Your travel writing could earn you £1,000. That’s the prize for our ‘Just Back’ article of the year. The weekly prize is £200 in the currency of your choice from the Post Office.
Simply email your entry, of no more than 500 words (no attachments), tojustback@telegraph.co.uk
Get your entries in for Bloomsbury’s Flash Fiction Challenge:
Can you write a story in 200 words or less?
To celebrate the continuing rise of the short story and following on from the huge success of last year’s competition, Writers & Artists andBloomsbury are delighted to announce another Flash Fiction challenge.
For this year’s competition, we’d simply like you to write a story of no more than 200 words based on the theme of ‘alienation’ and/or ‘the quest for belonging’.
And to tie in with this theme, we’ve asked Roshi Fernando, author of Homesick, to judge all of this year’s entries.
The lucky winner will receive not only a bundle of all our short story collections published from this year and 2012, but also two tickets to see George Saunders discussing his new collection Tenth of December.
Jon McGregor (IMPAC Award-winning author of Even the Dogs and If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things) will be chairing the event, which takes place on Wednesday 29 May.
Info here.
The prestigious Larkin and East Riding Poetry Competition is now open for entries.
Shortlisted entries will be judged by one the UK’s most influential poets, Jackie Kay. Poems are submitted anonymously so each entry is judged on its own merits. Winners and commended poets will be invited to read their poems at the Bridlington Poetry Festival (14-16 June 2013) in the company of some of the UK’s finest poets, including the Prize’s Judge, Jackie Kay.
Further details here.
Some of the following may be of interest. They’re all from the current email newsletter from Writing East Midlands. I’m afraid the links have been stripped out, so I suggest you sign up for their newsletter to get it delivered direct to your inbox.
NOTTINGHAM FESTIVAL OF WORDS FLASH FICTION COMPETITION
To celebrate National Storytelling Week (Saturday 26 Jan – Saturday 02 Feb) Nottingham Festival of Words is launching a flash fiction competition!
The best stories will be published on the festival website, with one lucky winner receiving a pair of weekend passes to the festival.
Deadline for submissions is 11pm on Tuesday 29 January 2013
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BOOK YOUR TICKETS NOW FOR THE NOTTINGHAM FESTIVAL OF WORDS
The first Nottingham Festival of Words welcomes all lovers of words to Nottingham.
Events will be taking place at Newstead Abbey, Nottingham Trent University’s Newton Building, Nottingham Playhouse, Lakeside Arts Centre, Wollaton Hall, Debbie Bryan’s shop, Jam Cafe, Broadway and other venues around the city.
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Sign up to the Nottingham Festival of Words newsletter here.
COURSES AND WORKSHOPS
Writing School Leicester starts its new term of courses in January.
ADVANCED SHORT STORY WRITING WITH DEBORAH TYLER BENNETT
This course is aimed at practising short fiction writers who want to experiment with different narrative forms and gain new skills. You will look at how short stories are told, who tells them and why, and how to explore different types of narrative perspective. You will also consider switches in narrative voice and uses of imagery in short stories.
4 Sessions from Monday 14th January
10am-noon
Price: £50
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POETRY TOOLKIT WITH ALISON DUNNE
A robust and energetic approach to developing your work with lots of ideas and exercises to cultivate your essential poetry toolkit. A look at defeating the blank page, editing your work, form and content and other tricks of the trade.
5 Sessions from Monday 18th February
10am – noon
Price: £60
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NOVEL WRITING WORKSHOP ROD DUNCAN / MAXINE LINNELL
Working on a Novel? Rod and Maxine will lead you through exercises that will make the process of writing and editing more enjoyable.
9 sessions from Tuesday 15th January 2013
7-9pm
Price: £110
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STARTING TO WRITE A CHILDREN’S BOOK WITH DEBBIE WHITE
“I think I’d like to write for children.” Sounds easy enough! But what age group? A picture book perhaps or a chapter book for 5-8 year olds. Maybe an 80,000 word teenage novel? Phew! And if you go for the teen novel, what genre? Science Fiction, Romance, Historical, Fantasy, Crime?
4 sessions from 16 January 2013
10am-12pm
Price:£50
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WRITING ROMANTIC FICTION WITH SUE MOORCROFT
A Valentine’s Day Special
14th February 2013
10am-4pm
Price: £35
Want to write your love story? Join this Valentine’s Day Special with Sue Moorcroft.
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ADVANCED EBOOK PUBLISHING WORKSHOP WITH PIPPA HENNESSY
This half day workshop gives you the chance to extend your ebook production skills to include an understanding of how ebooks really work ‘under the hood’.
Saturday 2nd March
10.30am – 3.00pm with a 30 minute lunch break
(Lunch not included)
Price: £50 (4% PayPal booking fee if booking online)
To find out more and book your place, click here.
View the full list of Writing School Leicester courses here
Writing School Leicester is now a subsidiary of Writing East Midlands.
