Australia’s premier creative writing event for the LGBTQIA+ community, the OutStanding Short Story Competition, is now open and receiving entries for 2021.
The 2021 Competition was recently launched by Alex Greenwich, Member for Sydney, as part of Sydney Pride. “Thank you for the vital work that this competition does in letting our community share our stories,” said Mr Greenwich.
“Whether they are sad, happy, erotic, humorous, there’s always such a great variety of stories that are told that help represent our community, our challenges and our adventures.”
OutStanding is Australia’s premier LGBTQI community literary event. It is truly inclusive, free to enter and has prizes of over $3,000 funded by the community (including 2021 grants from Lesbian Incorporated and in memory of Madeline Shaw).
Stories need be 750 words or less and have relevance to the broader Australian or New Zealand LGBTQIA+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer +) community. The Theme for 2021 is Ooops!
“We work hard at getting a theme that somehow captures the mood of the year,” said Robert Tait, OutStanding Committee. “We noticed people were using Ooops! a lot – it’s whackier than our usual themes but so is 2021!”
“Interestingly, when we researched it we found that Ooops-a-daisy was a music hall term for queer a hundred years ago. It’s lovely to have that resonance but of course writers can interpret it any way they wish,” said Mr Tait.
The 2021 OutStanding Short Story Competition is now open and closes at 11.59pm (AEDT) – Wednesday 1 September 2021. Winners will be announced on Sunday 26 September.
For more information and how to enter, visit: www.outstandingstories.net for details – or keep up-to-date via their Facebook page.
Image: Ooops! – courtesy of OutStanding Short Story Competition