Page Seventeen

Ladies and Gentleman, you will find listed below the shortlists for our short story and poetry competitions. These shortlists were compiled by our judges, former editor Tiggy Johnson for short stories and MPU president Wendy Fleming for poetry.

And so, the names, in alphabetical order of the writers:

Short Story Shortlist 2011

‘The Other Guy’ – Emilie Collyer

‘Not My Son’ – Jennifer Goode

‘Luck of the Draw’ – Hayley Katzen

‘Wings’ – Kerrie McCure

‘Mandrake in the Marsh’ – Lachlan Plain

‘The Smiths’ – Eugene Yang

Poetry Shortlist 2011

‘The Space Between’ – Emilie Collyer

‘I Am The Lion on the edge of your bed…’ – Nathan Curnow

‘Remembering Laszlo’ – Greg Piko

‘Night Music’ – Kristen Roberts

‘Washington NYE’ – Anna Ryan-Punch

‘Half Empty’ – Marian Spires

‘Giraffes’ – Valerie Volk

As per our usual methods of torture here at page seventeen, we will not be revealing the winners and runners-up just yet. That’s the juicy bit left for our launch. Date and place are TBA on the launch at this point in time, but suffice to say that it will be early November and that it’s going to be a blast.

To everyone that made the shortlist, congratulations and I hope to see you at the launch. For all those who missed out this year, don’t be discouraged, and I hope to see you at the launch. Hell, anyone who’s stumbled onto this site from a writers blog or random facebook link, I hope to see you – wait for it – at the launch!

A big thank you to everyone who sent in work for the competitions. There’s always plenty of material that just misses the mark, that has a moment of bad luck and bows out without specific commendation. So, to anyone who didn’t get a story or poem into this shortlist: please keep sending your work out, whether it be to us or to the next available competition you come across.

The end of the submission window must feel very close this side of the seasons. We begin winter and we begin the home stretch for those of you who have been chiseling away at your prose and preparing your entry to the page seventeen smorgasbord.

So, if you have a short story or poem that you think we’ll like, send it in to our competition and it might net you some prize money (and publication to boot). If you have a photo that you think will look good on the front cover of Issue 09, send it in and that fancy might become fact.

And don’t forget about our inaugural non-fiction component, revolving around the ‘Craft of Writing‘ theme. It can be a feature piece on the Emerging Writers’ Festival, or National Young Writers’ Month, or a particularly illuminating workshop. It may be an interview with a writer or ambassador for writing and publishing. It may be a reflective piece on your own experiences with the craft of writing. There are a lot of angles that can be taken for this theme. So if you have a piece, or even just a pitch, then submit@pageseventeen.com.au is ready to receive.

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Got some free time this Sunday? Come down to Page Parlour at Federation Square. It caps of the Emerging Writers’ Festival and is a fantastic little market of magazines, journals and small presses. Of course, page seventeen will be there as well. So, I hope to see you there.

With April 15th here, pageseventeen Issue #09 is officially underway. One cliche that would normally be used for this sort of moment would be that playtime’s over, but let’s face it, this is our playtime.

Issue #09 promises to be the most diverse yet; short stories, poetry, non-fiction (themed, see Submission Guidelines) as well as our traditional cover comp.

So have a look through this website if you haven’t already, like us on Facebook (FYI, we’re not hip enough yet for Twitter) and post us some pieces to read. You’ve got to be in the competition to win it, and $200 always looks nice on a cheque passed your way.

Best of luck to you all!

Good morning Page-seventeeners,

Here’s hoping that as you’re reading this, you”re already in the process of cooking up something for the 2011 edition of pageseventeen.

A quick change of details though. Unlike previous years, the cheques and money orders for the competition entry fees need to be made out to Busybird Publishing and Design. The forms on our Downloads page have already been updated with this new detail; it doesn’t matter if you end up using an old copy of the 2011 forms, as long as the cheque or money order you issue is payable to Busybird.

With that said, only two days left until we fling the gates open!

Only one week to go until the submission window opens … hope everyone’s getting just a little bit excited!

You’ll find the guidelines and entry forms for 2011 now available at Downloads. Also, our Submit page has been updated with details for Issue 09.

We also have our competiton running as usual:

The judge for the short story is none other than Tiggy Johnson, former editor of page seventeen. For poetry it’s Wendy Fleming, currently the acting president of the Melbourne Poets Union. For the cover competition we have Blaise van Hecke, of Busybird Design.

Don’t forget we have a new non-fiction section running – the theme is ‘The Craft of Writing’. Remember that this theme does not affect any fiction submissions or cover competition entries. See our submission details for more information.

So, lock and load for next week, everyone! We still accept email submissions for our general, non-comp entries at submit@pageseventeen.com.au. Postal entries have a new destination:

PO Box 8078, Tottenham, VIC 3012

Any questions at all, don’t forget about our enquiry line, enquire@pageseventeen.com.au.

It took a little longer than planned but I’m finally here to point you in the direction of the Events page. We’ve loaded a few photos from the Issue 8 launch and hope you enjoy them.

The launch was a wonderful afternoon where, once again, we filled Burrinja Cafe with contributors, friends and anyone else keen to hear some poetry and enough tastes of short stories that they couldn’t help but buy the book then rush home to find out what happened.

It’s always a delight to listen to the contributors read their own pieces, and I admit to feeling a tear press against my eyelid as one of the readers announced it was the very first time she’d had her name in print. A brand spanking new writer. One of our favourite kinds.

