Next Journalism:
short story

Date: 19 May 2011

Ebiks Theatre Studio, Ibadan, cordially invites you to the public presentation of Early Flights a collection of stories by Aderinsola Lewis, Olamide Abiodun, Kashif Abdulkareem, Adetola Lewis, Amamat Akanni, and Eriakha Edgar. The book is edited by Ebika Anthony.

The event will be held at 10 AM at Alliance Francaise, beside Magistrate Court, Seventh Day Adventist Road, Iyaganku, Ibadan. Emmanuelle Esnault (Director, Alliance Francaise, Ibadan) will be the chief host.

Contact Information:

For inquiries: RSVP - Fatimah Abdulkareem (immediate past president of NAWOJ) at 08034276220

Deadline: 30 June 2011

Think beyond the borders of the usual settings (The United States seems to be the only place where spaceships land). Future Hong Kong. Post-apocalyptic Africa. The drowned coastlines of Australia in a warmer world. A city beneath the waves near Easter Island. India five thousand years from now.

Future Lovecraft will open to submissions for short stories and poetry from May 1 to June 30, 2011. Do not send any submissions before this date. Yes, we mean it.

The anthology will be available in print and as an e-book, and is edited by the eldritch duo of Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Paula R. Stiles.

What We Want

Lovecraftian science fiction stories. ‘Lovecraftian’ can include Mythos elements, but we have a broader view of what Lovecraftian means. Interpret and distill it. Stories may be set in the near future or distant future. They may be cyberpunk, biopunk, space opera, dystopic, post-apocalyptic, or any other flavour of science fiction.

Surprise us with your visions of the future. Think beyond the borders of the usual settings (The United States seems to be the only place where spaceships land). Future Hong Kong. Post-apocalyptic Africa. The drowned coastlines of Australia in a warmer world. A city beneath the waves near Easter Island. India five thousand years from now. The distant spaceport of New Port-au-Prince. The Martian and Lunar colonies. Give us protagonists with diverse and interesting backgrounds. Give us women who can battle Nyarlathotep’s deadly soldiers with wit and bravado, not sacrificial space-maidens. Gives us the story of the little folk that are often forgotten, like the cook aboard the space vessel who discovers a terrible secret.

Further fiction guidelines below. For poetry, send up to three poems pasted in the body of the e-mail, with a cover letter. Poems paid at $10 CAD per poem. A physical contributor’s copy and e-book copy are provided.

Length

Short fiction (1,000 words) to novelette (10,000 words). Keep in mind we have a payment cap of $70 CAD, and limited space in the anthology, so your long novelette might be better served by finding another home.

Payment

One cent per word up to a maximum of $70 CAD; one physical copy of the anthology and one e-book copy.

Payment made via PayPal or Canadian check upon publication.

We are purchasing first English anthology print and electronic rights.

Reprints

Considered, with a few caveats:

1. Indicate where and when the story was originally published in your cover letter.
2. Reprints offered should not be easily available in print or online.
3. Payment is a flat $30 CAD for reprints.

If you published it in a small collection in 1985 and it’s no longer on the market, that’s fine. If it was published in a German magazine and never translated to English, we’d like to see it. If it appeared in a now-defunct zine, that’s okay, too. If it was in a recent issue of an English-language zine that is currently online, no.

Submitting

E-mail us at innsmouthfp AT gmail.com. Subject line: Future Lovecraft, [Title of your Story, Author's Name]. The subject line is important; otherwise, the story might go into the wrong pile.

Do not send simultaneous submissions. Do not send more than one short story submission, because we will not consider more than one at a time and will make you resubmit any simultaneous submissions after we answer on the previous one. If we reject one story, you can send another one.

Include a cover letter with the story word count, salient writing credits and any reprint information (if applicable). Yes, we do read cover letters, so please include the information (Paula gets cranky when stories arrive sans byline, title, or cover letter).

Attach story as an RTF (preferred) or Word document. Use standard manuscript format. Italics as italics, bold as bold. No fancy fonts.

