Three-Day Novel Contest

Last updated

The Three-Day Novel Contest is an annual Canadian literary contest conducted in September of each year. [1] The contest, which is open to writers from anywhere in the world, gives entrants three days to write a novel. Writers are permitted to plan and outline their novel in advance, but the actual writing cannot begin until the contest's opening date, which is traditionally on Labour Day weekend. [2]

Contents

The entries are then judged by a panel, which announces its winning selection early in the following year, and the winning novel is published by a Canadian independent publisher.

The contest began in a Vancouver bar in 1977, where a handful of writers sat around bragging about their literary prowess. The tough-talk eventually led to a challenge: Go home and write an entire novel in three days. None of them managed to produce a book that first year, but the next Labour Day weekend the challenge was thrown down again, to an even larger group. The challenge was repeated the following year—and this time it produced a novel worth publishing: Dr. Tin by Toronto playwright Tom Walmsley. From that point forward, a small publishing house named Arsenal Pulp Press ran the contest, took it international, and published one winner every year.

In the late 1980s, Arsenal Pulp passed the torch to Anvil Press, which, 15 years later, passed it on to another small press. That publisher folded the same year, which seemed to mean the end of the contest. But a couple of fans of the Three-Day Novel agreed to rescue it; they put in hundreds of volunteer hours to set it up and manage it as an independent organization, which they maintained for nine years. In 2013, they passed on management of the contest to the Geist Foundation and the job of publishing the winning novel to Anvil Press.

In 2006, the Three-Day Novel Contest became the subject of a reality television program under the auspices of BookTelevision, a Canadian specialty channel produced by CHUM Limited. Twelve writers lived and worked in Chapters Southpoint, a bookstore in Edmonton, Alberta, composing novels before bemused customers and a national audience. [3]

About five to six hundred writers enter the contest every year, about two-thirds of whom manage to complete and submit a novel. To date, the contest has had two repeat winners: Bradley Harris, a writer from Memphis, Tennessee, won in 1998 with Ruby Ruby and again in 2012 with Thorazine Beach, while Shannon Mullally was co-winner with Meghan Austin in 2004 for Love Block and won as a solo writer in 2017 for The Second Detective.

One winning novel, Marc Diamond's Momentum, was also a shortlisted finalist for the Books in Canada First Novel Award. [4]

Winners

See also

Related Research Articles

The Hopwood Awards are a major scholarship program at the University of Michigan, founded by Avery Hopwood.

Laurie R. King is an American author best known for her detective fiction.

The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest (BLFC) is a tongue-in-cheek contest, held annually and sponsored by the English Department of San Jose State University in San Jose, California. Entrants are invited "to compose the opening sentence to the worst of all possible novels" – that is, one which is deliberately bad.

World Fantasy Award Literary awards for science fiction or fantasy

The World Fantasy Awards are a set of awards given each year for the best fantasy fiction published during the previous calendar year. Organized and overseen by the World Fantasy Convention, the awards are given each year at the eponymous annual convention as the central focus of the event. They were first given in 1975, at the first World Fantasy Convention, and have been awarded annually since. Over the years that the award has been given, the categories presented have changed; currently World Fantasy Awards are given in five written categories, one category for artists, and four special categories for individuals to honor their general work in the field of fantasy.

Dave Wolverton American speculative fiction writer (1957-2022)

John David Wolverton, better known by his pen names Dave Wolverton and David Farland, was an American author, editor, and instructor of online writing workshops, and groups. He wrote in several genres but was known best for his science fiction and fantasy works. Books in his Runelords series have hit the New York Times bestsellers list.

<i>Yale Series of Younger Poets</i>

The Yale Series of Younger Poets is an annual event of Yale University Press aiming to publish the debut collection of a promising American poet. Established in 1918, the Younger Poets Prize is the longest-running annual literary award in the United States.

Shannon Hale American author (born 1974)

Shannon Hale is an American author primarily of young adult fantasy, including the Newbery Honor book Princess Academy and The Goose Girl. Her first novel for adults, Austenland, was adapted into a film in 2013. She is a graduate of the University of Utah and the University of Montana. She has also co-written with her husband, Dean.

