Niche writing competitions

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Battle of Britain, British Czech & Slovak Association, Czech, Czechoslovakia, Freedom, Liz Kohn, Niche, Rodean, Show trials, Slovakia, Space, Speedway, Tereza Pultarová, The Final Incarnation, Velvet Revolution, Writing competition

Maggie Davies and Sarah Dawson do such sterling work for us each month listing writing competitions for us to enter.  Some of them are quite niche – some nicher than others.   

You may wonder how these comps actually work out.  Well, here’s the inside story of one of them last year. It certainly categorises as niche – perhaps it’s the nichest – and it’s the one I’m most involved with, the annual comp of the British Czech & Slovak Association.  The subject matter for entries can be either (1) links between Britain and the Czech and/or Slovak Republics, at any time in their history or (2) society in those Republics since the Velvet Revolution of 1989.  Each year there’s a suggested (but not compulsory) theme.

Freedom was the suggested theme in this year’s BCSA writing competition – freedom in any of its forms.   The entrants showed their usual ingenuity in interpreting that. We took to the skies with a Czechoslovak pilot fighting for freedom in the Battle of Britain.  In another entry we mused on the excitement and the hopes in Czechoslovakia when freedom was restored in 1989, and on the reality and disappointments since that great time (but ending, I’m glad to say, on an optimistic note).  In a third entry we saw how the son of a well-off family in pre-war Czechoslovakia found his freedom working in a squalid farmhouse in southern Bohemia and then in a quarry in Derbyshire.  In a fourth we joined an alcoholic gambler pondering the meaning of freedom in a Czech bar.

Non-freedom entries included our very first venture into the world of speedway, and a comic playlet showing a Czechoslovak Jewish refugee talking her way into a job at Roedean School in 1939.

Deciding on the winners is always difficult.   But the judges managed it.  Thank you, judges!

Second prize, winning £150, went to Liz Kohn, with a piece called Two Worlds.  Liz has been researching her family history and in particular that of her father and his first wife, Alice Glasnerová.  Her current research is into Alice’s trial and its relationship to the Slánský show trials of 1952 in Communist Czechoslovakia.  Liz’s entry tells some of this story.  

This year’s winner – taking home £400 – was Tereza Pultarová. Tereza is a London-based science and technology journalist, originally from Prague.   She has degrees from Charles University and a Master’s in Science from the International Space University in Strasbourg. Her winning entry was The Final Incarnation – Chapter 1.  It is the first chapter of a novel Tereza has written, whichdeals with growing up in 1990s post-communist Czechoslovakia, and explores how traumas from the Communist years live on through family dysfunction and alcoholism.

It was so good to be back in a proper setting for the presentation of the prize this year.  In 2020 we presented the prize via Zoom, during one of the BCSA’s other events.  Last year we had to do it by post.  This year I had the privilege of marking Tereza’s success at our resumed Annual Dinner at the May Fair Hotel in London on November 23, as in the first photo above.  (Thanks to Erik Weisenpacher for the photos.)

The winning entries (and a selection of the others) are published in the Assocation’s magazine, the British Czech & Slovak Review.

We’ll run the competition again in 2023.  Watch our website, social media and the Review for details. 

Our competition had two aims…

Many congratulations to Barbara Leahy, whose winning story is published below, and also has a page of its own – see link at the top.

We’d like to add that we had two aims in running the competition.

One aim was to encourage writers to write: either new writers just getting started, or or those who felt a little stuck.  We hope we were successful in that.

Our second aim was to raise money for a charity – PMRGCAUK – that’s little known and is at the back of the queue for funding.  In that, thanks to you, we know we were successful.  A cheque for all the profits will shortly be going to the charity.

Since the condition itself is so little known or publicised, but wreaks such havoc in suffererers’ lives, we plan to publish the accounts of some sufferers over the next few months.  To begin with, we share the story of our own Jane, who was struck down with a whole buffet table of illnesses over the course of tha last few years.

