Creative Writing Contests Short Story and other creative writing contests and competitions with big cash prizes like the ones below can provide a real step up for writers. Writing competitions can jumpstart a career. I'll never forget the thrill of excitement I felt when they contacted me with the news that I was one of six hundred writers invited to submit an entire novel manuscript.
Pity the female writer. Not only is she less likely to get reviewed in major magazines and short-listed for prizes, she often finds herself on the receiving end of interview questions that would leave most of us mouthing three little letters: Gross began by asking about execution methods.
This consumed at least a quarter of the interview, with the Fresh Air host delivering a figurative coup de grace: So excuse me for asking this, but if you had to be beheaded centuries ago, would you have preferred the guillotine, or the axe or sword customarily used in England?
For about ten minutes, Gross did ask about the life of Thomas Cromwell—until the interview took another turn. Mantel has suffered from health problems caused by endometriosis. In a frail voice, she explained to Gross that multiple surgeries had made it impossible for her to work for almost nine months between her two Cromwell books.
Then, in the icky moment that snapped my attention away from driving, Gross began asking Mantel increasingly intrusive questions about her body: How did that change the sense of who you are?
Mantel soldiered on, even when Gross brought up what it must have been like under these circumstances to live in Saudi Arabia with her geologist husband: That must have been such a really strange and alienating period for you.
By this point, I was shouting at the radio. What did this have to do with writing? If you talk about it in a memoir, you open yourself up to such questions.
Gross approached this distinguished literary author as if she were sitting next to her and had suddenly noticed that Hilary Mantel was fat. So, I did the cutting-edge thing: I used Twitter to find out if other writers, male and female, had ever experienced overly personal interview questions.
First, I sent out a general tweet, which netted me immediate responses from a number of women and one man.
Then I sent a tweet to Jennifer Weiner and several other well-known female authors: Have you encountered this? She also re-tweeted my query, and the avalanche began. Overton contacted me on Facebook and then emailed me this account: He asked personal questions about my children that I would not answer, and about my ex-husband that I felt legally unable to answer….
At the end, he actually misquoted a book jacket blurb. I knew I was in trouble.
Caitlin McCarthy, a screenwriter who responded to my initial tweet and then followed up by email, remembers when an interview came with a precondition: A reporter at a small publication that covers Irish Americans responded to my press release. He sent me an email, asking if I could give him a call so that we could set up a time and a place for the interview—so I did.
To my surprise, the reporter asked if I would drive in from Worcester to Boston over an hour away with traffic on a Friday night, because he had tickets to Celtic Woman.
We could do the interview over dinner afterward.First, I sent out a general tweet, which netted me immediate responses from a number of women and one man. Then I sent a tweet to Jennifer Weiner and several other well-known female authors: “Writing article on offensive questions asked of female writers.
Second Prize, Literal Latte Essay Award. The sense of dread begins to build even before I punch in the code on the metal entry box. The gate scrapes open and I pass through, driving down the catacomb of storage lockers with their corrugated metal doors.
First, I sent out a general tweet, which netted me immediate responses from a number of women and one man.
Then I sent a tweet to Jennifer Weiner and several other well-known female authors: “Writing article on offensive questions asked of female writers.
Carolina Woman - The Magazine for Women in the Triangle. Find details about every creative writing competition—including poetry contests, short story competitions, essay contests, awards for novels, grants for translators, and more—that we’ve published in the Grants & Awards section of Poets & Writers Magazine during the past year.
We carefully review the practices and policies of each contest before including it in the Writing Contests. If you’re searching for the best way to submit to fiction writing contests, you may be a bit overwhelmed.
There are hundreds of options that range from scams to high-exposure, free-to-enter blockbusters.