John Scalzi American science fiction writer

John Michael Scalzi II is an American science fiction author and former president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. He is best known for his Old Man's War series, three novels of which have been nominated for the Hugo Award, and for his blog Whatever, where he has written on a number of topics since 1998. He won the Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer in 2008 based predominantly on that blog, which he has also used for several charity drives. His novel Redshirts won the 2013 Hugo Award for Best Novel. He has written non-fiction books and columns on diverse topics such as finance, video games, films, astronomy, writing and politics, and served as a creative consultant for the TV series Stargate Universe.

James Bradley is an Australian novelist and critic. Born in Adelaide, South Australia, he trained as a lawyer before becoming a writer.

Geoffrey Miller, is an English former cricketer, who played in 34 Test matches and 25 One Day Internationals for the England cricket team between 1976 and 1984. He played for Derbyshire from 1973 to 1986, captaining the side from 1979 to 1981, and returned in 1990 after playing for Essex between 1987 and 1989. He was an England selector from 2008 to 2013 and was appointed President of Derbyshire C.C.C. in March 2014.

Keith Maillard Canadian writer

Keith Maillard is a Canadian-American novelist, poet, and professor of creative writing at the University of British Columbia. He moved to Canada in 1970 and became a Canadian citizen in 1976.

Michael Peter Scott is an Irish writer of science fiction, fantasy, horror and, under the name Anna Dillon, romance novels. He is also a collector and editor of folklore. Scott is best known for his The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel book series.

Tom Walmsley is a Canadian playwright, novelist, poet and screenwriter.

Ginn Hale is an American writer of speculative fiction.

Daniel Allen Cox is a Canadian author and screenwriter. Cox's novels Shuck and Krakow Melt were both finalists for the Lambda Literary Award and the ReLit Award.

The Malahat Review is a Canadian quarterly literary magazine established in 1967. It features contemporary Canadian and international works of poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction as well as reviews of recently published Canadian literature. Iain Higgins is the current editor.

M.A.C. Farrant is a Canadian short fiction writer, memoirist, journalist, and humorist. She lives in North Saanich, BC.

Alan Bradley is a Canadian mystery writer known for his Flavia de Luce series, which began with the acclaimed The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie.

J. Jill Robinson Canadian writer, editor and teacher (born 1955)

Jacqueline Jill Robinson is a Canadian writer, editor and teacher. She is the author of a novel and four collections of short stories. Her fiction and creative nonfiction have appeared in a wide variety of magazines and literary journals including Geist, the Antigonish Review, Event, Prairie Fire and the Windsor Review. Her novel, More In Anger, published in 2012, tells the stories of three generations of mothers and daughters who bear the emotional scars of loveless marriages, corrosive anger and misogyny.

Kayt Burgess is a Canadian writer, who won the Three-Day Novel Contest in 2011 for her debut novel Heidegger Stairwell. Published by Arsenal Pulp Press in 2012, the novel was subsequently a shortlisted nominee for the 2013 ReLit Award in the fiction category. She was also a finalist in the 2012 Three-Day Novel Contest, but did not win, for the not-yet-published novel Fauvel.

References

  1. ↑ "Three-day novel contest returns". Winnipeg Free Press , August 26, 2017.
  2. ↑ "Contest challenges writers". Penticton Western News, August 26, 2010.
  3. ↑ "City writer wins novel marathon". Edmonton Journal , March 26, 2007.
  4. ↑ "Short list announced for first novel award". The Globe and Mail , March 12, 1987.
  5. ↑ "Contest winner gives insight into how to write a novel in three days". Ottawa Citizen , August 27, 1986.
  6. ↑ "Black mood turns rosy for writer". Vancouver Sun , November 12, 1987.
  7. ↑ "Author met deadline by skin of her teeth". Victoria Times-Colonist , September 10, 2000.
  8. ↑ Jim Bartley, "Why must I be a teenager in lust?" The Globe and Mail , August 4, 2007.
  9. ↑ "Writer wins contest to pen novel in 3 days". Daily Gleaner , January 16, 2008.
  10. ↑ "34th annual 3-Day International Novel Contest winner Kayt Burgess not daunted by deadlines". Sault Star , October 4, 2012.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.