A literary competition for writers of Greek origin has been organised by the Greek Australian Cultural League.
The competition has been divided into the following categories: poetry; short story and a one-act theatrical play. Submissions will be accepted in both Greek and English.
Established in 1980, the competition has been running continuously every year and has been open to writers in both Australia and overseas. And the competition is open to all writer’s – whether or not you write as a hobby, professionally or you just want to give it a go.
Cathy Alexopoulos, president of the Greek Australian Cultural League told Neos Kosmos the best way to get involved is to “give it a go try and don’t be afraid; only in that way can we open up doors.
“You don’t have to be a professional writer, you just have to try your luck and see how you go,” she adds.
The competition rules are that all entries must have one entry per category; all submissions should be the original works of the author and should not have been submitted in another competition or have been previously published; contributions for the competition can be submitted in either Greek or English and will be judged separately for each language; only one entry is permitted for each category and language; poems should not exceed 100 lines. Prose entries should not exceed 2000 words. The one-act play should be between 20 and 30 minutes duration. For each entry, four copies of the work needs to be submitted. These copies will not be returned. For each work submitted a pseudonym must be used in place of the author’s name. This needs to be the same pseudonym for all work submitted by the same person. The author’s full name and corresponding pseudonym, their address, telephone number and email if available along with the title of the work/s should be placed in a separate sealed envelope with their entry/entries to ensure anonymity. Results of the literary competition will be announced at a special function incorporating the launch of the League’s annual bilingual periodical “ANTIPODES” in October, 2012. All first prize winning works in each category of the competition shall be published in the periodical of the Greek- Australian Cultural League “ANTIPODES” Vol. 58, 2012 which will be launched on the same day the awards are announced.
“What we need to do is spread the word around so we do get the new blood and we do get the new people who have been writing in the second or third generation that may not have known about it,” Ms Alexopoulos says.
All entries must be submitted by 2 July at the latest and sent to the following address: Greek-Australian Cultural League, P.O. Box 4307, Melbourne of University, Parkville, Vic., 3052, Australia.