It is our pleasure to announce that Susan McCreery’s winning short story has been selected for publication in Award Winning Australian Writing 2014.
The anthology will be launched on October 1 at The Wheeler Centre and will be available for purchase at Melbourne Books. This year’s collection will feature over fifty writers and competitions and is being supported by the Small Press Underground Networking Community (SPUNC).
Congratulations, Susan, for the inclusion of Angie’s Sparkle in this, the seventh edition of Award Winning Australian Writing.
Update:
Monday, June 2 – A quick note to advise those people waiting on receipts that they are in process and will be on their way to you shortly.
Tuesday, May 20 – WriteFest is over, and the names of the winner and runner up of the BWC Short Story Competition 2014 have been announced.
We are all at BWC tying up WriteFest’s loose ends at the moment, though our short story winners have been made aware of their success, and in due course Jo’s notes will be shared with all who entered. We need a little time to tie up the competition loose ends too.
In the meantime, for your elucidation:
Winner: Susan McCreery (NSW) for Angie’s Sparkle.
Runner Up: Beverley Lello (Victoria) for Tailwind.
The Short List included (in no particular order):
- Ian Laver (Qld) ~ Pulse
- Lin Forrester (NSW) ~ The Mark
- Jamie J Buchanan (WA) ~ Imagine This
- Beverley Lello (Victoria) ~ Tailwind.
- Tom Andrews (QLD) ~ The Child and the Bondi Islets
- Michelle Lopert (NSW) ~ Indian Snapshot
- Kerri Harris (QLD) ~ Sea Graves
- Carmel Lillis (Vic) ~ Day of the Deluge
- Susan McCreery (NSW) ~ Uninvited & Angie’s Sparkle
You’ll see there were actually ten stories, from nine writers.
Thank you all for your patience. As always, it’s been great fun.
Keep tuned in for more updates.
Saturday, April 12 – Second tier judging complete.
Nine stories have been chosen to go to final judging. Our judge this year is Jo Butler, one of Australia’s leading editors, lately senior fiction publisher with HarperCollins, and WriteFest Masterclass Presenter.
Jo Butler
The Bundaberg Writers’ Club short story competition is a biennial event.
The 2014 competition is now open and closes on 15 March 2014.
Click BWCShortStoryComp.2014 to download your entry form.
A quick, humorous word from the late Kurt Vonnegut, one of the 20th Century’s favourite short story writers. Simple, but to the point. Most of all, relevant.
Bundaberg Writers' Club 
Hi
I see that 9 stories have been chosen for second tier judging in the short story competition. Have the shortlisted writers been informed, or is there still a vain hope for all the entrants?
Thanks
Good question Roger. I’m sorry it caught us all as the starter’s pistol fired for WriteFest and tunnel vision set in. You know now that it was a case of vain hope.
My question is: Do you think we were too cruel to only identify the numbers (which I now know to be a little out – ten not nine stories)? Should the short list have been identified earlier?
I rather used to like the breathless anticipation of waiting. Much as I’m a sucker for hyperbole!
Can we read the winning story Angies’s Sparkles anywhere. Will you publish it on your website?
By publishing, particularly online, we take away the author’s opportunity to publish her excellent story elsewhere.
For that reason BWC does not compile anthologies or winning stories, nor do we make ‘permission to publish’ a requirement of the competition.
I can certainly ask the author if she would give us permission to put the story up.
Hi there. I’m thrilled to have been short-listed in the Bundy Writers short story competition. Can you tell me, please, how many entries did you receive? And is there any way I can read the winning entry, runner-up and other short-listed stories? Thanks for organising this competition — it gave me a deadline and wrung a story out of some thoughts that were bumping around in my brain.
Kerri Harris.
Kerri, we are so pleased to be able to give fellow writers the thrill of competition. Nothing like a deadline to get the pulse thumping.
As you’re aware, we are a small competition with low entry fees and a small prize, but this year we had almost 200 entries. Only 27% of the entries came from Queensland, and only the Northern Territory wasn’t represented.
We’re very aware that a runner-up in this competition can be polished into a winner in another competition – that’s what I used to do.
However, to enable that transition from runner-up to winner, we at BWC make it a practice not to publish competition stories, nor to make ‘permission to publish’ a requirement of entering the competition.
I will ask the author of the winning entry for special permission to put the story online. No promises though.
Wow, 200 entries shows the short story is alive and well! I’m pleased you don’t compile short-listed entries into an anthology as it’s great to find a ‘home’ for our darlings, which is difficult once they have been published in any way. I have been polishing ‘Sea Graves’ for another competition — so thank you for running the Bundy Write Fest short story competition so thoughtfully.
Thanks Kerri, and good luck with your writing, particularly with ‘Sea Graves’.