Istoryan Writers

[diem]

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Sponsored by The Goi Peace Foundation and The World Peace Prayer Society (UNESCO's Partners for the International Decade of a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence for the Children of the World) Endorsed by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan, Japan Broadcasting Corporation, Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education
Supported by Japan Airlines


The United Nations has designated 2001-2010 as the "International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence for the Children of the World." Not only should young people benefit from this global movement, but they should be empowered to play a leading role in the creation of a culture of peace. The theme of this year's International Essay Contest is "Learning to live together: promoting tolerance and diversity in
globalized societies." Young people from around the world are invited to submit their creative ideas on this theme.


* Theme:
Children's Category
"Learning to live together: promoting tolerance and diversity in
globalized societies" -- In our modern world, people of different nationality, race or religion often find themselves living and working side by side. How can peoples of diverse cultures and backgrounds live together peacefully? How can young people contribute to the creation of dynamic and harmonious multicultural societies? What kind of projects can you
start to achieve this goal?

Youth Category
"Learning to live together: promoting tolerance and diversity in
globalized societies" -- Ignorance, exclusion, discrimination, and a lack of social integration of foreigners and immigrants within the main society may become causes of deep frustration and explosive violent clashes among young people as seen in different parts of the world. How can peoples of diverse cultures and backgrounds live together peacefully? How can
young people contribute to the creation of dynamic and harmonious multicultural societies? Formulate your ideas for a project or initiative to achieve this goal.

* Guidelines:
1. Essays may be submitted by anyone up to 25 years old in one of the following age categories:
a) Children (ages up to 14) b) Youth (ages 15 - 25)
2. Essays must be typed or printed in English, Spanish, German or French.
Children category: 800 words or less
Youth category: 1000 words or less
3. Essays must have a cover page indicating (1) category (Children or Youth) (2) essay title (3) your name (4) present address (5) phone number (6) fax number (7) e-mail address ( nationality (9) age as of June 30, 2006 (10) *** (11) school name and grade. Teachers and youth directors may submit a collection of essays from their class or group. Please enclose a list of participants' names and the name and contact information of the submitting teacher or director.
(Entries missing any of the above information will not be considered.)
4. Entries may be submitted by postal mail or e-mail.
5. Essays must be original and unpublished.
6. Essays must be written by one person. Co-authored essays are not
accepted.
7. Copyright of the essays entered will be assigned to the sponsor.

* Deadline: Entries must be received by June 30, 2006.
Winners will be announced in November 2006 on the Goi Peace
Foundation web site (http://www.goipeace.or.jp). Winners will also be notified.

* Awards: The following awards will be given in the Children
category and Youth category respectively:
1st Prize: Certificate and prize of 100,000 Yen (approx. US$900)
... 1 entrant
2nd Prize: Certificate and prize of 50,000 Yen (approx. US$450) ...
2 entrants
3rd Prize: Certificate and gift ... 5 entrants
Honorable Mention: Certificate and gift ... 25 entrants
All entrants will receive a certificate.
(Certificates, prizes and gifts will be mailed to the entrants by the end of the year.)

1st prize winners will be invited to the award ceremony and the International Youth Forum to be held in Tokyo, Japan in November 2006. (Travel expenses will be covered by the sponsor.)

* Please send your entries to:

International Essay Contest c/o The Goi Peace Foundation
1-4-5 Hirakawacho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 102-0093 Japan
E-mail: essay@goipeace.or.jp

[pnoize]

Dean Alfar's Salamanca will be out soon as a published novel.

Salamanca is Dean's first novel and was written under 30 days for the National Novel Writing Month in 2004. It was awarded the Grand Prize for Novel at the 2005 Palanca Awards and will be published by the Ateneo Press. The book launch is slated on April 1, 2006 at Fully Booked, Greenhills.

[diem]

When the April Sky is so blue
with no trace of clouds or mists
the Sun shines brightly through
I raise my face to be kissed

The scent of salt and sand
Of the sea caressing the land

Revives memories of summers gone
of a childhood raised by the Sun.

Her embrace is the April Sun in the orchard.
She stares at me with clear eyes
In spirit, I am certain I have her heart.
I am a fool in love, otherwise.

[diem]

We are all Fragments of Time, each of us having our own internal clocks. There are Those who live through day by day and Those who live through Moment by Moment.

In Other Words, We wind up or down our own destinies
Some live slow, Some live fast
Whose to say who lives more? Who lives less?

Rhea waited long enough.

