Competition Results

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Finalists Announced

Thanks to all the people who entered this year’s Australian Icon-themed prose poem and microfiction competition. All entries were blind-judged by Carol Jenkins and the finalists are listed (alphabetically) below. We will announce the shortlist in late January and the winning entry will be named on Australia Day.

A Leap of Faith		Monica Goldberg
Bush burial		Richard Holt
down south		Stu Hatton
Friday Fries and Sunday Sundaes		Zoe Annabel Davies
Playing Outside		Trina Denner
Saturday Night on Jonson St		Paul Kew
The Old Man and the Pool		Paul Mitchell
The Swarm		Lynette Washington
The Swimmer		Richard Holt
Top Floor Dogma		Liam Copland
Under the maw of luna park		Mark O’Flynn
Who likes custard?		Caroline Reid

Meanwhile, our editors, Julie Chevalier and Linda Godfrey, are working with over thirty writers whose pieces have be selected to appear in our anthology, Stoned Crows and other Australian Icons, which will be released in March. Watch this website, or follow us in Facebook or Twitter, for further updates.

NOW CLOSED

Short list to be announced by mid-January.

****** NOW ACCEPTING ENTRIES BY MAIL see below for details *****

Taking the pith

Prose poetry & microfiction competition

Theme: Australian icons

Length: maximum 800 words

Deadline: November 30th 2012.

Enter now: Submit to Spineless Wonders

Spineless Wonders invites you to transport us into the capricious for our next anthology of prose poetry and microfiction.

Our judge, Carol Jenkins, is looking for small, clever pieces that take a sideways shove at the old, new and the yet-to-be-discovered Australian icons. ‘I’m looking for that leap of imagination and for de-cliche-isation. Those pieces that take a self-critical look at Australian life.’

Prize money for the winner ($300) and two runners up ($100).

Finalists and longlisted entrants will be invited to be included in the Spineless Wonders Australian icon anthology. Contributors will receive a fee (dinky) plus a copy of the publication (fab).

The anthology will be edited by Julie Chevalier and Linda Godfrey.

Carol Jenkins’ first book of poetry Fishing in the Devonian (Puncher & Wattmann, 2008) was short listed for the 2009 Anne Elder & Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards.  Billy Collins, the former US Poet Laureate, says “Fishing in the Devonian is one of the most interesting books I have the pleasure of reading in some time. Every poem is lively with conceptual and emotional play.”   In 2007 she established River Road Press (www.riverroadpress.net) which produces audio CDs of Australian poetry and blogs at www.showmethetreasure.blogspot.com. Her next book, Exit Speedis due out from Puncher &Wattmann late in 2012.

 

If you want to know more about the kind of writing we like – take a look at Small Wonder, last year’s prose poetry and microfiction anthology. Or you can listen to a selection of audio recordings from Small Wonder contributors here

We also recommend Vivienne Plumb’s collection of prose poems, The Cheese and Onion Sandwich and other New Zealand Icons.

 

 

 

Terms and Conditions of Entry

1.    Maximum length 800 words.

2.    Entries must be typed using 1.5 line spacing and 12 pt font size. The pages must be numbered. The title of the entry and word count must appear on the submitted work.

3.    Prose poems or micro fiction under consideration by another competition or publication or previously published or awarded will not be accepted.

4.    Entries will be judged anonymously. The author’s name must not appear on the manuscript.

5.    The judge’s decision will be final. No correspondence will be entered in to.

6.    Entrants must be over 18 years of age.

7.    Entrants must be either Australian citizens (living anywhere), or permanent residents of Australia.

8.    Entry fee is $7.00 for each entry. Multiple entries are invited.

9.   NEW Entries can be made electronically or by mail. Enter electronically via the Submissions Manager on the Spineless Wonders website www.shortaustralianstories.com.au Entries by mail must be accompanied by cheque or money order and a separate cover sheet for each entry with your name, address, email contact, the title of your entry and word count. Address entries to:

Australian Icons Competition
SPINELESS WONDERS
PO Box 220
STRAWBERRY HILLS NSW 2012

10. The closing date is 30th November, 2012. Late entries will not be accepted. Electronic entries will be accepted up until midnight. Entries by post must be postmarked 30th November, 2012.

11. Longlisted entrants will be notified in January. Results will be announced Australia Day, 2013.

12. Spineless Wonders will publish shortlisted and winning stories in the Australian icon anthology. All published entries, including the winner, may be edited.

