2020 - NEW Competition for Short Stories

Short stories: Number of words max. 4500 (min.500)

Opens 1st August 2020, closes 31st December 2020  

Theme: anything quirky, unusual, out of line, odd, weird, haunting, looked at slantwise.

Judge GARY BILLS, prize-winning poet, author of Bizarre Fables. and A Letter for Alice. Stories may have already been published providing author retains copyright.

Fees: Early bird (till 15th October): £8 sterling cheque (payable to G.Griffin-Hall) or €10 (Paypal).

From 16th October £10 sterling cheque or €12 (Paypal). 1st prize € 250, other prizes.

Paypal Donate button on website or go to Paypal and send to poetryonthelake@yahoo.co.uk

Winning entries (poems & stories) may be published in an anthology, we will contact authors first for permission.

Single or double spacing. By post: 2 copies, no identification on manuscript, plus cover sheet with title & contact details. By email: Stories, attached in doc; docx, or rtf (not pdf), titled, must not bear author’s identifying details. Put latter in separate document bearing story title and, inside, contact and payment details, and title again.

Address for stories:  

postal entries:  address: Poetry on the Lake - 28016 Isola San Giulio, Novara - Italy

online entry for stories: potlisg@gmail.com   subject line: stories 2020

email for enquiries: poetryonthelake@yahoo.co.uk

to support Poetry on the Lake:'Buy POTL a coffee' (sincere thanks to those who already have)

19th International Competition  CLOSED  31st March 2019.

 

Two categories and an extra prize of 100 euro to the best poem in either of the two categories inspired by the theme 'Spirit' (interpreted widely). Other prizes to winners present at awards. (To read winning poems 2019 (and 2018), click here)

 

 

SILVER WYVERN - Results 2019 - Adjudicator: Paul Henry

 

Silver Wyvern + 500 euro  1st prize:     ‘Rower, Battersea Lake’ by Helena Goddard, Tewkesbury

2nd prize - 200 euro :    ‘Dead in the Water’ by Graham Burchell, Devon

 

Highly commended:

 

‘Hautdesert Terminus’ by Oz Hardwick, York

‘Cornering the French Horn’ by Roger Elkin, Biddulph Moor

‘Chocolate Waltz’ by Alex de Verteuil, Tobago, Trinidad and Tobago

‘Balance’ by Michael Swan, Oxford

 

Shortlisted poems:

 

‘Was that you?’ by Bridget Frost, Limekilns

 ‘Vernal Equinox’ by Patrick Lodge, Yorks

‘Of Fire and Water’ by Mary Gilonne, Pourrières, France

‘Muscovy Ducks’ by Virginia Griem. Kinsteignton

‘Au Moulin de la Galette’ by Derek Sellen, Canterbury

‘At the Chapel of Apparitions’ by Olivia Dawson, Sintra, Portugal

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FORMAL CATEGORY - adjudicator Kevin Bailey

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Winner - 100 euro : What will survive of us by Ian Royce Chamberlain, Teignmouth

Highly Commended: When the trees were still dangerous by Paul Nash, Dublin

Shortlisted by Paul Henry: 

The Unburdening by Peter Duff, Ireland

The isolation of the long distance runner, Carolyn King, Isle of Wight

The Mission by Peter Duff, Ireland

Caesium lioness by Chris Scriven, Weymouth

 

 'SPIRIT' -  adjudicator Paul Henry

Best poem overall inspired by the theme 'Spirit' 

