Express Media is now accepting entries for the 2006 John Marsden Prize for Young Australian Writers.

In 2006 there are four categories:

1) Short Story / First Chapter of a Novel – under 18 – $500

2) Short Story / First Chapter of a Novel – 18 to 24 – $2000

3) Poetry – under 18 – $500

4) Poetry – 18 to 24 – $500

Entries close Thursday 31 August 2006. Download the submission form and read the guidelines carefully for full details on how to enter.

Winning entries will be judged and announced by John Marsden in December 2006 and published in the summer issue #67 of Voiceworks magazine. All entries will also receive prize money donanted by John Marsden himself.

John Marsden launched this year's competition at the Emerging Writers' Festival on 7 April. Here's what he has said it:'A long time ago the novel fought its way to the top of the publishing heap, to dominate western literature. Short stories, exquisite, funny and/or powerful as they may be, have been no match for the novel. Consequently there are far more aspiring novelists out there than there are short story writers. For this reason we have decided to expand the John Marsden Writing Competition to include first chapters of novels. In practical terms this may not make much difference to many of the people interested in entering. Many short stories could well be first chapters of novels; and for years now novelists have published chapters from unfinished novels as short stories in literary magazines and in newspapers. But by changing the conditions of the competition we are recognising the primacy of novels, and offering extra support to those who are labouring in garrets or penthouses, with 150,000 words under their belt and still only halfway through, looking enviously at the many competitions for short stories in Australia, and wondering why they are excluded.'

Get writing for your chance to be read by John Marsden himself and published in Voiceworks Magazine!

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