15th May 2012 Competition 4 Fantasy/Science-fiction story

Adjudication of Competition 4 Fantasy/Science-fiction Story by Anne Potter.

 

Anne used these seven elements when choosing the winners. 

1. Good Story
2. Succinct use of words
3. Format, Punctuation Grammar and Style
4. Use of senses
5. Story moved forward with dialogue
6. Satisfying Conclusion
7. Credible new technology

 She said all the stories were good satisfying reads and it was a difficult decision to make.

 

The Winners

 

1st “Endangered Species” by Elizabeth Bencze

2nd “The Story of the Allegorians” by Alex Sykes

3rd “2212” by Victoria Bartlett

 

Results of Competition 3

Tuesday 20th March 2012
The winners of Competition 3 for the Colin Sutton Cup for Humour, A Tall Tale judged by storyteller Andrew Brammer

1st “A Portrait of the Forger as a Young Man” by Sally Newton
2nd “Mrs Patterson’s Flowers” by Victoria Bartlett
3rd “Barney’s Continental Adventure” by Doreen Rosser

Laughter was the main ingredient of the evening with a twist in the tale, a misleading statement and a bumbling hero. The winners were chosen from 14 entries all of whom found life farcical and entertaining.


Forthcoming event
Our next meeting on 3rd April has a more classical bent with Peter Mieville reflecting on life and works of Charles Dickens with a talk titled “The Incomparable Mr Dick.”

March 6th 2012: Speaker, Anne Potter on “The Writer’s Web”

Anne Potter started the evening with a brief history of her working life then followed by giving the members the benefit of the many facts that she has gleaned in her two years of research about publishing your own work on the web. Encouraging members to ask questions at the end of each section, she covered selling short stories, articles, novels and online submissions, which were both interesting and informative.

The handouts she brought with printouts of web pages complete with step by step explanations were welcome and helpful, particularly to novices who might be nervous when first trying to navigate the web.

 Anne completed the evening with a brief set of guidelines for

Competition 4 A short science fiction or fantasy story.

It should be some thing readable, could be some scientific invention that you can extrapolate or fantasy: person power, fairies, etc Anne suggested we look at websites for examples of these.

Please look on the guidelines in your programme for format.

7th February 2012 Adjudication of Competition 3

Heidi Williamson’s adjudication of Poetry Competition on “The Journey”.

The results of the competition produced a variety of subjects and styles. Heidi’s criteria included structure, craft, detail and language but most of all the experience of entering another world. She stressed the importance for poets to look out for spelling mistakes and to keep the rhymes and sustain the subject throughout. She stated that the poem is the event not just a record of an event

She found the winners poems impressive, imaginative, unexpected and well crafted.

1st
Elizabeth Bencze with “A letter” (a message from Mars)

2nd
Margaret Turner with “Queen Margaret” (A personalised account of the life and funeral of a Gypsy Queen who died in 1740)

3rd
Anne Sanderson with “From Earlier Ages via Modern means to Earlier Age” (cultural experience of a visit to China)

Commended:
Mickie Dann with “The Gingerbread House” (likening a journey into womanhood after leaving school and the experience of a first job in a sweet factory to a fairy tale)

Visit Heidi’s website for details of poetry workshops.

http://www.heidiwilliamsonpoet.com/

Recent Successes January 2012

Lyn Fountain was featured in the press having won a competition run by FOND (Friends of Norfolk Dialect) with her story “Things that go Bump in the Night”.

Neil Walker was Highly Commended for his entry in the Dormeasan Story Competition 2011 in association with Your Healthy Living magazine with his story “The Richest Man in the World” The competition drew over 1,000 entries.

Anne Funnell has produced a book of short stories suitable for people staying in hospital (Watch this space for more details.)

Joseph Freeman

Don't forget Joseph Freeman is adjudicating competition 1: Horror Story on December 6th.

Joseph Freeman Horror Story Competition

Anyone attending "As the Nights Draw In" an Evening with Joseph Freeman, on 4th October 2011 will know they're in for a treat when he returns on 6th December 2011 to adjudicate the first competition, a horror story, of our new programme. Not only did he set out the guidelines giving tips and details of how to write horror stories but he gave us an insight into the pleasures of writing the horror genre and the inspiration one has to generate for oneself.

Poetry Postal

The postal address for our 2012 Open Poetry Competition has been announced.

Please send your entries to:

Norwich Writers' Circle
Open Poetry Competition Secretary
1 Stannard Road
Norwich NR4 7JD
ENGLAND

More information on our ever-popular competition can be found at norwichwriters.org.uk/poetry.

Good luck!

The Shout

As part of our ongoing online Poetry Season we are proud to feature Simon Armitage's The Shout.

To listen to the poem please go here.

Summer Poetry

In conjunction with our recently launched Open Poetry Competition, this Summer sees our own online poem celebration.

Every weekend, for the next 7 weeks, we will be uploading some of the best comtemporary poetry to our popular YouTube channel for you to experience and enjoy.

