It’s that time of year again.

The task is to write a story of up to 140 words with a one word title.

Closing date for receipt on entries is 30th April 2011. (Winners have been announced here)

This is a competition open to members and non members of www.slingink.com.

You can enter as many stories as you like as long as you pay the relevant fee:

1 entry = £2.50, 3 entries = £5, 5 entries = £7, should you wish to enter more than 5 stories you may do so providing you repeat payment using the PayPal button below.

Prizes

1st Prize £50 (Publication on www.slingink.com) (the anthology to be named for your story)(free PDF and print copy of the anthology and reduced price print copies)

2nd Prize £25 (Publication on www.slingink.com) (free PDF and print copy of the anthology and reduced price print copies)

3rd Prize £15 (Publication on www.slingink.com) (free PDF and print copy of the anthology and reduced price print copies)

(Please note that Slingink is a not for profit site and that the site administrators reserve the right to cancel the competition, return stories and refund entry fees if costs are not recovered from entry fees – please encourage all of your writerly friends to enter to ensure this doesn’t happen!!)

It is my intention to create an anthology of the shortlisted stories (approx 100 stories based on previous competitions) (Ideally both PDF and print copies).

If your story is shortlisted for anthology inclusion then you will be asked to ‘sign’ and return a copy of the following terms and conditions (via e-mail). Please ensure that your entries meet the terms and conditions below. (Shortlisted entrants will be entitled to a free PDF copy and reduced price print copies).

Competition Terms and Conditions

1. In entering this competition, I give a guarantee that:
1.1. All works I have submitted for the Slingink Shorts Competition are entirely fictional and of my own creation.
1.2. All characters contained within all of my submitted works are entirely fictional and of my own creation.
1.3 All rights to the works that I have submitted for the Slingink Shorts Competition belong solely to me, having not been signed off to any other individual or organisation.

2. If my story is shortlisted for this competition (which includes anthology inclusion), I understand that:
2.1. I am granting www.slingink.com and K.E. Stanley sole rights consistent with publishing my works, as submitted for the Slingink Shorts Competition, in an anthology. Rights return to you on publication of the anthology.
2.2. No payment shall be made for my works unless they should be judged to be the competition winner, in which case I shall receive the prize money as advertised.
2.3 I am granting www.slingink.com and K.E. Stanley editorial rights to correct minor typos and grammatical mistakes, should they appear in my work, prior to any publication.
2.4 www.slingink.com and K.E. Stanley make no guarantee that an anthology shall be published, or that my works shall be included.

Please pay for your entries using the PayPal button below and then e-mail your entries [as a Word Document (or in RTF) with each story starting on a new page] to slingink.com@gmail.com with the subject line Slingink Shorts 2011 – Entries.

In the body of the e-mail please include the following:
Name
No and title of entries
PayPal Receipt Number

The judging team this year will be Gale Martin and Mary Beth Leymaster Matteo.

Gale Martin has been writing creatively since 2005. Recent accolades include first-place in short fiction from the 2009 Writers-Editors International and Scratch writing competitions. She also received her first Pushcart Prize nomination in 2009 for a short story published in Greensilk Journal. Her work has appeared online and in print in various publications such as The Christian Science Monitor, Sirens Magazine, Duck & Herring Company’s Pocket Field Guide, and The Giggle Water Review and in several anthologies. She hosts a writing blog called “Scrivengale.”

She hosts an opera blog, “Operatoonity,” and is the accredited Metropolitan Opera reviewer for Bachtrack, an online site featuring classical performance. She lives in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, which serves as a rich source of inspiration for her writing.

 

Mary Beth Leymaster Matteo’s short fiction has appeared in over two dozen literary and commercial publications, including Nimrod International, Antietam Review, Snake Nation Review, Nebraska Review, South Carolina Review and Laurel Review.  Her work has been shortlisted for the James Knudson Prize, Best of Catholic Presses Literary Fiction, New Millenium Stories and Writer’s Digest Literary Fiction Competition. She lives in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where she co-founded a family business program at Elizabethtown College, plays classical piano, and spends as much time as possible with her three grandsons.