Mailbox – Who’s Judging You?

Did you submit to the Commonwealth Short Story Competition? I hope you did, I posted a reminder in Opportunites Too. Are you anxiously awaiting the results? Exhale, nothing to be done now but wait…and keep writing. Are you curious about who’s judging this year’s entries? That I can help with as the judges’ bios landed in my inbox this week.

“The 2018 Commonwealth Short Story Prize judging panel is chaired by Sarah Hall. The international judging panel comprises a judge from each of the five regions – Africa, Asia, Canada and Europe, the Caribbean and the Pacific.”

Of the chair, the correspondence said, “Sarah Hall received a master of letters in creative writing from Scotland’s St. Andrews University and has published five award-winning novels and a collection of short stories, Beautiful Indifference which won the Portico Prize for Fiction 2012 and the Edge Hill short story prize. In 2013 she was named one of Granta’s ‘Best Young British Novelists’, and she has won the BBC National Short Story Award and the E. M. Forster Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She has judged a number of prestigious literary awards and prizes including the Man Booker. She has tutored for the Faber Academy, The Guardian, the Arvon Foundation, and has taught creative writing in a variety of establishments in the UK and abroad.”

You can go here to read about the judges from the other regions, including the Caribbean’s Mark McWatt, a Guyanese national and past Commonwealth and Casa de las Americas prize winner.

Fingers crossed, right? I mean, the only thing that’s up for grabs is “a total prize money of £15,000. The overall winner receives £5,000, one of the highest amounts for an international short story prize open to unpublished writers. Regional winners receive £2,500” – and the distinction of winning the Commonwealth Short Story Competition.

As with all content on wadadlipen.wordpress.com, except otherwise noted, this is written by Joanne C. Hillhouse (author of The Boy from Willow Bend, Dancing Nude in the Moonlight, Oh Gad!, Musical Youth, With Grace, and Lost! A Caribbean Sea Adventure). All Rights Reserved. If you enjoyed it, check out my page on Amazon, WordPress, and/or Facebook, and help spread the word about Wadadli Pen and my books. You can also subscribe to the site to keep up with future updates. Thanks.

 

 

 

Stories in, Art out, Prizes Still being sought: A Wadadli Pen Update

The Best of Books Wadadli Pen Challenge 2011 is now into the second judging phase. The literary submissions have been short listed to nine – three for each age category: 12 and under, 13 to 17 and 18 to 35 – and are now being reviewed and ranked. Short listed pieces will be returned to the respective authors for editing, as necessary.  

Meanwhile, the art guidelines and stories/poems to be illustrated have been distributed to the registered artists. The artists will be creating supporting content for the top ranked entries.

The circulated guidelines include reminders that the art work must be original, must complement the selected stories – reflecting either the theme or a key passage, can incorporate computer assisted software, and must be emailed in jpeg format; along with other guidelines. Only artists who pre-registered and have been issued short listed stories are eligible for this leg of the competition.

K & E Party Time, which offers entertainment and rentals for kid parties, is the newest sponsor to come on board. They join other prize donors including biggest contributor to date ABI Insurance, Seven Seas/Frank B. Armstrong, the Antigua and Barbuda International Literary Festival, the International Women’s Club, Edison Liburd, Jennifer Meranto, D. Gisele Isaac, Floree Williams, Jewell Parker Rhodes, and Marcel Marshall.

Additional sponsorship is still being solicited especially for the art category. If you’d like to give, don’t hesitate to contact us wadadlipen@yahoo.com

The prize giving for both literary and visual art entries will take place during the June 25^th to June 26^th Best of Books Outdoor Book and Story Fair. That event will include a number of literary activities. For more on this, Wadadli Pen 2011 and more, visit https://wadadlipen.wordpress.com