Enter the Lucy Cavendish College Fiction Prize 2023

Bud. Photo by Judy DarleyThe Lucy Cavendish College Fiction Prize 2024 invites entries from women over the age of 18 who have written a novel “that marries literary merit with unputdownability.”

Founded in 2010, by Professor Janet Todd OBE, the Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize has seen many shortlisted and winning authors attaining literary success including securing publishing deals.

Sarah Harman won the 2023 Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize with ‘All The Other Mothers Hate Me‘.

The 2022 winner of the Fiction Prize was Hannah Stapleton with her novel ‘Blue Tears’.

  • The deadline to submit as a low-income writer is 12 noon on Wednesday 7th February 2024
  • Deadline to submit a paid entry is 12 noon on Friday 9th February 2024.

The judges say they’re open to literary fiction and genre fiction, as well as to young adult fiction and children, providing they are primarily word-based.

Your submission must be previously unpublished, and you must not have had other full-length novels published. However, having short stories, poetry, non-fiction or picture books published previously does not exclude you.

To be considered, you need to submit the first 40 to 50 pages of the novel via the online form and a three to five-page synopsis of the remainder. You must not have agent representation at the time of submission.

If you accept agent representation after your submission and before the judging is complete, you will no longer be eligible to take part in the competition and your entry will be discounted.

The entry fee is £12. Sponsored entries for low income writers are available – simply tick the appropriate box on the entry form. You will need to provide proof of financial eligibility such as Jobseeker’s Allowance, Disability Benefit, Income Support, Working Tax Credit, proof of being a full-time student, Housing Benefit or proof of being a full-time carer.

This year’s winner bags £1,500.00.

All shortlisted entrants will receive one-to-one consultation with an agent at Peter Fraser + Dunlop (subject to them not having an existing agent) who will offer editorial feedback as well as valuable publishing advice.

For full details, visit www.lucy.cam.ac.uk/fictionprizewww.fictionprize.co.uk, and make sure you follow the competition Terms and Conditions.

Got an event, challenge, competition or call for submissions you’d like to draw attention to? Send me an email at JudyDarley (@) iCloud (dot) com.

Writing prompt – branch

Door and Tree_ZigZagPath Clevedon. Photo by Judy Darley1

This gorgeous door has been barred to entry by a tree that has had its branches lopped. So many questions arise from this sight, and so many potential fairytales.

How was this seed planted, and how did no one notice the sapling growing until it was so tall? Who decided to cut off its limbs and with what aims. Is this door ever used, and who by? Could the tree have been planted in a fit of jealousy or annoyance? Could the occupant have failed to spot it due to some ailment, or illusion?

The possibilities branch off in all kinds of directions!

What story will you choose to write?

If you write or create something prompted by this idea, please let me know by emailing judydarley (at) iCloud.com. I’d love to know the creative direction you choose.

The Fiction Desk seeks ghost stories

Arnoa Vale Cemetery cr Judy DarleyGot a spooky tale to share? In these early days of the year with so many hours to each dark night, The Fiction Desk invites you to seek a home for your spooky scribblings by submitting an entry to their annual call for ghost stories of 1,000 to 10,000 words.

The deadline for entries is 31st January 2024.

The editors encourage you to have a play to discover your own definition of ‘ghost story.’

They say: “It can mean a lot of different things, from an encounter with an actual phantom in the style of classic ghost stories, to more unusual supernatural phenomena and unexplained events. All types of story are welcome, so feel free to experiment: if you stray too far from the supernatural, we’ll still read it as a general submission. Keep in mind that our readership (and by extension our editor) may be more likely to respond well to psychological chills and unexplained mysteries than in-your-face gore.”

They pay £25 per thousand words for stories they publish (eg £100 for a 4,000 word story, or £150 for a 6,000 word story). Contributors also receive two complimentary paperback copies. The stories they publish are also eligible to enter the Writer’s Award, a cash prize of £100 for the best story in each volume, as judged by the contributors.

Rules of this call for submissions

Entries should be between 1,000 and 10,000 words in length. Most of the stories they publish are between about 2,000 and 7,000 words.

To cover admin costs, submission fees are £4 per story. Stories should be submitted online.

You might find it helpful to take a look at their previous ghost story anthologies.

Find full details of how to submit your ghost stories here.

Got an event, challenge, competition, new venture or call for submissions you’d like to draw my attention to? Send me an email at judydarley (at) iCloud (dot) com.