Stories can be sent in English, French, or Spanish.

Submissions are accepted from May 1 to June 30, 2011. Do not send anything before or after that date. If you do, we will ignore it.

We will reject some stories as they come in and send others to the hold pile. Final story selection will take place in July 2011.

Contact Information:

For inquiries: innsmouthfp AT gmail.com

For submissions: innsmouthfp AT gmail.com

Website: http://www.innsmouthfreepress.com

Concrete Orchid Media is seeking story submissions for an upcoming anthology about growing up as a black girl who never quite fit in. All writers, photographers, and illustrators are invited to share their personal experiences about what it was like being the odd woman out.

Perhaps your fashion sense was way ahead of its time. Your skateboard was frowned upon, or your comic book collection was just too "weird" to reveal to your friends. Maybe your musical tastes dipped a little too far into other genres, or you simply refused to accept the traditional definition of being "ladylike."

Wherever you are in your journey, or whatever your unique story may have been, your experience defining (and redefining) your identity will make for a colorful collection of touching, inspiring, and hilarious stories.

The purpose of this book project is to celebrate our beautiful eccentricities. Each contributor will have the opportunity to discuss when, where, or how her identity as "quirky" began to take shape, and how that affected a particular moment, or even shaped her entire life.

If you, or someone you know, is an eccentric/quirky/awkward black girl with a flair for writing, photography, or illustration, please contact anthology@concreteorchid.com with the following information:

Name
Age
Location
Contact Info
A super short bio
A brief summary of your personal experience/possible story idea
A sample of your work or link to an online portfolio

Contact Information:

For inquiries: anthology@concreteorchid.com

For submissions: anthology@concreteorchid.com

Website: http://www.concreteorchid.com/

Deadline: 11 May 2011

The workshop is a component of Fidelity’s corporate Social Responsibility, through which the bank continues to push for a better society. Participants are expected to read and discuss a wide range of fiction as well as complete short writing exercises. Entries open on Monday 18 April 2011 to Wednesday 11 May 2011. Participation in the workshop is limited to those who apply and are accepted. A public symposium featuring readings and panel discussions will be held on the last day of the workshop.

To apply, send an e-mail to: Creative.writing@fidelitybankplc.com. Your e-mail should bear the title – “Workshop Application”.

The body of the e-mail should contain the following:
1. Your name
2. Your address
3. A few sentences about yourself (not more than 50 words)
4. A writing sample of between 200 – 1000 words

Please note that the workshop is purely meant for fiction writers. Any entry that does not fall into this category will be automatically rejected. Acceptance will be based on quality of the entry. The entry must be pasted or written in the body of the e-mail. Do NOT send any attachments. Applications with attachments will be automatically disqualified. If accepted, you will be notified by June 10, 2011.

Contact Information:

For inquiries: Creative.writing@fidelitybankplc.com

For submissions: Creative.writing@fidelitybankplc.com

Website: http://www.fidelitybankplc.com/

Banipal publishes its fortieth issue, and by amazing coincidence the issue celebrates Libyan literature at this extraordinary historical moment of uprising and change in the Arab world, especially in Libya. Page 1 is given over to a statement by hundreds of Arab intellectuals, writers and journalists that is circulating online, a declaration of “full solidarity with the Arab peoples who have gone out into the streets to demand their legitimate rights”.

With 135 pages of terrific reading from both Libya’s foremost and emerging fiction writers, introduced by Omar Abulqasim Alkikli on The Libyan Short Story and Ibrahim Ahmidan on The Libyan Novel, the feature presents a wide range of works by 17 authors from inside and outside Libya, as well as a profile of the pioneer literary figure Ali Mustafa al-Musrati, and other articles.

