melbourne prize - from May 1

some submission guidelines

phillip Roth: just do the work.

british stuff to look at

commapress

heaps of story comps to look at

and a competition sponsored by the same guy 7,500 pounds first prize

however, there are people who'll pay you to study there.

pity it's in East Anglia

some comments coming together in my mind: Peter Bishop of Varuna saying that the manuscripts that get his attention are the ones that say "look at me, look what I'm doing". and Athol Fugard saying on the book show of a particular play, that it was the one that he knew was him writing in his own voice, saying something no one else could say. and a review of a poetry book in the paper at the weekend, suggesting that in a small hothouse like Australia, mediocrity can get too much attention. and I wonder: is it worth doing if it isn't unique? if someone else can do it, why do it?

watermark literary muster

a bit of a hiatus: having spent a week cutting a novel manuscript down to 20,000 words for a comp, I find myself suddenly interested in housework, share trading, anything but writing. several rejections arriving on consecutive days hasn't helped.

and the editor of the best magazine to take my work so far, who'd invited me to send more, has moved on. so I'm feeling a bit depressed about it all. but I have all these stories sitting here, and have to send 'em somewhere.