Submit to Spineless Wonders

 

EARWORMS

Spineless Wonders Audio now open for submission

To submit, click here

Finalists Announced!
THE CARMEL BIRD

SHORT FICTION AWARD 2012

We are pleased to announce the short-list of finalists for this competition. We would like to thank all of those who entered. The overall winner, runners-up and commended will be announced on International Women’s Day, 2013.

Finalist Short List (alphabetical) with excerpts from Amanda Lohrey’s Judge’s Report:

Joanna Atherfold Finn, ‘Jesus Sandals and Anchovette’
‘Very engaging-manifest talent here. The child’s voice is artfully natural …’

Joanna Atherfold Finn, ‘Something for a Rainy Day’
‘The tone is beautiful in its sustained wistfulness, as are the descriptive passages, especially in relation to water.’

Sue Goldstiver, ‘Empty Rooms’
‘If its narrative project is to convey the menace and paranoia of a subculture then it succeeds.’

Erin Gough, ‘Night Trip’
‘This writer has a natural talent for story-telling and for creating suspense.’

Marjorie Lewis-Jones, ‘Shooting Star’
‘This is beautifully written. I like the immediacy and the naturalness of the voice which led me to feel that I knew the main character.’

Marian Matta, ‘Danny Boy’
‘… well written and beautifully paced … a very strategic piece of storytelling that unwinds its skein with great care and subtlety.’

Belinda Rule, ‘The Road to Toodleton’
‘I like the ambitiousness of the form here, the way the writer sets up a parallel or counter-narrative in the form of the child’s consoling fantasy and friends.’

Felicity Volk, ‘Ite, missa est (Go, you are sent forth)’
‘It is well written in the sense that from the very beginning it has strong conviction of tone … the main character has a complex sensibility which is rendered on the page with seeming effortlessness.’

Congratulations, all, from SPINELESSWONDERS

Click here for a pdf of the short list and excerpts from Amanda Lohrey’s report.

Finalist Long List (alphabetical):

Sue Booker, ‘Beware of God’

Joanna Atherfold Finn, ‘Jesus Sandals and Anchovette’

Joanna Atherfold Finn, ‘Something for a Rainy Day’

Sue Goldstiver, ‘Empty Rooms’

Erin Gough, ‘Night Trip’

Ratnam Keese, ‘The Fence’

Marjorie Lewis-Jones, ‘Shooting Star’

Marian Matta, ‘Danny Boy’

Amanda O’Callaghan, ‘Memory Bones’

Belinda Rule, ‘The Road North from Toodleton’

Felicity Volk, ‘Ite, missa est (Go, you are sent forth)’

Felicity Volk, ‘Gefunden (Found)’

To view Finalists pdf, click here

Long Story Competition

Judged by Amanda Lohrey

First prize: $500

Open only to women writers. 4,000 – 10,000 words.

Winning and shortlisted entrants will be considered for inclusion in the SPINELESSWONDERSLong Shorts e-stories series.

Closing date: 31 August 2012

Further info at www.shortaustralianstories.com.au

Amanda Lohrey is the author of several novels, including the award-winning Camille’s Bread. Her first collection of stories, Reading Madame Bovary (Black Inc 2010) won both the Fiction and Australian Short Story Collection—Arts Queensland Steele Rudd Award in 2011. She discusses long stories and her collection, Reading Madame Bovary, herehttp://bit.ly/bJIqLQ

Terms and Conditions of Entry

1.    Entries must be from 4,000 – 10,000 words in length.

2.    Entries must be printed on one side only, using 1.5 line spacing and 12 pt font size. The pages of stories must be numbered and must include the story title (but not author name).

3.    Stories under consideration by another competition or publication or previously published or awarded, at a national level, will not be accepted.

4.    Entries will be judged anonymously. The author’s name must not appear on the manuscript.

5.    The judge’s decision will be final. No correspondence will be entered into.

6.    Entrants must be over 18 years of age.

7.    Entrants must be either Australian citizens (living anywhere), or permanent residents of Australia.

8.    Entry fee is $20.00. Multiple entries are acceptable. Payment can be made using Paypal via the Product page on our website, by cheque or money order made out to Spineless Wonders and mailed along with entries.

9.    Each individual entry must be accompanied by a Covering Letter providing name, address, phone and email contact details, story title and word count.

10.    Mail entries to:

Carmel Bird Long Story Competition
PO Box 220
STRAWBERRY HILLS
NSW 2012

11. Entries must be postmarked 31 August, 2012 or earlier. Late entries will not be accepted.

12. Shortlisted entries will be notified no later than February, 2013. Results will be announced via this website on International Women’s Day, Friday, 8 March, 2013.