For more information on how to enter our OPC please go here.

Open Poetry 2012

Our 2012 Open Poetry Competition has been launched.

The competition - Norwich Writers' Circle's 41st - has the following prizes in the Open Category:

1st

£300.00

2nd

£150.00

3rd 

£75.00

In addition to the main prizes, we also have sponsored ones for Minimalist and Humorous poetry, plus another on The Family.

The competition closes on the 21st February 2012, and this year, as previously announced, will be judged by Helen Ivory.

A prizegiving evening, featuring adjudications and readings, will then take place on the 17th April 2012 at The Assembly House. This evening also sees the launch of the Competition's Anthology, which will be able to be purchased from the night onwards.

To read the Competition rules and much more, please visit the dedicated section of our main website by going here.

AGM And More

Norwich Writers' Circle's AGM took place this evening.

This well-attended meeting also included our annual prizegiving, which acknowledges Circle members' successes in the various group competitions held throughout the year.

The prizes awarded tonight were:

The Ivy Ferrari Trophy
1st

Maureen Nisbet

2nd

Sally Newton

3rd

Phyllida Scrivens

The Competition Cup

1st

Mickie Dann

2nd

Sally Newton

3rd
Maureen Nisbet

The Colin Sutton Cup for Humour

1st
Sally Newton

2nd
Joanne Amos
3rd
Anne Sanderson

Sadly this evening's meeting also saw Anne Funnell, our Chairman, step down after several years in the role. Anne's efforts were recognised by all Norwich Writers' Circle members in a presentation of a gift, along with some flowers.

We next meet in September, following our annual Summer break.

Details of our new programme, including competitions and visiting writers, will be announced on this Blog in the weeks ahead.

We hope to see you later on in the year.

David Underdown

Congratulations to one of our previous Open Poetry Competition winners, David Underdown, who has recently had his first full collection published.

Copies of the Time Lines are now available from the publishers, Cinnamon Press, or via Inpress Books.

To discover more about David please visit his official website.

Our latest poetry competition will be launched this Summer. Watch our websites for more information in the coming months.

Laurence Mitchell

This evening Norwich Writers' Circle welcomed back Laurence Mitchell to adjudicate our Travel Article Competition.

The travel writer commented that he was impressed by the high standard of 12 competition entries, and that he found the winner extremely hard to choose.

Laurence also commended all the entries for following his suggestions as outlined to us on his previous visit to us.

The competition winners were then announced as:

1st - The Colin Sutton Cup for Humour
Kalimera Strumphita
by Sally Newton

2nd
The Magical Mystery Tour
by Jo Amos

3rd
Sand Covered Nudists & German Wanderlust
by Anne Sanderson

We then heard a selection of the humorous competition entries, including all 3 winners, before chatting to the visiting writer.

Our next meeting is on 21st June, when writer, tutor and visual artist Clare Hamburger will be holding a workshop entitled Writing The Image.

We hope to see you then.

Helen Ivory

The adjudicator for our 2012 Open Poetry Competition has been announced as Helen Ivory.

In 1999 Helen won an Eric Gregory Award from the Society of Authors. She has had 3 collections of poetry with Bloodaxe Books: The Double Life of Clocks (2002), The Dog in the Sky (2006) and The Breakfast Machine (2010).

Helen Ivory edits the webzine Ink Sweat and Tears. She is an Editor for The Poetry Archive and programmes the Creative Writing courses for Continuing Education at UEA. She teaches for the Poetry School, the Arvon Foundation and for various organizations in Norwich. She is also an artist and regularly posts new work on her website - helenivory.co.uk - which is about to be archived by the British Library.

Our websites will be updated all our latest Open Poetry Competition news, including information on its official launch. Watch this space for more details this Summer.

Wrekin Writers



Wrekin Writers have launched their own short story competition.

The competition, which closes on 11th July 2011, has a top prize of £150.00 for a short story of no more than 1,200 words.

For more information please go here.

Street Hunt

As part of this year's Norfolk & Norwich Festival, the Street Hunt competition has been launched.

Street Hunt is a visual crossword puzzle, a treasure hunt where the riches are road names, a story emerging from the page, and your chance to win up to £10,000.00.

For more information please visit streethunt.co.uk.

Poetry People

Our popular YouTube channel has been updated to include a film featuring a series of images from our recent Open Poetry Competition Prize-Giving Evening.

Please go here to view the short film.

Poetry United

United Press have recently launched their biggest ever free poetry competition.

Over 250 winners are selected every year, each one representing a different UK town or area. All winners are published in the anthology and all receive a free copy of the book, and one overall winner will receive £1,000.00. To enter you can submit up to 3 poems, all of which must be no more than 25 lines (each blank line counts as one line) and 160 words each.

To see how to enter the competition, which closes on 30th June, please go here.

Sell Out Success

Following its launch less than a fortnight ago, our latest Open Poetry Anthology's 1st edition has already sold out.

The book's 2nd edition is now available to buy via our main website. To purchase your copy of the anthology, please go here.