The Department of English at Southern Illinois University Carbondale and GRASSROOTS, SIUC’s undergraduate literary magazine, are pleased to announce the 2010 Devil’s Kitchen Reading Awards. One book of poetry and one book of prose (novel, short fiction, or literary nonfiction) will be selected from submissions of titles published in 2009, and the winning authors will receive an honorarium of $1000 and will present a public reading and participate in panels at the Devil’s Kitchen Fall Literary Festival at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois. The dates for the 2010 festival are yet to be determined, but usually takes place in late October/early November. Travel and accommodations will be provided for the two winners.

Entries may be submitted by either author or publisher, and must include a copy of the book, a cover letter, a brief biography of the author including previous publications, and a $15.00 entry fee made out to “SIUC – Dept. of English.” Entries must be postmarked December 1, 2009 – February 1, 2010. Materials postmarked after February 1 will be returned unopened. Because we cannot guarantee their return, all entries will become the property of the SIUC Department of English. Entrants wishing acknowledgment of receipt of materials must include a self-addressed stamped postcard.

Eligibility and Guidelines: Short stories, written in English, up to 7,000 words. Only open to writers who have not yet published a book of fiction. Only previously unpublished stories accepted. Unlimited entries per person. Simultaneous submissions accepted; please notify the Festival if your story is accepted elsewhere. Stories that won this contest in previous years are ineligible; their authors remain eligible but must submit new work. Stories submitted to this contest in previous years that did not place are eligible. Author’s name should not appear on manuscript. Include a separate page with story title and name, address, phone, and email of author.

Deadline: November 16, 2009 (postmark). Winner will be announced by March 1, 2010.

Entry Fee: $25

For published and aspiring writers alike – enter the Writers’ & Artists’ 2010 short story competition and you could win:

• a cash prize of £500
• a place on an Arvon Foundation residential writing course worth at least £575*
• publication of your story on the Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook website

Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook and the Arvon Foundation have both helped numerous successful authors and artists on the way to their big-break. Now it could be your turn. We’re offering you the chance to win £500, plus a place on an Arvon writing course worth up to £575 and to have your work published on the web!

All you have to do is write a short story (for adults) of no more than 2,000 words, on the theme of ‘Unity or Union’ and email it to competition@acblack.com with ‘WAYB10 competition’ as the subject line.

The “Scare the Dickens Out of Us” Ghost Story Contest is in conjunction with the annual “A Dickens Christmas In Lockhart” festival, which is held on the first weekend in December (Friday night, Saturday) in Lockhart, Texas.
The contest is a fundraiser of the Friends of the Dr. Eugene Clark Library of Lockhart, Texas.

We want ghost stories. Here are the contest rules:
(download a pdf of Contest Rules)

1. The contest is open to published and unpublished writers alike. All publication rights remain with the author. Contest judges and their immediate families are ineligible.
2. The ghost story must include a character from any of Charles Dickens’ works as part of your original story.
3. The story must be set in the month of December and around any of the December holidays.
4. The story must be 4,000 words or less, in English, typed double-spaced.

Willow Springs invites submissions for The Willow Springs Fiction Prize, $2,000 plus publication in Willow Springs.

Submission deadline: March 1, 2010

Contest Submission Guidelines

* Include a $15.00 entry fee. Submissions without an entry fee will not be judged.
* Send only one story per submission.
* Use a check or money order only; cash will not be accepted. Please make the checks and money orders payable to Willow Springs.
* Submissions should be typed. Handwritten submissions will not be judged and the entry fee will not be refunded.
* Submissions must be 7,000 words or fewer.

If you’re reading this article, you’re already interested in contests and, more specifically, in winning contests. Perhaps you’ve already tried one or more contests and walked away with nothing. Did you wish the judges could tell you what you did wrong? Most of us know contest competition can be stiff. So how can a writer maximize her chance of winning a writing contest?

To find out, we asked a dozen experienced writing contest judges, “What kind of advice did you wish you could give the writers?’ Some of the judges have worked only with children’s writing contests, others with contests for material written by children, and still others have judged work written for adults as well. All gave the same kind of advice and saw the same problems — so before you enter your next contest, give these tips a try.

1. Don’t count on just your opinion. Have someone else read over your manuscript, for proofreading if nothing else. When the competition gets tight, you don’t want to allow typos to be the determining factor in a close race. Ask writing friends to critique your work so that fresh eyes help you evaluate how judges may see the story.