It’s always exciting too to announce the competition winners, and even though contributors receive their copy of the magazine on arrival, it came as a shock to Leah Swann to be awarded first prize in the short story competition, as she hadn’t thought to look up the results. I think this is a first, and it was lovely to share her joy as she realised. I must admit, when I first read her story Streetsweeper I had little cry.

As with any publication, there are a lot of people who worked hard to make sure Issue 8 is as fantastic as it is. So, one last time, I’d like to extend my heartfelt thanks to Vicki Thornton, Ashley Capes, Laurie Steed and Peter Farrar for their fabulous editorial decisions, Graham Nunn and Amanda le Bas de Plumetot for the fine selection of poems and stories from the annual competition and Amanda (again) and Marian Dalton for their exceptional proofreading.

Congratulations to the winners and shortlisted entrants of this year’s Short Story and Poetry competition, and thank you to everyone who entered. Contributor and pre-ordered copies will be posted during the coming week.

Poetry section

 1^st                   Shari Kocher-Campbell    Dreaming in Auslan: a Study in Yellow and Grey

2^nd                   Ian Gibbins                      Lullabies, Gardens Road Cemetery

Commended   Kristen Roberts                 Nothing Left for Holding You

Shortlisted       Bob Morrow                     Strandhill

Shortlisted       Bronwyn Mehan               Rosella Jam Doesn’t Make Sense

Shortlisted       Emilie Collyer                   touch

Shortlisted       Ian Gibbins                      Shuffle

Shortlisted       Kate Alder                      Gariwerd

Shortlisted       Marlene Marburg            Like Latin

Shortlisted       Nicola Scholes                Stolen

Shortlisted       Pam Joseph                    Benediction

Shortlisted       Simon Petkovich              Laughter

Shortlisted       Sue Bailey                        Forgotten

Short Story section

 1^st                  Leah Swann                  Streetsweeper

2^nd                  Jacinta Butterworth       Must see the bones

Commended   Kate Rotherham            Butterflies and Dragons

Commended   Wes Lee                        The Joy Chair Shockers

Shortlisted       David Spitzkowsy           Avalanche

Shortlisted       Debi Hamilton               Vertical Blinds

Shortlisted       Jacinta Butterworth        Homekeeping handbook

Shortlisted       Jeannie Haughton           Scarier than ’Nam

Shortlisted       Robyn Wylie                  Let me tell you

I can hardly believe we are launching Issue 8 in just 4 days.

I would probably feel the reality of it if I there were boxes of books beside me, but that won’t happen for a couple more days. Once (issue 6 I think) they weren’t ready for collection from the printer until 4pm the day before we launched. A guaranteed way to test the nerves, but this year, it won’t come to that and I have every belief they will be ready on time.

In case you’ve forgotten the details, here they are.

We’ll be kicking things off this Saturday, 13th November, with special guest Graham Nunn at 1pm, Burrinja cafe, 351 Glenfern Rd (cnr Matson Dve), Upwey. Come along for an afternoon of friendly faces, contributor readings, the announcement and presentation of the 2010 short story and poetry competition prizes, not to mention for a great cuppa.

If you’re catching the train, this map might help. Make sure you allow about 20 minutes to walk from the station, and an hour for the train (Belgrave line).

Copies of issue 8 will be available for just $15 (cash only). They’ll revert to full price ($19.95) after the weekend. If you can’t get to the launch, there’s still time to order a copy at the discounted price, but not long. So get to it. Limited copies of back issues will also be available.

Yes it’s that time of the year and the shortlist for the 2010 page seventeen Short Story and Poetry competition has been finalised. Winners will be announced at the launch of Issue 8 on Saturday November 13, Burrinja Cafe, 350 Glenfern Road (Cnr Matson Drve) Upwey from 1 pm.

Copies will be available at the discounted price of $15 (cash only) after which time they will revert to $19.95.

Shortlist for short story Competition

David Spitzkowsky

Debi Hamilton

Jacinta Butterworth

Jeannie Haughton

Kate Rotherham

Leah Swann

Robyn Wylie

Wes Lee

Shortlist for poetry Competition

Bob Morrow

Bronwyn Mehan

Emilie Collyer

Ian Gibbins

Kate Alder

Kristen Roberts

Marlene Marburg

Nicola Scholes

Pam Joseph

Shari Kocher-Campbell

Simon Petkovich

Sue Bailey

Winner of the Cover Competition

Dina Solomonides

The eagle eyed among you may have noted that we did not shortlist 10 stories and 15 poems as per usual. This was due to several writers having more than one short story/ poem making the short list – as well a short story being withdrawn after being shortlisted and one poem being disqualifed as it had been published prior to entering the competition.

Congratulations to all our shortlisted writers and we look forward to seeing you at the launch.

Vicki Thornton

Acting Editor

Tiggy has begun her adventure and so I will be updating you on the happenings at Page Seventeen while she is away.  (I’m trying to avoid the cliche while the cat’s away the mice will play…but…)

Submissions have closed and this year we had more than 250 poems and 180 short stories for general submission. This is the most number of short story submissions we’ve ever had.

And now for the fun.

The editorial committee will begin reading. Our poetry editor, Ashley Capes, will be reading all poetry submissions, and the fiction will be read by myself, Peter Farrar and Laurie Steed (our fiction editor).

So I’m going to crank up the heating, make a coffee and immerse myself in some wonderful short stories.

Vicki Thornton -Acting Editor