Calling All Writers and Want-to-be Writers!

English PEN and Arvon join together to give you a chance to win a place on an Arvon creative writing week! 

For this year’s Arvon brochure competition, English PEN has teamed up with the UK’s leading creative writing charity to run a competition called Made-Up Words.

We’re giving you the chance to win a full place on an Arvon course at one of the three English Arvon centres, plus travel to the Arvon house (the equivalent of a second class train ticket within the UK). Arvon run an exciting and broad range of courses for writers at all stages.

How To Enter

All you need to do is write a poem (maximum 14 lines) or a piece of flash fiction (maximum 100 words) with a title that is a made-up word. 

Submit your entry in the body of an email (no attachments, thank you!) to competition@englishpen.org by midnight 29th March 2013. Any entries that come in at any time on 30th March 2013 onwards will not be submitted.

Good luck with your entry! You may only submit one entry and you may not alter or amend the entry once it’s been sent. See http://www.englishpen.org/made-up-words/www.englishpen.org/made-up-words for further terms and conditions.

What’s a Made-Up Word?

All words, in a way, are made up, and we want you to feel as free as possible, but you might also be interested in exploring words that people make up and use in their families and friendships (think of Paul Muldoon’s poem Quoof, his family’s strange word for a hot water bottle) or nonsense words (think of Lewis Carroll’s Jabberwocky) or perhaps combinations from words of other languages, or onomatopoeic words, or words that are somewhere between sound and sense, or… Good luck exploring your own Made-Up Words!

Judge

Writer Femi Martin is the judge of the competition.  Femi is a writer and performer who is best known for her flash fiction. She was appointed the Dickens 2012 Young Writer in Residence.

Be Inspired!

Femi Martin – the judge – has written some inspiring words for you to help you come up with your entry! Have a read and get writing!

Competition Partner

Made-Up Words is part of europolyglot, an English PEN festival of events, workshops, night classes and roundtables that celebrates multilingualism and active ageing in the UK, in partnership with the European Commission Representation in the United Kingdom.