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Sarah Waters author of Tipping the Velvet and Fingersmith has agreed to chair the panel of judges for the Jane Austen Short Story Award with big money up for grabs and publication in an anthology. The competition celebrates the bicentenary of Jane Austen's arrival in the village of Chawton, Hampshire and is for stories of 2,000-2,500 words - with a historical or contemporary setting - inspired by Jane Austen's novels or Chawton House. You must include a 100 word piece on your inspiration for the story too. The Chawton House Library website says: "Our intention is to publish the very best short fiction inspired by Jane Austen or Chawton House - a place she knew well and where she spent the most productive years of her literary life. "The inspiration for your story can be taken from any theme in Jane Austen's novels: it might even be a character or a single sentence that sets your creative juices flowing. Or perhaps your imagination will be fired by the Elizabethan mansion, Chawton House, where Jane Austen and her family often gathered, and now houses a rare collection of early women's writing." The writer of the winning story will receive ??1,000 and two runners up will receive ??200 each. All three finalists will also win a week long writers' retreat at Chawton House and will be published in a winners' anthology. Fifteen other shortlisted authors will receive ??40 plus publication in the anthology. Entry is ??10 per story and you can download the entry form and rules at www.chawton.org/news/competition.html. The competition is open to writers of all nationalities who have not had a work of full-length fiction published. The closing date for entries is the 31st March 2009.

Award–winning publisher, Frances Lincoln Limited, and Seven Stories, the Centre for Children’s Books, have launched 'Diverse Voices' an award in memory of Frances Lincoln (1945–2001). The search is on for a children's book manuscript that "celebrates cultural diversity in the widest possible sense, either in terms of its story or in terms of the ethnic and cultural origins of its author." The winner will receive £1,500, plus the option for Frances Lincoln Children’s Books to publish their novel. FLCB founded in 1977 publish well over 100 new books a year, and have nearly 1000 in print. The competition is for an unpublished book (fiction) for eight to 12-year-olds by a writer aged 16 or over. The book must be between 10,000 and 30,000 words in English. The writer must not have previously published a novel for children but may have contributed to an anthology of prose or poetry. The closing date for all entries is 30 January 2009. The winner will be announced at an award ceremony at Seven Stories, the Centre for Children’s Books, next April. The award has been set up to : "Take positive steps to increase the representation of people writing from or about different cultural perspectives, whose work is published in Britain today. Promote new writing for children, especially by or about people whose culture and voice are currently underrepresented. Recognise that as children’s books shape our earliest perceptions of the world and its cultures, promoting writing that represents diversity will contribute to social and cultural tolerance. Support the process of writing rather than, as with the majority of prizes, promoting the publication." The judges will be Trevor Phillips – Chair of The Equality and Human Rights Commission, Jake Hope – Children’s Librarian for Lancashire Libraries, and a freelance consultant, Geraldine Brennan – Journalist and former Books Editor at the Times Educational Supplement, Janetta Otter-Barry – Editorial Director, Frances Lincoln Children’s Books and Mary Briggs – Co-Founder of Seven Stories, the Centre for Children’s Books For entry forms email [email protected] You can check out the great titles published by FLCB at their website www.franceslincoln.com/Home

University of Huddersfield has launched a short story and poetry competition to find material for its new anthology Grist. The once a year publication will include the winning selections alongside established writers. The Grist website explains: "Grist is interested in fresh new voices with something to say. By publishing emerging writers alongside established writers, Grist provides a unique opportunity for those starting out in their writing careers. For the reader of Grist, each issue in book form will provide two hundred pages of the best new writing around." Joanne Harris Short stories can be up to 3,500 words on any subject and there is a £3 entry fee per story. You may submit as many stories as you like. Joanne Harris author of Chocolat and Runemarks will be the judge. The three overall winners will receive a cash prize. The three winners and all runners up will be published in the next issue of Grist. The closing date November 30th 2008. Simon Armitage will judge the poetry competition. Poems should be up to 40 lines and can be on any subject. Entry is £3 per poem and you can submit as many poems as you like. The three overall winners will receive a cash prize. The three winners and all runners up will be published in the next issue of Grist. Again the closing date is November 30th 2008. There are other rules about style of manuscript and you have to print off an entry form available at the competition's website at www.hud.ac.uk/mh/english/grist/index.htm

