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Mslexia Competition Entry
Mslexia Women's Short Story Competition 2009
JUDGE: HELEN SIMPSON
1st Prize £2,000
plus a one-week writing retreat* at Chawton House Library (accommodation only) and a day with a Virago editor**
2nd prize £500
3rd prize £250
3 other finalists will win £100 each
All winning stories will be published in Mslexia magazine and they will also be read by Carole Blake from Blake Friedmann Literary Agency.
Closing date: 23 JANUARY 2009
* The CHL retreat is accommodation only, dates to be agreed between CHL and the competition winner.
** The day with a Virago editor must be taken at a time that is suitable to both Virago and the competition winner.
The winner is responsible for any other expenses involved with attending the CHL retreat and the day with a Virago editor, i.e travel, food, etc. The prizes must be taken by 31 March 2010.
The Judge
"I feel honoured to be the judge of this inaugural Short Story competition. Mslexia is unique in being a genuinely useful magazine for women who want to write."
Helen Simpson is the author of four collections of short stories, Four Bare Legs in a Bed (1990), Dear George (1995), Hey Yeah Right Get a Life (2000), and Constitutional (2005). They are all in print and published by Vintage.
In 1991 she was chosen as the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year and won the Somerset Maugham Award. In 1993 she was chosen as one of Granta's twenty Best of Young British Novelists. For Hey Yeah Right Get a Life she was awarded the Hawthornden Prize and the E.M. Forster Award. She lives in London.
Read the full interview with Helen Simpson from issue 35 of Mslexia.
Submissions and payment
UK participants must SUBMIT ENTRIES BY POST.
Overseas entries may submit by email.
Both UK and Overseas entries may elect either to PAY ONLINE or submit and pay BY POST.
Entry fee: £8 per story
Competition Rules
Before submitting your entry make sure you read the Competition Rules. We reserve the right to reject any entry that does not comply. Refunds cannot be made in this case.
For more information please call +44 (0) 191 233 3860 or email shortstory@mslexia.co.uk
PAY ONLINE
UK entries
1) Pay Online (below), entering the number of stories you are submitting. Please take note of your online payment reference, which you should include in your covering letter.
2) Please post your entry to:
Women’s Short Story Competition
Mslexia Publications Limited
PO Box 656
Freepost NEA5566
Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 1BR
(Postmarked no later than 23 January 2009. No need for a stamp.)
Click here to pay
* After completing Pay Online, please remember to quote your online payment reference in your covering letter. *
Overseas entries
1) Pay Online (below), entering the number of stories you are submitting. Please take note of your online payment reference, which you should include in your email.
2) Email your entries to: shortstory@mslexia.co.uk
Click here to pay
* After completing Pay Online, please remember to quote your online payment reference in your email. *
BY POST
Entries may be submitted and paid for by post if accompanied by a Sterling cheque, or you can telephone the office +44 (0) 191 233 3860 with your credit card details.
From the UK
Women’s Short Story Competition
Mslexia Publications Limited
PO Box 656
Freepost NEA5566
Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 1BR
From overseas
We regret the Freepost facility is not available for entries posted from overseas.
Women’s Short Story Competition
Mslexia Publications Limited
PO Box 656
Newcastle upon Tyne NE99 1PZ
United Kingdom
CRITIQUING SERVICE
The Mslexia Critiquing Service is available to entrants of the Mslexia Short Story Competition, for stories of up to 2,200 words, at a fee of £45 per story. This is a professional service offering a fair, accurate and constructive review of your work to assist you in getting published.
The critiquing will be completed within 4-6 weeks of the competition closing date 23 January 2009.
When submitting your story for critiquing please mark your competition cover sheet clearly with CRITIQUING SERVICE. Please add £45 per story for the critiquing service – this is additional to the £8 per story entry fee.
We will acknowledge that we have received your work for critiquing by post or email.
Click here to pay
* After completing Pay Online, please remember to quote your online payment reference in your covering letter. *
NEW! INSPIRATIONS
A selection of five NEW writing exercises devised by Margaret Wilkinson especially for the short story competition.
CRITIQUING SERVICE!
Mslexia has a professional critiquing service available for stories entered into the competition. Find out more »
CREATIVE SPARK
An exercise devised by MARGARET WILKINSON to kickstart a story
- A short story should chronicle a change.
- Visualise an object in your hand (a hat, a pencil, a book…), then imagine it transformed in some way (squashed, broken, painted blue…). Now create a story that contains and explains the transformation.
- Write a story in which a character makes a prediction – and then the opposite happens.
- Skim-read a newspaper for a headline that intrigues you. Construct a series of events leading up to that headline, and write about them.
- Imagine yourself alone and happy in a place you love. A person you know but dislike interrupts to tell or give you something.
- What happens next?
More…