13. The winning and shortlisted stories will be considered for publication in electronic form by SPINELESSWONDERS as part of its upcoming Long Shorts series. Proceeds of the e-story series sales will go directly to authors, excluding a minimal percentage to cover administration costs. Further details regarding issues such as copyright, distribution etc are included in the publisher-author contractual agreement.

 

THE 2012 CARMEL BIRD SHORT FICTION AWARD

LATEST LATEST NEWS …

Unfortunately, we are not able to offer the Novella competition this year. But stay tuned for updates about The Carmel Bird Short Fiction Award.

LATEST NEWS!

This year we are running a NOVELLA competition, open only to women.

Entries close in August, 2012.

More details on how to enter will be available soon on this page.

 

 

140 Wonders winners announced!

Congratulations to:

Kathryn Yuen, winner, who will receive a KOBO Touch ereader

Sylvia Petter and Grace McCarter, runners up who will both receive Spineless Wonders ebooks

Jane Spence, readers choice winner who will receive a Spineless Wonders ebook.

Thank you to all our entrants. And thanks to our judges:

Bree Tinsley

Natalie Texler

Ben Crisp

Emily Craven.

And extra special thanks to the 140 Wonders competition organiser, our intern, Tosca Dasent.

 

140 Wonders shortlisters announced!

Congratulations to the authors of the top five shortlisted stories, as voted by our esteemed judges and the public via our Facebook page. These stories use only 140 characters to make us think, wonder, laugh and cry – that’s impressive.

Special mention goes to Jane Spence for Love In The Time Of Social Media, winner of the peoples’ choice award!

Watch this space for the announcement of the winning story in the next few days. Who’ll be reading our literary marvels on their Kobo eReader? You’ll see…

Jane Spence ‘Love in the time of social media’

They met in a Facebook group for natural light enthusiasts. Love at first light. By daybreak they had gone separate ways.

Kathryn Yuen Untitled

Accident. Coma. Amnesia. Strangers call me son-in-law. I attend funerals for a woman and baby I don’t know. I feel a void. But I also feel like a child playing dressups.

Martina Hoffmann ‘Hangman’

_ h a t   a _ e   t h e   e i _ h t  

_ o s t   _ o _ _ o n _ _   _ s e _  

_ e t t e _ s   i n   E n _ _ i s h ?

Sylvia Petter ‘Humpty the D’

OK, he fell. Yeah, and he was raw, but you can’t blame the king’s horses for trampling him and for making a mess. Somebody pushed him. Didn’t you, Your Majesty?

Grace McCarter ‘Neighbour’

There is always that guy who buys zombie comics and an energy bar to put in the Secret Santa. He wraps them up in clear cellophane so no one chooses that gift until his turn.

Deadline extended! The 140 Wonders Competition now closing January 31st

Opens January 1, 2012.

Spineless Wonders is celebrating the 2012 Year of Reading with a writing competition – 140 WONDERS. Prizes include a Kobo Touch ereader plus Spineless Wonders ebooks. Entry is free.

What is 140 Wonders? Based on the number of characters allowed in a Twitter post, submissions are to be 140 characters max. Any genre is accepted – be adventurous! The competition will be judged blind by volunteer judges – not published writers, not writing teachers, they’re aspiring creative types just like you.

To find our more about the judges and for inspiration and ideas for this competition, follow us on Facebook, click here.

Terms and Conditions of Entry

1. Maximum length 140 characters. This includes letters only. Punctuation and spaces will not be counted.

2. Entries will be judged anonymously. The author’s name must not appear anywhere on the manuscript.

3. Entry is free. Multiple entries are acceptable. You may include more than one entry in the uploaded file ie: more than one 140 character story in the document.

4. Entrants must be over 18 years of age.

5. Entries can only be made electronically, using the Submission Manager link below.

6. Spineless Wonders will publish shortlisted and winning stories on Twitter. The winner will be contacted after judging is completed to organise shipment of Kobo e-reader.

Results will be announced in February, 2012.

To enter, go to Spineless Wonders Submissions Manager

https://spinelesswonders.submishmash.com/Submit

small wonder prose poem/micro fiction competition

Winning entries

Winner: Charles D’Anastasi receives $300 for ‘Madame Bovary’

Runners up: $100 each to Erin Gough for ‘William Shatner vows to save the Great Basin Pocket Mouse’ and to Clare McHugh for ‘Briefly’.

Thanks to all those who entered our competition. We will soon post details on this website about the forthcoming publication small wonder, an anthology of prose poems and micro fiction.

