It’s hard to take (some) writing contests seriously

Posted on February 7, 2008 by Elizabeth McCullough

Behold the saga of the Willesden Prize. Out of 850 entries, not a single one met the standards of Zadie Smith. Not one story that she could bear to have her august name associated with.

Fortunately for contestants, there was no entry fee, which, come to think of it, is probably why they didn’t select a winner. Had there been pesky fees to return, the Willesden Herald would have felt compelled to choose a finalist. Not requiring an entry fee might also have had something to do with the unmanageable avalanche of entries they received.

Filed under: authors, awards, contests, short stories, writing | Tagged: , , ,

« »

5 Responses

  1. Dave McNair, on February 7, 2008 at 10:19 am Said:

    Well, we hope you’ll all take the Hook writing contest seriously…and we’ll definitely pick a winner. Blast that Zadie Smith!

    http://www.readthehook.com/stories/2007/01/25/CONTEST%20FOR%20FICTION2007-C.rtf.aspx

    Thanks!

    Dave McNair
    The Hook

  2. Elizabeth, on February 7, 2008 at 11:47 am Said:

    Never fear, no doubts here about the Hook contest!

  3. VQR » Blog » And the Winner Is…Nobody, on February 8, 2008 at 5:06 pm Said:

    [...] (Via Charlottesville Words) [...]

  4. Kempis, on February 10, 2008 at 5:52 pm Said:

    From the Article:

    The Willesden Herald Short Story judges would like to make a final statement on the competition, the judging and the aftermath to try to explore any mistakes,…

    Their mistake was putting an elitist primadonna like Zadie Smith in a position to judge a writing contest.

  5. Casey Quinn, on July 21, 2008 at 9:45 pm Said:

    Hey there, nice blog ! I am an editor of an online magazine that is currently running a horror writing contest which accepts anything from poetry, micro fiction to short stories – anything under 5000 words. I promise I will pick winners :)

    If you or anyone you know is interested, please pass on the word! http://shortstory.us.com

    Thanks!
    Casey Quinn

Leave a Reply