WRITING HORROR STORIES WITH ALEX DAVIS
26th January
One day creative writing workshop.
Mackworth Library, Derby
£25, booking essential
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FIFTY SHADES OF PLAY
27th January
A day spent finding inspiration and playing with words, ideas and genres. This workshop will be perfect for you if you’d like to start writing but don’t know how to begin, or you’re stuck for ideas. Come and explore! What else do you have to do on a cold winter’s day?
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BOX OF PROPS POETRY WORKSHOPS
expresseum poetics will be delivering two series of page-performance poetry workshops at two of Leicestershire’s independent museums: Lutterworth Museum in the South of the county, and Kegworth Museum in the North.
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LET’S WRITE A BOOK
The perfect course for those people with an idea for a book but don’t know where to start, or just looking for that extra bit of motivation and guidance to complete their projects!
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WRITING TV DRAMA
This practical workshop led by Jim Hill offers an insight into writing for television drama
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INSCRIBE MASTERCLASS
SUBMITTING TO PUBLICATIONS with Kadija George
Sat. 23 February 2013, 11am – 5pm
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CREATIVE WRITING WORKSHOP
A fun and informal workshop at Loughborough University
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CREATIVE WRITING FOR THE OVER 55S AT THE THEATRE ROYAL NOTTINGHAM
A nine week creative writing course, led by Cathy Grindrod, commencing Friday 18 January at the Theatre Royal Nottingham.
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MA SCRIPTWRITING & DEVELOPMENT – UNIVERSITY OF LINCOLN
The MA in Playwriting and Script Development at the University of Lincoln is delivered by a professional team of script readers, editors, playwrights and academics. This practice-based Master’s programme, created especially for graduate students with a good honours degree who want to write for theatre, will train students in playwriting, alongside the important and transferable skills of script editing, dramaturgy and script development.
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COMPETITIONS AND AWARDS
“NOTTINGHAM LACE” CHILDREN’S WRITING COMPETITION
The Nottingham Lace Competition is open to anyone aged 18 or under living in Nottingham. There are three age groups (under 10, 11–14, and 15–18), and you can enter either a poem or a short story.
We’re looking for entries on the theme of LACE. Make lace. Wear Lace. Love lace. Lace words together. What does lace mean to you?
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NOTTINGHAM FESTIVAL OF WORDS FLASH FICTION COMPETITION
To celebrate National Storytelling Week (Saturday 26 Jan – Saturday 02 Feb) Nottingham Festival of Words is launching a flash fiction competition!
The best stories will be published on the festival website, with one lucky winner receiving a pair of weekend passes to the festival.
Deadline for submissions is 11pm on Tuesday 29 January 2013
More
THE ALAN SILLITOE OPEN POETRY COMPETITION
Closing date: 22nd January 2013
1st Prize: £200, 2nd Prize: £100, 3rd Prize: £50
All profits go to the Alan Sillitoe Memorial Fund
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CALLING FOR SUBMISSIONS FROM PLAYWRIGHTS
A Play for the Nation’s Youth.
National competition launched to find a new play for young people.
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LOVE ON THE ROAD 2013
International writing competition seeks tales about making connections. Non-fiction or fiction.
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DARKER TIMES FICTION WRITING COMPETITIONS
Darker Times Fiction hosts three monthly writing competitions – short story, flash fiction and poetry, all on the theme of ‘darker times’ (this doesn’t necessarily have to be horror). Cash prize for winners and publication in an ebook and paperback Anthology as well as on the website.
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HOOKLINE NOVEL COMPETITION 2013
The competition is open only to students and graduates of MA writing programmes. But rather than select a winner ourselves, the judges are book group readers from around the UK
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HIPPOCRATES PRIZE FOR POETRY AND MEDICINE
The Hippocrates Prize for Poetry and Medicine is an annual international award for an unpublished poem on a medical subject
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GREY HEN POETRY COMPETITION 2013
Grey Hen is a small independent press. Our aim is to publish poetry by older women. For women over 60 only. Those who will reach 60 before the end of June 2013 are eligible.
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OPPORTUNITIES
VOLUNTEER AT THE NOTTINGHAM FESTIVAL OF WORDS
The Nottingham Festival of Words is looking for volunteers who’d like to help, either during the Festival or in the run-up to it. Volunteering is a great way of getting involved in the literary scene in Nottingham, meeting other people, and developing skills in areas like event organisation, media, and marketing. You’ll also be playing an important role in bringing a new and much needed Festival to the city, one which we hope to establish as a key event in the region’s arts calendar.
If you’re interested, get in touch with Robin Vaughan-Williams, the Nottingham Writers’ Studio Develoment Director, who will send you further information about volunteering: admin@nottinghamwritersstudio.co.uk, 0115 959 7947.
For more information on the festival, visit the website at nottwords.org.uk
LEFTLION SEEKS VOLUNTEER REVIEWERS FOR NOTTINGHAM FESTIVAL OF WORDS
Interested in reviewing Nottingham Festival of Words Events for LeftLion Magazine and Website?
