The Importance of Writing Contests to Emerging Writers
Thank you for the opportunity to share a few words on writing contests and the emerging writer. While I can talk about different types of writing competitions, I am going to focus on the short story in this discussion. I have judged a few writing contests featuring both unpublished and published entries. One of my earliest judging assignments was in 1996, for the Budding Writers Association of Zimbabwe (BWAZ), the English short story category. I remember that the winners were Memory Chirere (open category) and Wilson Mutingwende, a high school student Ndima High School in Chimanimani. Winning a prize in a writing contest boosts a writer's productivity and exposes their work to publishers and readers. Below is a point-by-point coverage of some of the things I have learned as a judge of different contests. 1. Participating in writing competitions can potentially lead to your being discovered by publishers and readers. Competitions encourage a sp...