2015 BESSIE HEAD SHORT STORY WRITING COMPETITION

2015 BESSIE HEAD SHORT STORY WRITING

WABO invites aspiring writers  to participate in this year's Bessie Head writing competitions. Below are the guidelines as stipulated by the competition organisers.

Requirements for Submission
Bessie Head Short Story Awards
2015

This year, the Bessie Head Heritage Trust is offering a short story competition. No novels, poems, or children's stories will be accepted. All stories must be submitted online tobessiehead@gmail.com. Note that this form of submission is new. We will not accept hard copies this year. All submissions must adhere to the following guidelines. Those submissions that do not will be automatically disqualified.

1. All work must be original and unpublished. All work must be in English and have been thoroughly revised and proofread for grammar and spelling.
2. Only one entry per person.
3. No school assignments will be accepted.
4. All submissions must include a cover page with name (no pen names will be accepted), two reliable ways of contacting you (email, postal address, telephone number, cell number), the title of the story, and an accurate word count. The word limit is 5,000 words.
5. The first page of the story must also include the title of the story.
6. The rest of the submission must not contain any identifying information. Except for the cover page, all submissions must be anonymous.
7. Use a single, clear font, 12 point size. The best font to use is Times New Roman.
8. Use clear black text on a white background.
9. Left-justify your paragraphs. Right margins should be "ragged".
10. Use double spacing for all your text.
11. Don't insert extra lines between your paragraphs.
12. Indent the first line of each paragraph by about 1/2 inch (1 cm.),
13. Put the word "End" at the end of your story , centred on its own line.
14. Authors are advised that they may be asked to authenticate their work. Do not destroy any drafts, as you may be required to produce them as proof of originality.
15. All submissions must be attached to an email as Word documents (.doc or .docx).
16. Email your submission by 15 September 2015 to bessiehead@gmail.com. All submissions will be acknowledged. No late entries will be accepted.
17. This competition is open to citizens and residents of Botswana. Winners may be asked to verify their identity and eligibility.

DEADLINE: 15 September 2015   Winners are barred for three years from submitting manuscripts again in the same category, though they may enter other categories. Bessie Head Heritage Trust members, The Trust acknowledges the rights of copyright in the manuscript and the lawfulness of the copyright holder's rights and title to the rights of copyright in the manuscript.

YOUR MASTERY WILL UNFOLD BY DONNIE GREENE-SMITH

Your mastery will unfold when you have developed the ability to recognize that there will always be something that you have to go through, and you use every bit of that going through, to polish the master within.

However, what many people do unknowingly is they take time away from their dreams and ambitions and work on the problem they have, because they feel that problem keeps getting in the way, so they prioritize it. So instead of being guided to live from the spirit within, they take direction from the current circumstances. And believe me I have done this so many times till that it actually started to create more things for me ‘to go through’ taking me further and further away from concentrating on me.

It took me a little while to recognize these forks in the road that led me back to guess what, my problem and a whole bunch more waiting to have their say.

These forks have names like:

I don’t have the time
I don’t have the support
I don’t have the money
People don’t really like me
I don’t have the energy
I have tried and tried

Now I know these sound more like reasons instead of forks in the road but that is just it; the person that has learned to master success in what they hope to achieve sees those reasons as forks that will take them away from what they intend to have, so they use that opportunity to find the new awareness that allow them to keep moving forward.

Ask any successful entrepreneur and they will tell you that when challenges come they don’t dial down the dream because of setbacks or disappointing results. No! Instead they learn to dial-up the passion and awareness to help them create what it is they are looking for and so much more.

They change the way they see things and so the things they see begin to change. You’ve done this yourself many of times but you are mostly unaware of it. Just think for a moment about a challenge you may have had 15 years ago. Now when you look at that challenge today it will appear different, you may even laugh at yourself for having thought of it as a challenge. You will have most likely credited that different outlook to getting older instead of gaining a new awareness, but it still is a new awareness.

That is what every challenge presents to you, an opportunity to find a new awareness; and having a great vision or business idea is not going to unfold without you learning to develop your mastery, through those challenges.

Those challenges are calling forth the greatness in you. So when you see those forks again you can then recognize them saying…

It’s saying learn to schedule time for what is really important to your purpose.
It’s saying learn to recognize the support for all your needs as you journey through life.
It’s saying you are not quite convinced yet of your dream, which is why you have laid the blame on not having money.
It's saying love yourself enough to allow yourself to shine no matter what people think.
It’s saying free up some of that time you spend on dead things and focus on the higher calling in you.
It’s saying don’t concentrate on how many times you tried and failed, concentrate on what you want to achieve, nothing else matters.

Rise A Master!

Sincerely,

Donniece Greene-Smith
Co-Founder of Lid Raisers