Queensland Writers Centre compiles this page of the latest competitions, opportunities, residencies, training, conferences and funding news in writing and publishing. Further competitions and opportunities are available exclusively to through our monthly WQ magazine, which is available via becoming a member of Queensland Writers Centre, or you can purchase a straight subscription to the magazine.
All other competitions and opportunities listed on this webpage are presented in good faith. It is the responsibility of the writer to investigate any publishing avenues before signing a contract or pursuing publication. The Australian Society of Authors (ASA) recommends that where a prize is more than $1,000 , a $5 fee is acceptable. A $20 fee is generally unacceptable.
Information given should include the name, phone number, and street address of the organiser - be cautious where only a post office box is given. The names of the judges should be published on the competition's form and results should be publicly announced. Authors should receive publication fees (minimum ASA rates in appropriate category) where their entry has been published.
Unfortunately many writing and publishing competitions and opportunities, for some reason or another, do not meet all of these guidelines. Individuals need to secure full information and satisfy themselves that they are happy to enter a particular competition. The Australian Society of Authors provides their list of guidelines on literary competitions via their website.
Partnerships
Each year, Queensland Writers Centre also partners with peak industry organisations. Further information on these initiatives are available via the following links:
Queensland Greats Awards
The Queensland Greats Awards recognise and honour individuals and institutions whose lifetime or long term achievements have played a significant role in the history and development of Queensland.
This year celebrates 10 years of honouring the lifelong achievements of Queenslanders.
If you know a person or organisation that has made a significant contribution to Queensland, nominate them for a Queensland Greats Award. They could be honoured alongside past recipients like Indigenous singer/songwriter Kev Carmody, former Queensland Governor Leneen Forde AC and the Royal Flying Doctor Service.
Nominations are currently open and close on Friday 26 March 2010, with recipients announced as part of the Queensland Week celebrations (29 May – 6 June 2010).
For information please visit www.queenslandweek.qld.gov.au or telephone 3405 5215.
Deadline: 26 March 2010.
Regional Arts Australia Volunteer Awards
The Regional Arts Australia Volunteer Awards recognise, reward and encourage regionally-based artists and cultural volunteers who have made a substantial contribution to the arts in regional communities in Australia.
The awards will be presented at Junction 2010 - connecting the future, Regional Arts Australia’s national conference to be held in Launceston, Tasmania from 26-29 August 2009.
The Regional Arts Australia Volunteer Awards Program is supported by the Australia Council for the Arts, the Australian Government's arts funding and advisory body, through its Community Partnerships section.
Nominate yourself or someone you know who has made a difference in your community. Young people are particularly encouraged to apply.
For more information visit regional arts website.
Deadline: 26 March 2010.
Lorian Hemingway Short Story Competition
An internationally-respected short fiction competition, now in its thirtieth year, that celebrates the voices of writers who have yet to have their work widely distributed.
We seek fresh new voices in literary fiction. There are no genre or theme restrictions.
First-place winner: $1,000
Second and third-place winners: $500
Honorable mentions: given to stories that demonstrate promise.
First-place winner will be published in The Saturday Evening Post, with payment by the Post in addition to first-place prize monies.
Please visit our website www.shortstorycompetition.com for complete guidelines.
Deadline: 1 April 2010.
The Kingaroy Eisteddfod
The 2010 Kingaroy Eisteddfod is welcoming entries to its Literary Competition. For many years, budding authors have used this competition as a vehicle for skill development and professional recognition. The schedule can be obtained from the eisteddfod website: www.eisteddfod.southburnett.com.au.
Adjudicator: Debra Dickson (B.A., Dip.Ed., Grad.Dip.App.Ling.). Please contact the convenor, Jane Iszlaub, for more information on (mob) 0411 118 510 or jane@datawave.net.au.
Deadline: 16 April 2010.
ABR Short Story Competition
To complement our suite of literary competitions, Australian Book Review is presenting the ABR Short Story Competition, with a first prize of $2000. There are two other prizes. All three prize-winning stories will be published in the magazine.
Stories in English of between 1000 and 3000 words are eligible, as long as they have not been previously published and are not on offer elsewhere. Multiple entries are acceptable.
ABR Short Story Competition
First Prize: $2000
Second Prize: $500
Third Prize: three-year subscription to ABR
The entry form is available on the ABR website: http://www.australianbookreview.com.au/competitions/short-story-competition or by request: (03) 9429 6700.
Deadline: 10 May 2010.
Queensland Premier's Drama Award 2010-2011
Entries are now open for the Queensland Premier's Drama Award 2010- 2011 through Queensland Theatre Company. Entries can be from individuals or teams and should be reflective of Queensland: its politics, people, culture, history and experience.
Entries can take a variety of forms - for example sketches, songs, cabaret elements, multimedia or a completed first draft script. The award focuses on the creative development of three finalist entries leading to a fully-staged production of the winning entry by Queensland Theatre Company.
