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CONTEST # 2:  Short Story

First Prize:  $100

Make sure your story has a beginning, a middle and an end and opens with a hook.

Reading fee:  $15

Limit: 2500 words

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CONTEST #3: Personal Essay

First Prize:  $50

A true story that changed someone’s life.  Inspire us!  Make us cry!  Sad?  Funny?  Romantic?  All are welcome.

Reading fee:  $15

Limit:  1500 words

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CONTEST #4:  Book Review

First Prize:  $25

Reviewed from the standpoint of a novelist - What did you as a writer find exciting about it?

Reading fee:  $10

Limit:  1500 words

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CONTEST #5:  Poetry

First Prize:  $25

Reading fee:  $10

Limit:  3 poems, only ONE poem per page.

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Contest #6 - 

Lifetime Achievement Award

For Published Novelists

First Prize: $100

Reading fee: $25

First 15 pages of your newest unpublished novel

GENERAL RULES

1. NO SURCHARGES ON ANY ENTRIES FOR EITHER MEMBERS OR NONMEMBERS.

2. YOU MAY ENTER MORE THAN ONE CONTEST, AND YOU MAY SEND MORE THAN ONE ENTRY TO ANY CONTEST.

3. SEND TWO (2) COPIES OF EACH ENTRY.

4. If you are not attending the 2008 Fall Workshop, include adequate postage on SASE for return of score sheet and manuscript.

5. You do not have to pay for the workshop in order to enter the contest.

6. All entries must be from unpublished writers who are not under contract to any publisher anywhere.

7. No limit to number of entries.

8. Leave your name off the manuscript. Use the "header" to install like this:

9. Great American Novel/Contest #1  (Insert page # on right). Substitute the title of your novel for Great American Novel

10. Your name should only appear on the cover page. One cover page is sufficient if you detail all your entries on it.

11. Novels should include a brief synopsis no more that one page, single-spaced (two copies). Less is better. Give us the two-sentence dramatic statement (see Dwight Swain, Techniques of the Selling Writer. State your genre. The synopsis is not judged. Send two copies of the one-page, single-spaced synopsis.

12. All entries must be double-spaced in Times New Roman or Courier 12-point font. Do not use a smaller font in order to crowd more words on the page as our judges are already half blind. Be sure to number the pages and include title in the header, but omit your name.  The title page does not count as a page.

13. Margins should be at least 1 inch (22-24 lines per page).

14. Pages must be numbered.

15. Entrants in the short story contests may have been previously published in periodicals, but the entry cannot have been published.

16. You may resubmit any novel that has not won first place in a previous FBWG contest. Our judging factors have changed slightly. The title counts as part of the scoring. It should not be banal.

17. Writers who previously won first place are disqualified.

18. Discounts may be available for students and others. Send email to learn if you qualify: rpaulding@sbcglobal.net.

19. No staples. Paper clips only.

$50 ______

This event supported by Poets and Writers Magazine, Inc. Workshop refunds cannot be offered due to the fact that commitments must be made to the Holiday Inn. If you cannot attend and have paid, we will issue you a rain check for our next event, provided you notify us before five days before the workshop. If you are a no-show, we cannot offer a rain check as we will already have been charged for your luncheon by the hotel.

THE FALL 2008 WORKSHOP

The Fall 2008 Workshop will feature novelist and free-lance writer, Robert Cremins. Robert has published two novels, Send in the Devils and A Sort of Homecoming, and is currently at work on his third. He is an experienced writer and teacher of writing.

Registration is now open for the Fall Workshop! See the WORKSHOPS page for details or contact Fort Bend Writers Guild by email at info@fortbendwritersguild.org.