Comma Press are looking for new Short Stories set in Liverpool for an anthology called 'Reberth.' The book will be published in December and will be made up of short stories from the ‘Cities on the Edge’. ‘Cities on the Edge’ is a partnership of six European cities: Bremen, Gdansk, Istanbul, Liverpool, Marseille and Naples. The Comma Press website explains: "At Liverpool's invitation, they have come together in Liverpool's European Capital of Culture ‘08 year to examine their roles as historic ports. The cities all share a sense of independence (almost as city states, as islands within their national territories). Equally, they are characterised by a critical edge; a rare combination of individualism and a strong sense of community; a reputation for creativity; and a long and vivid history. They are essential to the definition of the cultural identity of their respective countries, but don't always feel loved or understood by their countrymen. "Featuring two 2 stories set in each of the ‘Cities on the Edge’, ReBerth aims to give a flavour of the peculiar cultural potency of these cities: their diverse traditions and religions; their cultural practices (both old and new); their movement away from reliance on a shipping economy, and towards a model of cultural regeneration and exchange; and above all, their ‘edginess’. "We particularly welcome stories embracing the notion that port cities are a destination – and sometimes a stepping-off point - for migrant communities: people embarking on a new life; in search of sanctuary, salvation, or rebirth." What they are looking for: • Cohesive, subtle, insightful and well-shaped stories of literary merit. • Stories which touch on one or more of the above themes. • Stories set against the recognizable backdrop of the city of Liverpool (or in which geographical features of the city play a role in the story). • Contemporary stories (stories set within the past twenty-five years). What they are not looking for: • Character sketches, anecdotes, comic capers (particularly comic capers featuring ‘loveable rogues’), benign childhood memoirs. • Stories which set aside clunky, separate passages for scene setting, characterization, plot exposition or flashback. • Stories including any material to which the author does not own copyright (e.g. song lyrics). • Previously published works. Submissions should be between 1000 and 5000 words in length (approx). 2 submissions maximum per author will be considered. We will pay authors £200 for each story we use in the anthology. You are strongly urged to visit the ‘General Guidelines’ below and the Editorial page of the website (www.commapress.co.uk) for further guidance on submitting manuscripts. Email submissions as a double-spaced word document attachment before Friday 1st August 2008 to [email protected] Good luck

There are just a couple of weeks left before the deadline for this year's Bridport Prize. Anyone can enter and there are some big money prizes to be won alongwith the chance for your work to be read by a top agent. I have never entered this particular competition as I've always been a bit intimidated by it - so I'd be interested to hear readers' opinions on it. The Bridport Prize International Creative Writing Competition was founded in 1973 and now attracts many thousands of entries from over 80 countries. You can now enter online or via the post using the application form which can be printed off from the website. There are two categories - short stories up to 5,000 words and poems 42 lines maximum both with a top prize of £5,000. Second prize is £1,000 and third £500 with ten supplementary prizes of £50 each and the top 26 stories and poems will be published in the Bridport Prize 2008 anthology. All 26 winners are invited to a Prizegiving Lunch at the Town Hall in Bridport, Dorset. An additional £100 and a perpetual trophy is awarded to the best local (Dorset, UK) winner or runner up. The winning stories and shortlist will be read by London leading agents with a view to representing writers. Helen Simpson will judge the short stories Short stories will be judged by writer Helen Simpson who said: "The short story form is intrinsically witty, adrenalised, quick--not restful. It encourages concision. VSPritchett described, 'How did the story change as I rewrote it, perhaps four or five times, boiling down a hundred pages into twenty or thirty, as I still do? Story writing is exacting work.' I'll be looking for stories which show imaginative pleasure in meeting the demands of the form." The Bridport website explains: "In many cases a win in the Bridport Prize has led to further successes and helped to launch new writers. Kate Atkinson (a short story winner in 1990) said that it was very important, confirming that she had found her "voice". Her short story went on to become the first chapter of her novel, "Behind the Scenes at the Museum", winner of the 1995 Whitbread Book of the Year. She returned to judge the Short Story section in 2001. Other noteworthy names include Helen Dunmore (also a 1990 winner) whose "Spell of Winter" won the Orange Prize for Fiction in 1996; Tobias Hill, a winner in both categories (poetry 1994, short story 1996) and Tess Biddington, a winner in 2000, who made it onto the short list for The Forward Prize and gained an agent for her forthcoming novel, plus many others." The Prize is open to anyone, including non-UK applicants,over 18 years. Entries must be entirely the work of the entrant and must never have been published, self-published, published on any website or broadcast. Closing date is June 30th 2008. Each entry costs £6. More details from www.bridportprize.org.uk

David Domke is Professor of Communication and Head of Journalism at the University of Washington. Kevin Coe is a doctoral candidate in Speech Communication at the University of Illinois. They are authors of the The God Strategy: How Religion Became a Political Weapon in America. To learn more about the book check out their handy website here, to read more posts by them click here. In the post below they look at Obama’s success in South Carolina.

In winning the Iowa caucuses and the South Carolina primary, Democratic Party presidential candidate Barack Obama carried virtually every demographic group. (more…)

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David Domke is Professor of Communication and Head of Journalism at the University of Washington. Kevin Coe is a doctoral candidate in Speech Communication at the University of Illinois. They are authors of the The God Strategy: How Religion Became a Political Weapon in America. To learn more about the book check out their handy website here, to read more posts by them click here. In the article below Domke and Coe look ahead to the South Carolina primaries.

From the Motor City in Michigan to Sin City in Nevada, the 2008 presidential campaign is going national. But with all respect to voters in these states, the road to the White House—and for American politics generally—in the next few weeks goes through South Carolina. That’s because the Palmetto state is ground zero in today’s religious politics. (more…)

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