Please refer to the Conditions of Entry and complete the application form online through QTC's website.
For further information call Queensland Theatre Company's Artistic Development coordinator on 07 3010 7607 or email efryberg@qldtheatreco.com.au
Deadline: 30 June 2010.
Reason-Brisbane Poetry Prize
This is the competition's seventh year and in 2010 it is open to budding and established writers across Australia. Open theme. Prizes: 1st $1500, 2nd $500, 3rd $300. Ross Gillett, multi-award winning poet, will judge the entries and winners will be announced at the morning poetry event of Words in Winter, Daylesford on 14 August. For guidelines, see <www.daylesfordonline.com/poetryprize> or send a SSAE to Rules, PO Box 545, Daylesford, VIC 3460.
Deadline: 2 July 2010.
Call for Applications
Applications are invited for the Australian Centre's 2010 cultural awards:
Peter Blazey Fellowship
$15,000 fellowship to support a work in progress in the non-fiction fields of life writing, biography and autobiography
Kate Challis RAKA Award
$25,000 prize for indigenous poetry published between January 2005 and January 2010
For details and application forms, please visit: http://www.australian.unimelb.edu.au/public/awards/
Seeking an emerging... editor!
Are you an editor with energy and enthusiasm?
Do you have a strong creative vision?
Want to join the team at the Emerging Writers' Festival?
The Reader is our flagship publication, showcasing new and innovative writing across styles, genres and forms. The Reader helps us to extend our support of emerging writers beyond the ten-day festival, and expands the reach of the extensive ‘insider information’ we love to provide at our events. To learn more about The Reader, visit our online store at SPUNC.
The festival is currently taken applications for the role of Editor for this year’s Reader. The successful candidate will be contracted from 1st May to 31st October to manage and edit material for this year’s publication. You will also be invited to attend all events at this year’s festival as our guest.
For a full position description please email communications@emergingwritersfestival.org.au.
Deadline: 31 March 2010
Call for Manuscripts
Melbourne-based Clouds of Magellan seeks a literary novel manuscript by an unpublished Australian writer from the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender community. Details at www.cloudsofmagellan.net. The winning manuscript will be published later this year. Sponsored and proudly supported by Hares & Hyenas Bookshop (www.hares-hyenas.com.au).
Deadline: 31 May 2010
State Library of Victoria Fellowship
The State Library of Victoria invites applications from Australian writers, academics, artists, composers and researchers for the 2010-11 Creative Fellowships.
The 2010-11 Creative Fellowships are for periods of three, six months and 12 months. Grants range from $12,500 for three months to $50,000 for 12 months. Research projects can be in any area of the Library’s collections and are open to Australian residents who may be scholars, creative writers, artists, composers, or developers of new media, across a broad range of disciplines.
Applicants are encouraged to attend a general information evening to discuss proposals before they are submitted. This will be held at 6pm, Monday 15th February at the State Library, Village Roadshow Theatrette, Entry 3, La Trobe Street, Melbourne.
Application forms are available from the State Library website at: slv.vic.gov.au/research
Deadline: Applications for the Creative and Dr Joseph Brown AO Fellowships close on Friday 26 March, and the closing date for Georges Mora Foundation and Redmond Barry Fellowship submissions is 30 April.
Submissions wanted
Cordite submissions for our 32nd issue, Zombie 2.0, close in just two weeks. For this issue, they're seeking poems, articles, audio pieces, illustrations and photos on, about or around zombies, the living dead, ghosts who walk, monsters with fangs, disturbing creatures with no name or fangs - you get the idea.
For full submission details, visit their website http://www.cordite.org.au/submissions
Judith Wright Unearths New Ideas for Fresh Ground
The Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts is seeking fresh, new ideas from Queensland’s next crop of up and coming artists for the Fresh Ground funding initiative.
The Fresh Ground initiative will provide short-term creative development residencies at the Judith Wright Centre for projects demonstrating a high level of creativity and innovation. Each grant will include cash and in-kind support valued at $15,000. Applications for Fresh Ground are now open to any Queensland-based artist.
Director of the Judith Wright Centre, Ms Ruth Hodgman, said she was excited to be launching the new initiative and was looking forward to seeing what kind of innovative applications would be unearthed.
“Fresh Ground is designed to give Queensland-based artists the opportunity to explore new territory and create challenging work in a nurturing, supportive environment”, Ms Hodgman said, “We’re looking for innovative artistic directions that inspire and connect audiences.”
“All applications will be evaluated on their inspirational merit as well as their ability to expand and challenge pre-existing ideas about arts processes, practices and directions.” Ms Hodgman said, “We’ll also be assessing the viability of the project, in relation to the best use of the space, equipment and facilities available at the Judith Wright Centre.”
