Category: flash fiction

The 2022 Pamela Miller Prize

It’s that time of the year again with the Pamela Miller Prize, our annual flash fiction competition.

The winner of the Pamela Miller Prize will receive a certificate and $100 first prize, as well as publication in the Ballarat Writers newsletter and website. The winner will be announced at the Ballarat Writers July members’ night. 

The Pamela Miller Prize first ran in 2015, in memory of Pamela Miller, who was a very active and productive member of Ballarat Writers. She was a writer of short stories and poetry, and won the short story competition with ‘Murder at MADE’ in 2014. Early in 2015, Pamela wrote a very popular poem called ‘Bronze Heads—The Prime Minister’s Walk’ as part of a Ballarat Writers project during the Begonia Festival.

Entries open: Sunday 1st May

Entries close: Wednesday 1st June

Ballarat Writers is accepting fictional prose entries of up to 500 words on the theme Something Overhead. Entry is free. 

This is limited to members of Ballarat Writers, so make sure you’ve joined or renewed your membership!

All entries must:

  • be original and unpublished
  • be written by a current member of Ballarat Writers (committee members are not allowed to enter)
  • engage with the theme Something Overhead, and be 500 words in length or less (not including the title
  • be sent to competitions@ballaratwriters.com with the subject line, ‘2022 Pamela Miller Prize Entry’

As the competition will be a blind judging, please do not include your name or contact details on the entry. 

You can read more about the Pamela Miller prize here.

Good luck and happy writing!

Prizewinners and picnickers

It’s an action-packed week as we bid farewell to 2020, with prize announcements on Wednesday and a picnic on Sunday!

Our last monthly members’ meeting for the year is on Wednesday November 25, at which the winners of the Martha Richardson Memorial Poetry Prize (judged by Terry Jaensch) and the Pamela Miller Prize will be announced, as well as affording members a chance to catch up. The meeting will be held online using Zoom. It will start slightly later than usual, at 7.30pm. We look forward to returning to in-person meetings in the new year!

Details for joining the meeting have been sent in the members’ newsletter. Please get in touch if you’ve missed it or need help accessing Zoom.

Then, on Sunday, the easing of COVID restrictions means we can go ahead with our end-of-year picnic! Please join us at South Gardens, Ballarat Botanic Gardens, on Wendouree Parade, from 2pm on Sunday 29 November. BYO snacks, chairs and rugs as we exercise COVID-safe distancing to finally catch up in the flesh, reflect on 2020 and look forward to a more social and active 2021. 

Bonus: We will have a signed copy of Lament, by Beaufort’s Nicole Kelly, to give away to one lucky picnicker!

What I’ve gained from entering the flash fiction competition and why you should as well

I did something last month I said I would never do — I didn’t enter the Ballarat Writers Flash Fiction competition. I let life get in the way.

After winning so many of the monthly challenges last year, you might have thought a lack of wins this year might have made me give up. However, it was the month after I finally had a win that I failed to write an entry in time. Continue reading

Pamela Miller Memorial Prize now open

BW_logo_flashfiction_longThe winner of the October flash fiction contest, keyword monkeys, was Maureen Riches.

The November contest, for Ballarat Writers members only, is the Pamela Miller Memorial Prize. The prize is $100 and a certificate. The winner will be announced at our final Members’ night for the year on Wednesday, 30 November.

The process for submission is similar to the monthly Flash Fiction competition:

Genre: open, however, poetry and non-fiction pieces will not be accepted for this competition

Theme: everyone is welcome

Words: 350–400 words

Key word: corner (remember to include this word in your story)

All entries are to be submitted to competitions@ballaratwriters.com by Sunday, 20 November. Your email must include author’s name, story title and word count.

Voting will open the next day on the flash fiction competition website.

Pamela Miller was a very active and productive member of Ballarat Writers. She wrote short stories and poetry and won the ‘Murder at MADE’ short story competition held in conjunction with the Sisters in Crime Festival in 2014, and in early 2015 was part of the ‘Poetry Pathways’ ekphrastic project. She was also the winner of a number of Ballarat Writers monthly Flash Fiction competitions. Pamela died in June 2015 after a short illness.

Words Out Loud – November edition

words out loud in ballaratWords Out Loud returns to Babushka lounge in Ballarat on Thursday, November 24, 7-9pm, for its next session of spoken word.

