Ultra-Short Competition

The Binnacle is sponsoring it's Fourth International Ultra-Short Competition in the 2007-2008 academic year. They are looking for poetry of 16 lines or less, and prose of 150 words or less, and will be awarding at least $300 in prizes, with a minimum prize of $50. Since they are the University of Maine at Machias' Literary and Arts Magazine, at least one of the awards will go to a UMM student. They ask that you submit no more than 2 works total, prose and/or poetry, and note that the deadline is February 15, 2008. There is no entry fee. All submissions should be made by email to ummbinnacle@maine.edu. For the rest of the contest guidelines, please go to their website.

Do You Have Real Memories of Real Winters?

The Write Helper is accepting submissions for their "Dead of Winter" Non-Fiction Contest. Since it is a non-fiction contest, ("Just the facts, ma'am"), please send only memoirs, essays, articles and prose in which the facts can be verified. There is a $5 fee per entry, (maximum of 3 entries), up to 2000 words each. Go to their website to see the complete contest guidelines. Every entry will receive a free critique. To receive a thorough line edit, provide an additional $5. Entries must be postmarked by January 31, 2008.

• 1st place -- $70
• 2nd place -- $35
• 3rd place -- $20

Writing Humor For Young Readers

Let's face it: a little humor can make any piece of writing more interesting and enjoyable to read. In this engaging article, peppered with clarifying examples, short-fiction writer Eugie Foster explores the nature of humor. Although she's geared her essay toward writing for children, the lessons she's teaching can be applied to all genres, and toward any age group.

Short and Grim -- Flash Fiction ~

Grim Graffiti is looking for well-written, atmospheric and disturbing dark fiction. While they are interested in all genres, they are especially partial to horror, non-cozy crime fiction, dark fantasy, and dark science fiction. They will consider stories from 500 to 4000 words. The next reading period runs from February 17 through March 17 for their Spring issue, which will be published on April 20, and they will pay $10 for their Grim Editor's Choice story.

Chance to help create a contest....

Please help preview a new writing contest site, www.yourphotostory.com , and offer your suggestions trihst@gmail.com, before the first contest begins on Feb 1st. It is a contest to pick a cute or funny photo from our photo archive and create a short-short story -- 750 words or less. Every two weeks the best story will be displayed on the web, with the author's name. A prize will then be awarded to the best of all the stories submitted during the previous three months.

"Sometimes the Name They Give You is All Wrong"

That's the first line provided by The First Line for submissions to their Spring 2008 issue. All stories must begin with that line, and should be between 300 and 3,000 words. They also accept non-fiction critical essays between 500 and 800 words about your favorite first line of a literary work. Best of all: They Pay! $20 for short stories, $10 for non-fiction, plus a copy of the issue in which your work appears. The deadline for the Spring issue is February 1. Check out their website for further guidelines as well as first lines for their Summer, Fall and Winter issues.

Looking For The Write Word?

This handy-dandy website, RhymeZone, that modestly bills itself as a mere rhyming dictionary, is really a doorway to sooooo much more!!! Here you can not only find words that rhyme: you can find definitions, synonyms, antonyms, related words, similar sounding words, quotations, match specific letters, and even search in Shakespeare! As if that weren't plethora enough, you can even type in a word, and search for pictures, which will bring up a whole slew of related links!