Wednesday 23 February 2022

Free entry comps, poppies and a sale

Free entry competition news

The Bruntwood prize for playwriting offers a prize of £16,000 plus feedback on all shortlisted entries.

Fitzcarraldo Editions are offering '£3,000 to the best proposal for a book-length essay (minimum 25,000 words) by a writer resident in the UK & Ireland who has yet to secure a publishing deal'. 


If you know any children aged 12 or under you may like to tell them about WordHound's monthly competition. They provide a prompt, ask for up to 300 words, and offer prizes and online publication. 
The

Elmbridge Literary Competition is also free for children (under 18s in this case). They do have an adult category, but there's a £5 entry fee for that. Poets aged 14-18 can enter the competition from Hippocrates Initiative For Poetry and Medicine which has a £500 prize. Finally there's this competition for children aged 9-18 which has categories for poems, songs, speech and art.

If there were competitions like this when I was a kid then I was unaware of them. I wonder if discovering some would have got me started writing three decades earlier than I actually did?

Next week's post is about the free Wergle Flomp poetry competition and contains tips from judges, and Annie from the organisers Winning Writers, for crafting a funny poem worthy of the $2,000 first prize.


Womag news

I did get an acceptance from TAB yesterday, but that's not the sale referred to in the blog post's title.

Thanks to Liz Filleul for passing on this link, which announces that US magazine Woman's World (and other titles) has been sold. The new owners are Accelerate 360. I don't know anything about them or any magazines they publish – do you?


Weather news

It was windy – maybe you noticed? Neither I nor the garden enjoyed the storms (apparently we had winds of 93 mph). Instead of being sad about the damage I'm looking back at photos from last summer and reminding myself that most plants will recover and by summer the garden will be full of poppies.

As always I'd very much appreciate you leaving a comment about anything you find interesting / useful, so I know which type of content to continue with.

12 comments:

ados123 said...

Thanks as always for the competitions, Patsy. Don't think there are any I will enter, but alway s good to know about them.
Alyson

Marguerite said...

Not under 12 - just behave as though I am sometimes ;) Well done for the TAB acceptance. Winds of 93mph? Think we beat you this side of the Solent ;)Lovely poppy - such a fragile flower.

Marian said...

Thanks very much for these, Patsy. I'd love to try writing a play one day, even if not yet. I act with my drama society, so I can imagine just how hard it is to actually write one though!

Sheelagh said...

Thank you as ever for the all the information Patsy, not doing much of anything at the moment as I am spending my days at the hospital with my terminally ill brother, Fergal. Brought him snowdrops yesterday which brought a smile to his face. Say a little prayer for him.

ChrisC said...

Thank you for comp news Patsy. With everything else being sluggish it's good to have some other outlets.

Elizabeth McGinty said...

Thanks for the info Patsy, all very helpful.

Sheelagh, what a precious memory those snowdrops have given you, prayers said for your brother Fergal and much love sent.

Eirin Thompson said...

Another great round-up, Patsy. I would just like to mention that I have now read and enjoyed your mystery novel 'Acting Like A Killer'. I left a review on Amazon, along with one for another book, but as this is something I don't do very often, I overlooked the opportunity to personalise my name, and it's just come up as the rather impersonal E.Thompson - apologies for that. Sheelagh, I am very sorry to hear about your brother, Fergal. I will now think of you both every time I see snowdrops. I'm holding you in my heart.

Patsy said...

@ Alyson – It's interesting to see how many different ones there are.

@ Marguerite – I heard The Needles had the highest wind speeds in the UK. 122 mph? Hope you didn't suffer much damage.

@ Marian – I once attended a script writing workshop and, although it was fun and interesting, it convinced me to stick to prose. Maybe it will be much more your kind of thing.

@ Sheelagh – Snowdrops are such lovely flowers. I'm glad you were able to share the enjoyment of them with Fergal. Thinking of you both. x

@ Chris – Yes, it's good to know that there's a variety of places we can send our work.

@ Elizabeth – Thanks for commenting and letting me know the post was useful.

@ Eirin – Thank you for the review. It's very much appreciated – especially as you liked the book!

Maureen Brannigan said...

Patsy, I always look forward to reading your blog. Just don't tell you often enough. It's a great start to the day looking in to see what's happening re the camper van and your adventures.

It's almost 5 in the morning here in Winnipeg. I may write a snow story as we've had the most snow in 90 years - so they tell us.

The fresh snow is stunningly beautiful. An idea for a story challenge perhaps? I will post any new markets I come across.

All the best. Maureen Brannigan aka Kirsty Peters.

Maureen Brannigan said...

Does anyone know why 'your' turns into 'you're'? So frustrating and even happening in newspapers etc. Maureen B.

Patsy said...

@ Maureen – Thanks for commenting. I hope to have more adventures to report soon!

I confess I sometimes type you're instead of your and vice versa (although I'm worse with their, there and they're). I do know which is correct, but somehow that information doesn't quite reach the keyboard!

Anonymous said...

Lots of inspiration as usual! Thank you!