Writing prompt – cave

Ladye Bay cave. Photo by Judy Darley

This small cave provides a surprising amount of shelter during rain storms that blow in over a local beach. Stepping into it just a foot of two, I heard all sounds recede and felt the peace of this shallow space.

The sides and internal roof are sandstone, and you can see the foundations of a walkway above, a reminder that this place straddles both the tame and wild.

Who or what might seek refuge here, and why? What other kinds of shelters come to mind that could form the setting for a tale?

If you write or create something prompted by this idea, please let me know by emailing judydarley (at) iCloud.com. I’d love to know the creative direction you choose.

Enter the Fractured Lit Ghost, Fable and Fractured Fairy Tales prize

The Fractured Lit team urges you to dig into the darkest recesses of your imagination to write stories of ghosts, fables, and fractured fairy tales in 1,000 words or fewer.

The deadline is 4th February 2024.

Guest Judge Aimee Bender will choose three prize winners from a shortlist. The winner of this prize will receive $3,000 and publication, while the 2nd and 3rd place winners will receive publication plus $300 and $200, respectively. All entries will be considered for publication.

They say: Whichever tradition you choose, make sure you find a new way to approach it, to twist and discombobulate it, so it pushes us away from the mundane and into the strange or uncanny. Transport us from the here and now to a new land of discovery, a fresh way of being entertained that embraces all of the ways we show our humanness.”

A $20 reading fee allows you up to two stories of 1,000 words or fewer each per entry.

Aimee Bender is the author of six books: The Girl in the Flammable Skirt (1998), which was an NY Times Notable Book; An Invisible Sign of My Own (2000), which was an LA Times pick of the year; Willful Creatures (2005), which was nominated by The Believer as one of the best books of the year; The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake (2010), which won the SCIBA award for best fiction, and an Alex Award; The Color Master (2013), a NY Times Notable Book for the year; and her latest novel, The Butterfly Lampshade (July 2020), which was longlisted for the PEN/Jean Stein Award. Her books have been translated into sixteen languages. Her short fiction has been published in Granta, GQ, Harper’s, Tin House, McSweeney’s, The Paris Review, and more, as well as heard on PRI’s “This American Life” and “Selected Shorts.”

Find full details of how to enter here: https://fracturedlit.com/fractured-lit-ghost-fable-and-fractured-fairy-tales-prize/ 

Got an event, challenge, competition or call for submissions you’d like to draw attention to? Send an email to judydarley (at) iCloud (dot) com.

Writing prompt – rig

Oil rig at Clevedon Marine Lake. Photo by Judy Darley. Taken on New Year's Day 2024. Stormy skies above and swimmer just visible in foreground.As countless swimmers and spectators gathered at Clevedon Marine Lake on New Year’s Dave for the annual Big Dip, a vast structure drifted by. Like an industrial version of a child’s sandcastle, an oil rig floated past the morning’s revelries like a sea creature roused to curiosity by the shrieks. You can just see an uncommonly serene swimmer inside the pool’s perimeter.

These structures drill the seabed for the petroleum and gas that fuel our modern lives, and once decommissioned need to be dismantled, or become an art installation like Weston Super Mare’s See Monster.

What will be the fate of this one? Thousands of these edifices stand in seas around the globe. Can you devise a story or art work touching on the outcome for one? Could it be transformed into something beautiful that aids rather than harms marine life?

If you write or create something prompted by this idea, please let me know by emailing judydarley (at) iCloud.com. I’d love to know the creative direction you choose.

Writerly resolutions for 2024

Spring crocus cr Judy DarleyI publish a version of this post almost every year, but I find it always fills me with hope and determination. As we edge into the greyest month of the year, this feels like the ideal time to take stock and see what’s working or not working in your creative life.

But this I mean not necessarily whether you’re creating and selling more, but, rather, whether the moments you can find to write, paint or whatever creative forms you choose continue to satisfy you, and whether you feel you’re making progress, whatever that may mean to you.

Before continuing, I must confess, I rarely make new year’s resolutions as such. To me, they seem at best like a form of procrastination (‘oh, I’ll start doing that in Jan’), at worst a way of setting yourself up to fail. But it is a good time to look at how your life is going and see if there’s anything you need to change to stay on or get back on track.

It’s also a fab way to lay the foundations for a new habit that will pay dividends in years to come. Here are five that have served me well in the past.

1. Write whenever you can find the time

In 2012 I set myself the challenge of writing at least one short story every month, which is something I did without fail every month until 2017, by which time the habit was well and truly entrenched. I found it a great way to keep those creative muscles taut and ready for action.

