PRESS RELEASE
Wadadli Pen 2015 – Winner Takes It All -Flash Challenge
Let’s keep this short. That’s what we’re doing for the Wadadli Pen 2015 Challenge, keeping it short; flash fiction short. Flash fiction pieces are short, really short; but don’t confuse that with fragmented. To quote writing-world.com, “The challenge of flash fiction is to tell a complete story in which every word is absolutely essential, to peel away the frills and lace until you’re left with nothing but the hard, clean-scraped core of a story.” Think you can do that in 200 words or less? That’s the Challenge. Any theme, any genre, any age; that’s right, the Wadadli Pen 2015 Flash Fiction Challenge, is open to any one of any age. There will be a single main prize contributed by an anonymous sponsor for the winning piece. No barriers. But do remember to keep it Caribbean-centric; avoid the clichés and tired tropes while creating original pieces that could only have sprung from this Caribbean soil but which potentially speak to the heart of readers anywhere in the world. Be unconventional, be authentic, be creative; and in the spirit of Flash, be economical. Though the Challenge is restricted to writers in Antigua and Barbuda, the winning piece will be selected by a pool of writers from home and abroad, including Danielle Boodoo Fortune, Linisa George, Monica Matthew, Carol Mitchell, and Floree Williams.
This is still the Wadadli Youth Pen Prize (https://wadadlipen.wordpress.com), which has been nurturing and supporting young writers in Antigua and Barbuda since 2004, so young ones don’t hesitate to send your stories in. Best of Books is back as a partner and will, as usual, sponsor the awards including prizes for the most promising young writers. Also up for grabs will be copies of inaugural Burt Award winning titles All Over Again, Musical Youth, and Inner City Girl, contributed by Canadian non-profit CODE.
Send submissions (no more than 200 words) and a very short (25 words or less) biography to wadadlipen@yahoo.com (in the body of the email, not as an attachment) on or before March 4th 2015; subject line, YOURNAMEWADADLIPEN2015.
Best of Books, a patron of the Wadadli Youth Pen Prize from the beginning has hosted the awards ceremony since 2011. Pictured is store manager Barbara Arrindell making a presentation to educator Paula Russell Peters who was a 2014 finalist for the WP 10th anniversary Teachers Prize and who also collected on behalf of T N Kirnon which netted a prize for the most submissions from a single school. In the background is WP founder and coordinator, author Joanne C. Hillhouse.
Wadadli Pen 