Comp to call on short story scribes

BALLARAT Writers’ biennial short story competition is set to return with entries now open.

Participants will have until Sunday 1 October to craft their short prose piece of up to 3000 words for the non-profit’s Southern Cross Short Story Competition, with the winner to receive $1000.

“It gives people in Ballarat that opportunity to start exploring short story competitions, getting paid for their work,” said chair of the Ballarat Writers, Laura Wilson.

“It helps them to start valuing their work as something worth being paid for.

“We get over 200 entries every time we run it, and you do hear in a lot of author bios where competitions like this were their start of their careers.

“This also draws in money that we can then spend on our memberships in terms of putting on more workshops and other events.”

Ballarat Writers’ short story competition alternates each year with their Martha Richardson Memorial Poetry Prize.

Second and third place entrants will receive $400 and $100 respectively while two highly commended certificates will also be awarded.

The entries will be pared down by about half a dozen pre-readers before the remaining 20 stories will be judged by The Rosie Project author Graeme Simsion.

He’ll also conduct a short story workshop which Ms Wilson said will tie in well with the competition.

“Graeme’s written about 13 short stories and he’ll talk about what makes a good one,” he said.

“We’re hoping the people locally who are entering will see it as a great opportunity to find out what Graeme values in a short story.”

The workshop will run on Thursday 28 September at the North Star Hotel.

The competition’s entries are to fit the broad theme of Tracks of Desire.

The winners will be announced during Ballarat Writers’ end-of-year meeting on Wednesday 29 November.

To enter the competition, view the criteria, or book a ticket for Simsion’s workshop, visit the Ballarat Writers website.