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.

Today marks the first day of the Emerging Writers’ Festival in Melbourne. For anyone with a free night, there’s still a chance to get in for tonight’s opening gala at Fed Square. And there’s plenty on in the days to follow; http://www.emergingwritersfestival.org.au/events/ is the place to go.

pageseventeen will be at the Page Parlour market on Sunday, June 5. Amble in to the Fed Square Atrium anytime between 12-5 and you won’t be disappointed.

Submissions are rolling in, but I still have spare time, which will simply not do. There’s just over a month left before the submission window for 2011 closes, so the home stretch for anyone putting the finishing touches on their mini magnum opus is fast approaching.

Don’t forget we also have a non-fiction section this year – anyone with a piece or pitch relating to the theme, Craft of Writing, email it though to submit@pageseventeen.com.au. It can be a feature piece (relating to, say, a workshop in the EWF, hint hint), an interview with an established writer, an opinion piece on writing or the mechanics of writing, or one of a dozen other perspectives I probably couldn’t even begin to speculate on.

Also tell your photo-oriented buddies (if you aren’t one yourself) about our cover competition; a click of a camera could earn $100 and determine the front cover of Issue 09 of pageseventeen. Not too shabby.

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As a quick little plug, I will be at Book Street (in the arcade at 521 Toorak Rd, Toorak) on Thursday June 9. The Australian Literature Review (the website can be found here) is launching its newest anthology, Basics of Life, including a panel of featured writers (one of which is yours truly). I’ll be alongside up-and-comer Belinda Dorio and the always-charming George Ivanoff, talking about whatever it is writers talk about.

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I made a plug on Facebook, but I’ll follow up here; the latest poetry collection from our editor, Ashley Capes, has been out for the entirety of 2011 and he has been pretty quiet about it. You’ll find a link to his blog on the right-hand-side of this page as a way to tell him off for this, and find Orion Tips the Saucepan here.

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.

Hola! It’s just about that time of year again for the Page Seventeen submission window to open, so below is a preliminary outline of what to expect.

Opening Friday 15 April

Closing Thursday 30 June

As in previous years, the regular submission window and the competition window will run concurrently. The details below are an outline of the different fields.

FICTION is unthemed. For general submissions stories may be up to 5000 words; however, competition entries must be under 3000 words. Competition entry fees are $5 per entry or $12 for three entries. You may mix your entries with poetry.

POETRY is also unthemed. General submissions can go up to 100 lines (including spaces), and can be a suite of smaller poems, treated as a single submission. Competition entries have a limit of 60 lines (including spaces). Competition fees are the same as for fiction, $5 per entry or $12 for three entries, and can be mixed with fiction submissions.

NON-FICTION is a new addition to the lineup; Issue 9 will feature a small selection of themed articles and pieces. The submission window (15 April – 30 June) is for pitches to be sent in; the theme for the non-fiction section is ‘Craft of Writing’. It may be an interview or profile, a feature piece, or an article with a select topic that is relevant to the theme. The pieces themselves must be under 5000 words, and wiill be due for submission by the beginning of August.

PHOTOGRAPHY for Issue 9 is limited to the traditional cover competition; Page Seventeen will unfortunately no longer be accepting photography as part of its in-book content. The cover competition will be the same as in the past; a $5 entry fee that covers entry of up to five photos.

As mentioned already, this is just an outline of the criteria for preparing your work; further details will be officially published soon.

Any questions or concerns, feel free to contact me at enquire@pageseventeen.com.au