Category Archives: News

Submit your words to the Moth Poetry Prize

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Moth by Judy Darley

The Moth Magazine invites you to enter the Moth Poetry Prize. The deadline for entries is 31st December 2024.

It’s one of the biggest prizes in the world for a single previously unpublished poem on any subject and is open to anyone over 16.
The prize is judged anonymously by a single poet, and this year that poet is Fiona Benson.
Fiona Benson is the author of four poetry collections: Bright Travellers, Vertigo & Ghost, Ephemeron and Midden Witch (forthcoming). All three of her published collections have been shortlisted for the T S Eliot prize, and her books have won the Forward Prize, the Seamus Heaney Prize, the Roehampton Poetry Prize and the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize.
In 2024 Fiona received a Cholmondley Award from the Society of Authors. She lives in mid-Devon with her husband and their two daughters.
The Prize is open to anyone (over 16) from anywhere in the world, as long as the work is original and previously unpublished.
There is no line limit, and the poems can be on any subject.
The shortlist will be announced in March 2025 and the four shortlisted poems will appear in the Irish Times online.
Prizes
  • The winner will receive €6,000
  • There are three runner-up prizes of €1,000. Eight commended entries will win prizes of  €250
  • The entry fee is €15 per poem.

The winner of The Moth Poetry Prize 2023 was American poet Lance Larsen with his poem ‘Things I’m Against.’

The winner of The Moth Poetry Prize 2022 was British poet Laurie Bolger with her poem ‘Parkland Walk’ chosen by Louise Glück.

Visit www.themothmagazine.com for full details.

Readings at the Festival of Stories

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Festival of Stories1I’m excited to be reading some stories from my short fiction collection ‘The Stairs are a Snowcapped Mountain‘ at Festival of Stories, taking place at Sparks (the old M&S) in Broadmead, Bristol, on Sat 30th November 2024. I’ll be reading a short story and two micros (under half a page long!) packed with wonder.
I’m reading in the Stories For Grown Ups section at 1pm, but there’s fun book-inspired activities throughout the day, from 10.45am until 5.45pm. Most events on the day are free to attend.
Plus there’ll be chances to meet local authors, and buy personally signed copies of books. Don’t forget, books make unbeatable Christmas presents!

On your marks… NaNoWriMo!

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Dove Holes to Whaley Bridge gap in wall by Judy DarleyWednesday 1st November marks the start of NaNoWriMo 2023. Are you taking part? I love the concept of this word-packed month, with ardent writers across the world hunched over laptops sweating out every last drop of inspiration.

New to the concept? It’s pretty simple really. As they state on the NaNoWriMo website: “On November 1, participants begin working towards the goal of writing a 50,000-word novel by 11:59 PM on November 30.”

I know plenty of writers this enforced period of productivity really suits. For some folks it seems to be the ideal way to stoke up ideas and get them to catch alight on the page.

For me, the beginning stages of novel-writing are all about thinking ahead, and there’s no reason why you shouldn’t do some speedy planning even as you begin to write. After all, what else are you going to do when waiting for buses, in post office queues and doing the washing up?

Here are my top five preparation tips to ensure you make the most of this exceptional month.

1. Form a vision of the story you’re aiming to tell, with the beginning already shaped in your mind. If possible, do the same for the ending. Having an idea of the finale you’re working towards will mean you’re far less likely to veer off track!

2. Spend some time considering your characters – get to know who they are, how they think, what their goals are, and how they might help or hinder each other.

3. Know your setting. It really helps if you can really picture the place where your characters are spending time. Base it on somewhere you know, use maps or, for an imagined place, doodle your map! This is one of my favourites, particularly if it offers a valid excuse to meander in a much loved wilderness or similar.

4. Pick out a few dramatic moments your plot will cover and brainstorm them, then set them aside. Whenever your enthusiasm wanes over the intensive NaNoWriMo period, treat yourself by delving into one of those to reinvigorate your writing energy.