The hard-hitting and compelling short stories draw on life experiences, on family tales, on loss, emotions and fears, dreams, travelling, exploring different cultures, growing up, relations between the sexes. They also have equally intriguing titles, such as Omar el-Kiddi’s The wonderful short life of the dog Ramadan, Ghazi Gheblawi’s The Rosy Dream, Mohammed al-Asfar’s The Hoopoe, Ahmed Fagih’s pyschological drama Lobsters, Najwa Binshatwan’s His Excellency the Eminence of the Void, Azza Kamil al-Maghour’s The Bicycle, Mohammed al-Arishiya’s The Snake Catcher, Mohammed al-Anaizi’s He was Holding a Rosary. Giuma Bukleb gives us two tales set in North London, while Omar Abulqasim Alkikli and Redwan Abushwesha provide much food for thought with their very short satirical stories.

The excerpts and chapters from novels include Saleh Snoussi’s historical saga, set in Ottoman times, Valley of the Wind, Hisham Matar’s new work, written in English, Anatomy of a Disappearance, Wafa Al-Bueissa’s Hunger has Other Faces, Ibrahim al-Koni’s New Waw, about the winged people – birds of the desert, Mohammed Mesrati’s work-in-progress Mama Pizza, whose hero is Ali Guevara, and Razan Naim Moghrabi’s Women of the Wind, which was longlisted for the 2011 International Prize for Arabic Fiction.

Banipal 40 also includes works by award-winnning authors from Morocco, Oman and Lebanon, respectively Abdelkarim Jouiti, Jokha al-Harthi, Abdo Wazen, plus an in-depth interview with Lebanese novelist Alawiya Sobh.

Contact Information:

For inquiries: samuel@banipal.co.uk

Website: http://www.banipal.co.uk/

Deadline: 30 August 2011

Our next open anthology will begin accepting submissions on June 1, 2011, and we will take stories until August 30, 2011. The theme of this anthology is “Fish”. We want your mythic adventures and modern retellings. We want Dagan, not of Lovecraft but of the Phillistines. We want Ku-ula, of Hawaii, and Hatmehyt, and Nereus with his bounty. We want magic koi in ancient ponds and the street shaman with his fishy avatar, stalking the streets in some odd future. We want sharks, hunting far out at sea. We want carnival goldfish with short-lived secrets.

Send us something beautiful.

Submit stories of up to 4,000 words (flash of under 1000 is also encouraged) to: submissions@daganbooks.com

Stories must be sent as a .doc attachment. Do not double space after the end of sentences. Do use paragraphs and tab indents. Do no add an extra line after each paragraph.

Subject heading must have: [FISH] Story Title, Author Last Name

This project pays 1 cent per word plus 1% royalty, paid quarterly, for the first two years of the book’s life.

Contact Information:

For inquiries: submissions@daganbooks.com

For submissions: submissions@daganbooks.com

Website: http://daganbooks.com/

Deadline: 1 August 2011

The Pen Writing Competition is an international short story writing competition designed to find talent within our Muslim youth. This competition encourages creative writing that includes elements of Islamic morality. This unique opportunity will allow our young Muslim writers to use their talent in positive ways, encouraging them to create healthy alternatives to fairy tales and secular fiction that have little benefit to readers aside from diversion and cheap entertainment.

We are pleased to announce that there are valuable prizes for first, second and third place winners in each of our topics. Also, we will publish an anthology of all the winning stories! This once in a lifetime opportunity that should not be missed. We encourage teenagers of all writing ages and capabilities to enter this contest, and look forward to reading everyone's stories!

The deadline for the entries is August 1st 2011.

Each contestant may submit a maximum of two entries. If more than two entries are received the competition committee will only consider the first two.

There are three age groups: the junior group, the senior group and the adult group.

Junior group: ages 9-12, word count: (700-1500) words

Senior group: ages 13-17, word count: (2000-4000) words

Adult group: ages 18-23, word count: (5000-8000) words

The categories for this competition are: strength, beauty and hope. All stories submitted must go under one of these categories.

Entries will only be accepted via email.

Each contestant must submit an entry form, found here.

Stories must relate to Islam and should not go against the values that govern a Muslims life.

The story must be original work that has not been published previously.

The competition committee claims the rights to publish any story that wins.