We hope this will help to shine some light on a crippling but little researched disease.

 

 

Competitions to Enter in October

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Bath Flash Fiction, Earlyworks Press, Fifty Word Competition, Flambard Poetry Competition The London Magazine Fifty Word Competition, Flash 500 Novel Opening Ouen Press, Ouen Press, The London Magazine Short Story Competition, UCG International Literary Prize

With ninevoices’ member, Tanya, winning two writing competitions this summer, Val winning another, and Sarah being short-listed, I make no excuses for urging everyone to attempt at least one of the following competitions. There are lots of them, so something for everyone:

Bath ‘Rolling’ Flash Fiction Awards. Their current competition is for up to 300 words, with prizes of £1,000, £300, and £100. In addition, the fifty long-listed story writers will be offered publication in an anthology. Deadline October 16. Details from bathflashfictionaward.com

Flash 500 Novel Opening Chapter and Synopsis. Send 3,000-word opening chapter, plus a one-page synopsis. Entry fee is £10. Prizes: £500 and £200. Details from http://www.flash500.com  Deadline October 31.

Earlyworks Press Short Story Competition. 8,000-words. Fee: £5 for up to 4,000-words; £10 for over that length. Prize: £200. Details from http://www.earlyworks-press.co.uk   Deadline October 31.

Ouen Press Short Story Competition. This is for a factual story of between 3,000-10,000-words. The theme is: The Journey. Entry is free. Prizes are £300; 2 x £100. Details from http://www.ouenpress.com    Deadline October 31.

East London’s Writeidea Festival 2016 has a Short Story Prize aimed at writers who have not previously been published (comforting to know you won’t be competing with Hilary Mantel!). They are looking for up to 3,000-words, in any genre. There is a first prize of £300, with four runners up each receiving £50. The closing date is October 10 and entry is free. Details on their website: http://writeideafestival.org/

The WOW Awards 2017 invite entries of fiction and poetry. In each category there are first and second prizes of 750 Euros and 150 Euros. The winners and five shortlisted entrants in each category will be published in an anthology and ten shortlisted writers will each receive 30 Euros. The stories may be up to 3,000 words and the poetry entries up to 100 lines. There is a fee of 15 Euros per story and 10 Euros per poem.  Deadline is October 31. Website: http://www.wordsonthewaves.com

The London Magazine Short Story Competition want stories of up to 4,000-words on any theme. There is a first prize of £500, a second prize of £300 and a third prize of £200. The winning story will be published in the magazine and the deadline is October 31. Details from http://www.thelondonmagazine.org

The Flambard Poetry Prize, awarded by Newcastle Centre for the Literary Arts to honour the achievements of Flambard Poetry Press, is for a group of five poems, which must be original and unpublished. First prize is £1,000 and a second prize of £250. Each poem must be a maximum of forty lines. There is a £5 entry fee per group of five poems and the deadline is October 31. Details can be seen on their website: http://www.ncl.ac.uk/ncla/competitions/flambard

The UCG International Literary Prize, is a new creative writing prize run by Hammond House Publishing in association with the University Centre, Grimsby. They are asking for between 2,000-3,000-words on the theme of conflict. There is a first prize of £500, a second prize of £100 and a third prize of £50. Winners will also be published in an anthology. With an entry fee of £10, the deadline is October 30. Details from their website: http://www.hammondhousepublishing.com

Last, but by no means least, why not have a go at our very own FIFTY WORD COMPETITION – inspired by the spooky photograph on our blog of today’s date? The prize may not be huge, but entry is completely free and £25 would fund a couple of pretty good bottles of wine or some other treat to inspire your further writing. The deadline is on THE STROKE OF MIDNIGHT on October 31. See below for details.

Good luck! Remember, someone has to win these prizes. Why not you? But DO remember to check all details on-line in case there have been changes or we have inadvertently interpreted them wrongly.