When times are busy and stress is high, adding something to your to-do list can feel counter-intuitive. But whenever I do focus on creating something, whether that’s a sentence, a full flash, or even editing an existing paragraph, I emerge feeling brighter and lighter and a little bit sunnier. My aim now is to maintain, respect and nurture writing as an ingrained part of my everyday life.

This fuel keeps me going even when I don’t have the chance to spend as much time dreaming up new characters and worlds as I like. Writing sustains me in a way I’ve only gradually come to understand.

2. Submit regularly

A few years before that I set about ensuring I submitted at least four works of creative writing somewhere each month, which I also continue. The challenge is flexible enough not to cause undue stress (some months I submit all four pieces in the same week then forget all about them for the rest of the month; other months I’ll find I’ve submitted eight by day 30), and also ensures that whenever I receive a rejection, part of me breathes a quiet sigh of relief – now I can send that piece off elsewhere to fulfil part of the current month’s quota.

It helps me stay positive, because for every rejection, there’s a healthy handful of tales still out there dreaming big. And when I get an acceptance, it’s a lovely surprise, because by continually sending out creative pieces I’m never quite clear what’s out there, and therefore not too focused on any one thing.

Which brings me to the third resolution.

3. Stay organised

Around the same time I started sending out four and more stories each month, I set up a simple spreadsheet to help me keep track of them all.

This helps my writing in two ways, firstly, by ensuring I know what I’ve sent where and whether they’ve responded, and secondly, by distancing me from the process emotionally.

By transforming all these acts of hope into columns and rows, I save myself from heartache. Each time a email or post out a piece of writing, I enter its name into the spreadsheet along with the details of where I’ve sent it and the date. Then, when it comes back, I colour that row according to the response – one colour for ‘no thanks’, one for ‘no, but positive feedback’ and one for ‘yes please!’

It all provides an immense sense of productivity, without too much effort at all, which in turn helps me stay motivated. And I’m happy to say that over the years the colour dedicated to ‘yes please’ is infiltrating the worksheets more and more.

4. and 5. Finally, pledge simply to celebrate even the smallest literary successes, and relish the pleasure of writing for its own sake. Lovely.

What works for you?

Writing prompt – dip

The Sea is Still the Sea_by Judy Darley

The sea is still the sea even if it’s contained. Clevedon’s Marine Lake welcomes waves, brave swimmers and the occasional bobbing jellyfish. There’s even an annual New Year’s dip at 11am to embrace 2024 with a breathtaking adrenalin-boosting splash in aid of Marlens, the charity who manage and maintain the pool. Other charities are also getting involved and asking for donations from folks daring to join in.

On most winter’s days, however, you could be the only swimmer – just you, the saltwater and the sky.

Could you make this the setting for an unexpected meeting? Who might you encounter here? What peril could bond two people here?

If you write or create something prompted by this idea, please let me know by emailing judydarley (at) iCloud.com. I’d love to know the creative direction you choose.

Submit your words to the Moth Poetry Prize

Moth by Judy Darley

The Moth Magazine invites you to enter the Moth Poetry Prize. The deadline for entries s 31st December 2023.

It’s one of the biggest prizes in the world for a single previously unpublished poem on any subject and is open to anyone over 16.
The prize is judged anonymously by a single poet, and this year that poet is Hannah Sullivan. Hannah’s debut collection, Three Poems, won the T. S. Eliot Prize in 2019. She studied Classics at Cambridge, received her PhD in English from Harvard, and taught as an Assistant Professor at Stanford University. She is an Associate Professor of English at New College, Oxford. Her latest collection, Was It For This, was published by Faber earlier in 2023.
The Prize is open to anyone (over 16) from anywhere in the world, as long as the work is original and previously unpublished.
There is no line limit, and the poems can be on any subject.
The shortlist will be announced in March 2024 and the four shortlisted poems will appear in the Irish Times online.
Prizes
The winner will receive €6,000.

There is a fee of €15 per entry.

The winner of The Moth Poetry Prize 2022 was British poet Laurie Bolger with her poem ‘Parkland Walk’ chosen by Louise Glück.

Visit www.themothmagazine.com for full details.

Got an event, challenge, competition or call for submissions you’d like to draw my attention to? Send me an email at judydarley (at) iCloud (dot) com.

Merry everything

Star lights cr Judy Darley

I hope you are lucky enough to have those you love close by, and all the frivolity or serenity you crave throughout this joyful season, however you choose to spend it.

May your festive tangles bring you light, sparkle and laughter.

I wish you a creative, fulfilling and hopeful 2024.