She hooked her finger around the small white cup’s handle and raised it, tilting the cup close to her lips. She blew a breath on the beverage’s surface, just in case. Rhea sipped the peppermint tea, allowing its mild bitter yet refreshing taste swim on her tongue and fill her mouth. It also filled her mind.

Grateful, Rhea settled the cup back on its matching saucer. The woman closed her eyes and felt the liquid warmth trail down deep into her. She relished the feeling as long as it remained. When the warmth disappeared, Rhea opened her eyes.

The noise of the populated café bothered her. Aside hers, the other tables were occupied by couples, groups of friends or colleagues— islands of talking, chattering, sipping, and biting heads. Heads that have faces, faces that have eyes, eyes that stray and see, watch and wonder.

A chill shivered visibly on Rhea’s shoulders, making her hug herself. It might just be that the thermostat of the café’s tall air conditioner was set too low or it might be the empty chair facing Rhea from across the white linen of her table. Rhea was indeed alone. People might be noticing that- blinked a stray thought of Rhea’s.

She glanced sideways and caught a couple of stares at her direction, at her. Could they be curious? Interested? Critical? Sorry? Rhea bowed and turned away to the windows beside her table seeing the gardens and the lagoon outside but Rhea’s gaze rested on her own faint reflection on the glasspane.

Rhea saw she was wearing her white blouse, its collar rising sharp and straight out of the V-neck snug sweater which was a vibrant shade of blue. Something about blue made Rhea feel confident. The round aquagreen beads draped on her neck was a nice touch. She was presentable, pretty maybe— pleasant at best.

Rhea pressed her palms down on her khaki skirt, they were nervous with cold. Rubbing her hands against the fabric didn’t help, the young woman only felt more self-conscious.

On an impulse, she held the cup with both hands— bringing the warm tea up to her lips. She had to calm down.

A sound at the café’s door grabbed Rhea’s attention— a couple just walked in, looked around. They saw Rhea, that all the tables were filled and walked back out.

Rhea stared at her wristwatch, a reflex— she didn’t read the time. Where is he?! The words were bold with impatience in her mind. She forgot her cellphone, didn’t bring a book. Now she was sweating inside, squirming as a tapeworm would underneath the zooming lens of a microscope.

She dared to look across the tables, beyond the islands of faces and eyes, to the wide windows on both sides of the café’s door— into the moving human scenery passing by along the corridor. Rhea searched, prayed, and waited. She waited.

Rhea heard them, the voices talking and whispering. She heard the thoughts behind the voices, just as loud as her own mortal thoughts pounding like fat raindrops of a chance shower. Questions, questions. What is she doing? What is she wearing? Is she alone? Is she waiting for someone? Who? Who is she? Who does she think she is?

All eyes were on her inspecting, introspective, eyes into her boring holes. Rhea was hollow.

Anxious, she took a shallow breath to fill herself but the air was freezing. It filled her until Rhea faded and became the regurgitated cooled air of the cafe, floating above an empty chair— just like the empty space of the chair in front of her, saturated with strangers’ voices and questions without answers.

…

A hand clamped on her— shoulder, its fingertips digging deep through the sweater-blouse barrier into Rhea’s flesh underneath. It was an intimate and very familiar gesture. The touch brought about tender sensations that coursed through her veins. Rhea returned into solid, tangible reality.

The tender sensations reached her mouth, making her smile. Rhea turned upward at the newcomer full of expectation. It was Danilo. Her hope fulfilled, it filled her, Rhea’s smile stretched out more with reassurance and relief.

“Did you wait long~?” The young man’s hand slid from Rhea’s shoulder, down the length of her arm, clasping her hand at the end as he sat down across from her, in front of her.

Rhea stared deep into his eyes, seeing her— accepted, devoted, beloved.

She replied, “No.”

[aridoasis]

"not so gone"

i awoke in the twilight,
my face drenched by tears,
void - so empty inside,
still troubled all these years

my heart yearns for comfort,
from memories holding on,
of you, of me, of what could,
i thought forgoten, not so gone

why do you haunt me,
why can't i sleep?
i can't bear this pain, this sorrow,
of these thoughts running deep

no matter how i try listening,
to the bane and senseless songs,
my heart's not deceived,
for i know - you're not so gone

i want to break free,
of the you world and its sweetness,
of you and your memories,
to bask once again in light

yet no matter how i pretend,
hidden behind a million facades,
my heart bleeds to no end.
for it's true, you're not so gone

[pnoize]

[i]here's something aspiring writers would want to be part of...[/b]


Call for Submissions: Philippine Speculative Fiction Vol.2
I am now accepting submissions of short fiction pieces for consideration for the anthology "Philippine Speculative Fiction Vol.2". Speculative fiction is the literature of wonder that spans the genres of fantasy, science fiction, horror and magic realism or falls into the cracks in-between.

