The 2013 Hollick Arvon Caribbean Writers Prize

The Hollick Arvon Caribbean Writers Prize is an annual award which allows an emerging Caribbean writer living and working in the Anglophone Caribbean to devote time to advancing or finishing a literary work, with support from an established writer as mentor. It is sponsored by the Hollick Family Charitable Trust and the literary charitable trust the Arvon Foundation, in association with the non-profit organisation the Bocas Lit Fest.
The Hollick Arvon Caribbean Writers Prize will be offered annually, initially for the next three years, and across three literary genres: fiction in 2013, non-fiction in 2014, and poetry in 2015.
The Prize
The Hollick Arvon Prize, with a total value of £10,000 (approx. US$16,000), consists of:
1.    a cash award of £3,000 (approx. US$5,000) 2.    a year’s mentoring by an established writer 3.    travel to the United Kingdom to attend a one-week intensive Arvon creative writing course at one of Arvon’s internationally renowned writing houses 4.    three days in London to network with editors and publishers, hosted by Arvon, in association with the Free Word Centre and the Rogers, Coleridge & White literary agency.
The winner of the 2013 Hollick Arvon Prize will be announced in March 2013. Presentation of the prize will take place in April 2013 in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.
Eligibility
To be eligible for entry, a writer must:
1.    be of Caribbean birth or citizenship, living and working in the Anglophone Caribbean and writing in English 2.    be over the age of 18 by 30 September, 2012 3.    have had at least one piece of creative writing of no less than 2,000 words published 4.    not yet have published a full-length book in the genre category.
How to enter
Each entrant may make only one submission for the 2013 Hollick Arvon Prize. Each submission must include:
1.    a maximum of 3,000 words from a work in progress which the Prize will allow the writer to advance or complete. This may be an excerpt from a novel or from a series of short stories 2.    an outline of the entire work in progress and how the writer plans to develop it 3.    a statement of no more than 500 words about why your work should be supported by this Prize 4.    a copy of up to two pieces of previously published creative writing (not exceeding 2,000 words each). An extract from a longer work is acceptable. State the date and place of publication 5.    a completed entry form
Note: all submissions should be typed with double spacing.
Submissions must be made electronically. Please send all submission materials attached to a single email addressed to info@bocaslitfest.com. The email subject line should read “Hollick Arvon Prize”.
Deadline
The 2013 Hollick Arvon Prize opens for entries on 30 June, 2012. The closing date is 30 September, 2012, at 6 pm TT time. No late entries will be accepted.
Judging
The Hollick Arvon Prize will be judged by a panel comprising representatives of the Hollick Family Charitable Trust and the Arvon Foundation, an agent from the Rogers, Coleridge & White literary agency, and up to three representatives of the NGC Bocas Lit Fest. The Prize will be administered by the Arvon Foundation and Bocas Lit Fest, in conjunction with the Hollick Family Charitable Trust.
For any queries about eligibility requirements or the submission process, please contact the prize administrators at: info@bocaslitfest.com or follow this link: http://www.bocaslitfest.com/hollick-arvon-caribbean-writers-prize.html
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SI Leeds Literary Prize 2012

SI LEEDS LITERARY PRIZE 2012

a new award for unpublished fiction by Black and Asian women

A new award for unpublished fiction by Black and Asian women will be launched this week in Ilkley.  The SI Leeds Literary Prize has been created by Soroptimist International of Leeds, in partnership with two well established and highly regarded literary organisations, the Ilkley Literature Festival and independent publishers Peepal Tree Press.  

The prize aims to act as a loudspeaker for Black and Asian women's voices, and a platform to discover and celebrate exciting new talent, from a group largely under-represented on our bookshelves.

The inaugural prize will be awarded in October 2012, and will consist of £2,000 to the winner, £750 to the runner-up and £250 as a third prize. In addition to the cash awards Peepal Tree Press will offer the winning, runner-up and third placed authors two 1:1 consultancy sessions in professional development support through its Inscribe programme. With the winner's consent, the winning manuscript will be given serious consideration for publication by Peepal Tree Press.

The distinguished Chair of Judges is Margaret Busby OBE, who has served as judge for many literary awards including the Caine Prize for African Writing, the Orange Prize, the Independent Prize for Foreign Fiction and the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature. A writer, editor, consultant, reviewer and broadcaster, Margaret became the UK's youngest and first Black woman publisher when she co-founded Allison & Busby Ltd, of which she was Editorial Director for 20 years.

