Wednesday 25 February 2009

HARPER'S WRITING COMPETITION DETAILS...

FROM THE WEBSITE:

Are you the most exciting new female voice in fiction - but, as yet, unpublished? At Harper's Bazaar, we love discovering great new writing, and are thrilled to be teaming up with Orange to invite you to write an original short story for our annual competition.

WEBSITE HERE

The winner will collect her award in the presence of the literary world's top editors, publishers and agents, at the Orange Prize for Fiction award ceremony in June. Previous successes include Clare Allan in 2002, who went on to write the acclaimed Poppy Shakespeare. Last year's winner, Sukhraj Randhawa, was taken on by literary agent Zoƫ Waldie (Rogers, Coleridge & White) on the strength of her entry, and is currently working on a novel.

This year, the judging panel will be chaired by Susan Sandon (managing director of Cornerstone, a division of Random House), with judges Kate Mosse (co-founder and honorary director of the Orange Prize for Fiction), Marina Lewycka (novelist and previous nominee for the Orange Prize), Lauren Laverne (presenter of BBC Two's The Culture Show), Peter Straus (managing director of literary agency Rogers, Coleridge & White) and senior editors from Harper's Bazaar.



WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR

Imaginative and stylish writing.


YOUR ENTRY MUST INCLUDE:

1 An original 2,000-word story on the subject of ‘Mother'.

2 A 200-word autobiography.

3 A passport photograph of yourself, attached to a sheet of A4 bearing your full name, address, telephone number (mobile number where possible), occupation and date of birth.


WHAT YOU'LL WIN

Three finalists will be selected by the judges to attend a writers' masterclass and lunch at the offices of Random House in London. The first prize is a cheque for £1,000, and the publication of your story in Harper's Bazaar. The two runners-up will receive £500 each. All three winners will also receive copies of all the shortlisted books for this year's Orange Prize for Fiction.



Rules and Regulations

1. All entries should be submitted no later than Tuesday 14 April to: Naomi West, Commissioning Editor, Harper's Bazaar, National Magazine House, 72 Broadwick Street, London W1F 9EP.

2. Entrants must be unpublished female writers aged 18 or over (in this instance please take "unpublished" to mean that entrants do not have an existing or previous contract with a publishing house.)

3. Harper's Bazaar holds the first publication rights, with exclusivity for a period of 56 days following publication.

4. Entrants must produce all writing themselves, without any assistance, and the completed piece must be the result of their own labours. Entrants warrant to the National Magazine Company that nothing within the piece is libellous, obscene, or in any way infringes the copyright or rights of third parties.

5. Entry to the competition and acceptance of any prize constitutes permission to use the names of the winner and runners-up for promotional purposes, without consultation.

6. The competition is not open to employees of the National Magazine Company or Orange PCS. The judging panel's decision is final, and no correspondence will be entered into.

7. The winners agree to take part in publicity as a result of the competition.

Promoter is Orange Personal Communications Services, 33 Wigmore Street, London W1U 7QX.

2 comments:

Sarah Hilary said...

Why do they ask for the passport photo, I wonder?? Am I being cynical or is this yet more proof that "exciting women writers" are even more exciting when they're photogenic?

Vanessa Gebbie said...

no comment, apart from to say it doesnt specify a RECENT passport photo...