2021 Mayoral Creative Writing Prize

1. Overview

The 2021 Mayoral Creative Writing Prize is open to adults and children aged 8 years and above, who live in Blacktown city.

Entries close midnight, Sunday 3 October 2021. Winners will be announced at the presentation ceremony.

Presentation date: Thursday 9 December 2021 at 6 pm to 7 pm.
Venue: Max Webber Library Function Centre.

Entries can only be submitted online after 30 June 2021 by going to www.westwords.com.au.

2. Competition guidelines and criteria

Welcome to the Mayoral Creative Writing Prize 2021. It is open to adults and children (aged 8 to 17 years) who live in Blacktown city. The poems and short stories must be works of fiction.

Categories

All entries can be either poetry or short stories. They will be judged in the following age categories, 8 - 11 years, 12 - 14 years, 15 - 17 years and adult (18+).

Theme

"The only way is…."

Judging

Your work will be judged on how original it is, how you have constructed your story or poem, the use of language, (including creative expression, grammar, sentence structure, punctuation and spelling) and the way you have developed characters, atmosphere, or setting or used words in a creative way.

It is critical that this work is original and not copied in any way. Copied work will be disqualified. An independent judging panel will assess all submissions.

For more information, please contact WestWords: Western Sydney's Literature Development Organisation, on 1800-9378-967-37.

Prizes

The total prize pool is $1,600. Winners aged 17 or younger will receive $100 and their school, if located in Blacktown City, will receive a corresponding $100 as an incentive to encourage the budding authors of our local area. Adult winners will receive $200.

Announcement of the prize winners

The presentation ceremony will take place on Thursday 9 December 2021, at 6 pm. All winners and highly commended recipients will be invited to attend.

3. Submission criteria

1. The work must be original and completed in the last 6 months.
   Entries can be either:
   • poem, maximum of 25 lines
   • short story, maximum of 500 words
2. Only one entry per person is permitted in each category
3. Each entry must have one entry per online form
4. Members of staff, members of Council, their partners and members of their immediate families are ineligible to enter this competition
5. The judges' decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into
6. All participants will receive a letter acknowledging the receipt of their entry and their participation. A presentation ceremony will be held on Thursday 9 December 2021, where the winners will be announced.

Submit entries with a completed entry form online after 30 June 2021 by going to www.westwords.com.au.

4. List of 2020 winners and highly commended writers

Congratulations to the 2020 Mayoral Creative Writing Prize winners and highly commended writers.

The prize winners from the 2020 Mayoral Creative Writing Prize are available to download here(PDF, 9MB).