Aesthetica Magazine Creative Writing Award

The Aesthetica Creative Writing Award

Now in its ninth year, the Award is an internationally renowned literary prize presented by Aesthetica Magazine. It is a fantastic opportunity for established and aspiring writers and poets to showcase their work to an international audience. Previous entrants have achieved further publication and wider recognition in the literary world.

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Prizes

• £500 prize money for the Poetry winner
• £500 prize money for the Short Fiction winner
• Publication in the Aesthetica Creative Writing Anthology
• A selection of books from Vintage and Bloodaxe Books
• One year print subscription to Granta
• A complimentary copy of the Anthology

 http://www.aestheticamagazine.com/creative-writing-award/

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Bath Flash Fiction Award

Bath Flash Fiction Award is an international rolling flash fiction competition. Each award runs for 4 months. Judging takes place quickly with a top prize of £1000, £300 second, and £100 third. At the close of each competition, the next competition begins. Our last winner was announced within a week of the Award closing, and running three Awards per year means our total annual prize fund is £4200.
All entrants will be considered for print publication in our forthcoming Bath Flash Fiction Award Anthology, due out the end of 2016.
The current Award closes Midnight UTC February 14th 2016.

Summary

• £1000 prize for the winner, £300 second and £100 third. Two commendations.
• 300 word limit, details in the Rules.
• International entries in English welcome.
• Each award runs for 4 months.
• £7.50 for one entry (until Midnight UTC 13th December 2015, £9 thereafter).
  £12 for two entries (until Midnight UTC 13th December 2015, £15 thereafter).
  £18 for three entries (effectively £6 each, price held throughout competition).
• Free entry can be earned via our weekly micro competition Ad Hoc Fiction.
• Enter Bath Flash Fiction Award here online.

Finding the Winner

• The Bath Flash Fiction Award team creates a longlist and a shortlist.
• Our shortlist judge, Tania Hershman, chooses the winning, the second, the third, and two commended fictions.

The Announcement

• The winner is announced shortly after the competition closes.
• The winning, second, third and two commended fictions are published on our News and Winners pages, along with a short author bio.

About Us

We aim to encourage writers to develop their skills by creating pieces of 300 words or less in an atmosphere of awarded competition. We also intend to promote flash fiction and bring the genre to a wider audience. By way of meeting this commitment, we also run the very successful Ad Hoc Fiction project, an entirely free initiative aimed at promoting reading and writing of the very short form.

Our competition is organised by Jude Higgins, who also co-runs the international Bath Short Story Award, and Writing Events Bath. She is a writer and writing tutor, holding a Masters Degree in Creative Writing from Bath Spa University.

Bath Flash Fiction Award is both self-supporting and not-for-profit. We pride ourselves in our ability to continually develop new ways to promote emerging flash fiction writers and flash fiction in general. If you would like to talk to us further, we tweet @BathFlashAward, or you can contact us here.

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World Wetlands Day Poetry Prize

A celebration and exploration of the world of wetlands

2nd February each year is World Wetlands Day. On this date in 1971, countries from all over the world came together in the Iranian city of Ramsar on the Caspian Sea, to sign the Convention on Wetlands, vowing to protect and enhance the wetlands that fell within their borders.

Our Judge

Sarah Day’s most recent book is Tempo (Puncher & Wattmann, 2013); it was shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards and won the University of Melbourne Wesley Michelle Wright Prize. Awards for previous books include the Judith Wright Calanthe Queensland Premier’s Award, the Judith Wright ACT, the Wesley Michelle Wright Prize and the Anne Elder Award. She lives in Hobart where she teaches year 12 Creative Writing. Her poems have been widely anthologized in Australia and overseas. Her poems have been set to music in Australia and Britain.

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Poetry workshop with Helen Hagemann; From Image to Metaphor

I've been invited to conduct a poetry workshop by the Westcoast Community Centre in March. My workshop is titled; From Image to Metaphor. Michael Ondaatje once wrote an image of grasshoppers as “dolphins of drought”. Check out the details on the Westcoast Community Centre's Programme page - under Brain Challenges.

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Submitted my novel as a novella - Part 1

Part I 

Bream Street: circa 1946 

It was perhaps the first time he felt this freezing sensation. Age had run into his iron bones and most days he couldn’t get out of bed. Not that anyone would notice, living alone all these years and he’d left retirement too late. It was only the fishing in Satara Bay that had kept him going, his beach cottage central to everything, and his blue-aproned chums. He couldn’t bear that terrible noise again in his head; a bell was ringing pulled by a string. He didn’t want this to happen tonight. Not tonight at the Grand Master’s presentation. How many years had it been? Seven, he recollected, seven slow years waiting for the position of Vice-Grand Master. All eyes would turn on him. Stan the Man, they jokingly called him. But when it came to his carpentry skills, they almost bowed in gratitude. 
   He dressed in his Masonic regalia, closed his case after a quick check on the contents. It was only 6 o’clock, so he thought he’d take a leisurely detour to the Esplanade Hotel, have one or two pints for Dutch courage. 
   The terrible noise started again, more than one bell. He was still cold. Winter that silent oppressor. 
   He sat in the beer garden looking out to sea. He couldn’t make out the demarcation line of the horizon with a rising mist coming in, the edges of sky and ocean near the Heads melding into one landscape. 
   He hummed an old Irish tune. When he finished his second pint he started walking towards the shops, past the diggers’ hall, the housie-housie shed and finally turned into the front yard of the Masonic Lodge. 
   ‘Nice evening, Stan,’ said an old friend, slowly ascending the steps with a wooden cane. 
    ‘How’s the back?’ asked Stan. 
   ‘Oh, you know,’ he replied, knocking out one of his legs to keep moving, ‘can’t complain.’ 
   The ceremony began at 8 o’clock with a three-course meal. After two new Apprentices had been initiated into the Kingdom, it was time for the presentation. This time, Stan could hear an orchestra of bells where there was none. He managed to be bold and so stood behind the microphone, a little wobbly at first. It was his duty to swear allegiance to the brotherhood; to wear the colours of Vice-Grand Master with pride. 
   A growing tiredness overcame him, and giving his excuses he left the Masonic hall alone. A thick fog covered the sleeping town, and at almost midnight, intervals of rain began spotting the pavement and the blue of his coat. He hurried home. 
   When he arrived on the landing of his front door, he sensed someone was there in the shadows. There were no street lights and something made him look behind. Silhouettes and shapes in the gloomy night, then a heavy army of three men dominated his bent frame. He moved his arms out to stop them, but their wild punches struck. He could not fight them off. 
   In some distant terrain, Stan the Man knew that all the bells had stopped.  

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