HOW do writing competitions benefit writers? Well, for starters, winning one can help to promote one’s writing to the world and they can attract the attention of publishers and agents. Submitting to writing competitions (especially those hosted by literary journals and magazines) often leads to being published in a journal or magazine that is of some note. The Commonwealth Prize, for example, partners with noteworthy literary journal, “Granta,” to publish the winning entries each year.

Competitions can lift a common man (or woman) to instant literary fame, and, if one is lucky, they can also reward the writer in one of the most underrated ways: financially.
Furthermore, winning a writing competition, or even being shortlisted or longlisted, can be important for a writer in the sense that the writer is given a pat on the back, one of reassurance, something that reminds him/her that he/she is talented and worthy and should definitely continue on the path of writing despite what other people might say.
Winning a writing competition can lead one from a place where he/she is just about to give up on writing altogether to a place where he/she feels confident enough to continue on with the work. I am speaking from personal experience on this last point. There is nothing that builds back your self-esteem and self-confidence like when you are judged by your peers or people respected in the profession (your literary heroes or the heroes of others) and being found to be one of the best.

I suppose the reason why many writers choose not to submit to writing competitions is because of fear – fear that not placing in a competition will mean that the writing is not good enough. However, I think this kind of uncertainty about one’s writing is something that every single writer battles with. I have never met a good writer who did not panic about whether his/her work was up to par. Good writers worry and beat themselves up because the writing matters to them. It matters to them what people think. It matters to them that the writing is good. It matters to them that the writing receives some validation. Maybe this is not the healthiest way to deal with art, but the point remains that this kind of uncertainty and fear regarding the quality of one’s writing is pretty universal and that the only way to surpass it is to acknowledge the fear, but not let it stop you from moving ahead and trying something that may or may not be fruitful, something that won’t let you know how much it yields for you unless you go out on a limb and give it a chance.

With all of this in mind, I would like to present a list of writing competitions that the budding or established Guyanese writer can enter before the end of 2019. Given that Guyanese writers have experienced success at regional and international writing competitions in the past, I would like to urge anyone who has completed manuscripts to consider submitting their work to any of the following.

1) The Commonwealth Short Story Prize – This is one of the most well-known prizes in the world, which should be obvious considering that it features writers from all of the Commonwealth countries in the world. It receives thousands of entries each year and it offers up to £5,000 in prize money – although the real benefit is that it allows one writer to bring some amount of attention not only to his/her work but to the entire literary oeuvre of the country that the winning writer is from. The Chair of this year’s judging panel is Nii Ayikwei Parkes and the deadline for submission November 1, 2019.

2) The Johnson and Amoy Achong Caribbean Writers Prize – This is a prize coming out of the Bocas Lit Fest in Trinidad and Tobago. The prize caters for Caribbean writers and this year a writer who engages with non-fiction will be awarded, according to the Bocas website, $20,000TT, mentoring by an established writer, a trip to London to attend an Arvon writing course, and the chance to be represented by Rogers, Coleridge & White – one of the most respected literary agencies in the UK. This is the perfect opportunity for writers who have written a memoir, essays and other types of literary non-fiction. The deadline for entries is September 30, 2019.

3) The National Drama Festival of Guyana – This is a good opportunity for budding playwrights in Guyana to have their work staged. It is the only time when venues (such as the National Cultural Centre and Theatre Guild) are free for the playwrights and directors to use because the Festival has, in the past, been sponsored by the government and Digicel. The Festival offers prizes for acting, directing, and other theatre elements, in addition to a cash prize for Best New Guyanese Play. Al Creighton, Director of Studies at the National School of Theatre Arts and Drama (NSTAD), recently announced at a performance hosted by the NSTAD that the National Drama Festival will be returning this year. It is usually hosted in November.