To mark the final event of the year, Jessica Wilkinson will headline. Jessica is the founding editor of RABBIT: a journal for nonfiction poetry, which celebrates its 20th issue in November. She has published two poetic biographies, marionette: a biography of miss marion davies (Vagabond 2012) and Suite for Percy Grainger (Vagabond 2014). She is currently writing up a third, on choreographer George Balanchine, research for which was undertaken at the NYC Public Library and Harvard under the Marten Bequest Travel Award. She is Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at RMIT University, Melbourne.

Writers, readers, poets — all word lovin’ folks with a hankering to share the love are invited along, with five-minute open mic spots on offer. Babushka has excellent sound and backing tracks can be accommodated. You won’t find a friendlier venue. Sadly, Babushka has announced it is likely to close at year’s end, so this a chance to farewell this most excellent host.

The event has a nominal theme of “on the edge”, but as always, performers are encouraged to take the theme and run with it for their 5-minute slots — or ignore it altogether!

Entry is free.

Keep up to date at the Facebook page: www.facebook.com/wordsoutloud/.

October Flash Fiction Comp

BW_logo_flashfiction_long 

Congratulations go to Linda Young, September’s Flash Fiction winner, for her story, “The Gatherers”.

The October competition is now open.

Genre:    open

Word count:    45-50 words

Keyword:    monkeys

Entry Conditions:

You must be a Ballarat Writers member to enter.

Entries will not be accepted if they exceed the maximum word limit – even if by a word, and must comply with all the stated parameters.

All entries are to be submitted to competitions@ballaratwriters.com by Friday, 21st October. Your email must include author’s name, story title and word count.

Voting will open the next day on the website.

Come along to our Members’ Night on Wednesday, 26 October, 7pm at the Bunch of Grapes Hotel to hear the winner announced. (Results will also be posted on the flash fiction website the day after.)p

July Flash Fiction Comp

BW_logo_flashfiction_long

Genre:    comedy

Word count:    45-50 words

Keyword:    election

Entry Conditions:

You must be a Ballarat Writers member to enter.

Entries will not be accepted if they exceed the the word limit – even if by a word, and must comply with all the stated parameters.

All entries are to be submitted to competitions@ballaratwriters.com by Friday, 22 July. Your email must include author’s name, story title and word count.

Voting will open the next day on the flash fiction blog.

Come along to our Members’ Night on Wednesday, 27 July, 7pm at the Bunch of Grapes Hotel to hear the winner announced. (Results will also be posted the day after.)

June Flash Fiction Comp

Flash-Fiction-Logo

Genre:    fable

Word count:    200 words

Keyword:    owl

Entry Conditions:

You must be a Ballarat Writers member to enter.

Entries will not be accepted if they exceed the the word limit – even if by a word, and must comply with all the stated parameters.

All entries are to be submitted to competitions@ballaratwriters.com by Friday, 24  June. Your email must include author’s name, story title and word count.

Voting will open the next day on the flash fiction blog.

Come along to our Members’ Night on Wednesday, 29 June, 7pm at the Bunch of Grapes Hotel to hear the winner announced. Results will also be posted the day after on the flash fiction website.

June Flash Fiction Comp

Flash-Fiction-Logo

Genre:    fable

Word count:    200 words

Keyword:    owl

Entry Conditions:

You must be a Ballarat Writers member to enter.

Entries will not be accepted if they exceed the the word limit – even if by a word, and must comply with all the stated parameters.

All entries are to be submitted to competitions@ballaratwriters.com by Friday, 24 June. Your email must include author’s name, story title and word count.

Voting will open the next day on the flash fiction blog.

Come along to our Members’ Night on Wednesday, 29 June, 7pm at the Bunch of Grapes Hotel to hear the winner announced. (Results will also be posted the day after.)

May Flash Fiction Comp

Flash-Fiction-Logo

Genre:    horror/gothic

Word count:    50 words

Keyword:    cloud

Entry Conditions:

You must be a Ballarat Writers member to enter.

Entries will not be accepted if they exceed the the word limit – even if by a word, and must comply with all the stated parameters.

All entries are to be submitted to competitions@ballaratwriters.com by Friday, 20th  May. Your email must include author’s name, story title and word count.

Voting will open the next day on the flash fiction blog.

Come along to our Members’ Night on Wednesday, 25 May, 7pm at the Bunch of Grapes Hotel to hear the winner announced. (Results will also be posted the day after.)

© 2024 Ballarat Writers

Theme by Anders NorenUp ↑