Entries are invited for a Creative Writing competition for short works of prose inspired, broadly or otherwise, by any character from a Charles Dickens novel. The competition is open to all writers and international submissions are welcome.
As a Canterbury based writing group, SaveAs Writers considers Dickens to be very much a product of Kent and there can be no denying the influence the county had on Dickens. Moreover one only has to skim through David Copperfield to grasp the significance of Canterbury in his work. Therefore we want to take this opportunity to celebrate and commemorate the 200th birthday of a truly great writer, much in the same way that our successful ‘Siege of Canterbury’ Millennial Competition did last year.
The idea for this competition to focus on a character from Dickens came from a rereading of Carol Ann Duffy’s poem wonderful, and in this case certainly, truly inspirational poem, ‘Havisham’. This poem seems a great starting point if anyone is struggling with the competition! However the entries will not be judged on the entrants’ knowledge of Dickens-it might even be non-existent-but on the quality of the writing.
Poetry entries will be judged by David Nettleingham and prose entries by Marilyn Donovan.
All entries will be judged anonymously. Each piece will be seen by the judges - there is no sifting beforehand. The only requirement in terms of existing work is that it must have not been placed in the top 3 of any previous competition.

Deadline: August 15th 2012 (entries postmarked this date will be accepted)
The shortlist and winners will be announced on October 27th 2012 at a special event in Canterbury as part of the Canterbury Umbrella Festival.
Short listed entries will also be published in a pamphlet form later in the year.

Poems maximum length 50 lines; short stories maximum length 3,000 words

First Prize = £30
Second Prize = £20
Third Prize = £15
Entry fees - £2 per poem, £3 per prose piece
Your name must not appear on your hard copies but please include a covering letter with your name, contact details, and titles of the entries.
Entries can be either hard copy or electronic.
Hard copies should be posted to: Luigi Marchini, Chairman, Save As Writers,
35 Spillett Close, Faversham, Kent, ME13 8QP
Electronic copies should be sent to saveas@hotmail.co.uk and headed ‘poetry’ or ‘prose’
In both cases all monies must be sent to the above address with cheques payable to ‘Save As Writers’.


http://www.saveaswriters.co.uk
http://www.saveaswriters.co.uk/Docs/dickens.pdf

Click on the link above and go to the contest official site