You are here: Home / Archives for Prose

Call For Writers Deadline April 30, 2013 – International Writing Competition

Three prizes of $50, publication in ArtAscent Magazine including your name a link to your website, as well as exposure in ArtAscent website and social media.

The competition theme is Emergence. Emergence can mean the gradual beginning or coming forth; the event consisting of the start of something; a growth in strength or number or importance; the becoming visible. How you interpret it – literally or symbolically – is up to you.

This call for entries may include fiction, non-fiction, poetry, short stories and other written explorations (up to 500 words). Your submission may be previously published, but must be your original creation. Non-winning entries will not be published. You retain rights to your work.

Submission Deadline: April 30, 2013
Entry $7

See www.artascent.com for submission details and to enter.

Workshops on Creative Writing With David Chislett

WITS Writing Centre is pleased to announce a 4-session series of workshops with David Chislett. David has published 6 books since 2001, both through publishers and independently. In this 4-week programme with WITS Writing Centre he shares his knowledge and experience in a series of 2-hour sessions.

The 4 sessions run from 4pm to 6pm as follows:
March 19 Basic intro to Creative writing: where does it come from?
April 9 Planning a book… some structural tips
April 16 Dealing with Publishers: Where are you at?
April 23 Marketing yourself as an independent

The series of seminars will run on Tuesday evenings from 16:00 to 18:00 at the WITS Writing Centre, Ground Floor, The Waternweiler Library, WITS East Campus. Attendance of the seminars is FREE but seating is limited. To pre-book your place please email a sample of your work to Pamela.Nichols@wits.ac.za and we will respond with a seat confirmation

“The sessions are not intended as writing master-classes per se,” Explained David of the events, “But rather to help equip writers with structural and procedural know-how that will help them leverage their writing by understanding their own processes and the way the industry works.”

Issues covered will include:
• So I have an idea, where do I start writing?
• How do I approach a publisher?
• I am good, but nobody knows my work
• How can I tap into my creativity to write more consistently?
• How do I know where to take my story next?

David won the Ernst Van Heerden Prize for creative writing in 1998 and began his career in publishing in 2001 with the release of Urban 1, a collection of short stories for previously unpublished writers that he compiled and contributed to. This series ran to 3 volumes before being discontinued. Then in 2009 he released his debut solo volume of short fiction entitled, A Body Remembered. In 2010, the music industry textbook, 1,2,1,2: A Step By Step Guide To The SA Music Industry and in 2012, For You Or Someone Like You, his debut collection of poetry.

In addition, Chislett has worked in all facets of the South African media and ran his own PR agency for four years. In these sessions he combines his craft and practice in writing with his knowledge and experience in marketing, publishing and creativity to bring a 4 part series of sessions together that will equip any aspiring writer to not only write better but also to navigate the challenges that come before and after writing.

Attendance is not limited to students and is open to the public and is FREE but seating is limited. Please pre-book your place by sending an email with your query and a sample of your work to Pamela.Nichols@wits.ac.za and we will respond with a seat confirmation.

A writer’s process – third session

Everyone is requested to think about their writing process. How would you define that process? When you say that you are waiting for a ‘spark’ to ignite the creative juices, do you know what that spark is? How it looks like? Feel like? Taste like? What are you waiting to understand before you can unleash your ink on the page? Is it an imagine of a character? A specific setting? A line? A face?

Whatever it is, do you understand why it is so important to your writing? To your process? Do you want to understand it? Do you want to control it? Take charge? Or at least make an attempt? If yes, I’d like to you to think of a metaphor that would explain the process. How does the metaphor capture the different stages of your writing? How does it communicate that process to someone? Can you give a parallel analysis of how the metaphor not only mirrors but gives a detailed breakdown description of the process? This information should enable me to follow step-by-step instruction of how you work. Is this possible? How detailed can you be? How much can you unlock? I.e. Someone once told me that their writing process is like a kite (metaphor). When they begin a new writing they envision the process to be like building a kite. First you need material; plastic, sticks, string, pins, etc. These in their writing process mirrors research. For instance, you need your grounding data or evidence – sticks hold or provide the basic structure for a kite. So they will look for them first to build the skeleton of a kite. In their writing, this could mean key grounding literature. If you are writing a book about Zombies, what are the basic elements which you must adhere to or establish for your story to hold? Etc… One can go on to explain how the metaphor reveals how and where the writer places themselves in their writing and defines a sense of direction.

If you’ve never did this before, take the challenge and you will see it will start to show you, at the very least, how well you understand or have taken some things for granted in your writing. This process might be spontaneous and mysterious for many but within that there is great room for a writer to
understand the workings behind it. Try new things, learn how to stimulate yourself and your writing. We might not have figured out the secret to teach writing but we know how to enable the process. So take a chance. Write a metaphor you think would best explain your process and post it here. You might be amazed at something small you discover about your writing.

Is this important?
Well, you decide.

Date: 4 March 2013

Venue: The Wits Writing Centre

TheWritersClu

Reader’s Digest ‘100 Word Story’ Contest

Reader’s Digest South Africa is running a ‘100 Word Story’ contest. The competition is free to enter and open only to South African residents. Stories must be exactly 100 words and submitted by 30 November 2012.

The winner will receive R5,000 and be published in the magazine. The first two runners up will receive R1,000.

Visit http://www.readersdigest.co.za/100-word-story for more information.

The Bocas Lit Fest:The Trinidad and Tobago Literary Festival

When:
Thursday 28 April to Sunday 1 May, 2011, with readings, performances, workshops, and discussions all through the day. Plus events every weekend during April.

Where:
Trinidad and Tobago, at the southern end of the Caribbean.
Main venues: National Library and Old Fire Station, downtown Port of Spain

April weekend events: • Mayaro/Rio Claro • Scarborough, Tobago • San Fernando • Chaguanas • Arima • Toco/Sangre Grande • Cedros/Point Fortin • Penal • Princes Town

Why:
to celebrate the Caribbean’s literary achievements in a festive atmosphere
to broaden our cultural capital into an area in which we have already excelled, and to which
many aspire
to foster interest in reading and writing
to help demystify books and improve literacy
to help sustain the book industry, which supports this
to expand our idea of literature by including performance poetry and rapso
to exploit and enhance our presence on the world stage
to launch an annual prize for literature (http://www.bocaslitfest.com/ocm-bocas-prize.html)

http://www.bocaslitfest.com/

« Previous Page