Submit your stories to: thepen_competition@yahoo.com

Remember to include your name and title on the story itself.

How to Enter

Please fill in the entry form here. Then email your story as an attachment to: thepen_competition@yahoo.com.

Contact Information:

For inquiries: thepen_competition@yahoo.com

For submissions: thepen_competition@yahoo.com

Website: http://www.thepencompetition.com/

Ibadan-based Nelson Publishers, a subsidiary of Evans Publishing, last year launched the Nelson Fiction Series. Nelson Fiction will be aiming to publish works of Nigerian writers and are looking to publish six books annually. They welcome manuscripts for consideration.

Works may be on any subject matter, which should be typed and double spaced with the writer's info; name, address, telephone number and email address, included on the first page of the manuscript. The manuscript should not be bound, but paginated. Short story anthology writers could send in as many as six examples of their works. Good writing is a requirement.

Manuscripts should be sent by post to Nelson Publishers, Jericho road, Ibadan, Oyo State or emailed to nelsonfiction@gmail.com.

Contact Information:

For inquiries: nelsonfiction@gmail.com

For submissions: nelsonfiction@gmail.com

Website: http://nelsonfiction.blogspot.com/

Deadline: 15 July 2011

THE SHORT STORY COMPETITION CALL FOR ENTRIES

The Intwasa Short Story Competition is an annual literary event seeking to promote original creative writing talent in both English and Isindebele. The competition has two awards; the Yvonne Vera award for best short story in English and the N. S. Sigogo award for best short story in isindebele. The prize for each award will be $500.

There is also a junior section of the competition open to high school students in Zimbabwe. The prizes for the junior sections will be $200 for each award.

The English Award is named after the late Dr. Yvonne Vera who is arguable one of the best writers writing in English to emerge out of Bulawayo and Zimbabwe as a whole. The Ndebele award is named after Ndabezinhle S. Sigogo. Mr. N. S. Sigogo was a prolific writer and probably the most published Ndebele writer with over two dozen publication to his name.

The Short Story Competition is supported by Hivos, Africalia Belgium, Rural Libraries and Resources Development Programme (RLRDP) and Turn Up College.

The deadline for submission for the short story competition is 15 July 2011. Adult stories should not be more than 3000 words. The maximum words for junior stories should be 1500. Stories can be sent to Info@Intwasa.org or Info.intwasa@gmail.com. Hard copies can be sent to Intwasa at 403 Fourth Floor, LAPF House, 8th Avenue and Jason Moyo Street. Bulawayo . Stories should be clearly marked Senior or Junior Section.

Contact Information:

For inquiries: Info@Intwasa.org

For submissions: Info@Intwasa.org

Website: http://www.intwasa.org/

Deadline: 19 June 2011

King Pie has today announced the launch of the ‘Amazwi Ethu South African Tales’ Literature Talent Search. The Campaign calls for South African youth of all ages to write and submit their favourite South African stories for competition entry. Top stories will be compiled and published by Penguin Books.

‘Amazwi Ethu South African Tales’ is an initiative to fuel interest in literacy amongst the youth, and is proudly partnered by Heart 104.9FM in the Cape and Kaya FM in Gauteng. The campaign will roll out on a national level from the 16th April and will call for entries until the 19th June 2011.

“South Africa is a culturally rich and diverse country, and the campaign aims to tap into the heritage of storytelling” notes Nicholas Kühne, Marketing Manager of King Pie. “A competition such as this not only allows a record of our culturally diverse stories, but also to invest in individuals who have the talent but not necessarily the means to develop further”.

“Kaya FM is proud to support the Amazwi Ethu initiative and continues to espouse the importance of education as well as the value of understanding one's cultural heritage and rooting. The revival and preservation of undocumented or untold South African stories is important in understanding more about ourselves, our respective histories and cultural perspectives. It is also essential in inspiring a culture of reading and writing with children of all ages.” Adds Mark Mdlela, Marketing and Sales Manager Kaya FM.