Judging of the small wonder prose poem/micro fiction competition is now almost complete. We are able to announce the entries which have been shortlisted. The winner and runners up will be announced here on Australia Day. Entries from prizewinners and those shortlisted will be published in the forthcoming anthology, small wonder. We would like to thank all those who entered the competition.

Congratulations to the following whose writing has been shortlisted:

John Carey, ‘Ivan’

Charles D’Anastasi, ‘Madame Bovary’

Michael Farrell, ‘The Story of What’s Inside The Heart’

Adam Ford, ‘Sequel’

Monica Goldberg, ‘The Stranger from Skierniewicza’

Erin Gough, ‘William Shatner vows to save the Great Basin Pocket Mouse’

Gregory Gould, ‘The story of the thin red book that sits on the bookshelf’

Stu Hatton, ‘meds’

Stu Hatton, ‘refuse’

Jo Langdon, ‘Pause’

Kent MacCarter, ‘Light Foxing’

Clare McHugh, ‘Briefly’

Alyson Miller, ‘Impossible’

Cara Munro, ‘An Arrangement’*

Aden Rolfe, ‘The end of things’

Laurie Steed, ‘But what have you done lately?’

Sean Wilson, ‘Silver Fox’

*’An Arrangement’ was wrongly attributed last week to Scott Steenmsa.

Competition details:

Maximum 800 wds. Closed December 16, 2011.

Judged by joanne burns

First prize $300, Commended entries $100.

Winning and shortlisted entries will be published in the small wonder anthology. For more information on this competition go to, The Column

Terms and Conditions of Entry

1.    Maximum length 800 words.

2.    Entries must be typed using 1.5 line spacing and 12 pt font size. The pages must be numbered. The title of the entry and word count must appear on the submitted work.

3.    Prose poems or micro fiction under consideration by another competition or publication or previously published or awarded, at a national level, will not be accepted.

4.    Entries will be judged anonymously. The author’s name must not appear on the manuscript.

5.    The judges’ decision will be final. No correspondence will be entered in to.

6.    Entrants must be over 18 years of age.

7.    Entrants must be either Australian citizens (living anywhere), or permanent residents of Australia.

8.    Entry fee is $7.00. Multiple entries are acceptable.

9.    Entries can only be made electronically, via the Submissions Manager on the Spineless Wonders website www.shortaustralianstories.com.au

10. The closing date is 16 December 2011. Late entries will not be accepted. Entries will be accepted up until midnight.

11. Results will be announced in March, 2012.

12. Spineless Wonders will publish shortlisted and winning stories in small wonder anthology. All published entries, including the winner, may be edited.

Please note: the entry form has a default cover note section. Simply enter Not Applicable in order to proceed.

THE CARMEL BIRD

SHORT FICTION AWARD 2011 is now closed.

Judged by Sophie Cunningham

First prize: $500

Two runners-up to receive $100 each.

Winning and shortlisted stories will be published in the Spineless Wonders annual anthology along with stories by invited authors.

Closing date: 31 July 2011

Sophie Cunningham is a Melbourne-based writer and editor. She has worked as a publisher at McPhee Gribble/Penguin  Allen & Unwin and was editor of Meanjin between 2008 and 2010. She blogs at http://sophiecunningham.com/blog

Read our interview with Carmel Bird on The Column. For the results of the 2011 Carmel Bird Short Fiction Award click here.

Terms and Conditions of Entry

1.    Maximum length 3000 words.

2.    Entries must be typed using 1.5 line spacing and 12 pt font size. The pages of stories must be numbered.

3.    Stories under consideration by another competition or publication or previously published or awarded, at a national level, will not be accepted.

4.    Entries will be judged anonymously. The author’s name must not appear on the manuscript.

5.    The judges’ decision will be final. No correspondence will be entered into.

6.    Entrants must be over 18 years of age.

7.    Entrants must be either Australian citizens (living anywhere), or permanent residents of Australia.

8.    Entry fee is $7.00. Multiple entries are acceptable.

9.    Entries can only be made electronically, via the Submissions Manager on the Spineless Wonders website www.shortaustralianstories.com.au

10. The closing date is 31 July 2011. Late entries will not be accepted. Entries will be accepted up until midnight.

11. Results will be announced in November.

12. Spineless Wonders will publish shortlisted and winning stories in its annual anthology. All published stories, including the winner, may be edited.

To enter, go to Spineless Wonders Submissions Manager

https://spinelesswonders.submishmash.com/Submit