Writing - competition - First person short story

Writing in the first person isn’t for every author. Some can’t handle it, while others only ever write using that point of view. If you’re drawn to this perspective, then there’s a free short story competition you can enter.

Holland Park Press has set a short story competition which takes inspiration from Arthur Rimbaud’s famous declaration ‘Je est un autre’ – ‘I is another’.

They want a story in the first person about someone who is not you but which concerns a subject close to year heart. The storyline should really matter to you but it should not be autobiographical. It should have a strong theme such as betrayal, sorrow, lust, jealousy or revenge.

Word-length:  under 2,000 words.

Closing date:  31 August 2015

They suggest you take your inspiration from:
Cathedral by Raymond CarverNotes on Time by Laura Del-RivoDevelopment by Karen Jennings

Prize

The author of the winning short story will receive £200 and the winning short story and runners-up will be published in their online magazine. The winner and runners-up will be announced at an awards ceremony in central London.

They accept stories from anywhere in the world but submissions have to comply with these guidelines:

The short story has to be written in English

• Translations are not accepted
• The short story should be 2000 words or less
• The short story must be the original work of the entrant and must not have been previously awarded or published
• You can only send in one short story per entrant
• They only accept electronic (email) submissions

Submission

E-mail them: submissions@hollandparkpress.co.uk

They will only process entries that follow the guidelines below:

• The short story must be attached as a single Microsoft Word file
• The Word file has to be named as follows: ddmmyy_firstnamesurname_another.doc, where ddmmyy is the date on which you send the email, first name and surname are your names.
• ‘I is Another’ must appear in the subject line of the email
• The body of the email should contain your contact details
• Please do not add your name or contact details to the Word file attachment that contains your story

Website details:

http://hollandparkpress.co.uk/magazine_detail.php?magazine_id=348&language=English

Good luck!