I HAVE this ultimate goal that someday, with the right support and investments, I would like to launch my very own Writing Competition in Guyana. This goal was birthed from my wish to see more such local competitions. Writing competitions help to motivate writers and push them to exercise their talents- bringing worthwhile recognition should they emerge successful in the end. In my creative-writing career, I have entered only a handful of competitions. Many of the competitions I have come across request full-length manuscripts which I have never been able to compile, while short-story competitions often challenge me because I was never truly a short-story writer. But over the years, while winning was never my goal, entering those competitions (The Commonwealth Short Story Prize and the Guyana Annual Writing Competition included), have allowed me to exercise my writing muscles in ways in which I am usually too lazy to pursue on my own.

The writing competition I aim to establish within the next five years, however, will seek to focus more on skills development rather than publishing. I find that while publishing is a highly sought-after reward, a fledgeling writing industry such as ours — which lacks basic institutional support and investments– should instead seek to sharpen the raw skills of our talented writers before looking at publishing. Besides, with little to no local publishing options, such a reward is oftentimes one-off and short-lived, with monetary rewards being the only other thing the winners have to show for their work. How does that saying go? “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” That adage is a perfect example of what I aim to achieve. Giving our writers skills to forge forward in their writing journey is much more valuable, I believe, than giving them one-off recognition by way of publishing their work. Of course, we must also continue to provide publishing options so that writers have some means of getting their work out there, but more options should also be provided to train them so that when they do seek to get published, their work reaches a standard that can help them to eventually penetrate the regional and international literary markets.

But, alas, my own ideas are still swimming in my brain and under development. So I shall bring you more on that later. In the meantime, I decided to provide some free writing competitions that writers looking to whet their appetites can peruse during their spare time:

The BCLF Caribbean Fiction Writers Competition
The competition seeks to recognise published and unpublished writers with Caribbean roots. The BCLF Elizabeth Nunez Award for Writers in the Caribbean will select and award the best short story by a writer living in the Caribbean while the BCLF Elizabeth Nunez Caribbean-American Writer’s Prize award will go to the best short story from an unpublished Caribbean writer residing in the North-American diaspora. The theme for this year’s competition is ‘National Language: Prose, Poetry and Sound’. Entries are open until July 1, 2020. For more information, visit www.bklyncbeanlitfest.com .

The Commonwealth Short Story Prize
This is an annual competition that invites unpublished short fiction from natives from commonwealth countries. The 2021 Prize will open for online entries from September 1- November 1, 2020. Winners can earn up to £5,000. It’s a prize that sees pretty stiff competition every year. Last year, Guyanese writer Kevin Garbaran was shortlisted from among over 5,000 entries for his piece ‘ol’ Higue on Market Street.’ For more information on this competition, visit www.commonwealthwriters.org .

The Queen’s Commonwealth Essay Competition
This is an extension of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize that offers young writers up to 18 years of age to write essays on key global issues according to a specified theme. Past themes have included: A Connected Commonwealth (2019) Towards a Common Future (2018) A Commonwealth for Peace (2017) and ‘An Inclusive Commonwealth’ (2016). Entries for the 2020 competition are open until 17:00hrs GMT on June 30, 2020. For more information, visit: www.thercs.org .

The Guyana Annual Competition
This competition awards a cash prize and a chance at having your work published in their magazine. The competition usually opens at the beginning of the year and welcomes entries for junior and open categories in Short Story, Poetry, Playwrighting, Visual Arts, Photography, and Cartoon and Graphic Short Story. For more information, visit www.theguyanaannual.com .

The Alpine Fellowship Writing Prize
Open to all nationalities from persons 18 and above, this competition welcomes unpublished entries from all genres up to 2,500 words. The winner receives £10,000 and an award while the second and third prizes receive cash prizes of £3,000 and £2,000, respectively. The 2021 competition will open in January next year. For more information, visit www.alpinefellowship.com .

I urge local writers to continue sharpening those skills and to keep at their writing projects. And, by all means, take a chance at one of these writing competitions just to say you did it. Many of the competitions around the world are exclusive to persons in certain territories, so when we find competitions that are open to Caribbean writers, we should jump on them! Who knows, you may very well surprise yourself and win.
Good luck!

Interested in contributing to this column on writing? Email me at thewritemind592@gmail.com