It's been a while, but it's back. We've got some new titles for those fans of our very own 100-word story contest. You know the drill; write a piece interpreting one of our titles, without going over the magic 100. And while you're off browsing the forums, stop by the ever-colourful cynicsid's 3rd Poetry Contest.

100-word contest

Milton Keynes, home of concrete cows, antiseptic fluid and the Speakeasy writers' group are the latest crowd to run a pay2play writing contest. That's about it really, except to say that it's poetry and short stories and entries close October 31st. £3-£4 stake, £100 top prize.

Speakeasy

Blimey, this is a good'un.  The National Short Story Prize is a new award brought to you by NESTA (the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts), BBC Radio 4 and Prospect magazine. It will be the largest award in the world for a single story. The winning award is worth £15,000, and there will be a runner up award of £3,000. Three further shortlisted authors will receive awards of £500 each. Go grab your entry form and write your 8000 words now. Submissions close 30th Nov.

National Short Story Prize

Another one from the 'I'm slow on the uptake' file. Writers' Forum is another magazine bringing hope and glory to us writerly types. What I didn't know is that they run monthly poetry and short story contests. It's another 'throw in your entrance fee and win the pot' affair, but at least it's with a proper papery magazine 'n all.

Writers' Forum

Marchmont Films are what look to me like a bunch of students, but who knows? One thing they certainly are is a low-budget film crowd, and they're looking for submissions - either character-led drama of 10-20 minutes, or 'short sharp' comedy of 0-10 minutes.

Marchmont Films

Are you an experienced writer who has yet to tackle writing for the big screen? Do you have a passion for film and want to develop a career writing feature films? Would you benefit from expert guidance to develop your ideas into viable screenplays? If so, Write Moves is for you. It's a Brighton-based residential training programme aimed at experienced writers who are new to feature screenwriting. If you've got £750 in your back pocket (or think you've got a shot at qualifying for a bursary), there's worse places to spend your time than Brighton.

Write Moves

Y'know, my personal jury is still out on whether these pay-to-play writing contests are really a noble thing, but hey - this one has some decent judges and a first prize of £2500. Real Writers are running a short story contest, where your work may be appraised by the literary editor of the Daily Mail, the editorial director of Time Warner Books, and author Kate Long. £5 to enter (plus optional extra £15 if you want a personal crit) and entries close November 30th.

Real Writers Short Story Contest

In fact not just that, but their books as well! The emergent publishers of fortysomething reads (uncharitably dubbed 'frump-lit' by Mariella Frostrup) are running a writing contest, with all of their books up for grabs.

To win this fabulous prize all you need to do is write (in no more than 150 words) a short piece around the theme of "If I knew then what I know now..." As well as the main prize, four runners up each will receive a free Transita book of their choice and the best entries will be featured on the website.

The link below contains the email address you need to send your entries to.

Transita contest

If the arrival of warmer weather has inspired you to switch off your computer and go do something less boring instead, then you might like to take yourself off to The Poetry Prom on Monday 8th August, at the Snape Maltings Concert Hall. It's a evening of live readings from Matt Harvey, Carol Ann Duffy, and Simon Armitage. Who's the new Ted Hughes, apparently.

The Poetry Prom

We've mentioned the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest before, but it's worth returning to since they've just announced the results of their 2005 contest. If you want to read through some truly (and deliberately) awful story openers,there's plenty to be going on with here. Just make sure this level of writing doesn't creep into your own work.

Bulwer-Lytton 2005 Results