The Write Idea

[flirtybee]

The 2012 Whittaker Prize for Fiction and Poetry


COMPETITION RULES
The fifth annual Whittaker Prize writing competition consists of six rounds. It opens on June 9th 2012 and submissions for the final round will be due on September 8th 2012.

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 $20 Cdn. Writers may enter BOTH categories for a fee of $35 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 June 9th but must submit the full entry fee.

NOTE: If you enter all six rounds, the entry fee works out to approximately $3.33 per round. And you’ll have six pieces of writing in your back pocket, complete with individual judge scoring and feedback.

PRIZES
$150 Cdn for the winner of the fiction category PLUS $150 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 2012. 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, June 9th. Three prompts will be posted up at 7:01 pm Eastern (Midnight UK time). Writers then have until Saturday, June 23rd at 7:01 pm Eastern to submit their entries. At that time the prompts for the second round will be posted. Although we normally post rounds on a bi-weekly basis, as noted in the following schedule the fourth round allows entrants a 3 week window to try and cross the main vacation dates.

June 9th, 2012 – First prompts are posted on the forum
June 23rd, 2012 – First round entries close, second round prompts go up.
July 7th, 2012 – Second round entries close, third round prompts go up.
July 21st, 2012 – Third round entries close, fourth round prompts go up.
August 11th, 2012 – Fourth round entries close, Fifth round prompts go up.
August 25th, 2012 – Fifth round entries close, Final round prompts go up.
September 8th, 2012 – Final round entries close.

Results will be announced as soon as possible once the final marks from the judges are in.

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, two published British writers will judge the fiction and poetry sections of The Whittaker competition:

Fiction --


Geoff Nelder has a wife, two grown-up kids, and lives in rural England within an easy cycle ride of the Welsh mountains. Publications include several non-fiction books on climate reflecting his other persona as a Fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society; over 50 published short stories in various magazines and anthologies; thriller, humour, science fiction, and fantasy novels. He’s been a fiction judge on several occasions, and has co-written a guide on winning short story competitions coming out soon. A former teacher for 30 years, Geoff is now a freelance editor.



Poetry --

Mandy Pannett lives in West Sussex, UK. She is the author of the novella ‘The Onion Stone’ (Pewter Rose Press 2011) and of three poetry collections: ‘Bee Purple’ and ‘Frost Hollow’ (Oversteps Books) and ‘Allotments in the Orbital’ (Searle Publishing) A new collection ‘All the Invisibles’ will be published later this year by Sentinel Poetry Movement.

She has been placed in several national competitions and judged others for Slingink, the Slipstream Poets, Sentinel Literary Quarterly and Excel for Charity. A keen member of The Write Idea she was the winner in the recent Stirred Poet and also the 2011 Whittaker poetry competitions. She is glad to have this opportunity to express her appreciation of the forum and to give something back.


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 5th annual Whittaker Prize (the fiction writer and the poet who have attained the highest marks at the end of six rounds) will be announced as soon as possible after the final round deadline of September 8th 2012.
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sometimes impossibility is only a state of mind, and yes, dammit, I do mind! -DP

The increase of disorder or entropy is what distinguishes the past from the future, giving a direction to time - Stephen Hawking