The Reader Online

The competition is underway for the 2010 Dylan Thomas Prize, the world’s top literary prize for young writers. The annual prize, named in honor of the famous Welsh writer and poet, and sponsored by the government of Wales, brings with it international prestige as well as a cash award of £30,000 ($46,000).

The Prize honors its shortlist finalists and annual winner for published work in the broad range of literary forms in which Dylan Thomas excelled, including poetry, prose, fictional drama, short story collections, novels, novellas, stage plays and screenplays.

The official launch of the 2010 Prize will take place this year at a ceremony and reception hosted at the British Consulate-General in Boston on March 1. Special guests and speakers will include Harvard Review Editor Christina Thompson, Tessa Dahl and former U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky.

Entries for the competition must be submitted by the publisher, editor, literary agent, or in the case of produced film scripts and stage plays, by the producer. Writers must be 18-30 years old, and the literary works must have been published within the past year to be eligible for competition.

Submission deadline is April 30, 2010.

The Stena Line Wigtown Book Festival presents the 2010 Wigtown Poetry Competition

The Wigtown Poetry Competition is the largest in Scotland with a first prize of £2,500, runner up prize of £750, eight additional prizes of £50 each and a Gaelic prize of £500. The winning poem and runner up will also be published in the Scotsman, or its sister paper Scotland on Sunday and will be invited to appear at the Stena Line Wigtown Book Festival 2010. The closing date of the competition is 5pm Friday 12th February 2010, and winners will be notified by Wednesday 5th April. The prize-giving will take place on Saturday 1st May.

There is more information about the Wigtown Poetry Competition online, including previous winners and judges for this year’s prize.

The winners of the 19th Sefton Writing competition were announced on Sunday 15 November at the annual writing awards presentation at Crosby Civic Hall.

Hundreds of people entered this year, of all ages and from across the UK, there were even two entries from abroad. They came from writing groups, schools and individuals.

Brian Wake, Head of Sefton Arts Development said:

As the judges, we whittled the hundreds down to tens, we read them quietly to ourselves, we then read them out, we read them upside down and inside out, got ten down to seven or so in each of the three categories and then after much, as they say, deliberation, we began to comb through the seven pieces of work.. We began to ask what the work did in terms of emotion, in terms of the language itself and then we allowed our personal taste to help us decide.

Keep an eye on the Sefton Arts website for more Sefton Celebrates Writing events throughout the year.

The winners and runners up of this year’s Sefton Writing Competition are:

Writing (including poems) by young people

First Prize: Child Soldier by Philip Meakin (12years) Birkdale, Southport.

Runners-up: Past or Present by Katy Heron (12years) Southport; The Lift Off by Harry Draper (12years) Formby; Journey Home by Sarah Cutler (14years) Netherton; Snowflake’s Journey by Katy Louise Minko (12years) Formby.

Poetry

First Prize: Fetch by  Margaret Gleave, Ainsdale, Southport;

Runners-up: Cuckoo Spit by Nicholas Hancock, Liverpool; In Vino Memoriam by Celia Gentles, West Kirby, Wirral; Journey’s End by Michael O’Leary, Formby; The Cataraque by David Costello, Wallasey.

Other Writing

First Prize: Travelling Light  by Glenys Adams, Waterloo L22.

Runners-up:  Persona Non Grata by Kay Frame,  Maghull; Trudge of the Valyries  by Andrew Highton,  Waterloo L22; Holiday Journey by Alison Rutherford, Cardiff; Aliens Welcome by Frank Conlan, Maghull;

For more information on next years Sefton Writing Competition please contact Netherton Arts Centre on 0151 525 0417 or email: Philip.Wroe@leisure.sefton.gov.uk

From Bea Colley, Education Manager at The Poetry Society

After piloting The Poetry Society’s slam championship in Liverpool last year, SLAMbassadors UK is now nationwide and coming back to the city for more beats and rhymes. Running in partnership with BBC Blast in 2009, The Poetry Society’s centenary, this is the chance for all 13-19 year olds to take part in a workshop that could see them meeting performance poet Benjamin Zephaniah and performing live in London in the Autumn!

Young people nationwide have been taking part in slam poetry workshops with The Poetry Society’s team of performance poets. They are encouraged to write a 60 second piece around the theme of identity, perform their poem/rap to camera, then are uploaded to the BBC Blast website to be entered into the SLAMbassadors UK competition. In November, six lucky acts will be invited to attend a workshop in London with internationally renowned performance poet Benjamin Zephaniah and poet and SLAMbassadors Mentor, Joelle Taylor. They will then perform at a prestigious London venue and receive ongoing support from The Poetry Society.

On Saturday 12th September, The Poetry Society is running two workshops with kind support from the Bluecoat, for young people aged 13-19. Liverpool poet Nikki Blaze and SLAMbassadors Co-ordinator Joelle Taylor will run sessions at the Bluecoat to help you start slammin’. See our website for more information.

For more information, please call Bea Colley on 020 7420 9894 or to book your place, email: blast-liverpool@bbc.co.uk. If you would like to bring a group of young people along, please get in touch. I would be very grateful if you could pass this information on to any young people you think may be interested and do let us know if you would like us to send some flyers for you to hand out.

This competition is part of Sefton Arts & Cultural Service’s extensive programme of writing-related events, performances, projects and workshops throughout 2009.

Any entries of poetry, stories, lyrics, essays, mini-dramas, plus any other forms of writing will be accepted, as long as they are on the theme of JOURNEYS.

Current Poet Laureate Andrew Motion writes that,

The Sefton Writing Competition is a very welcome event: it celebrates an exciting variety of new voices.

The Judging panel will consist of Brian Wake, Philip Wroe, and David Eddy.

