2011 Cultural Icons & Vernacular Lounge Non-fiction Writing Competition

Judged by: Graham Beattie, Federico Monsalve, Linda Blincko
Prizes include: Creative Hub Writing Course, Random House book package, publication in MORPH magazine, recorded on Jam Radio.

Iconic Encounters of a Vernacular Kind

“Vernacular:  Belonging in place, knowing your own stories, realising your own potential. Being yourself rather than trying to be someone else”
Tony Watkins

“In the imported soil of language and tradition, but in new sunshine, wind, and rain, we must grow our own prose and poetry”
Alan Mulgan

“What is ‘New Zealand identity’? How do we express ourselves through these particular cultural activities which are after all, universal?”
Ian Wedde

Cultural Icons & the Vernacular Lounge are accepting entries for ‘Iconic Encounters of a Vernacular Kind’ a non-fiction narrative competition on the topic of New Zealand’s distinctive local culture through its everyday icons.

Whether you write from Ponsonby, Mt Victoria, Lyttleton or the Bluff there are entities and phenomena unique to your community.  The focus of your entry could be an iconic person, building, event, activity, object or feature of the landscape or built environment, which embodies or elicits a sense of place or identity.

The aims are to gain an insight into the characteristics that contribute to a local vernacular^* and to unearth some of its many tales.

The winning entries will be judged on quality and originality of the writing, clarity of expression, uniqueness of the subject, and most of all, on how your subject depicts identity or community.

* The term ‘vernacular’ refers to the features specific to a culture that become imbedded in the everyday and are thus largely taken for granted; however, viewing the vernacular as an outsider might, (or from sociological or anthropological perspective), enables us to recognise its distinctive characteristics and its cultural relevance, influenced as it is by local features such as landscape, history, demography, social groupings and trends.

Details:

Send entries to: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Please title the subject line:  Iconic Encounters Writing Competition
Deadline: 4pm 1^st of September 2011
Results will be announced on: 12 October 2011 at http://culturalicons.co.nz/news and  The_Depot_NZ Twitter feed

First Prize:

• An eight- to ten-week writing course at The Creative Hub in Auckland (www.thecreativehub.net.nz).  The winner may choose to attend one writing course in 2012 up to the value of $585 incl. GST.  Courses available may include: Children & Young Adult Fiction Writing, Introduction to Screen Writing, The Art and Craft of Memoir, Book Publishing – The Inside Story OR Introduction to Creative Writing.  The 2012 course options will be released in September.
• Manuscript assessment about your entry by one of our judges.
• Published online on Morph Magazine www.morphmagazine.co.nz.
• Recorded and made available on Jam Radio www.jamradio.co.nz.

Second Prize:

• A $500 RRP book package from Random House New Zealand ($400RRP of books chosen by Random House, $100RRP chosen by prize winner).
• Manuscript assessment about your entry by one of our judges.
• Published online on Morph Magazine www.morphmagazine.co.nz.
• Recorded and made available on Jam Radio www.jamradio.co.nz.

Conditions of Entry:

1. Entries must be unpublished (in any media), not submitted elsewhere for publication or competition, written by the entrant and copyright retained by the entrant.
2. Entrant may enter more than one piece but not more than three.
3. Entries must be MINIMUM  800 words – MAXIMUM 1000 words.
4. All entries received will be considered for publication in MORPH www.morphmagazine.co.nz.  By entering the competition you agree to your entry being published on MORPH.
5. Judges’ decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.
6. The Depot reserves the right to cancel or postpone the competition and/or extend the competition deadline.
7. Entries may be supplied as a Word document, a pdf or pasted into an email message.  Entries may also be posted: ATTN: Emma Whitlock, The Depot, 28 Clarence Street, Devonport, Auckland.  Please send copies of your work only as submissions will not be returned.
8. Entries must include a title, entrant’s name, email address(if you have one) and a word count. Entries will be judged ‘blind’.
9. Entrants must be New Zealand residents.
10. Prizes are non-negotiable.
11. Entries must be submitted in English.

Judges:

Graham Beattie: Former Managing Director/Publisher of Penguin Books NZ Ltd., and Scholastic NZ Ltd. Graham now works as a full-time book reviewer, book blogger and judge of book awards as well as doing occasional consultancy work within the book industry.  Graham is a widely experienced judge of both the Commonwealth Writers Prize and the Montana New Zealand Book Awards.  His literary blog www.beattiesbookblog.blogspot.com/ is one of New Zealand’s most read blog-sites, receiving 10 - 14,000 visitors per week.

Linda Blincko: Editor of MORPH magazine, an alternative, advertisement-free online arts & culture magazine, initiator of the Cultural Icons project and Creative Director of The Depot, a multi-disciplinary creative community.  Linda has worked with the creative community for 25 years and is instrumental in bringing hundreds of significant projects to light.

Federico Monsalve: Writer and film-maker, Federico is the former Director and Publisher of City Voice newspaper (Wellington), Assistant Editor of the op/ed section of La Opinion newspaper (Los Angeles) and a regular writer about arts, literature, current affairs and other subjects for places such as Radio New Zealand, The NZ Herald, The Listener and ARTnews (New York). He is the Projects Co-ordinator for The Depot.

The Non-Fiction Narrative Writing Competition ‘Iconic Encounters of the Vernacular Kind’, Satellite Gallery and the Vernacular Lounge, Morph and Cultural Icons are initiatives of The Depot.

MORPH

Check out The Depot's arts and culture online magazine MORPH.  The Morph website features articles, overseas columnists, reviews and artist profiles. It talks about musicians, artists, actors, poets, initiatives and ideas of our time.

Morph presents the chance to tell the world your stories, whilst being supported in your process. At Morph you can hone your writing skills, or try out new writing ideas. You can let us know about your observations of the world. You can tell us about those who inspire you. You can describe your community and the creativity that takes place around you. You can relate your vision for the future.

www.morphmagazine.co.nz

YoMo

YoMo magazine is Morph’s* younger sibling. YoMo and Morph are offspring of The Depot and share The Depot’s philosophy of inclusiveness and encouragement in all creative forms. YoMo is a magazine made by young people, and spans youth generations. YoMo likes art, poetry, music, interviews, comics, reviews and much more.  YoMo promotes and celebrates local culture with a small is beautiful pro-community philosophy.

Do you like creating? YoMo would love to feature your creations. YoMomians enjoy learning about the world and thinking outside the square. Your contribution could be musical, imaginary, artistic, insightful or quirky. It could be a drawing, a story, a review of a movie or a band, a painting, poetry, or anything that is a product of your imagination and ideas.

www.morphmagazine.co.nz/yomo

CREATIVE PEOPLE'S CENTRE

We are seeking contributing writers on our Creative People's Centre website, which currently provides information, resources and legal advice for all areas of the arts. We welcome ideas for articles that will resource and inspire the arts sector.

www.cpc.org.nz