As interest literature is a key area amongst youth, as is the preservation of cultural roots through literature, the Campaign holds core importance for all involved partners. Story telling is inherently part of the South African community heritage, and this campaign aims to records a current generation’s story.

Youth are encouraged to submit short stories, or poems from 50 words up to 800 words, via entry boxes at King Pie or via email at king.pie@ydx.co.za. These stories/poems should be their favourite South African tales, as narrated by themselves. The competition is open to ages 12 and up and entries will be accepted in all languages. Various prizes are up for grabs for laptops, cash for schools and tertiary institutions and other spot prizes.

Help and further information can be found via the dedicated helpline number: +27118068061 or on the King Pie Facebook page. http://www.facebook.com/kingpiebrand

The panel of Judges will comprise a celebrity judge, Radio Station representatives, King Pie and penguin books with final Judging of all submitted stories taking place over the end of June and early July 2011. Winners will be announced at via the telephone and at an event.

The published book with will be available in all King Pie stores, from October 2011.

Rules (click to enlarge):

Form (click to enlarge:

Contact Information:

For inquiries: king.pie@ydx.co.za

For submissions: king.pie@ydx.co.za

Website: http://www.kingpie.co.za/

Deadline: 1 August 2011

Writers from Africa and Asia are asked to submit short stories for an anthology of the two continents. The writers can be on the respective continents or in the Diaspora but it is necessary that their stories deal with the topic as experienced by Africans/Asians.

Topic - Outcasts (contemporary or historical, adult audience)

Length - 3000-5000 words

Submissions Deadline- August 1st 2011

Remuneration- Shall be discussed upon selection of your short story as part of the anthology. You will know by September 30th.

Editors - Writers Rohini Chowdhury and Zukiswa Wanner

The editors will need some written commitment from writers on whether they will be submitting something by May 30th. We kindly request no poetry or non-fiction. Purely short stories. Please submit a short two-line introduction about yourself with your story. If this exciting
project interests you as a writer, kindly get in touch with rohini.chowdhury@gmail.com / wanner.zukiswa@gmail.com.

Deadline: 29 July 2011

Win R2000 In Our Essay Competition

Starting March 5, 2011 - Ending July 28, 2011

We are looking for a essay/short story about HIV

Southern Anglican and CABSA (Christian AIDS Bureau for Southern Africa) have joined forces to celebrate the bureau’s 10th anniversary by offering two of our readers the opportunity to win R2000 each.

You are invited to submit a short story that highlights the realities of the epidemic and submissions to Southern Anglican need to be in English and no longer than 1800 words. (Should you prefer to write in Afrikaans, Lig magazine is running the same competition.)

Entries are invited in two categories, previously published and novice authors and the winners of each category in English will be published in Southern Anglican and receive a cash prize of R2000.

Visit the CABSA website www.cabsa.org.za for more information on HIV or the organisation.

Competition Rules

- Stories should have HIV as the theme
- Stories can be in Afrikaans or English and a prize will be allocated in each language for novice or previously published authors.
- Winning entries in the English competition will be published in Southern Anglican.
- Entries should specify the category and that the work has not been previously published.
- Stories become the property of CABSA
- Stories should be no longer than 1800 words
- The competition will be adjudicated by representatives of CABSA and Southern Anglican, and the decision of the judges is final.
- CABSA and Southern Anglican reserve the right not to award a prize if entries do not meet the publication standards of Southern Anglican.
- The closing date for the English competition is 29 July 2011.
- Winners will be announced in the November 2011 issue of Southern Anglican and on www.cabsa.org.za.

Entries can be sent by emailwith subject line: Short Story Competition to Ms Lucinda Leppin support@cabsa.co.za or post entries for her attention to Short Story Competition, CABSA, PO Box 16, Wellington, 7654.

Deadline: 25 March 2011

The Nigerian general elections are around the corner. The registration exercise has just been completed, and the candidates from the various parties are crisscrossing the nation, campaigning for the votes of the Nigerian electorate. A lot of media attention is being given to the event, and this underscores how important the process of making a choice is, whether at a national level, or even in our individual lives.

