Contests

The 7th annual “Brooklyn Lit Match” teen writing contest has started accepting submissions. All of the winning entries will be compiled into an anthology which will be published by Akashic Books. The grand prize winner will also receive a new laptop.

The contest is open to high school students who reside in Brooklyn or those who attend a high school located in Brooklyn. Eligible candidates should feel free to turn in their stories, poems, essays, spoken word pieces and raps before the deadline on June 29th. Follow this link for more information.

Here’s more from the release: “A committee of publishers, editors and literary agents will select 10 finalists, including a first place winner. The 10 finalists will be invited to read their work at the Brooklyn Book Festival on Sunday, September 23, 2012 … Entries should be sent to Brooklyn Book Festival Lit Match, Brooklyn Borough Hall, 209 Joralemon Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201 or e-mailed to ekoch@brooklynbp.nyc.gov.”

Launch a social media campaign that will build your brand and deliver results in our online Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting June 7. Speakers include Abigail Cusick (Bravo Digital), Gregory Galant (Sawhorse Media), Alex Leo (Thomson Reuters Digital), Jim Tobin (Ignite Social Media), and many more. Read the reviews.

Non-profit StoryCode and the Film Society of Lincoln Center are bringing together writers, filmmakers, tech gurus, publishing experts, advertisers and designers in its first annual ”story hackathon,” a 36-hour multimedia writing competition called Story Hack: Beta.

The event will take place for 36 hours this weekend at the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center, during which time creatives will have to write theme-based narratives using three different media platforms that are output into one platform.

StoryCode’s CEO Aina Abiodun explained in the release: “We can no longer afford to think of narrative content as objects to be stuffed through a static electronic (or analog) pipeline. StoryCode’s goal is to provide a space where story and technology germinate side-by-side to produce the best experiences for demanding and savvy audiences. The Story Hack came into being as a practical way to begin this incubation process. By engaging the many talented minds in our community, we have set up a challenge which will provide glimpses into the future of storytelling.”

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Davian Aw has won the 2012 Lyttle Lytton contest, writing an awful sentence in 25 words or fewer. Here is the winning sentence: “Agent Jeffrey’s trained eyes rolled carefully around the room, taking in the sights and sounds.”

The contest was inspired by the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, a famous challenge to write the worst opening to a novel. Many of these winning entries are quite long, so the Lyyttle Lytton contest limits entries to 25 words or fewer. Founder Adam Cadre explained why Aw won the contest:

When I read the first half of this, I thought, yes, I’ve heard editors grumbling about the use of “eyes” for “gaze”: “‘Her eyes landed on his lapel pin’ — didn’t that hurt?” Then I reached the “and sounds” part and knew this one would be tough to beat. There were entries at which I laughed more, but the combination of craft, plausibility, and cringe factor — and, yes, laughs — put this one on top.

Voting is now open for the Independent Book Blogger Awards, a contest sponsored by Association of American Publishers members and Goodreads.

Four bloggers will win a trip to BookExpo America (BEA) along with “free airfare and hotel accommodations and a pass to the three-day global gathering.” You can search the list of reader nominated blogs by name or by category.

Follow this link to vote: “These awards highlight the amazing talent in book blogging today. You may vote once in each of four categories: Adult Fiction, Adult Nonfiction, Young Adult and Children’s, and Publishing Industry. Voting closes Monday, April 23 at 11:59pm ET.”

Do you have a literary tattoo? Take a photograph of your book-focused ink and enter the LitReactor Literary Tattoo Showdown.

Check it out: “In one week, we’re going to pick two winners–one male, one female. Tattoos will be judged on creativity, artistry, and general awesomeness … Create a LitReactor account if you don’t have one. Then, in the comments section, post a link to your tattoo, or upload a photo (you can’t directly upload a photo to the site; it needs to be hosted elsewhere, like Flickr). Show your face or don’t, that’s up to you. Explain the piece or don’t, also up to you.”

The two winners will receive a free mug, eBook and a six month LitReactor membership.

 

Think you can write the world’s worst opening sentence in 25 words or fewer? You should enter the free Lyyttle Lytton contest.

Readers can submit their own writing or nominate someone else at this link. You must enter your terrible sentence before April 15th.

The contest was inspired by the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, a famous challenge to write the worst opening to a novel. Many of these winning entries are quite long, so the Lyyttle Lytton contest limits entries to 25-words or fewer. Writer Judy Dean won the 2011 Lyttle Lytton contest with this smoldering sentence: “The red hot sun rose in the cold blue sky.”

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To celebrate the role book bloggers play in the industry, Association of American Publishers members and Goodreads have teamed up for the Independent Book Blogger Awards.

Four bloggers will win a trip to BookExpo America (BEA) along with “free airfare and hotel accommodations and a pass to the three-day global gathering.” Bloggers can submit five examples of their best work to the contest; entries will be accepted from today until Monday, April 9th. Follow this link for contest details.

Check it out: “The contest is open to US-based bloggers, at least 18 years of age, who dedicate at least 75 percent of their blog’s written content to coverage of books and the industry and who have posted regularly from February 1, 2011 through February 1, 2012.  The blog cannot be affiliated with and not compensated by any commercial or academic publication, but may include those who blog for institutions such as libraries or bookstores with no commercial media ties. There are four categories for submissions:  Adult Fiction, Adult Non-Fiction, Children’s/Young adult and Industry News.  Entries will be judged on such qualities as writing, analysis, design and presentation and reader impact.”

Inspired by the NCAA basketball tournament, Half Price Books has launched a Tournament of Villains, pitting 64 evil characters against one another to figure out “who’s the baddest one of all.”

The voting period for round one ends today at 2 p.m. CST. These antagonists come from a diverse range of titles; from William Shakespeare‘s Iago (the play Othello) to Ken Kesey‘s Nurse Ratched (the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest) to J.K. Rowling‘s Lord Voldemort (the Harry Potter series).

Here’s more from the website: “All epic stories have the same things in common: Confrontation. Tension. Obstacles. A proper antagonist propels the story, raises the stakes, and does everything in his, her or its power to win each battle. We thought we’d give these scoundrels a bonus round, sans any do-gooders to get in their way – a proper second chance to prove once and for all who’s the baddest one of all.”

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Children’s publisher Capstone has launched a “Join the Revolution” contest for readers in third through seventh grade. The contest will promote Tony Hawk’s 900 Revolution, a science fiction series inspired by legendary skateboarder Tony Hawk.

Follow this link for more details about the contest. Entries must be submitted before March 31st. To enter, kids should write an essay about why they should join the cast of the series.

The first place winner will receive a prize package that includes a trip to Tony Hawk’s Stand Up for Skateparks 2012 event in Beverly Hills, a VIP pass to meet Hawk in-person and their character will appear in the next installment of Tony Hawk 900 Revolution.

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Journalist Michael Erard has just published Babel No More: The Search for the World’s Most Extraordinary Language Learners. Now he’s testing readers’ language-spotting abilities with a video contest.

Erard assembled a group of friends who agreed to videotape themselves reading from his book. He collected these clips into the video embedded above–if you can list all the languages in the video, you could win a free book.

Here are more details about the contest: “Send an email message with 1) the name of each language and 2) in the order in which they appear to info@babelnomore.com, and I’ll put your name in a drawing for a signed copy of Babel No More.” A deadline has been set for February 23rd.

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