National writing competition open

The 39th annual Lambing Flat Fellowship of Australian Writers (FAW) Writing Competition is now open.

It traditionally runs in line with the National Cherry Festival, drawing its own attention from entrants Australia wide.

Competition coordinator Joan Dwyer organises the event with Teb Webber, and hopes to repeat the record 633 entrants from last year.

Mrs Dwyer thought the mass COVID-19 lockdowns and restrictions may have inspired entrants to get creative in 2020.

She questioned whether there would be the same amount of interest, however there is attention already.

“Entries are trickling in already. It’s definitely growing in demand. Overall, I’m happy with how it’s going,” Mrs Dwyer said.

Writers of fiction, family history, romance and articles are invited to enter a short story, with traditional rhyming and free verse welcome in the poetry. There is no set theme.

The competition has an adult section as well as a school section. Word limit on the adult short story is 1500, while the line limit on the adult poetry is 50.

The school section is divided into three, with Junior Primary (Years 1, 2 and 3), Primary (Years 4, 5 and 6) and Secondary (Years 7, 8 and 9) and (Years 10, 11 and 12). The word limit for the Junior Primary short story is 200 and the poetry line limit is 12. The Primary short story word limit is 500 and line limit for poetry is 15. 1000 words is the word limit for the Secondary short story and 20 lines is the line limit for poetry.

Entry forms are available at the Hilltops Libraries or online. The closing date for entries is Friday the October 15, 2021. Entries can be posted or emailed. Final results with judges’ comments will be emailed to all entrants. For more information, contact lambingflatbranchfaw@hotmail.com. FAW meets every second Monday from February to November at the S&C Club from 5:30pm.

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