So Naija Stories is launching a writing contest called “The Vote Chronicles”. The competition will be centred on the theme of people making – or not making – choices or casting votes, and the process through which they go about doing this. It is our belief that telling and broadcasting stories on this theme will promote a debate about the process itself, and how it is viewed specifically in Nigeria. We also hope it will raise awareness about the April elections, and encourage more people to go out and vote.

Contest Guidelines:

1. Register at Naijastories.com and log in. Then click on the ‘Submit and Edit Stories’ link to the left of the page in the ‘Communities’ section. This will take you to an ‘Edit Posts’ page.

2. Click on the ‘Add New’ button at the top of this page – this will take you to an ‘Add New Post’ page.

3. In the field at the top of the page, enter a title that defines your entry.

4. In the body of the post, put in your entry. All stories must be original and not previously published, and no political essays or commentaries please.

5. Your entry should be a maximum of 600 words.

6. It must be a short story which has as its central theme, the making of choices, or the casting of votes.

7. The contest is open only to members of Naija Stories who have at least 200 points.

8. Put the entry in the category of “The Vote Chronicles” and press the button, “Submit for Review”.

9. All entries that meet the requirements will be published after the submission period.

Dates for Contest:

• The contest opens today Monday, March 7th and submissions end on Friday, March 25th.
• First round: The top 10 submissions are selected based on PostViews by April 2nd
• Second round: Naija Stories Editors select 10 more stories – Editor’s Picks by April 4th
• Third round: Selected Judges review and determine the final top 10 stories by April 8th
• Final round: Popular Voting – April 9th – April 16, 2011
• The winner will be announced by April 18th 2011.

• First place winner – $150, and their story will be linked on the Front Page of the website.
• Second place winner – $100, and their story will be linked on the Front Page of the website.
• Third Place winner – $50, and their story will be linked on the Front Page of the website.

To make this an all inclusive contest, the Vote Chronicles contest will primarily involve our readers/audience. The 4 stages for determining the winner are explained below;

First round: The top 10 submissions are selected based on PostViews. This means that those that can mobilise their fans and readers to view and comment on their story stand an improved chance of getting more page views. Get ready to broadcast your entries to friends and colleagues to support you.

Second round: Naija Stories Editors select 10 more stories – Editor’s Picks The Naija Stories team will select the most suitable of the entries from those submitted. You just have to make sure that you stick to the contest guidelines. This is a contest but you’re also expected to treat it like a writing exercise.

Third round: Out of the chosen 20 stories, our selected Judges determine the final 10 with commentary on why they liked the stories. As I always say, you do not know who is reading. The Judges will be checking for creativity, relevance to the Vote Chronicles theme and clean use of the English language so polish your grammar and keep typos to a minimum please!

Final Round – Popular Voting: There will be a poll set up on NaijaStories.com to collect these votes. At this stage, all those who submitted stories for the contest can invite friends to vote for their entries. This final round will depend on the people who read the entries, and like it (or the writer) enough to come back on the poll day and vote.

Reminds you of the whole election process doesn’t it?

If you have any questions, please send a mail to info@naijastories.com.

Good Luck and Get Writing!

StoryTime: Weekly new fiction by African Writers

Submission Guidelines:

We welcome all African Writers (writers born in Africa, or having domiciled in for over 10 years, and/or holding citizenship in an African country) to submit, in all fiction genres. The story must be an Original work, nothing that infringes the copyright of, or is derived from, another author's work of fiction, is overly lewd, hate speech, etc. You get the idea... StoryTime runs under a Creative Commons 3.0 (Attribution-Noncommercial-NoDerivativeWorks) License. Works submitted may be:

1) Short stories: 1500 - 8000 words
a) Must be unpublished (not previously published in print or online).
b) No simultaneous submissions (only submitted to StoryTime and no other publications).
c) No multiple submissions (submit only one work at a time).

2) Excerpts from novels, novellas or novelettes: 1500 - 5000 words, (if the excerpt is unpublished apply point one).