5. Finally, make sure you have plenty of sustenance to hand. For me, the essentials are coffee and chocolate. What are yours?

If you’re not a long-form junkie, why not take part in the flash version? Launched by the inimitable Nancy Stohlman in 2012, Flash Nano urges you to pledge to write 30 mini stories in 30 days. In 2023, more than 3,000 people took part. Even if not all turn out to be sparkling examples, you should end up with some that make your heart zing!

Upcoming literary events & activities

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Celebration of the Book bannerI’m looking forward to a few weekends jam-packed with literary hi-jinks.

Saturday 26th October 2024 The Great Festival Flash Off, online

At this online session, I’ll be teaching a one-hour version of my ‘Writing on Water’ workshop, inviting flash writers to explore different ways of using water to inspire or shine up themes in their writing, with generative exercises, examples from a variety of writers, and time to write.

The full day (11.00am to 6.30pm) only costs £30, with two hour-long workshops and one 90min workshop, plus readings, breakout rooms for chats, yoga for writers and a competition each time.

In addition to ‘Writing on Water’, the 26th October edition of the Great Festival Flash Off includes workshops with Ingrid Jendzrejewski and a discussion/reading/Q&A with Karen Jones and Diane Simmons.

Book for The Great Festival Flash Off here.

Friday 1st November, Clevedon LitFest Writing Competitions prize-giving
Jubilee Lounge, Clevedon Community Centre, aka Princes Hall, BS21 7SZ, from 7.30pm

CompAwards showing KatLyon, bristol poet 2024, on orange and blue backgroundTo announce the winners Clevedon LitFest Writing Competitions, there’ll be an inspiring evening of celebrations and performances. As one of the judges for the short story entries, I can’t wait to meet the writers of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd award-winning stories, and the writer of the highly commended story.

With a performance from the current Bristol City Poet Kat Lyons. it’s going to be a very special night indeed.

There’s no need to book for this free event – just turn up. See you there?

Saturday 2nd November, Celebration of the Book
Clevedon Community Centre, aka Princes Hall, BS21 7SZ, from 10am

Clevedon LitFest’s Celebration of the Book returns as a one-day convention of books and book arts.

A day-pass for all talks, discussions and readings costs just £15, with workshops costing extra.

Find full details for Celebration of the Book and book here.

I’ll be helping out with talks and panels throughout the day, and sharing a story or two of my own from 5.30pm as part of ‘Exploring the Edges: Literary fiction readings.’

Sunday 10th November, The Laurie Lee Prize for Writing 2024
Lansdown, Stroud, Gloucestershire GL5 1BB, from 5.30pm

As one of the shortlisted authors, I’ll be there to celebrate being part of the legacy of one of my long-time favourite authors and hear readings from the winning entries and those “which most captivated our judges” as part of Stroud Book Festival 2024.

The event will feature a performance of ‘April Rise’, a poem by Laurie Lee, set to music by Jonathan Trim and performed by Every Other Monday Choir, which sounds wonderful!

Book your free tickets for The Laurie Lee Prize for Writing 2024.

Saturday 30th November, The Festival of Stories
SPARKS (the old M&S), 78 Broadmead, Bristol, from 10am

The celebration of storytelling is a free day bringing together an “eclectic mix of seasoned storytellers, emerging voices and passionate listeners for a day filled with tales that span generations, cultures, and experiences.”

I’m part of the ‘stories for grown ups’ line-up and can’t wait to discover what else is going on.

Enter the Bath Children’s Novel Award

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Roman Baths by Judy DarleyThe Bath Children’s Novel Award invites submissions of books for children or teenagers from unaccented, and unpublished or self-published authors worldwide.

Deadline: 30th November 2024
Prize: £5,000, plus the coveted Minerva trophy, based on the famous sculpture in Bath’s Roman Baths.
Entry fee: £29.99 per manuscript with sponsored places available for low income writers.

Initial submissions are up to the first 5,000 words plus one page synopsis of novel or chapter book manuscripts for children, novels for teens, or up to three entire picture book texts with summaries.