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BURSARY FOR ARTS STUDENTS AND RECENT GRADUATES
Saddled by student debt? Whether you’re a first-year student or a graduate, if you embarked on a BA or BMus in 2006* or later, you could benefit from having £9,000 wiped off your Student Loans Company balance by arts charity IdeasTap.
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THE LONDON UNPUBLISHED FICTION WRITERS OPEN READING 2013
Seeking writers of fiction
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PAID ARTS COLUMNIST OPPORTUNITY
Get paid to write a weekly arts column for online arts magazine, IdeasMag
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GET INTO READING PROJECT WORKER, THE READER ORGANISATION
This is a dynamic and varied job requiring you to promote, set-up, establish and facilitate a weekly Get Into Reading group in order to promote well-being and good mental for offenders/ex-offenders in the PD PIPE.
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FILM PRODUCER SEEKING A WRITER TO DEVELOP A FEATURE SCREENPLAY
An exciting opportunity to be attached to a feature film project which is currently in development.
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CALL FOR WORKSHOP LEADERS: MARKET BOSWORTH FESTIVAL
Market Bosworth Festival would be pleased to hear from artists who could offer workshops in schools.
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PENDROP CREATIVE WRITING GROUP
PENDROP … Blackdrop’s creative writing group, returning with our regular monthly workshops!
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FUNDING CENTRAL
Funding Central covers funding and finance opportunities for voluntary and community organisations operating in England from European, national, regional and local government and charitable sources.
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PHD FUNDING OPPORTUNITY: ANTHONY BURGESS FOUNDATION
Applications are invited for a PhD bursary, to support research into the literature or music of Anthony Burgess and his contemporaries
The bursary will support a scholar beginning his or her studies in the academic year 2013-14. The bursary is tenable anywhere in the world and offers up to £15,000 per annum for a maximum of three years.
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EVENTS
LISTEN WHILE YOU LUNCH-WITH TRAVEL WRITER LESLEY GOULD
21st January
12.10pm to 1pm
Fancy a break from the workplace or a sit down after doing the shopping? Join us for a talk by travel writer Lesley Gould.
Derby Central Library, free event.
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AN EVENING WITH DAVID ZELDER
23rd January
An illustrated talk by East Midlands writer David Zelder
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ALAN SILLITOE THEN AND NOW
26th January
A Five Leaves event at the Djanogly Art Gallery, Lakeside Arts Centre, University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD, as part of the Saturday Night and Sunday Morning exhibition
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AN EVENING WITH PETER JAMES
28th January
Join us for an evening with Peter James one of the UK’s most treasured crime and thriller novelists.
Central Library, Derby
£10, including light refreshments, booking essential.
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NOTTINGHAM STORY TELLERS
30th January
Bad and Bawdy Tales – Pete Davis and David Brailsford.
A selection of naughty stories told by two storytellers who should know better, but don’t. lots of laughs.
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BALCKDROP
14th February
Your next ‘drop of goodness’ from BLACKDROP spoken-word is on Thurs 14th Feb 8-10pm £3 age 16+ at Canalhouse bar, Canal Street, Nottm.
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SAY SUM THIN 4
15th February – 16th February
Poetry will collide with performance, music, dance and whatever else The Mouthy Poets can get their hands on. Come explore the theme of Love, Lace and Revolution as part of Nottingham Festival of Words.
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BUY MY COMIC
16th February
Jay Eales and Selina Lock, publishers of Violent! and The Girly Comic, are veterans of the UK comic publishing scene.
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EMBA AUTHOR PANEL
17th February
To celebrate the East Midlands Book Award, now in its third year, previous winners Mark Goodwin and Anne Zouroudi will be joined by two shortlisted Nottinghamshire writers, Paula Rawsthorne and Gregory Woods, for readings, Q&A and book signings.
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AND FINALLY…
NOTTINGHAM BASED SELF PUBLISHED AUTHOR SUCCESS
Trevor Forest’s self published children’s books are doing extremely well and are being used in schools across Britain. Stanley Stickle Does Not Have A Girlfirend is being used as a set literary project by Hamilton College, Scotland. The school also uses Trevor’s book for older children, Peggy Larkin’s War, as a reference when they study the evacuation of children in WW2.
Find out more about Trevor’s children’s books here.
WATERSTONES SUCCESS FOR LOCAL AUTHOR
Ann Featherstone found her novel Newgate Jig on display in Nottingham Waterstones under ‘Fresh Blood’ and ‘Murders most Mysterious’.
Read an interview with Ann and read a sample of Newgate Jig here
Do you have anything you want to shout about? Any good news or successes? Writing East Midlands wants to hear from you! Help us celebrate the literature talent of the East Midlands.
Simply email hayley@writingeastmidlands.co.uk and tell us what’s been happening around you.