winner (100 euro)‘Mardale Common’ by Erica Bell, Surrey

 LONGLIST OF ALL 361 POEMS 2019 DRAWN UP BY KEVIN BAILEY AND GARY BILLS

IN RANDOM ORDER 

Stone Star  - What will survive of us... -The rituals of others - Lady Cooper Parvenue - The moon yawns and keeps yawning - Climate of Opinion - Hautdesert Terminus - Paris Blues: Global Warning - Au Moulin de la Galette - in our family house - Me, Tammy Wynette, Soren Kierkegaard, Karl Marx and Adele  – Balance - Special Delivery  - Without words - A fishy thing the soul  - Of fire and water - Instead, think of this - Rower, Battersea Lake - In Loudhams Wood - Dead in the water - At the Chapel of Apparitions -  Was that you?  - perhaps a manifestation of Buddha - Life in three bags – Revenant - Malus -  Meeting a monster in Anglesey - In the Flit of a Wing - The Isolation of the Long-Distance Runner -   Caesium Lioness - see you around - Meili Su - The Silver Cord - The Unburdening - The Mission - Green Flash - Vernal Equinox – Responsibility - Chocolate Waltz  - Cornering the French Horn -  Unknown Young man with a background of flame –Fava leaves  -  Killing Inside the Wall  -  This winter  - Evening  - Muscovy Ducks - Mardale Common - When the trees were still dangerous     

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Adjudicators: Paul Henry - Kevin Bailey - Gary Bills

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ENTRIES & FEES: please note the suggested fees below. All fees are donations to the competition costs, organisation and events of Poetry on the Lake. However, if you genuinely can't afford the fee, send one poem for nothing  (Those who can, please donate generously.)

EARLY BIRD fees £5 or €6/ or $7 per poem

 

ONLINE (WORLD) & POSTAL (UK ONLY) ENTRIES ACCEPTED

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ONLINE ENTRIES: UK/ROW

Please note: our Paypal account is in euros, so calculate your fee directly in euros, pay Paypal (click yellow Donate icon above to connect directly to the Paypal account of poetry on the lake), note transaction ID, copy in body of email with contact details; subject of email 'Comp entry 2020' . Attach file/s with all poems - no identification on poems - preferably in one Word, .doc or .docx file (NOT pdf) named:  
YOUR NAME COMP 2020, send to poetryonthelake   (AT)  yahoo.co.uk  (close gaps and substitute @ for AT)
 

*Paypal: calculate total amount for entries then pay Paypal (click yellow Donate icon above, it will take you to Paypal website,

account: poetryonthelake  (AT)   yahoo.co.uk  
(you don't need a Paypal account, Paypal accept credit cards)  

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POSTAL ENTRIES:

UK: £8 first poem; further poems £6 each. 
UK sterling cheques/BPOs only, payable to 
G. Griffin-Hall.   
ROW & ONLINE ENTRIES: €10 or $12 first poem; 2 or more, €8 or $10 each. Pay Paypal (click Paypal icon above)

Send two copies of each poem, one anonymous, the other with contact details (and, if applicable, Paypal ID number) on  back, to 

Poetry on the Lake - Isola San Giulio 28016  Orta NO - Italy

 

GUIDELINES & RULES

Usual competition rules apply. There must be no identification of author on the poems, that should be marked top right with the category entered (SW or FORMAL or SHORT.  Do not send SAE,we send a receipt of entry email.

Poems must not have been printed or published (including on internet magazines, but ok if only on a personal or friend's blog with restricted access), nor have won a previous prize. 
Entrants must be over 16 years old.

N.B.: Open category embraces all forms of poems providing they do not exceed 42 lines (title, notes, dedication excluded); free verse, traditional or formal verse, short poems - anything goes!)
Formal category: max 42 lines embraces traditional verse forms: sonnets, sestinas,ballads,haiku (up to five haiku on one page count as one entry) villanelles etc or your own rhyming or metrical scheme. NOT free verse and just dividing a free verse poem into couplets without a rhyming or metrical scheme doesn't make for a Formal poem, just as a poem of 14 lines without a traditional metre and rhyme scheme isn't a sonnet.
 

The same poem may be entered in both categories but will count each time as a separate entry. A competitor may win 2 or 3 prizes, each in a different category, but no more than one prize in a single category,
Results on website, winners contacted earlier

Possible publication for winning and selected poems (however, we contact all authors first, although entry to the competition implies automatic permission to publish). Copyright remains with the author. The judges' decision is final.   

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Last year's winning poems HERE

 

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