Fresh Fish Award call for submissions
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2011 Fresh Fish Award for Emerging Writers

Call for submissions

Presented in partnership by the Writers' Alliance of Newfoundland and Labrador and the Literary Arts Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador.

The Writers' Alliance of Newfoundland and Labrador (WANL) and the Literary Arts Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador are calling for submissions to one of the country's most lucrative literary awards for unpublished writers: the Fresh Fish Award for Emerging Writers.

The award is intended to serve as an incentive for emerging writers in Newfoundland and Labrador by providing them with financial support, recognition, and professional editing services for a book-length manuscript in any genre. The winning author will receive: a cash prize of $4,000; $1,000 towards professional editing services; and a miniature replica of "Man Nailed to a Fish" by sculptor Jim Maunder. The runners up will each receive $500.

Rules of eligibility

  • Writers must be current members of WANL with a completed unpublished manuscript in any genre. Writers may join WANL at the time of submission.

  • Writers must have lived in Newfoundland and Labrador for at least three of the previous five calendar years, in any combination of 36 of the last 60 months.

  • Writers are permitted to submit only one entry per year, in any genre.

  • Writers with a published book in any genre or a book accepted for publication at the time of submission are NOT eligible.

  • The Fresh Fish Award will accept a manuscript that has been submitted once before. Entry forms for resubmitted manuscripts must identify the manuscript as such, and the year it was first entered must be indicated. Manuscripts submitted more than twice will not be accepted.

Submission guidelines

  • Each manuscript must be typed, double-spaced, and submitted in triplicate. Handwritten manuscripts will NOT be accepted. (Poetry manuscripts do not have to comply with the double-space requirement.)

  • Pages must be numbered and may be copied double-sided.

  • Ensure that your name appears on the title page only.

  • Entries that do not adhere to these guidelines will be disqualified.

Postmark deadline: Thursday, June 30, 2011 (extended due to the Canada Post lock-out).


Send submissions, along with a signed letter confirming that all rules of eligibility and submission guidelines have been met, to:

Writers' Alliance
223 Duckworth Street, Suite 202
St. John's, NL, A1C 6N1
Alternately, submissions may be delivered in person to the Writers' Alliance office at 223 Duckworth Street, Suite 202, in St. John's.

Due to the volume of submissions we receive, we will be unable to acknowledge receipt of entries or respond to ineligible entries. Manuscripts will not be returned.

For more information please contact the Writers' Alliance at 709.739.5215, toll-free at 1.866.739.5215, or email wanl@nf.aibn.com
The Writers' Alliance of Newfoundland and Labrador gratefully acknowledges the financial support of
the Canada Council for the Arts, the Department of Tourism, Culture and Recreation, Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, and the City of St. John's.
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