by Robin Cooke

We realise that a lot of our readers are aspiring writers, and book enthusiasts, so we thought that we should give you a round up of some of the competitions, prizes and events on offer in 2010.

Zoe Heller

Leading the way is The Bridport Prize, which has the largest cash prize of any open short story competition (or so they claim) with a whopping £5000 for the winning short story, £5000 for the winning poetry, and £1000 for the flash fiction prize, for a short story under 250 words. Your writing background and pedigree will not matter as you are judged anonymously. This year’s judge will be Zoe Heller, author of the bestselling Notes on a Scandal. If you live in Dorset, then you have an extra reason for entering as you will be eligible for the £100 Dorset Prize that goes to the best entry from that county.

While the Bridport may offer the big bucks, another prize that could be just as attractive to an aspiring writer is the one on offer from StarX’d , an initiative from the charity Muslim Youth Helpline, which is asking entrants to re-imagine the eternal love story of Romeo and Juliet from the perspective of a 20^th Century British Muslim. It’s a tricky task in under 3,000 words but the prizes on offer include not only cold hard cash, but also mentoring opportunities

The StarX'd call for submissions

from professional writers. Likewise, you will have your work read by one of the country’s leading literary agents, as one of the judges is David Godwin, chairman of his eponymously named company, that represents stellar names such as Kiran Desai, Arundhati Roy and William Dalrymple.

Another interesting prize this year includes Ambit’s 200 Word Poetry and Prose competition to celebrate their 200^th anniversary, with a prize of £500 (entries in by 15^th February 2010). The Writer’s and Artist’s Handbook, a useful resource for writer in itself, is also running a competition with a prize of £500 and a place on the Arvon Foundation’s residential writing course, for a story of under 2000 words on the theme of ‘Unity or Union’. Hurry though, you’ve only got until the 14^th February.

In terms of events, there’s always plenty going on, though it doesn’t always get the publicity that it deserves. Storytails, run by NFTU writer Gabriella Apicella, is an event that launched recently and welcomes short submissions for performance at its monthly readings. The Whitechapel art gallery often hosts events in its bar of an evening, and some upcoming highlights include Utter! The Funeral, an open mic night that has the unusual and faintly creepy theme of the funeral. There is also of course the NFTU Live Event to look forward to there on the 25th March where we will be unveiling our Photo Stories project.

For those that have little nippers, World Book Day on the 4^th March, provides a great range of events to get them interested in reading. A new initiative this year includes www.readtoamillionkids.co.uk where the 11 £1 Book stories will be read by the authors or performers and filmed for online broadcast during World Book Day. There are a number of events taking place on the day that people can actively take part in. One excellent option for families is The BIG Read,  an attempt to break the world record for ‘most children reading with an adult’ which will aim to recruit 5,000 volunteers to read from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. If they break the record (which currently stands at 3,302 children) then they’ll be able to claim an official record holder certificate. Celebrity readers should help to make it a great day for the whole family.