The Fresh Ground initiative welcomes applications for any artistic genre including theatre, dance, music, installation art, visual art, writing, multimedia or any performance art. The initiative will not accept applications for pre-existing works.
Applications for Fresh Ground must include a proposal of at least one outcome that provides an opportunity for engagement with other artists or audiences either during or at the end of the creative development residency. Outcomes may include live or recorded presentations of research, performance excerpts, workshops and discussions.
Applications for the first round of funding close 9 November 2009 with successful projects commencing after 1 January 2010. Applications for the second round of funding close 6 April 2010 with successful projects commencing after 1 July 2010. Application forms can be downloaded from the website www.judithwrightcentre.com or can be obtained by contacting the Judith Wright Centre on 07 3872 9000.
Deadline: Second round of funding due 6 April
Residencies
ABC Radio National announces 2010 Ian Reed Writers-in-Residence program
The Ian Reed Foundation is offering two residencies for Australian writers during 2010 at ABC Radio National to produce new works for radio performance.
The residencies will be based with drama producers at ABC Radio National in Adelaide, Melbourne or Sydney.
All writers who have not previously written for radio – whether poets, essayists, journalists, songwriters or creators in others forms - are encouraged to consider nominating themselves by first consulting the guidelines at abc.net.au/rn/airplay. New works and adaptations of existing work will be considered for selection.
In addition to creating a work for potential broadcast, the successful recipients will have the chance to observe work on other productions and to collaborate with ABC Radio National’s award-winning sound engineers and drama producers.
Ian Reed was a notable Australian writer of radio drama. He loved the freedom of the medium and when he died in 1979 he left the bulk of his estate to the ABC to encourage ‘potential and aspiring’ writers of radio drama. The Ian Reed Foundation administers the fund that is used to provide for competitions, workshops, script development and dramaturgy as well as other activities intended to support new writers for radio.
All details available via abc.net.au/rn/airplay
Deadline: Applications close on 30 April 2010.
JUMP National Mentoring Program
Are you a creative young Australian determined to make a career in the arts? Or do you know someone who is?
A new program to support the arts leaders of tomorrow has been launched by the Australia Council for the Arts today.
JUMP is a national mentoring program offering young and emerging artists the opportunity to develop a one on one relationship with an experienced professional in their chosen field.
Get access to project funding, skills development, online profiling, and creative showcasing opportunities, and connect with industry nationwide.
For more details visit www.jumpmentoring.com.au
Deadline: Applications to be a mentee or mentor in the inaugural JUMP program in 2010 must be submitted to Youth Arts Queensland by 5pm (Brisbane time), Friday 26 February 2010.
Expressions of Interest Sunshine Coast Creative Practitioners
NeoGeoGraphy is a project which brings together creative practice and new technologies to capture the community’s connection with where they live. It is a project of the Sunshine Coast Regional Council and Queensland Writers Centre with funding support from Arts Queensland and the Australia Council.
The council is seeking Expressions of Interest from groups or individuals who would like to be one of five NeoGeoGraphers (Neos) for 2010.
NeoGeoGraphy asks creative thinkers to explore and document how the Sunshine Coast community defines itself through place, interaction and time.
NeoGeoGraphy is open to all forms of creative practice and thinking. The documentation can be in any form, but must have the capacity to be digitally transmitted.
Details can be found via this form.
Deadline: 22 March 2010
Arts Queensland Career Development Grants
Career Development Grants (up to $5,000) assist artists and arts workers to pursue professional development opportunities that hone their craft and expand their horizons at national and international levels.
The grants are available as part of Arts Queensland's professional development program. Artists can apply for a Career Development grant at any time throughout the year.
For more information, email Arts Queensland Grants, visit their website, or contact Arts Queensland on (07) 3224 4896 or toll-free 1800 175 531.
Events
QUT Public Lecture
This year Creative Writing and Literary Studies is beginning a series of public lectures where well-known and internationally recognised creative practitioners - writers, poets, illustrators and so on - will come and speak about aspects of their craft. QUT are delighted to announce that the first lecture will be given by young award-winning writer Patrick Ness.
Patrick was born in America, but now lives in the UK, where he teaches a course in creative writing at Oxford University. He has won numerous awards for the first two novels in his brilliant fantasy novels trilogy Chaos Walking (the third novel will be published in May). The first book in the trilogy, The Knife of Never Letting Go (2008), has won the Booktrust Teenage Prize and the Guardian Award, among many others. The second, The Ask and The Answer (2009), was shortlisted for the Carnegie Award and won the Costa Children's Book Award last month.
This lecture will be on Monday, March 15, from 6.30- 7.30 pm in N515. Because it's a public event and Patrick has a big following here in Brisbane QUT expect a lot of people will want to come.
They have a limited capacity in the lecture room, so bookings are required as soon as possible by emailing ci.publiclectures@qut.edu.au or ringing 3138 5466.
Date: Monday 15 March, 6:30-7:30pm