Longlisted submissions are whittled down to a shortlist chosen by Junior Judges aged seven to seventeen years. 2024’s winning manuscript will be judged by literary agent Enrichetta Frezzato of Curtis Brown.

Shortlisted authors receive a compilation of Junior Judges’ comments on their full manuscript. All shortlisted authors win feedback worth £180 on their opening pages from an editorial director at Cornerstones Literary Consultancy.

The writer of the most promising longlisted novel will  win a place worth £1,980 on the 18-week virtual course Edit Your Novel the Professional Way from Cornerstones Literary Consultancy and the Professional Writing Academy.

The winner will be announced in February 2025.

Previous winners include Struan Murray for the manuscript of Orphans of the Tide (published by Puffin in 2020), Lucy Van Smit for The Hurting (Chickenhouse, 2018) and Matthew Fox for The Sky Over Rebecca (Hachette, 2022).

Find full details and enter here: https://bathnovelaward.co.uk/childrens-novel-award/ 

Got an event, challenge, competition or call for submissions you’d like to draw attention to? Send an email to judydarley (at) iCloud (dot) com.

Enter Clevedon LitFest’s Short Story Competition today

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Gulls over Clevedon Pier_Photo by Judy DarleyDo you live in North Somerset and write fiction? If so, I urge you to enter Clevedon LitFest’s Short Fiction Competition.

Open to North Somerset postcode residents only, age 19 years or above.

Prizes

  • 1st Prize is £100
  • 2nd is £75
  • 3rd is £50

One short story no longer than 500 words can be submitted.

Closing date = 12th August 2024 at 11.59pm BST.

Entry fee £5 (when paying please give the same email address as that used to submit your entry).

Your entry can only be submitted by email, as an attachment, using the email
address given when you paid your entry fee.

Find the rules and full details here.

Pay your entry fee here.

Julie Davies won the inaugural Clevedon Literary Festival short story competition with her story Remembrance in 2023. She says: “Winning the Clevedon LitFest Short Story Competition was a huge boost to my confidence as a writer. It’s a badge of validation I wear with pride. Also, it funded a whole new stack of books for my reading pile, thanks to the generous prize money!”

Your judges

Jackie Hales head shot cropJackie Hales moved to Clevedon in 2022 and is thoroughly enjoying being involved with local writing, reading, singing and walking groups. Before retiring, she taught Creative Writing modules, and back in the 1990s, she was a Poetry Guild national semi-finalist.

Jackie’s Her début novel was published in 2022, with her second due for release in August 2024. She has also had published memoir, short stories, microfiction and poetry, both online and in print.

She has annually marked a writing competition in Yorkshire, and she enthusiastically judged Clevedon Literary Festival short story competition last year, so she is looking forward to reading this year’s entries.

What Jackie is looking for in Competition entries:

“I’m looking for writing that draws me into its world through originality, impact and engaging characterisation, making me want to read to the end. Language use and structure  will be carefully crafted for maximum effect on the reader.”

Judy Darley photo credit Jo Mary Bulter Photography_cropJudy Darley is an award-winning writer, editor and creative workshop leader who relocated to Clevedon in December 2023. She is the author of short fiction collections The Stairs Are a Snowcapped Mountain (Reflex Press), Sky Light Rain (Valley Press) and Remember Me To The Bees (Tangent Books).

She previously judged competitions for National Flash Fiction Day UK and Oxford Flash Fiction Prize, among others. She won first prize in the New Writers UK Winter Story competition 2024 with her micro-tale A Bright Day.

In her other life, Judy is a Community Manager and helps to run conferences about financial wellbeing.

What Judy is looking for in Competition entries:

“I want to be moved by what I read. Although 500 words is no longer than a flash fiction, that’s enough space to create a story arc. There should be some sense of change in the story, if only in the protagonist. I want to read stories that ignite my imagination and capture my heart!”

Good luck!

Pure Slush invites music-inspired prose

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Heart leaf by Judy DarleyIndie publisher Pure Slush is currently inviting submissions for The Absent Bassoonist, the 4th and final anthology in Pure Slush’s Music series.

