The Voiceless Writing Prize

Voiceless, the animal protection institute, has announced the “The Voiceless Writing Prize,” sponsored by Australian Ethical Investment. There is “a total prize pool of well over $20,000 to writers who compellingly address the relationship between humans and animals, and animal sentience.”

The contest is looking for fiction and non-fiction pieces of 5-10,000 words with a focus on animals raised for food or those found in the Australian environment.

The best work will be published by Australia’s largest independent publisher, Allen & Unwin, in 2012.

“The winner chosen by the judging panel will receive $15,000, while the public will vote for the People’s Choice to receive $5,000. Voiceless Councillor Deborah Debnam together with Peter Debnam have sponsored the People’s Choice for 2012, 2013, and 2014. All writers published in the collection will receive $500.”

The submission deadline is 16 March 2012.

Visit their website for more details and submission guidelines at voiceless.org.au.

Twisted Stringybark Short Story Award 2012

The following announcements from Stringybark Stories have landed on the Melbourne Writers Social Group news desk:

Twisted Stringybark Short Story Award 2012

Nothing entertains a reader more than a good short story with a nifty twist at the end. Stringybark Stories is delighted to invite all writers to enter their best work in the Twisted Stringybark Short Story Award 2012. The maximum word length of your story is 1500 words; it must have some link to Australia (no matter how tenuous); and it must have a twist in the tail! There is over A$500 in prizes available, cash, plus publication for place-getters and highly commended stories. There is an entry fee of $9.75 (discounts for multiple entries).

Closing date 4 March 2012.  Details: www.stringybarkstories.net

Results of the Stringybark Australian History Short Story Award 2011 

On 28 December 2011, the judges announced the winning stories in the Stringybark Australian History Short Story Award 2011. From bunyips to war and from Ben Hall to boot-eating, the winning entries are now available in a new anthology Marngrook. The book is named after the winning entry, Marngrook, by Victorian writer, Sean Quentin Lee. The story is beautifully and poetically written (even if it is about football!) and it was the standout winner for three of the four Stringybark judges.

Second place went to Footsteps in the Dark by Elsie Johnstone. This story set at the time of the ‘Brown Out Murders’ that occurred in Melbourne during World War Two. It is a masterful story that has the reader sitting on the edge of their chair…

The Woman at the Back of the Room, the third-place getting story, by J.B. Rowley examines the passion of the suffragette movement and the reader is deftly drawn into the drama of one small moment in time.

A full list of winner and place-getters can be found on the website: www.stringybarkstories.net