In the words of our patron, Bidisha, "The prize is important in demonstrating to a world which has always talked down or ignored the value of women's work and of the work of post-diaspora second generation peoples, apart from a very few favoured names, that our genius is plentiful, not rare; prodigious and prolific, not exceptional or occasional; that it is longstanding, not recent; that it is enduring and not a novelty; and that it is strong and powerful, not marginal or unimportant. The prize is important and necessary but, more than that, it is introduced to the world as an act of joy, happiness and the discovery of new work. Join us in celebration."

For more information on the prize, see www.sileedsliteraryprize.com 
 
For further information, images or interview requests, please contact Fiona Goh, Project Manager
tel: 01422 435077 or e-mail: info@siliteraryprize.com

Editors' notes:
Soroptimist International is a worldwide organisation for women in management and the professions, working through service projects to advance human rights and the status of women. Soroptimists inspire action and create opportunities to transform the lives of women and girls through a global network of members and international partnerships.  See http://soroptimist-gbi.org/leeds/ for more information on Soroptimist International of Leeds.

The prize is being launched at the event by Jean 'Binta' Breeze and Aoife Mannix at the Ilkley Playhouse Wharfeside, at 7.30pm on Thursday 6 October 2011, as part of the 2011 Ilkley Literature Festival. 
Details on how to enter the prize and further information on our judges and patrons can be found at www.sileedsliteraryprize.com 

The SI Leeds Literary Prize is open to self-defined Black & Asian women writers across the UK. Please share the news with anyone you think might be interested in or might benefit from the award.

Commonwealth Short Story Competition: Call for Entries

Deadline: 1 March 2011

Write a short story for radio and enter the 2011 Commonwealth Short Story Competition.

Entries are invited from all writers, professional and amateur, who are citizens of a Commonwealth country and aged 19 or over.

The winner receives a prize of £2000 and there are four regional prizes of £500. There will also be two special prizes of £500 each; one for the best short story for children and the other for the best short story about this year’s Commonwealth theme, ‘Women as Agents of Change’.

The competition is an annual scheme to promote new creative writing, managed by the Commonwealth Foundation in association with the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association.

For more information: www.commonwealthfoundation.com/shortstory

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OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature

The Bocas Lit Fest, based in Trinidad and Tobago, is an annual celebration of books, writing, and writers. Launching in April 2011, the Bocas Lit Fest is an exciting new addition to the Caribbean’s literary calendar. The centrepiece of the festival will be the award ceremony for the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, a major new award for Caribbean writers of poetry, fiction, and literary non-fiction.

Boca is the Spanish word for mouth — the organ of speech and song and storytelling. And the Bocas del Dragón — the Dragon’s Mouths — are the narrow straits off Trinidad’s northwest peninsula, which connect the sheltered Gulf of Paria to the open Caribbean Sea. For centuries, the Bocas were the gateways connecting Trinidad to the Caribbean and the Atlantic. The Bocas Lit Fest invites readers from around the world to enter through the Dragon’s Mouths and celebrate with us the rich literary heritage of Trinidad and Tobago and the wider Caribbean.

For more information, please follow this link: http://www.bocaslitfest.com/

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Via The Caribbean Review of Books

3Quarks Contest

Robert Pinsky will be the judge of the 3 Quarks Daily’s Arts & Literature Prize.

The winners of the Arts &Literature Prize will be announced on March 20, 2010.

For more, please follow this link: 3Quarks

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Commonwealth Short Story Competition 2010

Enter the 2010 Commonwealth Short Story Competition

First prize of £2,000

Special and Regional prizes of £500

The Commonwealth Short Story Competition is an annual scheme to promote new creative writing, funded and administered by the Commonwealth Foundation and the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association. Each year around 25 winning and highly commended stories from the different regions of the Commonwealth are recorded on to CDs and broadcast on radio stations across the Commonwealth.

Anyone aged 19 or over who is a citizen of a Commonwealth country can enter, whether a professional or amateur writer. Stories should be original, unpublished, written in English and no more than 600 words long. Only one entry may be submitted per person. Commonwealth citizens who are 18 or under can enter the Commonwealth Essay Competition.

In addition to the first prize and four regional prizes, this year there will be special prizes for the best story for children and the best story concerning Science, Technology and Society, the Commonwealth Day theme for 2010.

Entries will be accepted via an online application form on the Commonwealth Foundation's website after 15 February.

There is no entry fee.

Here is the link: http://www.commonwealthfoundation.com/culturediversity/shortstory/


Closing date for receipt of entries: 31 March 2010.

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