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Archive for the ‘Places to Publish’ Category

BBC writersroom and BBC Comedy Commissioning have joined forces in a nationwide competition to find new comedy gold.  The challenge is to write an original narrative comedy script with series potential.

Write it, send it in – and you could be in line not just for a comedy masterclass, but also an intensive week away developing your idea hand in hand with BBC comedy producers and established comedy writing talent.

For more information, and to find out how to enter, visit the BBC Writers’ Room

Women are well represented, both behind the scenes in publishing, and at the checkout in terms of fiction sales. So why is it that when it comes to lists and prizes, novels written by men still dominate?

A fantastic panel will assemble at the ICA on Wed 16 Feb, 7pm, to debate this question: Kate Mosse, best-selling author and co-founder of the Orange Prize, Lennie Goodings from Virago Press, Baroness Helena Kennedy, QC and judge of the Orange and Samuel Johnson prizes, Antonia Byatt, Director of Literature at the Arts Council and former Director of the Women’s Library, and Professor Mary Evans researcher in literature and gender at the Gender Institute.

Click here to book a ticket for this event.

The Arts Council England is backing a bid by the independent publishers Route to find “Yorkshire’s next great author”. The company has launched a competition for 18-30-year-old aspiring authors with the prize of a book deal for the winner. The Bookseller quotes Yorkshire-born author David Peace (Red Riding, The Damned United) as saying, “As the major London publishing houses close their doors and eyes to unsolicited manuscripts this opening provides a rare opportunity for young unpublished novelists to have their work actually read and considered for publication.” Applicants, who must be living in Yorkshire, should apply including a synopsis and sample text up to 10,000 words by 31st May. More info on the Route Online website.

Jackie Kay is the judge for Mslexia Magazine’s 2011 Short Story Competition, which offers a £2,000 first prize and publication in the magazine for all five winning stories.  Previously unpublished short stories of up to 2,200 words by women writers are eligible. Deadline: January 24.

See their excellent website for more information: Mslexia 2011 Women’s Short Story Competition

The Bristol Short Story Prize is now officially open for entries. The prize money for the 2011 contest has doubled: the winning writer will receive £1,000 and all 20 writers whose stories are published in Volume 4 of The Bristol Short Story Prize Anthology will receive at least £100. The winning story will, also, be published in Bristol Review of Books and Venue magazine. And short story fans can look forward to ShortStoryVille- a day-long festival celebrating short stories, to be held next July.

The 2011 judging panel includes Maia Bristol (former UK Sales Manager at Faber & Faber), award-wining short story writer Tania Hershman (highly commended in the 2009 Orange Prize for her collection ‘The White Road and other stories’) and author, illustrator and cartoonist Joe Berger. The competition closes 31st March 2011. The picture shows last year’s winner Valerie O’Riordan, signing a copy of the 2010 anthology.

The Short Review, a website devoted to the short story form, is currently celebrating its 3rd birthday. It’s a wonderful place to discover new stories and to read interviews with writers, including a recent one with the American author Lydia Davis. At the moment its Twitter feed focuses on ‘Story Sunday’, so it’s a rich source of recommendations for great  stories to read online.  Happy Birthday Short Review!

Founded by the film director Francis Ford Coppola in 1997, Zoetrope  All-Story is a quarterly magazine that aims to explore ‘the  intersection of story and art, fiction and film’. The current issue carries work by Helen Oyeyemi and Tea Obreht; contributors to previous issues include Ethan Coen, Miranda July, Helen Simpson, Woody Allen, Hanif Kureishi and other luminaries.

The magazine also runs an annual short fiction contest, which closes on Oct 1. The winning story will be published in their Spring issue and all short-listed writers will be considered for representation by the William Morris Agency, ICM and other agencies. More details here: Zoetrope All Story Contest

A weekend of lively literary events is on offer at Foyles Charing Cross on the 11th and 12th of September with talks from debut novelists, non-fiction writers and historians, as well debates on digital publishing, and advice on marketing and pitching ideas for publication.

The Independent Alliance includes Faber, Quercus (publishers of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), Granta Books, Profile (Eats Shoots and Leaves) and Icon. Writers taking part include P.D. James, Geoff Dyer, Max Schaefer, Alex Preston, Rupert Thomson, Jenny Diski and many others

For tickets, email events@foyles.co.uk (Day tickets are £15 / Weekend tickets £25 / Concession prices available too).

More information about the weekend is available at  www.foyles.co.uk/events.asp

Jane Rusbridge’s haunting debut novel The Devil’s Music was published by Bloomsbury in 2009, and was picked to be this year’s Bridport Literary Festival’s Big Read. She will be talking about the road to publication on Tuesday 21^st September at the HIGHGATE AND HAMPSTEAD LITERARY FESTIVAL together with literary agent Barbara Levy and Pam White, an experienced book publicist.

Jane took part in this year’s the London Writing Workshop’s Novelists’ Club, and also attended the workshop on Dialogue in 2009.

To book for this event click here. For more about the Hampstead & Highgate Literary Festival click here.

I’m pleased to say that a short story of mine called ‘Waiting’ has appeared in issue 2 of a new South Asian literary journal called The Milestone. Click on this link to read the story.