3) All submission to be sent by email (with the subject line - StoryTime Submission: Author name: Story Title - to storytime.submission@gmail.com) in an attached Word (.doc/.docx) or .rtf document (submissions in the body of an email will not be accepted).

4) Submission format: single line spaced, font Times New Roman 12pt, one line space between paragraphs, no indents, and set to UK English.

5) Translations: work may be submitted in any language if accompanied by a full English translation.

6) We are open for submissions year-round.

African Roar

All selections for our annual anthology African Roar are drawn from short stories published in StoryTime between August - August.

Email all submissions to: storytime.submission@gmail.com

Email all inquiries to: storytime.publishing@gmail.com

StoryTime is a registered serial publication: ISSN 2072-9359.

Deadline: 28 March 2011

Write a mini-story approximately 60 words long with an ecological or nature conservation theme, and it could be published on a limited-edition Leopard’s Leap back label!

Any conservation-themed story qualifies, as long as you can tell it in 60 words. You may write about any ecological topic you are passionate about. The winner’s story will be printed on the back label of a limited-edition Leopard’s Leap bottle series, which will be sold countrywide. The lucky winner will also walk away with a Mont Blanc pen and a case of Leopard’s Leap wine.

Depending on the quality and number of entries, LitNet hopes to publish all entries continuously. One winner per language will be selected at the beginning of April by two judges. The closing date is 28 March 2011. Send your entry to wen@litnet.co.za.

Leopard’s Leap is a proud sponsor of South African literature and nature conservation. We support the Cape Leopard Trust (www.capeleopard.org.za), which helps protect the endangered Cape leopard.

Rules

1. Entries have to be between 55 and 65 words long.
2. Entries in Afrikaans and English will be accepted.
3. The winners must agree to alter some words and/or characters of their entries if necessary, in order to fit the wine label size and design.
4. The judges’ decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into regarding their decision.
5. No employee and/or family member of Leopard’s Leap, Meridian, LitNet or the Cape Leopard Trust may enter the competition.
6. Entries may not be in SMS language, ie no abbreviated language.
7. Only two entries (regardless of the language of the entries) per person are allowed.

Dates: 24 February - 26 May 2011

Course starts in Feb 2011

The magic of stories, heard first in childhood or adulthood, stays forever. Lines, scenes, characters remain as guests in the mind and we can recall them at will in old age, in despair, in joy, in love or in grief.

This course will help you to:

• Write stories with characters, menacing or lovable.
• Suspense-filled plots or simply told tales.
• Develop your narrative voice.
• Meet with editors and publishers.
• Submit stories ready for publication.

Time: 9am to 1pm

Venue: Muizenberg – False Bay Rendezvous

R280 per workshop (R1000 if booked and paid in advance)

Chan-Sam has published stories in anthologies in the UK and South Africa. Mr. Mohani is her preview solo collection. She has delivered workshops, readings and performances in South Africa, UK, USA, Egypt, Tanzania, Suriname and the Netherlands.

Contact: tanya.chansam@gmail.com or tel: 021 785 1702

"This is a well chosen collection of some of the best Arab writers I've come across, with a broad spectrum of themes, well chosen and beautifully rendered into English."—Raja Shehadeh, author of Palestinian Walks

In November 2009, the International Prize for Arabic Fiction organized a workshop for eight critically acclaimed writers from Egypt, Sudan, Tunisia, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and the United Arab Emirates.

This bilingual volume brings together the pieces produced during this workshop, showcasing the creativity of a younger generation of Arab writers. A range of styles and themes are explored: from Egyptian social realism to a tale from the deserts of Darfur, a grim Tunisian allegory, family drama in Saudi Arabia, and a story about home and exile in Sana’a.

Includes a foreword co-written by Inaam Kachachi, an Iraqi born writer whose debut novel The American Granddaughter was shortlisted for the 2008–2009 International Prize for Arabic Fiction, and the Lebanese author Jabbour Douaihy, whose novel June Rain was shortlisted for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction in 2007–2008.

