The Write Idea

[DonnaG]

COMPETITION RULES
The fourth annual Whittaker Prize writing competition consists of nine rounds, each lasting two weeks. It opens on March 12, 2011 and submissions for the final round will be due on July 16, 2011.

The competition is open to anyone over the age of 18 who writes fiction or poetry in English. Whittaker Prize judges and TWI administrators are NOT permitted to enter this competition.

There are two categories: fiction and poetry. Writers may enter one category or both categories. Anyone wishing to participate in this competition must currently be a member of TWI or register and be accepted as a member of the forum.

There is an entry fee of $30 Cdn. Writers may enter BOTH categories for a fee of $50 CDN. Fees may be paid via PayPal to donnagee at vianet.ca or email donnagee at vianet.ca to make other arrangements (i.e. cheque or money order).

Writers may enter AFTER March 12 but must submit the full entry fee.

NOTE: If you enter all nine rounds, the entry fee works out to approximately $3.33 per round. And you’ll have nine pieces of writing in your back pocket.

PRIZES
$200 Cdn for the winner of the fiction category PLUS $200 Cdn for the winner of the poetry category.

Winning entries from each round (fiction and poetry) will be published in an ISBN numbered anthology available for purchase before the end of 2011. Authors who place first, second and third in each category will receive a free copy of the anthology.

ENTRY SCHEDULE
Round One of this competition begins on Saturday, March 12. Three prompts will be posted up at 7:01 pm EST. Writers then have until Saturday, March 26 at 8:01 pm DST to submit their entries. This process will then be repeated bi-weekly for the subsequent eight rounds.

Fiction entries are limited to 2,500 words (not including title).

Poetry is limited to a maximum of 40 lines (not including title). Blank lines are not included in line count.

ENTRY INSTRUCTIONS
Entries are to be submitted by email to 2011whittaker at gmail.com on or before each round’s deadline.

In the subject line of your submission email, please include the title of your piece, your author name and round number (i.e. A Story/Poem by Joe Blow Round One)

In the body of your submission email, the following must be included:
· your TWI username
· title of your piece
· round you are entering (i.e. One, Two)
· prompt used
· attach your entry as a .odt or .doc file (Works pasted into emails will not be accepted. DO NOT include your author name in the attached file.)
· include word count (line count for poetry), excluding title, in your document; entries over word count or line limit will not be considered for judging
· PLEASE PROOFREAD CAREFULLY before submitting; ABSOLUTELY NO changes will be permitted once you have submitted your entry.

A confirmation email will be sent to you once your entry has been received.

Entries will be logged by the TWI administrator and then forwarded to the appropriate judge with all author identification removed.

MARKING SYSTEM
The following marking system will be used by The Whittaker Prize judges for all entries to this competition:

FICTION
mark out of 100
10 opening
15 characters
20 inventiveness
30 voice
15 ending
10 technicalities (spelling, punctuation, formatting)

POETRY
mark out of 100
10 overview
15 structure
20 imagery
25 language
20 rhythm
10 voice

Scoring for each round will be submitted via email by the judges to the TWI administrator only. Our judges’ decisions are final and irrevocable. Judges will not enter into correspondence with any entrant regarding work submitted to this competition.

JUDGES
This year, four published Canadian writers will judge the fiction and poetry sections of The Whittaker competition:

Fiction --

EVA STACHNIAK was born in Wroclaw, Poland and arrived in Canada in 1981 on an English scholarship to McGill University. Her first short story, "Marble Heroes", was published by the Antigonish Review in 1994.

Her debut novel Necessary Lies (Dundurn 2000) tells an immigrant’s story of national and personal betrayals, silences and lies. Its characters – caught in the web of love and betrayals – grapple with their dramatic past that takes them from Nazi Germany and Communist Poland to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the first years of democracy in the former Eastern Europe. It was first published in Toronto in 2000 (winning Amazon.com/Books in Canada First Novel Award) and in Poland as Konieczne Kłamstwa (WKTS 2004).

