The Wallace Foundation Short Fiction Contest was first awarded in 2016, replacing a previous contest, begun in 2014 byexpress.  It gave New Zealand LGBTIQ writers an opportunity to prove their creative skills and the chance to publish and publicise their work. This year, for the first time, the contest will be fornon-fictionwriting.

The competition provides a safe and supportive environment for both emerging and established writers to write on a topic relevant to us all. The theme for the 2018 Wallace Foundation Creative Nonfiction Writing Contest is:‘The gay [LGBTIQ] community’:  myth or reality?Other than a word limit of 1500 words there are no creative restrictions; you are free to develop the theme in any way you like, from close-reasoned argument to whimsical satire; from personal experience to political polemic.

The word limit is a maximum of1500 wordsand should not be exceeded.

Participation is the most valued aspect of the Wallace Foundation Creative Nonfiction Writing Contest. It is a competition, however, and we are blessed to have a kind and generous benefactor — so the prize is fabulous!

With the support of The Wallace Foundation, we are awarding $600 cash for the winning entry and $300 cash for the best writing from a young writer aged under 25. Please state in your covering email if you are entering this emerging youth category. All entries will be judged for the overall contest winner.

Our judges are well known in queer literary circles and they take their duties very seriously.  They are looking for original thought and creative expression. This year the judges are Peter Wells, well-known novelist and historian, whose books include Dangerous Desires,Iridescence,The Hungry Heart and Journey to a Hanging, and Aorewa McLeod, who taught in the University of Auckland English Department for 37 years until her retirement. She has published as a critic, edited anthologies and published the book Who Was That Woman Anyway?. They are both thoroughly looking forward to the experience. Their decision is final.

If the Wallace Foundation Creative Nonfiction Writing Contest encourages us to keep thinking about our society and our place in the world, it will have achieved its aim.

2018 COMPETITION RULES

1.  Entries must be your own work, and not previously published.

2.  Entries must be original prose works, and any quoted material must be referenced.

3. Entries should have relevance to the broader New Zealand LGBTIQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer) community.

4.  Entries should be at least 1000 words in length but must not exceed 1500 words. Any entry over this limit will be disallowed automatically. Please include your word count at the end of your entry.

5.  Entries must be emailed as attachments in Word to:litergayture@outlook.com

6.  Entries must be received by midnight on 10 January 2018. Late entries will not be accepted.

7.  Please include your full name, email address and contact phone number in your submission email.

8. Please state in your covering email if you are entering your entry for the award for the best writing from an emerging writer youth category. If you are, please confirm that you are aged under 25. You will still be eligible to win the overall award.

9. Your name must not appear in headers or footers or anywhere in your entry – our judges read all entries in blissful ignorance of the writer’s identity.

10. Please give your work a title. This helps us identify each piece.

11.  If you submit an entry for the competition, you are also giving us permission to publish it, which may be online or in a printed publication.

12. The winner may be invited to read their work at our winner’s event during Same Same But Different the weekend of 10 February 2018.

13.  You may submit more than one entry.

14.  We only accept entries from writers resident or normally resident in New Zealand.