This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
By Cesca Major
Every other Tuesday we will be compiling a list of competitions, courses and opportunities on offer for wannabe writers and those of you who might want to work in publishing. If you have a competition, course or opportunity you would like us to shout about send info to: cesca@writingtipsoasis.com. If you can't see your comp here we might be saving it for a later date.
And please Novelicious readers let us know how you get on! We'd love to hear your success stories…
Competitions
There are some great writing competitions, many closing at the end of this month. Here are just a few…
**NOVEL COMPETITION KLAXON! The Lucy Cavendish Prize (Judge: Allison Pearson) is closing on 27th March. This one is for unpublished novels written by women.
"To enter the competition, participants will need to submit the first 30 pages of an unpublished novel and a synopsis of the remainder of the novel (max. 10 pages long), plus the £10 entry fee. A shortlist of five will receive an invitation to the prize-giving dinner (attended by publishers, agents and authors), where the winner will be announced and receive a cheque for £1000."
Click here for more information
**The Exeter Short Story Prize has some fabulous prizes and closes at the end of the month.
Click here for more information
**West Sussex Writers have launched a national short story competition. You can write on any theme and the prizes are goodies.
Maximum word count: 3,000
Theme: Open
Closing Date: 31st March 2013
Prizes: 1st prize £200; 2nd prize £75; 3rd prize £50
Final judge: Simon Brett
Click here for more information
**The Yellow Room are also running a short story competition closing this month with cash prizes.
Click here for more information
**Swanwick runs a Summmer school and this competition's 1st prize is a week at their school. Yes please!
First prize: Free week at Swanwick sponsored by Writers’ News and
Writing Magazine, plus publication in Writing Magazine and on the
Swanwick website.
Second prize: Choice of manuscript critique from Writers’ News and Writing Magazine
Third prize: 1 year subscription/renewal to Writers’ News and Writing
Magazine
Theme (in all 3 genres): ’65, not out’ to celebrate our 65th anniversary
Short story: up to 1,000 words for adults, children or poetry.
Click here for more information
**The Yeovil Short Story Prize is always an annual goodie in the short story world. There are novel, short story and poetry sections. Great prizes.
Click here for more information
**The Bath Short Story also closes this month! This new international competition welcomes both published and unpublished writers. Entries of up to 2,200 words on any theme or subject.
First prize is £500 with other prizes of £100, £50 plus an additional local prize.
Entry fee: £5
Deadline: March 30th
Click here for more information
**Something short? Korepress also have a deadline of March 31st
Click here for more information
Courses
**We have been told the Horta Writing Centre is now taking bookings for the 2013 season.
"Horta is a residential writers’ centre located in the spectacular Els Ports National Park in Catalonia, Spain. From April to November each year, we offer an extraordinary programme of Workshops and Retreats to writers of all ages and abilities. We believe that guidance for writers should come from practitioners who have themselves excelled at their craft, which is why our Workshops are designed and facilitated by authors with established international reputations and outstanding teaching experience."
Workshops in 2013 include: Fiction with Gillian Slovo, Novel in Progress with Trezza Azzopardi, Historical Fiction with Sarah Dunant, Poetry with Don Paterson, Non-Fiction with Rebecca Stott
Click here for more information
** We love the sound of a Writer's Room Course. Got 1 day? Got 5 weeks to hand? Based in Brighton? They are affordable and sound super fun.
Booking: writersroombrighton@gmail.com
Opportunities
**This is a brilliant opportunity for those of us who are short of a penny or two. Kobo are working with Curtis Brown and have launched a Writing Scholarship!
One lucky person will be selected for one of these courses below.
Applications are now being accepted for the three-month Writing for Children course held April-July. Applicants must complete the online application form and provide the first 3,000 words of their novel in addition to a synopsis. Full information and eligibility criteria for the Kobo Writing Life Scholarship can be found here: Details of the scholarship for the three-month writing-for-children course starting in September and the six-month novel writing course starting in February will be made available at www.curtisbrowncreative.co.uk.
**Looking for an agent? Agent Hunter seems to be an extremely comprehensive resource for people searching for a literary agent in their field.
Agent Hunter is a completely searchable database of UK based agents and publishers. We’ve been working with the agents directly and the level of information you will find here is unparalleled. There has never been a resource like this before. You can find the right agents for your work and along with contact details, you will find comprehensive information about them, including their personal tastes and advice along with links to their twitter feeds and relevant online articles about or by them. And you’ll also find a wealth of advice on the site to guide you through the whole process of seeking representation – all of the things you will need to consider before you start, exactly how to go about doing it and what you might expect.
You can subscribe by visiting the Agent Hunter Website Once there, follow the simple instructions to register. It costs just £12 for a year's subscription.
**We have saved one of the best till last. This is a brilliant opportunity if you have a completed MS sitting in a drawer and want to really focus on your writing. It is money off an apprenticeship scheme!
"Building on over ten years mentoring experience, we have created a challenging and empowering task-based programme that comprises interactive workshops, tiered appraisals, consultations and ongoing support.
The placements, which take the form of an apprenticeship with a professional writer working in a similar genre, have an individual value of £3,500. They are available at a subsidised rate of £2,975 to five apprentices who will be selected from open competition."
Programme fees: £2,975.00 (Instalment payments available.)
Deadline: 31st May 2013
Click here for more information
**We were reminded of some of the competitions this week by a brilliant Twitter account – @LitRejections – do follow them for lots of writing news and opportunities.