It’s the start of our Focus on Fiction week for National Young Writers’ Month, and we’re excited to have Rafael S.W and James Butler to fill us in during Short Story Salon on what makes a great short story. Tune into www.expressmedia.wpengine.com tonight at 6pm to chat with Rafael and James, and get working on those short stories.

NYWM Challenge #4

Sure, short fiction has a word limit, but a word limit isn’t the only challenge we’re setting you. If you’ve got a great plot in mind, but you are just not sure where to start, play the Card Game with Graeme Simsion.

Events and Opportunities

We’re are super excited because tonight, we launch Voiceworks Issue #100 at the National Library of Australia. Thanks Canberra!

We met Lily Mei on Day 1 in Where Do I Begin? and Emily Meller on Day 4, in Across State Lines. Well these wonderful ladies are also the two new Flashers Editors for online lit-mag Seizure. Each week Seizure publishes a flash fiction story and will pay $50 a pop – so submit to Seizure and Find Your Words!

Don’t forget that the National Young Women’s Short Story Competition closes today at 5pm! Or it least it was going to – that caught your attention, didn’t it? The submission deadline has been extended to the June 30, so use your time wisely. Winners will be announced at the Award Ceremony at the State Library of New South Wales in September, so stay tuned.

Cool kids Yen Magazine have launched the 2015 Yen Short Story Prize, with this year’s theme being ‘ripple’. Submissions close July 17, so you’ve got a little while to get your 800 – 1000 word entries in, but don’t miss out because the winning story will win a super prize pack and be published in Issue 78 in August.

For writers all across Australia, the Katharine Susannah Prichard Short Fiction competition is now open. And if you’re under 20 and live in WA, you’re invited to join the KSP Writers’ Centre Youth Program on Tuesday afternoons to workshop your story.

Book now for this free event in South Rockhampton, QLD, to understand all things ‘e-book’. Emily Craven, author of The Grand Adventures of Madeleine Caine is also a prolific blogger and former Digital Producer for the Queensland Writers Centre. Presented by If:Book, you can join Craven on the June 13 to learn about the perks and problems of online publishing.

The Tasmanian Writer’s Centre is presenting a new short fiction competition for all Australian writers. The competition is presented by the Tasmainian Writers’ Centre and Island Magazine, in conjunction with the Geoff and Elizabeth Dean Foundation. This one closes on the July 31, so have a look on the website for more information and take your time writing. Winners will be announced at the Tasmanian Writers and Readers Festival in September.