About the Editors

Peter Clark: Peter Clark is a Middle East specialist, a Trustee of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction and a contributing editor of Banipal. He has translated fiction, history, drama and poetry from Arabic since 1980.

Inaam Karachi: Inaam Kachachi was born in Baghdad in 1952. Her debut novel, 'The American Granddaughter', was shortlisted for the 2008–2009 International Prize for Arabic Fiction.

Jabbour Douaihy: Jabbour Douaihy was born in 1949 in Lebanon. He is the author of a collection of short stories and two novels. Douaihy’s 'June Rain' was shortlisted for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction in 2007–2008.

Date: 19 February 2011

LSE Space for Thought Literary Festival creative writing workshop

Time: 12-1pm
Venue: Alumni Theatre, New Academic Building
Speaker: Lauri Kubuitsile

Lauri Kubuitsile will speak about the publishing climate in Southern Africa (in particular Botswana and South Africa) and how it’s different from the UK. She’ll also talk about writing across genres including television writing, writing for children, writing short stories and writing for adults.

Lauri Kubuitsile is a full time writer in Botswana. She has thirteen published books including those for children, young adults and adults, and her short stories have appeared in publications on four continents. She has written two television series for Botswana Television: Morwalela and Re Bina Mmogo II . Her writing prizes include the Golden Baobab Literary Prize (USA) -the junior category in 2009 and the senior category in 2010, the BTA/AngloPlatinum Short Story Contest (South Africa- 2007) and the Botswana Ministry of Youth, Sports, and Culture’s Orange Botswerere Prize for Creative Writing (2007). She was chosen as a writer in residence in El Gouna Egypt for the month of May 2010. She writes a weekly column called It’s All Write about books and writing in the Botswana national newspaper The Voice and she blogs at Thoughts from Botswana.

Registration

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A Keele University lecturer has released a book promoting new Kenyan writers and their work.

Man of the House and other new short stories from Kenya is the fourth in CCC Press’s series of World Englishes Literature Fiction, which aims to promote emerging writers unknown in the West.

Edited and introduced by Keele University’s Dr Emma Dawson, Man of the House and other new short stories from Kenya will be published on January 31.

The 15 stories in the collection tackle themes including politics, reality television, love, family, identity, and money. Writers include Mukumu Muchina, Shalini Gidoomal and Rasna Warah.

Dr Dawson appeared on breakfast television in Kenya to call for stories for the anthology and was inundated with submissions from new and established writers. She also worked with publishing house and writers’ collective Storymoja in Nairobi, and gave lectures at the University of Nairobi and Moi University in Eldoret.

“It’s an exciting time for Kenyan writing,” says Dr Dawson. “Everyone is talking about a revival in the African literature scene and Kenya is producing more new writing than other East African countries. They’ve come through their election strife and there’s now a burst of people expressing the new Kenya.”

Stories from Dr Dawson’s anthologies of works from Nigeria, Uganda and Kenya have been submitted for the prestigious Caine Prize for African Writing.

She is currently editing an anthology of short stories from Malaysia, to be published later this year as part of the same series, and is also working on a book called Reading New India, which will be published by Continuum in summer next year to celebrate 65 years of India’s independence.

* Man of the House and other new short stories from Kenya, edited with an introduction by Emma Dawson, is published by CCC Press, priced £12.99.

Date: 31 January 2011

EC Osondu, winner of the 2009 Caine Prize, reads from his debut collection of short stories, Voice of America. Set in Nigeria and America, the subjects of these stories range from the poverty of a refugee camp to the disorienting experience of immigrant life in a new world. Focusing on village communities and the bustling metropolis, Osondu's writing is shot through with humour, pathos and wisdom.

The event is chaired by Bernardine Evaristo, author of Soul Tourists and Blonde Routes.

'Osondu looks at the human condition in all its poignant absurdity; with observant wonder and subtle humour.' (Mary Gaitskill)

In association with African Writers' Series.

31 January 2011, 7:45pm