Post #26 – Women’s Memoirs, News – Matilda Butler and Kendra Bonnett
MEMOIR WRITING CONTEST
Women’s Memoirs just received an email from Lynn Goodwin about a contest and we’re eager to share her information with you. Lynn manages a website called WriterAdvice.
WriterAdvice has announced the fifth annual contest that includes three categories — flash memoir, flash fiction, and flash creative non-fiction. Haven’t heard this term before? “Flash” is the current way of describing short pieces. It doesn’t mean they are written in a flash, just that they are short.
How short is short? The WriterAdvice contest has a limit of 750 words. Lynn says the contest is seeking entries with a “strong theme, sharp images, a solid structure, and an unexpected discovery.”
Memoir Writing Contest Deadline
Get out your best memoir vignette and start polishing it today. Have you made the best use of dialogue? Emotion? Characterization? Time and place? The five senses? What about your story structure? Even a short piece needs a beginning, a middle, an ending. Remember you are not reporting a series of “this happened then that happened.” You are crafting a story.
The contest deadline is April 15 so you have time to fine tune your memoir vignette.
Bonus
Each entry costs $10 to submit and you can have up to three contest entries. There are cash prizes for the top four winners. Winner and Honorable Mentions will all be published on the website.
And here’s the bonus. If you send a self-addressed, stamped envelope (SASE) along with your entry, your manuscript will be returned along with brief comments. This seems to us to be a real bargain — a chance to win and an opportunity to get a little feedback. Your entry will not be edited, of course, just brief feedback given.
For more information, just go to: WriterAdvice. You can look at last year’s winners and learn all the details.
A No-Cost Bonus
Even if you don’t enter the contest, we think you’ll like the website. We are impressed with Lynn Goodwin’s interview with Wendy Nelson Tokunaga. The website also maintains a page with contests. Some of these are relevant for memoir writers.
Update: Lynn read my blog today and sent me this additional information that may interest you: “To receive WriterAdvice notices INCLUDING REQUESTS FOR SUBMISSIONS, e-mail LGood67334@comcast.net and put subscribe in the subject box.”
The Bottom Line
Whether you are writing to enter a contest or for yourself, continue to learn and improve your skill. And don’t be afraid to put your work out there, if you want to build an audience for your writing.
memoir writing
memoir writing contest
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Thanks so much for sharing this information, Matilda. Your site is a great resources for all the women who have stories waiting to be shared.
Take care,
Lynn
http://www.writeradvice.com
Author of You Want Me to Do WHAT? Journaling for Caregivers