take responsibility for non-delivery of entries.

JUDGING

The judges’ decision is final and binding. Neither the judges nor the organisers will enter into any correspondence about the result. The judges may withhold any prize if they see fit or award an entrant more than one prize. The judges reserve the right to decide which winning entries (or extracts) will be included in the Writers-of-the-Year Anthology. The judges may be changed without notice, and are at liberty to allocate prize funds as close to £3,500 as costs and revenue allow, if insufficient entries are received.

FINAL JUDGES

Sue Hubbard is a freelance art critic, novelist and poet. Twice winner of the London Writers Competition, she was the Poetry Society’s first ever Public Art Poet creating site-specific poems in Birmingham’s jewellery quarter and London's biggest public art poem that leads from Waterloo to IMAX. Depth of Field, her first novel, was published in 2000. Sue writes a regular column in The Independent.

Mario Petrucci was the first ever poet-in-residence at The Imperial War Museum and with BBC Radio 3. His debut collection, Shrapnel and Sheets was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation. Heavy Water: a poem for Chernobyl, was winner of the Daily Telegraph Arvon Prize and was recently made into a full length film by Seventh Art. He is four times winner of the London Writers Competition.