2021 Blacktown Mayoral Creative Writing Prize

The 2021 Blacktown Mayoral Creative Writing Prize is open to adults and children who live in Blacktown city. Entrants will write a short story or poem responding to the theme of The only way is… The total prize pool is $1,600.

Overview
The 2021 Mayoral Creative Writing Prize is open to adults and children aged 8 years and above, who live in Blacktown city. The poems and short stories must be works of fiction.

Entries are now closed for this prize.
Presentation date: Thursday 9 December 2021 at 6 pm to 7 pm.
Venue: Max Webber Library Function Centre

Competition guidelines and criteria
Categories
All entries can be either poetry or short stories.
They will be judged in the following age categories, 8 – 11 years, 12 – 14 years, 15 – 17 years and adult (18+).
All entries must respond to the theme: The only way is….

Judging
Your work will be judged on how original it is, how you have constructed your story or poem, the use of language, (including creative expression, grammar, sentence structure, punctuation and spelling), the way you have developed characters, atmosphere, or setting or used words in a creative way and how it relates to the theme.

It is critical that this work is original and not copied in any way. Copied work will be disqualified. Short stories exceeding the 500 words limit, or poems longer than 25 lines will also be disqualified. An independent judging panel will assess all submissions.

For more information, please contact WestWords on 1800 WestWords or admin@westwords.com.au

Prizes
The total prize pool is $1,600. Winners aged 17 or younger will receive $100 and their school, if located in Blacktown City, will receive a corresponding $100 as an incentive to encourage the budding authors of our local area. Adult winners will receive $200.

Announcement of the prize winners
The presentation ceremony will take place on Thursday 9 December 2021, at 6 pm.
All winners and highly commended recipients will be invited to attend.

Submission criteria

  1. The work must be original and completed in the last 6 months.
    Entries can be either:

    • poem, maximum of 25 lines
    • short story, maximum of 500 words.
  2. Only one entry per person is permitted in each category.
  3. Each entry must have one entry per online form.
  4. Members of staff, members of Council, their partners and members of their immediate families are ineligible to enter this competition.
  5. The judges’ decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.
  6. All participants will receive a letter acknowledging the receipt of their entry and their participation. A presentation ceremony will be held on Thursday 9 December 2021, where the winners will be announced.

 

Last year’s competition
In 2020 we received a total of 363 entries across all the categories with 50 schools participating in the competition. The works were judged on originality, the construction of the story or poem, the use of language, (including creative expression, grammar, sentence structure, punctuation and spelling) and the way characters, atmosphere or setting was developed, or used words in a creative way.

Below, in the electronic version of the book from 2020 responding to the theme The Whole World at Home containing the winning and highly commended entries. Read them. Be inspired and enjoy!

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