Arthur Powers is the judge of the Tom Howard/John H. Reid Fiction & Essay Contest
Develop the narrative beautifully (whether the subject is beautiful or not)—with a quality that carries readers along with you, whether elegantly or on a bumpy (but meaningful) road.
Northampton, MA (PRWEB) April 18, 2014
It's last call to enter the 22nd annual Tom Howard/John H. Reid Fiction & Essay Contest. This year's deadline is April 30. The winners will share $3,000, including two top awards of $1,000 each, and their entries will be published on WinningWriters.com.
This contest welcomes published and unpublished work, up to 6,000 words per entry. The entry fee is $16. Enter the contest online at https://www.winningwriters.com/tomstory.
Arthur Powers is the judge of this year's contest. He is the author of A Hero For The People (Press 53, 2013)—a collection of short stories set in Brazil—and The Book of Jotham (Tuscany Press), which won the 2012 Tuscany Press Novella Award. Mr. Powers received a Fellowship in Fiction from the Massachusetts Artists Foundation, three annual awards for short fiction from the Catholic Press Association, and second prize in the 2008 Tom Howard/John H. Reid Short Story Contest for "The Bridge". He is the contemporary editor of CatholicFiction.net.
"I tell my students that character is the most important element in fiction," says Mr. Powers. "You should know and love your characters. Plot is what happens when characters interact with one another or situations. This is true not only of psychological and literary stories, but of science fiction, thrillers, westerns, even mysteries (where the temptation to distort characters to fit the plot is particularly strong)."
For essays, Mr. Powers advises, "Convey your message in a way that makes readers see differently or understand differently—that provides a new angle or a new insight, without necessarily doing acrobatics to try to be different. Develop the narrative beautifully (whether the subject is beautiful or not)—with a quality that carries readers along with you, whether elegantly or on a bumpy (but meaningful) road."
Over 900 authors participated in last year's contest. Read the past winning entries.
Winning Writers was founded in 2001 to provide expert literary contest information and resources to the public. In addition to the Tom Howard/John H. Reid Fiction & Essay Contest, we sponsor the Wergle Flomp Humor Poetry Contest, the Sports Fiction & Essay Contest, and the Tom Howard/Margaret Reid Poetry Contest. Learn more at WinningWriters.com and join our 24,000 followers on Twitter at @winningwriters.