Her second novel Garden Of Venus (Harper Collins 2005) re-tells a story of an extraordinary woman, Sophie Potocka, courtesan, courtier, countess, and confidante to tsars, queens and kings in late 18th century Europe. The novel has appeared in Canada, England, Australia, New Zealand, Greece, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Serbia, Ukraine and Poland. In September of 2011 Doubleday Canada and Bantam Books USA will publish her third novel, The Winter Palace, which takes place in 18th century Russia and is based on the life of Catherine the Great.

Eva lives in Toronto. More information at http://www.evastachniak.com

WILLIAM MEIKLE is a Scottish writer now living in Canada with ten novels published in the genre press and over 200 short story credits in 13 countries and eight languages.

He is the author of the ongoing Midnight Eye series among others, and his work appears in many magazines, newspapers and professional anthologies. His ebook THE INVASION reached #2 in the Kindle SF charts.

He lives in a remote corner of Newfoundland with icebergs, whales and bald eagles for company. In the winters he gets warm vicariously through the lives of others in cyberspace, so please check him out at http://www.williammeikle.com.

Poetry --

SANDRA KASTURI is a Toronto writer, publisher and editor. She is the poetry editor of ChiZine.com and the co-publisher of ChiZine Publications (http://chizinepub.com). Sandra’s poetry and fiction has appeared in various magazines and anthologies, including On Spec, Prairie Fire, Taddle Creek, Contemporary Verse 2, Shadows & Tall Trees, Tesseracts 14, Evolve and Chilling Tales. She managed to snag an introduction from Neil Gaiman for her poetry collection, The Animal Bridegroom (Tightrope Books). She is currently working on another poetry collection and three novels—a mythological noir, a steampunk epic, and a dark YA fantasy. Sandra is the winner of the 2010 Whittaker Prize for poetry and is represented by the Anne McDermid Agency. She is fond of single-malt scotch.

Poet, novelist, and songwriter, LEA HARPER is the author of two collections of poetry All That Saves Us and Shadow Crossing (Black Moss Press) and four recordings, most recently, Lake of Many Winds, a spoken word CD with soundscapes. A past recipient of The LaPointe Prize and double-winner of The People’s Political Poem contest, she was also shortlisted for the international Being at Work Poetry Challenge and runner-up in the Surrey International Writers Conference Contest. Daniel Richler described her first book as "universal, transcending today's popular psychic symbols and mythologies".

Ms Harper's work has been widely published in literary journals and anthologies in Canada, the U.S. and the UK. Her music has taken her to Los Angeles, Jamaica, and South America. Along with twin sister Lyn, the songwriting team Syren released three records and received both Juno and Casby nominations, winning The Canadian Reggae Award for Top Duo and Best Video at The Black Music Awards (BMAC).

Lea has written editorials on the music industry for The Music Scene and for Billboard Magazine in New York and, and has worked as a freelance journalist covering the arts, entertainment, and the environment for the Haliburton County Echo, the County Voice and the Highlands Communicator. She currently lives on a lake in the Haliburton Highlands, writing and raising a family of dogs, horses and people.

In both categories, judging responsibilities will be shared. Each judge will score alternate round entries. In the last round, ALL judges will score entries (with scores averaged for final tallying purposes).

COPYRIGHT
Worldwide copyright of each entry remains with the author, but the organizers of The Whittaker Prize hold the unrestricted right to publish the winning poems and stories in the annual printed anthology.

RESULTS
As soon as possible following the entry deadline for each round, scores for each entrant (as determined by our judges) will be posted in that round’s topic on the TWI forum. Each entrant will receive an email containing their marks for that round and any comments provided by the judge(s). In addition, the winning fiction and winning poetry entry for that round will also be posted. Please note that this topic will not be viewable by non-members of The Write Idea.

As the competition progresses, an updated points total will be posted on the forum.

Separate forum threads will be created to enable posting of non-winning pieces and we encourage discussion of all entrants’ work. Regular forum rules regarding fair and humane behaviour also apply during the duration of this competition!

The winners of the 4th annual Whittaker Prize (the fiction writer and the poet who have attained the highest marks at the end of nine rounds) will be announced as soon as possible after the final round deadline of July 16, 2011.
_________________
TheRightEyedDeer -- Literary Ezine
TheRightEyedDeer Press storefront