Calling all "Rising Stars"

If you are a "rising star" writer residing in Oregon, Washington, or Idaho, and between the ages of 15 and 25, Indigo has found the perfect writing competition, eager for your submissions. The Nature of Words, a premier literary organization in Central Oregon, is announcing the launch of its sixth annual literary contest with a call for submissions to the Rising Star Creative Writing Competition for young writers. Winners will be awarded at the festival, November 3-7, 2010, in Bend, Oregon, for fiction, literary nonfiction, nature essay, and poetry. All writers must fit into one of two age categories: 15-18 years of age or 19-25 years of age. Winners receive a cash prize, inclusion in an anthology, recognition at the November festival, and a scholarship to one of The Nature of Words workshops in their winning genre.

Poets may submit 2 unpublished poems; prose writers should submit one unpublished piece of no more than 3,000 words. "Unpublished" means the writing does not appear anywhere else, including Internet sources, with the exception of a blog. Entries should be accompanied by a separate cover sheet with the author's name, maling address, phone, email address, genre of the submission, and word count; this information should not be visible on the actual entry. Also, include a short bio that describes yourself and your experience and interest in writing.

Now, for actually submitting. Mail a $5 check (per entry) to The Nature of Words, P.O. Box 56, Bend, OR 97709, and note "Rising Star submission fee." Send all submissions electronically to
risingstar@thenatureofwords.org. All entries must be received no later than midnight, May 10, 2010, to be evaluated for the competition.

For more details and to double-check the submission guidelines, please visit www.thenatureofwords.org before submitting.

Sledghammer 2009 Is On!

Writers to your marks. Get set. Shatter!

(Your writer’s block, that is.)

For the second year running, the Sledgehammer Writing Contest innovatively incorporates a scavenger hunt with a team competition and a prize package worth thousands of dollars—oh, and did we mention there’s a 36-hour time limit?

Here’s how it works:

Teams of writers converge at noon on Saturday to receive their first writing prompt and scavenger hunt clues. From there they head out to several locations around the city to gather all four writing prompts, and then they have 36 hours to write the best fiction piece they can. Final submissions are due back in person by 11:59 p.m. on Sunday.

The following week, competitors will read their stories at an unveiling, and the audience will vote on the top three. The top three from each city will win gift certificates to local businesses, be invited to read their work at Wordstock and other venues, and go into the running for the grand prize package worth thousands of dollars!

Thanks to all of our sponsors who make the prize package so phenomenal.

Portland: August 29-30
Seattle: September 19-20

Start and end locations TBA.

Visit www.sledgehammercontest.com for more details and to register.

Ink-slingers: On your marks! It's the Wordstock Short Fiction Competition

Wordstock, Portland's annual festival of writers, books, and storytelling, is pleased to announce the call for submissions for the 3rd Wordstock Short Fiction Competition.

The national contest is a “double blind” competition. The judges, a collection of writers, academics, publishers, bookstore owners, and literary critics, will choose 10 finalists. The winner of the competition receives a first prize of $1,000 and publication in the October 2009 issue of Portland Monthly magazine. All 10 finalists' stories will be published in the Wordstock Ten, an anthology that will be available at the festival, at Portland-area bookstores, and online through the Wordstock website. Every writer who enters the competition will receive a copy of the anthology.

The final judge for this year’s competition will be Oregon essayist, author, and short-story writer Barry Lopez. Mr. Lopez is a recipient of the Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the John Hay Medal, fellowships from the Guggenheim, Lannan, and National Science Foundations, and many other honors, including the National Book Award.

Submission guidelines
- All short stories must be works of fiction written in English
- Stories must be an original work and not previously published
- The entry fee is $25 per short story entry
- There are no genre restrictions
- Manuscripts are to be typed, double-spaced, on 8.5” x 11” paper
- Stories should be no less than 1,500 and no more than 4,000 words
- Each submission must have a cover sheet with the writer’s contact information—do not put this information on the manuscript.
- No manuscript will be returned
- Entries that do not follow these guidelines will be disqualified

Submit your entry by mail to:
Wordstock short fiction competition
C/o Franklin, Beedle & Assoc.
8536 SW St Helens Dr., Suite D
Wilsonville, OR 97070.

Please make your entry fee check payable to Wordstock. All entries must be postmarked by July 1, 2009.

Last year's competition drew over 300 entries from all over the world. The 1st place winner, Kurt Rheinheimer of Roanoke, Virginia, won $1,000 and had his story, "Calendar Girl Arrested, Freed" published in the December 2009 issue of Portland Monthly.

See what all the fuss is about and visit this information at the Wordstock website.