National Jazz Writing Competition

[Miriam Zolin]

There was a post last year on the 2007 National Jazz Writing Competition thread that has stayed with me. A regular contributor to the site at the time said:

"...how much harder and/or more expensive would it be to open it up bit to feature articles?"

The competition has been solely a reviewing competition up until now. But I listened to what this person and others were saying ... and this year is the year of the Short Story. Next year is Essay (aka Feature Article) and the year after we'll do Poetry, then back to reviews. Happy?

Here's the blurb...

In its fourth year, the National Jazz Writing Competition this year focuses on the Short Story. Entries are now invited for the competition, which has a 1st prize of $750 and publication in the first issue of extempore, Australia’s new journal of arts and writing, due for release in November this year. 2nd and 3rd prize winners will receive CD packs from Birdland Records in Sydney and publication in extempore.

The National Jazz Writing Competition was started three years ago to raise the profile of jazz-related writing, with a focus on reviews of Australian jazz CDs and concerts. It soon became clear that we needed to expand beyond reviews and the competition will now rotate through different types of writing each year. Writers, artists and musicians draw inspiration from each others’ work and this year we celebrate that cross-pollination by moving the competition into short fiction.

Stories should be up to 2,000 words in length. To be eligible for consideration, the story needs to be about, inspired by or responding to jazz or improvised music. If the link to jazz or improvised music is not obvious in the story, the author needs to include a brief description (200 words maximum) of the link. For example, if a story was inspired by the music at a gig or on a recording the description should name the musician(s) and give details of date and venue or CD.

Dates
Entries are open from 1 March to 30 June, and winners will be announced in late August.
Winning stories will be published and launched at an event in November, with live music and readings.

More information:
Submission guidelines and more information area available on the competition website at www.jazz-planet.com/njwc or contact Miriam (Competition Coordinator) at
[e-mail] or on her mobile [phone]

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Hugs!
Miriam

[isaacs]

That's a really interesting twist Miriam! And congratulations on the continuance of the competition, it is a great credit to your efforts.

How will you resolve the issue of anonymity or "blind judging" - which has been a part of previous competitions - in the short story scenario?

What if the short story by its content potentially reveals the identity of the writer, especially to judges who might be Australian jazz "insiders"?

[Miriam Zolin]

Hi Mark - I see you're enthusiastic as usual! Thanks :-)

Judging is, as you say, blind.

If a judge recognises an author of a story, they will disqualify themselves from judging that story and a third, independent judge will be called in.

One of the judges is an jazz insider, and one is a creative writing insider... the third independent judge who we would call on is a qualified editor and writer who doesn't know either of the other judges, is not a jazz insider and is exceptionally good at judging a story on its own merits.

Hope this helps!

M

[trumpetguy]

maybe you could get ironguts - he is often blind and as such would be a good judge.

[Miriam Zolin]

Just a reminder that the competition deadline for the National Jazz Writing Competition is coming up on 30 June. This is the year of the Short Story. Stories should be:

• 2,000 words or under
  
• about, inspired by or responding to jazz and improvised music
  

AND the announcement of winners is going to be made at the Melbourne Writers Festival this year. We're being taken seriously, and recognised as a legitimate writing competition!! I'm so excited I could almost wet myself!

We're getting a few people sending things in trying to be clever and witty with their interpretation of the theme, but luckily there are a few good stories coming in too.

If you're not game to tackle it yourself, please pass the infromation on to writers you might know!

Submissions guidelines at www.jazz-planet.com/njwc