Our May competition has now closed and the stories will go off to Fiona Cooper for judging. Nice to see a late entry from South Africa, a new country for us and, I am pretty sure, our first entry from Africa.
June’s competition is open for entries now.
John Dean
Welcome to a writer from another new country. We have received our first entry from El Salvador, in Central America. This is pleasing because there is a strong storytelling tradition in that part of the world.
The number of countries represented in our contest continues to grow at an encouraging rate but this is our first from Central America. I don’t think we have had one from South America either. We look forward to that first story as well.
In connection with our latest competition, you have a day and a half to get your stories in!
John Dean
It’s always a pleasure when we welcome new writers to our competition so welcome to our recent entries from Singapore. It is perhaps no surprise that writers from that part of the world are entering because the short story tradition is strong there.
With a number of fine writers having pioneered the art form, there has been over recent decades a growing realisation that the Singaporean short story is something worth treasuring.
Scanning the Internet, there seems to be a sense that this belief stemmed from the late 1970s, allied to a keener appreciation of the ability of writers to give Singapore a voice.
And there is no doubt that, despite the competing attractions of novel-writing for many Singaporean writers, the short story remains an appreciated art form.
Long may it continue.
John Dean
A question we are sometimes asked relates to the types of stories which we accept for the competition. Well, the simple answer is that we welcome those spanning all sorts of genres.
Our dream, in time, would be to run different competitions for different genres, but that is something for the future as we continue to expand in the years to come and for the moment we are keen to have representations from all sorts of writing in our main competition.
So, not only are we seeking stories from that huge catch-all of ‘General Fiction’ but also entries from writers specialising in the likes of ghost stories, horror and science fiction. In fact, they would be appropriate additions to our competition since they are genres which can rightly be credited with helping to create the status of the short story in the first place.
If you examine the history of the short story in the 19th Century and into the 20th Century, it was those genres that produced some of the greatest works from some of the finest writers, authors who understood that the short form can be every bit as effective as the novel, if not more so, in telling a story. Authors like Edgar Allan Poe with his studies in fear or Isaac Asimov, whose evocative tales stand at the very peak of science fiction writing.
And as short stories struggled to survive during the latter stages of the 20th Century, it was writers specialising in those genres who continued to champion the short form.
We hope that we also see more entries from writers who specialise in them.
John Dean
An entry that came in recently brings me to an interesting point about the skill of short story writing. I think the story is beautifully written, the sign of a writer in command of their craft and with the ability to move the reader with their words.
Yet nothing much happens. There is no dramatic start and no sensational end, indeed the end has an inevitability about it.
During the story, no one is arrested or attacked or murdered or abused or accused of anything or swears or cusses, all the things that can make for a compelling tale.
And yet it is a wonderful piece of writing. Yes, there is a story to it but it is the quality of the the prose that draws you in from the first line. The story wraps its arms round you and it takes you into the world that the writer has created, then leaves you greedy for more.
Sometimes a short story can be about the smallest episodes, the merest of observations, and yet deal with the biggest themes of all, in this case the death of someone whose time has come, naturally, peacefully, inevitably.
And in the hands of a good writer, it is the very fact that the story gently comes to its natural end, rather like a rowing boat bumping against the side of a lake, that makes it such a delight to read.
And the fact that the genre allows such delicate writing to exist is what makes short story writing such a thing to be celebrated.
John Dean
There can be no doubt that the Internet is a powerful tool and that information can be flashed round the globe at the press of a button.However, the web still does not replace the need for good old-fashioned graft, which is the way we have set about promoting our competition since it launched just before Christmas.
During the past six months, we have used the web to contact writing groups and associations from Novia Scotia to Queensland, Quebec to the Caribbean, Scotland to New Zealand as we try to spread the word.
We have contacted general fiction writers and those who delight in telling ghost stories, those who make our blood curdle with their tales of horror, those who cheerfully murder the luckless in their crime stories and those who reduced us to laugher with their comedy or make us smile with their whimsical sense of romance.
Why I am telling you all this? Because we are grateful for all the work that each of those groups, and each of you who visits our site, do in passing on the word. The Internet may be the wonder of the modern age but it does not replace the human touch.
We are currently looking at new ways of increasing awareness of our competition on the web through the application of technology but remain deeply appreciative of those of you who already visit our site, like what they see and tell their friends about it.
This all comes to mind because we have had one or two nice messages this week from people saying how much they appreciate the work that competitions like ours do to promote the genre of the short story.
And from the delight expressed by our winners each month, we know that success in the Global Short Story Competition means something.
Yes, but what does it all mean? Well, it means that exciting new writers are being given exposure which some of them might not otherwise have received.
