UPDATE: As per Januari 1st, the competition is CLOSED. We’re currently in the process of reviewing all of your wonderfull submissions. Still, keep an eye out for future updates: the winners will be announced at the Writer’s Block Drinks commemorating the release of the issue #24!
UPDATE 2: Issue #24 is out, and the winners have been announced! Thank you all for participating, and for all of you who crave more incentive to write your short stories: don’t worry, there will be other competitions 😉 So stay tuned, and keep your pens sharp.
Our competitions last year were a resounding success, and so we’re happy to announce that we’ll be hosting a short story competition for the next edition of Writer’s Block! If you’ve ever toyed with the idea of submitting your work to us, now is the time to do it: you’ll be entering a literary fray with other talented authors from our audience, with fame and fabulous prizes on the horizon! We know you’re all super excited for this, so we will quickly tell you exactly how this is going to work.
Prompt & other requirements
First, it’s important to know that this time around, there’s a bit of theme challenge involved. We’re going to give you complete freedom on what your work is about, with a small ‘but’: you need to include the sentence “Please wash the mugs” in your submission. We don’t care how exactly you choose to include it. That is entirely up to you. Please make sure that you do, though – your piece won’t be eligible if you don’t! Furthermore, it’s important to note that you may submit one piece with a maximum word count of 1200 words. Again, make sure not to go over this, as it would be a shame to a have to disqualify a beautiful piece of writing on the vice of a few too many words. Finally, contrary to previous reports, everyone is welcome to participate! Whether you’re a student or a stay-at-home mom, whether you live in the USA or in South-Africa, we would love to read your work.
Judging
As with our previous contests, your piece will be judged by the Writer’s Block board as well as two UvA academics (think literature teachers or professors).
Winners
So, what happens when we find that you officially wrote the most amazing thing ever? First, there will be an official ‘award ceremony’ at a Writer’s Block borrel – if you send in work, we hope to see you there to celebrate the new issue, as well as to (hopefully) celebrate your winning entry! The winning piece will be revealed here, and it will of course be published in Writer’s Block #24. The top three pieces will all be featured independently on the website. There is going to be another special prize for the #1 spot, although we’re still working out the details on that. Think book coupons. We’ll update this post as soon as we know more, and we’ll try to make this public through our social media as well, so keep your eyes open!
Please note that we can only give out any of the physical prizes if the winner can come to pick them up themselves. That being said, we’d still love for you to still enter the competition, and any winners who are unable to pick up their prizes will still be featured in the magazine and on the website!
Deadline
Of course, the number one most important detail of every competition: the deadline. Send your piece to writerssblock@gmail.com before December 30th, 24:00 GMT+1. That’s still a good one and one-half month to get crackin’ on that piece (as of this posting), so what are you waiting for? Get writing!
Disclaimer: We reserve the right to change these details at any time.
Updated: 23/11/14 – participation no longer limited to UvA students.
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