GGBT Creative Writing Awards 2010

The GGBT Creative Writing Awards were launched at the Graham Greene International Festival in October 2009. Writers are invited to submit written texts under one or more of seven categories, and a panel of judges will decide the best writers. Awards will be announced at the Festival 2010. Winning texts may be displayed for the Festival public to read and on the Festival's website.

Awards are offered in the following categories:

1. best prose fiction writer
2. best prose thriller writer
3. best prose travel writer
4. best screenplay writer
5. best (prose or screenplay) writer under the age of twenty-one years on 1st April 2010
6. best (prose or screenplay) Berkhamstedian writer (i.e. a writer who is a pupil at Berkhamsted School on 1st April 2010)
7. best (prose or screenplay) Old Berkhamstedian writer (i.e. a writer who is a former pupil at Berkhamsted School on 1st April 2010).

Starting points / stimulus:

Prose writers must begin with the following line, and continue from there:
“A whistle blew, and the train trembled into movement…”
Screenplay writers must embed this line somewhere in their texts:
“A whistle blew, and the train trembled into movement…”

The rules and practices governing the Awards are:

1. each entry shall be written mostly in the English language; each prose text shall be no more than 800 words; each screenplay text shall be written on no more than four sides of A4 paper in a normal font size (e.g. Times New Roman 11pt);
2. each text shall be typed, shall be submitted as a pdf file and attached to an e-mail message sent to the Awards Secretary, RGuy@berkhamstedschool.org by the closing date, which is 1st April 2010;
3. each written text must be original and unpublished, must be submitted under a specific category, and must have been written by the person who submits the work;
4. a writer may submit work in more than one category, provided that the work is different in each case;
5. a writer must also supply full contact details, including real name, full postal address and telephone number;
6. a writer who submits work in category (5) or (6) or (7) must also present evidence of status and eligibility to the Awards' Secretary along with the entry;
7. entries received after the closing date shall not be considered for an Award;
8. writers shall be responsible for the appropriateness, suitability, decency and legality of their own written texts, and neither the Graham Greene Birthplace Trust nor its judges nor any of its members or associates shall be responsible for the content of such texts;
9. written texts which are deemed to be inappropriate, unsuitable, obscene, offensive or illegal shall not be considered for an Award, and may be the subject of legal action;
10. Awards shall be announced at the Festival in October 2010;
11. an Award shall be not made under a specific category, if in the opinion of the judges there is no entry which merits an Award;
12. the decisions of the judges shall be final, and no correspondence shall be entered into.

Further information on the Awards and any amendments concerning them may be seen on the Festival’s Facebook page, the GG Creative Writing Facebook page, or on the Director’s Blog http://grahamgreenefestival.blogspot.com/

The Awards will be judged by Rebekah Lattin-Rawstrone, Creina Mansfield, Bill Ivory and Dermot Gilvary.