Submissions close on 30th September 2024.

Here is the set-up for the anthology …

The Quonsettville Community Orchestra is set to open the newly-rebuilt LaChute Cultural Center with a sparkling concert.

The concert on Saturday 18th June 2023, was set to include the first public performance in 68 years of Dudley Donegal O’Day’s magnificent (and very underrated) Triple Bassoon Concerto (transcribed for two bassoons).

But on the night of the concert, First Bassoonist Solomon Schweitzer never arrives.

Why?

The Pure Slush team want to know what Solomon is doing instead of showing up to perform.

What do you believe happened to Solomon?

This is an unusually specific brief, but luckily the team have supplied from clear pointers, starting with the story An Empty Chair by Matt Potter (click here to read).

You can also read some information on Solomon here, and explore a map of Quonsettville, where the action in The Absent Bassoonist is set, here.

Pure Slush publishes print anthologies of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry.

When asked what Pure Slush is ‘about’, founding editor Matt Potter said: “Fun, humour, attention, absurdity, humanity, love, sex, more fun and more humour and more absurd humanity.”

But what do the folks at Pure Slush like?

“Here are just a few pointers (and some editing tips): “Send a story about knitting that’s funny … and we’ll probably like it.

Send a story with arty, complex imagery … and we probably won’t like it.

Send an honest story about love or a funny story about sex … and we’ll probably like it.

Send a story that’s stylish but empty … and we’ll probably ask you to rewrite it.

Send a story about human foibles that’s real but has no feeling … and we’ll probably ask you to give it more emotion.

Send a story that’s 1000 words long but only in one or two paragraphs … and we’ll ask you to divide it further.

Or send us a story that is all reported (or indirect) speech – She said (that) she couldn’t keep her breakfast down – and we’ll ask you to make it direct (or quoted) speech – She said, “I couldn’t keep my breakfast down.” (What is this fashion for stories entirely made of reported speech? Direct speech is always more immediate and takes you there now!)

Send a story where you want us to love every single word and space … and not suggest changes … and, um, you will probably be disappointed and / or angry with the response. We enjoy working with writers who want to make their story better: writers married to every word can be tiresome.”

There are a lot more tips on the website. Take a look before you submit.

Find full details of how to submit your story here: https://pureslush.com.

Got an event, challenge, competition, opportunity or call for submissions you’d like to draw attention to? Send me an email at JudyDarley (@) iCloud (dot) com.

Enter Winchester Poetry Prize 2024

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Sunshine snail cr Judy Darley

Winchester Poetry Prize 2024 invites you to submit poetry “with a good emotional thwack.” The closing date for entries is 31st July 2024.

Entries cost £6 for first poem, £5 for subsequent poems.

A ‘Pay it Forward’ scheme introduced by 2020’s competition winner, Lewis Buxton, allows you to pay for an extra entry that will fund a submission by a poet who wouldn’t otherwise be able to enter the competition.

The judge is Clare Shaw, whose fourth poetry collection Towards a General Theory of Love (Bloodaxe, 2022) won a Northern Writers Award and was a Poetry Society Book of the Year. Clare teaches creative writing at the University of Huddersfield, and is a regular tutor at Wordsworth Grasmere, the Royal Literary Fund and the Arvon Foundation.

“Whatever the subject, fill your poetry with curiosity, and an excitement for language. Tone, language, form – all of these tools bring the poem to life in the imagination, intellect and heart of the reader. Send me your living, breathing poems!”

Winchester Poetry Prizes

  • 1st prize = £1000

  • 2nd prize = £500

  • 3rd prize = £250

Winning and commended poems will be published in a competition anthology.

The Kathryn Bevis Prize will be awarded for the best poem written by a Hampshire-based poet. 

