INFO ABOUT THIS COMPETITION FROM THE ORGANISERS:
With the amazing support of Rainbow New Zealand Charitable Trust, Same Same but Different is again running a short fiction writing award. From 2020 it celebrates the life and work of our founder, Peter Wells.
There’s only a few weeks to submit entries for the inaugural Peter Well’s Short Fiction Contest.
First prize is $1000 cash for the winning story, $500 for the runner up and $500 cash for the best writing from a promising young writer aged under 25. This makes it one of the leading short fiction competitions in Aotearoa. Short fiction is demanding and we are looking for quality writing.
• Stories must be original, unpublished works of fiction and may be on any theme
• The word limit is 2000 words
• Entries must be submitted by 5 January 2020
• Judges this year are Simie Simpson and Michael Giacon. Simie is a librarian and was a judge for the 2019 NZ Post Book Awards, while Michael is a poet, teacher and mentor in creative writing.
• Winners will be announced and prizes awarded during our fifth samesame but different LGBTQI writers festival, 14-15 February 2020
Previous winners include:
• Julie Helean (2019)
• Tulia Thompson (2018)
• Ruby Porter (2017)
• Gina Cole (2016)
Competition Rules:
1. Stories must be your own work, and not previously published.
2. Stories must be original works of fiction.
3. All stories should have relevance to the broader New Zealand LGBTQI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex) community.
2019 Under 25 winner Sinead Overbye
2019 winner Julie Helean & judge Paula Boock
4. Stories should be at least 1200 words in length but must not exceed 2000 words. Any entry over this limit will be disallowed automatically. Please include your word count at the end of your story.
5. Stories must be emailed as attachments in Word to: litergayture@outlook.com
6. All stories must be received by midnight on 31 March 2019. Late entries will not be accepted.
7. Be sure to include your full name, email address and contact phone number in your submission email.
8. Please state in your covering email if you are entering your story in the promising young writer category. If you are, please confirm that you are aged under 25. You will still be eligible to win the Wallace Foundation Short Fiction Contest.
9. Your name must not appear in headers or footers or anywhere in your story – our judges read all stories in blissful ignorance of the writer’s identity.
10. Please give your work a name. This helps us identify each piece.
11. If you submit a story to the competition, you are also giving us permission to publish it, which may be online or in a printed publication.
12. The winner may be invited to read their work at our winner’s event.
13. You may submit more than one story.
14. We only accept stories from writers resident or normally resident in New Zealand.
For more information on the Peter Wells Short Fiction prize, please go to
For more information on samesame but different, please go to: http://www.samesamebutdifferent.co.nz/
Comments