Please click here for more information on terms and conditions, and how to submit your entry. The closing date for entries is 9th October 2009.

Our secret agent recounts the big event:

The Big Sweep

Loitering in Lime Street train station,
With newspaper and white carnation,
I was suddenly aware
Of a lady with pink hair
Approaching in great expectation.

At twenty-past five I duly set off for Lime Street with a newspaper tucked under my arm and a white carnation skewered ludicrously through my coat. Jen and Lee came along to help (and to laugh) and went in ahead of me to reconnoitre the ground and make sure I wasn’t about to be mobbed. I wasn’t. In fact, after loitering without intent for a couple of minutes, I was starting to think the whole thing might be a complete waste of time. But then – to my surprise and relief – a lady with bright pink hair looked very pleased to see me (first time I’ve been able to say that) and dashed over to recite the magic words and claim her prize. Tempting as it was to act dumb at this point, I congratulated her and handed over the books, which we’d tied in a nice gold ribbon, along with a few copies of The Reader magazine. Her name was (and still is) Wendi Surtees-Smith and she was (and probably still is) very, very excited. She’d been waiting since five o’clock, with a friend and small child, and couldn’t believe her luck. Neither could we.

Still, I felt we’d done our bit to celebrate and commemorate, in some small way, America’s greatest writer of detective fiction. And had a good time into the bargain. How many other hopefuls had been waiting and had left disappointed will almost certainly never be known…

But this Chandleresque assignation
Was not such an odd situation.
Quite the opposite, I’d say -
Just an ordinary day
At The Reader Organisation.

Today is the fiftieth anniversary of the death of the greatest detective fiction writer of the last century, Raymond Chandler. We’re marking this event by giving away a set of five Chandler hardbacks (reissued by Hamish Hamilton with their original first edition cover art) at 17.30pm in Liverpool Lime Street Station. Click here to find out how you can win.

In Chandler’s books the tough, modern world of twentieth century Los Angeles is channeled through the much older worldview of Philip Marlowe, a detective who laments the upending of a romantic code of honour and courtly love.

Click here to read Chris Routledge’s article ‘Chandler’s Reverse Romances’ in full.

To mark fifty years since the death of Raymond Chandler we are giving away a special set of five Chandler hardbacks absolutely free! Reissued by Hamish Hamilton with their original first-edition cover art, the books go on sale tomorrow priced £12.99 each.

To claim this wonderful prize you must follow these instructions:

Listen very carefully. We will say this only once. Go to Liverpool Lime Street railway station on Thursday 26th March at 17:30 precisely. One of our undercover agents will be waiting. The agent will be wearing a white carnation and carrying a copy of the Liverpool Daily Post. The merchandise will be given to the first person to make contact with these words: “Excuse me. Do you know who killed the chauffeur?”

Keep your eyes peeled on this blog and our website for more clues over the next twenty-four hours.

Perhaps you’re soon to meet a fair stranger?

Good luck on your mission. This message will not self-destruct.

CALLING ALL FICTION WRITERS BETWEEN 18 AND 24 YEARS OLD.

The David Rattray memorial fiction prize is an annual writing competition for 18-24 year olds, set up to honour historian David Rattray. David was a self-taught internationally renowned expert on the Anglo-Zulu war of 1879, who was sadly murdered in 2007. He ran the Fugitives’ Drift Lodge with his wife Nicky, near Rorke’s Drift located in Kwa Zulu Natal.

The winner of the competition will enjoy a two-night stay at Fugitive’s Drift, visit selected battlefield of the Anglo-Zulu wars and also receive £2,000. Plus there are two runners-up prizes of £1,000. The winning essay will also be read by Maggie Phillips, one of the senior executives at the Ed Victor Ltd Agency, providing exposure of the winner’s skills to the publishing world.

How to enter:

To enter, you need to write an essay of between 1,000 and 1,400 words, it should be a work of fiction entitled, “Reconciliation”.

Entries will be judged by a prestigious judging panel comprising of: Graham Boynton, The Daily Telegraph; Lord Hurd, author and former UK Foreign Secretary; Lucia van der Post, author; Francine Stock, author and broadcaster; Pumeza Matshikaza, opera singer; Nicky Rattray, David’s widow.

Essays need to be sent in Word format to rattray@lme.com or, post five A4 copies to: David Rattray Memorial Competition, 56 Leadenhall Street. London, EC3A 2DX to be received by June 1, 2009. Entrants must include their name, address and telephone number.

Dorling Kindersley publishers are looking for members of the public to submit unique objects with incredible stories. The winning entry will be published in our new book All This Makes Life Worth Living. This book of wonders, published later this year features a vast array of astonishing items that add something to the world we live in, from Jimi Hendrix’s burnt guitar to Edison’s lightbulb.

About the book…

At a massive 1000 pages, the book will be the largest project DK have ever taken on, and it aims to cover everything in this world that makes life worth living. Featuring images of the world’s most amazing and unique objects, each spread will feature an item that will have a story behind it.

A mangled, burnt out guitar is actually the guitar that belonged to Hendrix who used to set fire to his guitar on stage using lighter fluid; an old door lock turns out to be the object that kept Mandela in prison for 27 years during the South African apartheid. What may just appear to be some random object will actually have a significant tale to tell that has contributed to the world we live in today.

Competition

This is your chance to be part of the project. Do you own a rare, interesting, unseen, inspirational or amazing object that represents what makes your life worth living? It could be anything from a one-off piece of art to a ticket stub from the greatest gig you ever went to.

To enter you need to email AllThisBook@uk.dk.com with an image of your object and a maximum of 100 words on what makes it so worthy of a place in the book. The most unique and inspirational objects will be shortlisted and then an ultimate winner will feature within the book when it’s published.

You can find out more on the website.  The competition closes at Midnight, Friday 30th January.