The winner of the Kathryn Bevis Prize will receive £150, will read their poem as part of a special prize-giving event at Winchester Poetry Day 2024, and will feature in a printed anthology made available on the day. In addition, The Writing School will offer the winner of the Kathryn Bevis Prize three one-day poetry workshops with leading poets, as well as a five-day Digital Poetry Retreat with Costa Prize Winner Jonathan Edwards.

This prize is designed to offer a year of development opportunities and coaching to help the winner of the Kathryn Bevis Prize to develop their poetic career, in honour of Kathryn who has supported many new writers to develop their own talent.

Flamingo, Kathryn’s debut pamphlet published by Seren, was named as one of the Poetry Society’s ‘Books of the Year’ for 2022 and shortlisted for the Saboteur Award for Best Poetry Pamphlet, 2022. ‘My body tells me that she’s filing for divorce’ was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best Single Poem – Written – 2023.

Her debut collection The Butterfly House was published by Seven in March 2024.

Find full details of the competition here: www.winchesterpoetryfestival.org/prize.

Got an event, challenge, competition, creative opportunity or call for submissions you’d like to draw attention to? Send me an email at JudyDarley (@) ICloud (dot) com.

Enter the Searchlight Writing for Children Awards

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Brandon Hill, Bristol, child in tree by Judy Darley

The Searchlight Writing for Children Awards is open for entries.

The closing date for entry is 1st September 2024.

There are two competition categories: Best Novel Opening for Children or Young Adults and Best Picture Book Text.

Winners will be chosen by Rachel Petty of The Blair Partnership and Lorna Hemingway of Bell Lomax Moreton.

Prizes

First prize is a one-to-one call with the agent judge plus £500 for the author of the winning picture book and £1000 for the author of the winning novel opening.

Second prize is manuscript feedback from celebrated author and creative writing tutor Steve Voake or expert picture book editor Natascha Biebow of Blue Elephant Storyshaping.

The top 10 stories in both categories will feature in an agent/publisher pitch book and be sent to literary agents/publishers who have requested it.

The entry fee is £12 for the picture book category and £16 for the novel opening category.

For full details, visit www.searchlightawards.co.uk.

The Bridport Prize Memoir competition

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Ammonite on Sidmouth Beach_Photo by Judy DarleyThe Bridport Prize for Memoirs is open.

The deadline is 30 September 2024.

All entries are judged anonymously. To avoid disqualification, make sure you do not include your name, address, phone number, email, website, twitter handle etc on the document or in the file name.

Memoir extracts must be between 5,000 and 8,000 words.

If you’re longlisted they’ll ask for a total of 15,000 words, including your original word count. Shortlisted writers will be asked to submit a total 30,000 words, again including your original entry and longlisted word count.

The fee is £24.

Kit de Waal is judging memoir entries. Kit began writing in her fifties. She won the Bridport Prize twice for flash fiction. Her recent memoir ‘Without Warning & Only Sometimes’ tells of ‘hunger, hellfire and happiness.’ Her first novel, MY NAME IS LEON was shortlisted for the Costa Book Award and adapted into a BBC drama.

Kit says: “Write what you know is great advice, what better than by writing a memoir. Don’t think you’re too ordinary – there are no ordinary lives – and don’t think you’re too inexperienced. Write from the heart and tell me who you are. I can’t wait to read.”

Top prize is £1,500. 

The winner will receive a year’s mentoring from The Literary Consultancy through their Chapter & Verse scheme. You’ll also have the chance to consult with A.M. Heath, a leading London literary agency, plus get valuable advice from an editor at John Murray, part of Hachette publishers. You have the option of a discussion with the University of Exeter’s Creative Writing Department. In addition, the opening chapter/s of your memoir will be published on the Bridport Prize website. You’ll also be championed as part of the Bridport Prize family.

Don’t forget to check out the Writers’ Room on the Bridport Prize website for resources and inspiration.

Find full details of the Bridport Prize Memoir Award.

Find full details and enter your creative works at www.bridportprize.org.uk.

Got an event, challenge, competition or call for submissions you’d like to draw my attention to? Send me an email at judydarley (at) iCloud(dot)com.