Guest Blogger: Veronica Henry of MyAfricanDiaspora.com


This post features MyAfricanDiaspora co-founder, Veronica Henry. In this blog she introduces the organization and its mission, and provides information on the group's first Annual short story competition. Enjoy.

Our website: www.myafricandiaspora.com, provides news and information aimed at reconnecting the African Diaspora. My partner and I launched the site after tracing our African ancestry to Sierra Leone and deciding to use the power of the Internet to help foster the reconnection between people of African descent and their ancestral homes.

We're sponsoring a Short Story Writing Competition - open to anyone, any country or continent, but the main character must be of African descent. I believe this is a first of its kind, an international competition focused on providing positive, diverse images of people of color in literature. I'd like to invite all writers to participate and hope you'd like to help us spread the word. Full contest details are available here and included below.

Introducing the 1st Annual
MyAfricanDiaspora.com
SHORT STORY COMPETITION
In our ongoing effort to promote positive images that reflect people of African descent, the website that connects that African Diaspora is pleased to announce our first annual Short Story contest.

We're looking for fiction that is unique, stories with characters we'll remember, plots that leave us thinking. The contest is open to anyone, any race, any country, any continent. The only caveat? The main character must be of African descent.

Rules
1.The contest runs from October 1 – December 31, 2009, winner announced February 1, 2010
2.Entries must be 1500 words or less
3.The entry fee is $10 (via paypal or money order payable to DreamDeep LLC.) Address: DreamDeep LLC
9360 W. Flamingo Rd.
#110-117
Las Vegas, NV 89147
4.Main character must be of African descent
5.Story must be previously unpublished
6.Submit entries to info[AT]myafricandiaspora.com, with the words “Short Story Contest: (input name of your short story and genre)” in the subject line. Ex. Short Story Contest: Mystery My Story. Copy & Paste into the body of the email. No attachments.
7.Be sure to include your contact information and word count with submissions
8.There will be one overall winner and one winner from each of the following genres: Literary, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Mystery, Romance (we prefer stories without gratuitous sex or violence)

Prizes
1.First Place: $500 Genre Winners: $25 Borders Gift Card
2.Each winner will have their story and a feature article published on myafricandiaspora.com
3.The winners and top three entries in each genre will have their short stories published in a short story collection

Veronica Henry is co-founder and webmaster at www.myafricandiaspora.com - a news and information network aimed at reconnecting the African diaspora. Her 20 year IT career came to an end when her inner writer and entrepreneur inexplicably besieged her to give it all up. Born in Brooklyn, NY, she now calls Las Vegas, NV home. For more information, contact Veronica at info [@] myafricandiaspora dot com.

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