And it means that there was a time not so long ago when the genre was seriously endangered but that now, thanks to competitions like ours and many others, there is a sense that it is being restored to its rightful place as one of the most celebrated types of writing on the planet.
So thanks for all your help as we try to play our part in the campaign to save the short story.
And for those considering entering this month’s competition, you have just over a week to do so.
Have a good weekend.
John Dean
THE winners have been named in the April Global Short Story Competition and the UK, Australia and Canada are celebrating. The winner for April is Mary Marland, of Grimsby, in east Yorkshire in the UK, with Baby Doll’s Lament.Judge Fiona Cooper, the respected North-East England writer, said of the story: “This story has got the lot! Lovely use of language, an original concept and a great twist right at the end. The writer takes us right into the world of a post-Victorian child, and subtly draws the adults in her world from the child’s point of view - rather like the world of Tom and Jerry where people are only seen from the knees down. It’s quite a skill to involve a reader in a separate emotional reality in a short story, and it is a very accomplished writer who can write from a doll’s point of view without a shred of whimsy. Excellent.”
She was also impressed with the runner-up, the highly commended The Funeral of William the Monk by Bella Anderson, of Richmond, Australia, of whose story Fiona said: “Dark humour at its best in this story: the writer creates a restless cosmos where the chaos theory reigns supreme.”
Mary receives £100, Bella £25.
Commended stories were:
* The Happy Groove by Dylan Paschke, of Leeds, UK, of whose story Fiona said: “Bold and very, very funny, a laid back style which conveys the inner world of the very laid back main character. From the opening sentence I was engaged and laughing out loud by the end. “
And The Tin Whistle by Chuck Lovatt, of Manitoba, Canada. Fiona said: “The words in this story flow beautifully and are beautifully crafted. The central theme has been used many times, but this is a great and original approach and it reads so well it comes across as fresh, but the way it is handled shows a remarkable degree of sensitivity. A fine achievement.”
Well done one and all! And there is still time to enter our May competition.
John Dean
An entry received over the weekend brings me back to a subject I have tackled in previous blogs, namely that of the short short story.
All writing is about every word doing its job but that becomes an even more pronounced skill when you are writing something short, like a poem or a story.
I write novels and they tend to run to between 60-70,000 words. I try to make sure that every word counts but I do have the luxury of taking a paragraph or two to describe a place or a person if I want. As long as I do not bore my reader, that is fine.
However, if you are writing a short story you really do not have that luxury, something of which I was reminded by the story that came in over the weekend, which ran to less than 200 words.
The length meant that the writer had to make every word do its job and discard every word, every thought, every element of the story that slowed it down. The story was stripped to its basics.
Did it lose anything for that? In my view, no. Yes, it left me to work out a lot, think through what I was being told and where it was happening. But it remained a powerful piece of writing for all that.
So when people send in requests asking how long their story should be, I always remind them that our top limit is 2,000 words (for ease of reading by our judge) but as to the bottom limit? Well, it is how many words you need to tell the story. That’s the true art of storytelling and always will be.
John Dean
As mentioned in previous blogs, we are always very grateful for any help we receive in promoting our competition. And we do like to try to repay the favour wherever we can: it fits in with our commitment to helping strengthen the writing community worldwide.
One site that has helped us down the months is www.kudoswriting.wordpress.com, which was formerly the Competitions Bulletin and which publishes details of all sorts of competitions.If you want to take a look at their latest information, which has just been published, drop into the site and find out about everything from the BBC Wildlife Magazine Poet of the Year to the Frogmore Poetry Prize.
But only when you’ve sent in your entry for our competition first, though!
John Dean
Having written about the Indian short story at the end of last week, I was
delighted to see more entries from that part of the world over the weekend.
Delighted but not surprised because many people would say that short stories
have become one of the most important genres, if not the most important, in
India over recent years.
Why does Indian writing adapt itself so well to this genre? My personal
opinion is that Indian writing is very powerful, spiritual almost, closely
linked to the emotions and sensations that, for me, make writing so evocative.
I appreciate that many writers tell stories without seeking to impart
any great truths, and that is absolutely fine, but I have always liked
writing that says something about the world in which we live, and I think Indian fiction is well suited to that sort of approach.
There is another reason for the ascendancy of the short story in Indian
fiction. Having done some research, it seems that the magazines and
periodicals in India must take a lot of the credit, giving writers a voice
as they seek to make sense of the world about them. It certainly seems
that Indian short story writers are fascinated by the culture of the country
in which they live and work.
Looking forward to more Indian entries soon.
John Dean