Tags
Newsletter: 13/5/4: Spring is Here and Figments April 29 — May 3
Hi everyone,
Check it out
I’ve updated our wiki: adding some pages, editing others. Spring cleaning has never done more good.
We now have a Competitions page, where the latest, greatest and up-and-coming are featured. We also have more prompts on our Prompts page. In particular, I am steadily adding the many prompts we have used in our Write Group meetings over the years — well, since I have been part of the Group. And I updated our Events page, which now sports current international observances important to the writing community — last month was National Poetry Writing Month; this month is Share-a-story Month and Get Caught Reading Month. In addition, any local events — the Words in 3 Dimensions convention arriving in Edmonton at the end of this month — and Group events — our last meeting, with possibly a snack-luck, on June 5 — are featured on this page.
So, you no longer have to wait for my witty banter (yeah right) in this newsletter every week. I put it all, except the latest Figment prompts, on our wiki.
If you have events, competitions, prompts or other material you would like to see in our wiki, and in particular if you want to include yourself and your work on our Member pages (see how we did it), please let me know. I will re-invite you to contribute to the wiki. (And to be quite honest, I could use the help.)
Competitions
They never end, these competitions. And they are never as good as submissions. However, if you want to test the water and expose your work, take a look at our Competitions page on our wiki and that on our Diigo. Our Competitions page on our wiki also includes some advice on picking and entering competitions and reasons why you should.
In the meantime, these competitions are the most immediate and “prominent”. Check them out.
- The 82nd Writer’s Digest Annual Writing Competition has many categories for fiction, non-fiction and poem writing. Early Deadline: May 6, Late Deadline: June 3. (Early deadline in TWO DAYS.)
- The FIELD Poetry Prize is offered annually for the best unpublished collection of poetry. The winner receives $1,000, standard royalties, and publication. Submissions are received only during the month of May.
- The Slapering Hol Press Chapbook Competition is offered annually for the best previously unpublished chapbook collection of poetry. The winning manuscript earns $1,000, publication, and 20 copies of the chapbook. Deadline: May 15.
- The New Letters Prize for Poetry for the best 2013 group of three to six poems. The winner receives $1,500. Deadline: May 18.
- The Alexander Patterson Cappon Fiction Award is offered annually for the best unpublished short story. The winner receives $1,500. Deadline: May 18.
- The Dorothy Churchill Cappon Prize for the Essay is offered annually for the best essay. The winner receives $1,500. Deadline: May 18.
- The Writer’s Digest Popular Fiction Award also has many categories. Deadline: June 2013.
- The 13th Annual Writer’s Digest Short Short Story Competition is also offered. Deadline: June 2013.
- The Investigative Journalism Grant is offered multiple times throughout the year by the Fund for Investigative Journalism. Grants average $5,000, but can be as low as $100 and as high as $10,000. Next deadline: June 10.
- The Drue Heinz Literature Prize is offered annually by the University of Pittsburgh Press for the best collection of short stories. The winner receives $15,000 and publication by the University of Pittsburgh Press. Deadline: June 30.
Figment prompts
The Prompts page in our wiki features past Figment prompts (from the first one), a link to more prompts featured on our Diigo, and past prompts from our Write Group meetings.
This week’s Figment prompts, two of which I offered last week, touch on the familiar and unfamiliar, from a makeshift kite made from an umbrella to a challenge to twist the familiar into the unfamiliar. The photo prompt asks for a poem or story on an activity that seems familiar on the surface for this time of year, but are things as common as they seem? The opening sentence, on the other hand, leaps right into the unfamiliar, the strange and suspenseful; what will happen if they hear us? What if we mix it up, writing two scenes with two characters who are either strangers or long-time acquaintances? Which scene writes easier and more imaginatively? Which reads better? How can we use that revelation in our writing? And what would happen if we could not escape nor turn off something both familiar and disliked? April 30’s prompt asks us to consider the implications. Finally, the May 2 prompt asks us to take the too familiar and make it strange and novel. How does the overused become something new and intriguing? Have fun.
Convention and last meeting
Remember that our last and next meeting, until September, is on June 5. Additionally, the Words in 3 Dimensions writer’s convention, hosted in Edmonton, is on May 24-26. Please fill in our short survey and let us know if you are interested in these two events. Thank you; I hope to see you at both these events.
And that is all I wrote. Have a great weekend, and keep writing,
Shawn
The Write Group 