UPDATE: ENTRIES ARE NOW CLOSED

THANK YOU FOR YOUR INTEREST

We are very excited to announce that the 2016 Joanne Burns Award for Microlit will be jointly sponsored by the Newcastle Writers Festival and Spineless Wonders. Now in its sixth year, this award for microfiction and prose poems honours the work of experimental Australian poet Joanne Burns, who this year was the recipient of the prestigious NSW Premier’s Kenneth Slessor Award for Poetry.

We are looking for writing which responds imaginatively to the theme of ‘landmarks’. Landmarks may be critical or celebratory, watershed moments or turning points in history and culture or in relationships. There are literal landmarks and marks on the land(scape). Interpret the theme as broadly as you wish, using any tone, from the serious to satirical, from whimsical to witty.

Microlit includes any form of short writing such as flash fiction, prose poem, dramatic monologue etc. Please note that we do not accept poems with line breaks for this competition.

There are both national and Hunter Region categories. The national category, open to Australian citizens living anywhere and to any person residing in Australia, will be judged by the award-winning writer, scholar and critic, Cassandra Atherton. The Hunter Region category, open to Hunter residents, will be judged by writer Joanna Atherfold Finn and the winner of the 2016 Newcastle Writers Festival Microlit Competition, Karen Whitelaw.

Winners of both categories will receive cash prizes of $300 and entries by all finalists will be considered for publication in an anthology, alongside invited writers.  Selected entries will be included in Spineless Wonders’ multi-platform #storybombingNWF17 project, featuring in videos and installations at the 2017 Newcastle Writers Festival.

Theme: LANDMARKS

Length: 200 word max.

First prize in each category: $300

Entry fee: $7 per entry for national category. Free for Hunter Region category.

Closing date: 31 August, 2016

COMPETITION GUIDELINES AND HOW TO ENTER

For further inquiries:

Bronwyn Mehan


br*****@sh********************.au

SPINELESSWONDERS