2009 Whittaker Prize Competition
I'm seriously thinking of having a go at this myself, if only because the entries and judging process are more transparent than usual:
COMPETITION RULES
The second annual Whittaker Prize writing competition consists of nine rounds, each lasting two weeks. It opens on March 7, 2009 and submissions for the final round will be due on July 11, 2009.
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 £15 ($30 Cdn or US). Writers may enter BOTH categories for a fee of £25 ($50 CDN or US). Fees may be paid via PayPal to donnagee at rogers.com or email donnagee at vianet.ca to make other arrangements (i.e. cheque or money order).
Writers may enter AFTER March 7 but must submit the full entry fee.
NOTE: If you enter all nine rounds, the entry fee works out to approximately £1.70 per round. And you’ll have nine pieces of writing in your back pocket.
PRIZES
£100 ($200 Cdn or US) for the winner of the fiction category PLUS £100 ($200 Cdn or US) 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 in early September 2009. 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 7. Three prompts will be posted up at 12:01 a.m. BST (7:01 pm EST). Writers then have until Saturday, March 21 at 12:01 a.m. BST (8:01 pm EST) 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.
Entries are to be submitted by email to donnagee at vianet.ca on or before each round’s deadline.
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 Word document or Rich Text ONLY (works pasted into emails will not be accepted)
· 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.
Please note “Whittaker Prize entry” in the subject line of your email.
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:
mark out of 100
10 opening
15 characters (‘environment’ for poems)
20 inventiveness
30 voice
15 ending
10 technicalities (spelling, punctuation, formatting)
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
The fiction judge is Geoff Nelder --
Geoff lives in Chester, UK and is a freelance writer. A former high school teacher of geography and information technology, he has had non-fiction books published on microclimates in the UK along with several articles in academic journals such as Weather, Geographical Magazine and the Times Educational Supplement. Geoff is a part-time journalist who contributes humorous travel accounts to Cycling World.
He has had short stories published and won a commendation for a story in the Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Competition. He won first prize in the Café Doom short story competition in 2005. Besides his 2005 released humour novel, Escaping Reality, published by Brambling Books, he won an award for his mystery thriller, Hot Air, which is scheduled for publication by a Dutch Arts Academy in 2009. His science fiction blockbuster, Left Luggage, is in the hands of an agent. Exit, Pursued by a Bee, Geoff's science fiction novel, was published by Double Dragon Publishing in 2008.
Geoff is an editor for Adventure Books of Seattle, co-editor of Escape Velocity – a print and ezine magazine of science fact and fiction. He has been a freelance editor of novels and short stories for many years.
You can follow Geoff's antics here:
http://geoffnelder.com/
The poetry judges are S and M --
Steve Williams lives and works in Portland, Oregon with a lovely woman who writes and edits much better than he does but refuses to admit it. They co administer Wildpoetryforum.com: a community of world wide poets that post their work and give each other feedback. Wild has also been recognized by Writer's Digest as one of their 101 best sites for writers for the previous two years. You can find work by both of them in The Rose and Thorn, Stirring, and Amaze, among others. M has a poem at Dirty Napkin which also has an audio track of her reading the piece. S has a chapbook published by Rattlesnake Press in 2007 and M is working on a book of poems about an immigrant Italian family on the east coast. They also co-chair the Portland unit of the Oregon State Poetry Association and do a volunteer critique group for local poets each month. M is the poetry editor at the online magazine Stirring: a Literary Collection: http://www.sundress.net/stirring
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 2nd 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 11, 2009.