Want to know if something truly matters to people? Take it away. If no one notices the absence then the thing must not matter very much. But if people scream bloody murder … well, you can guess the rest.
I mention this because my life has been rather hectic of late and I’m a little tardy in launching this year’s storySouth Million Writers Award. And boy have people let me know. At first the emails were polite. Then they took on a worried tone, asking whether something had happened to me or, more frequently, if I would be continuing the award.
Well, the good news is this year’s award cycle will launch on March 15. The contest is open to any short story of at least 1000 words published in 2011 in an online magazine with an editorial process. Beginning on that date, editors of online magazines will be able to nominate 3 stories from their magazines while writers and readers can each nominate one story.
Donations and Judges Needed
Last year we were able to offer winners $1000 in cash and prizes and we’d like to do this again, so we’re asking for donations. Complete details on donating are here. And the great news is that ThinkGeek has already stepped up with another $100 gift certificate for this year’s overall winner. Many thanks!
And if you’d like to be a judge for this year’s award, please contact me. Simple give a little background on yourself and tell me why you’d be a great judge.
Finally, the final big news for this year’s award is that Spotlight Publishing will release two Million Writers Award anthologies next month. I’ll post about these two anthologies in the coming days.
Thanks go out to everyone who has supported the Million Writers Award in the past. And thanks in advance to all the judges, editors, writers and readers who will take part in this year’s award.