1. Only works of speculative fiction will be considered for publication. As works of the imagination, the theme is open and free.

2. Stories must cater to an adult sensibility.

3. Stories must be written in English.

4. Stories must be authored by Filipinos or those of Philippine ancestry.

5. Preference will be given to original unpublished stories, but previously published stories will also be considered. In the case of previously published material, kindly include the title of the publishing entity and the publication date.

6. First time authors are welcome to submit. In the initial volume, there was a near 50-50 split of established and new authors.

7. Each author may submit only one story for consideration.

8. Each story’s word count must be no fewer than 3,000 words and no more than 5,000 words.

9. All submissions must be in Rich Text Format (.rtf – save the document as .rft on your word processor) and attached to an email to this address: dean@kestrelimc.com. Submissions received in any other format will be deleted, unread.

10. The subject of your email must read: 2nd Philippine Speculative Fiction Submission: (title) (word count); where (title) is replaced by the title of your short story, without the parentheses, and (word count) is the word count of your story, without the parentheses.

For example - 2nd Philippine Speculative Fiction Submission: The Last Siren 4500.

11. All submissions must be accompanied by a cover letter that includes your name, brief bio, contact information, previous work (if any).

12. Deadline for submissions is September 15, 2006. After that date, final choices will be made and letters of acceptance or regret sent out via email.

13. Target publishing date is December 2006/January 2007.

14. Compensation for selected stories will be 2 contributor’s copies of the published anthology.

Dean Francis Alfar, editor

[boredtosanity]

Hi.. uhm, question lang unta. I remember nga naay gipost diri about ideas of having a Writing Workshop sometime, somewhere. Will that push through ba?

[diem]

The Bridport Arts Centre in Dorset has issued a call for entries to the richest open writing competition in the English language!

Up for grabs are GBP 5,000 for a short story (up to 5000 words) or a poem (42 lines). Second prizes are GBP 1000 each, and third prize for each category is GBP 500.

Anyone can enter, so long as the work is unpublished. Entries must be in English, typewritten, single-sided, with pages numbered and securely fastened. Stories should be double-spaced. Entries must not show any name, address, nor identifying marks other than the title. All details should be on the entry form.

Submit to the British Council office, 10th floor Taipan Place, Emerald Avenue, Ortigas Centre, Pasig on
or before May 15. Entries will not be returned, and no corrections may be made after the receipt. Entry fees
for qualifying works from the Philippines will be covered by the British Council.

Worldwide copyright of each entry remains with the author, but the Bridport Prize will have unrestricted right to publish the winning poems and stories, including runners-up in their annual anthology. No competitor may win more than one prize in each category.

Grand Prize winners in the worldwide competition will be notified in writing by the beginning of October, 2006. Prizes will be awarded on November 18 during the Bridport Literary Festival.

The winning stories and those shortlisted will be read by leading London literary agents with a view to representing writers. The top 26 stories and poems will be published in the 2006 Bridport Anthology. The top 13 stories will be submitted further to the National Short Story Prize, worth GBP 15K, and the top 4 poems to the Forward Prize.

The Bridport Prize has been the first step in the careers of established poets and novelists such as Kate Atkinson, Tobias Hill, Helen Dunmore, and Carol Ann Duffy. It has been a yearly opportunity for writers since 1973.

For details, contact 914 1011 to 14.

[enlighten]

hi i just join this thread seems to me there are lots of talented writer here...well I like to write but still it's a hobby and usually poetries...I have a website if you like to see some of my work -- Http://way.to/poet -- you can tell me your comments on my guestbook if you like...[br]Posted on: May 06, 2006, 10:19:09 PM_________________________________________________h i i just join this thread seems to me there are lots of talented writer here...well I like to write but still it's a hobby and usually poetries...I have a website if you like to see some of my work -- Http://way.to/poet -- you can tell me your comments on my guestbook if you like...

[Von!-x]

writing short stories used to be a hobby. i still have my list of titles and topics waiting to be written by me. my mother burned all me previous fiction works coz she thought i no longer need them. I wrote them between 1988-1990. ah sayang! But i will write again one day.