The Prime Minister's Literary Awards celebrate the contribution of Australian literature to the nation's cultural and intellectual life.

The awards, held annually, recognise literature's importance to our national identity, community and economy. A tax free prize of $100,000 is awarded to the works judged to be of the highest literary merit in each of two categories: fiction and non-fiction.

Entries are due by 5.00pm, Friday 20 March 2009.

Visit http://www.arts.gov.au/books/pmliteraryawards for full details

Jane Austen Short Story Award 2009

…the competition that celebrates the bicentenary of Jane Austen’s arrival in the Hampshire village of Chawton – where she spent the most productive years of her literary life.

Our intention is to publish the very best short fiction inspired by Jane Austen or Chawton House – a place she knew well.

We are looking for short stories of 2,000-2,500 words in length. The inspiration for your story can be taken from any theme in Jane Austen’s novels: it might even be a character or a single sentence that sets your creative juices flowing. Or perhaps your imagination will be fired by the Elizabethan mansion, Chawton House, where Jane Austen and her family often gathered, and now houses a rare collection of early women’s writing.

Stories can have a historical or a contemporary setting – anything goes as long as it is well written and you state on the entry form exactly what inspired you to write it.

First prize: £1,000. Two runners up: £200 each. All three finalists will also win a week’s writers’ retreat at Chawton House. Fifteen other shortlisted authors will receive £40 plus publication in the winners’ anthology.

The closing date for entries is the 31st March 2009.

Visit http://www.chawton.org/news/competition.html for full details.

Bristol Short Story Prize
An annual competition, open to writers everywhere. Stories can be submitted online or by post. Maximum number of words is 3,000. Entry fee: £7.
20 stories will be shortlisted and published in the 2009 Bristol Short Story Prize Anthology. Cash prizes- 1st £500 plus £150 Waterstone's gift card; 2nd £350 plus £100 Waterstone's gift card; 3rd £200 plus £100 Waterstone's gift card. Closing date: 31 March 2009

For more information, visit www.bristolprize.co.uk/

Diversity House International Poetry Competition 2009

Poems may be on any subject, though there is a maximum 40 lines per poem
Entry Fees: £3.00 per poem or £12.00 for 5 poems. (£1.00 from every single entry and £4.00 from every multi-poem entry will be donated to Diversity House)
First Prize: £150.00, Second Prize: £75.00, Third Prize: £35.00
Highly Commended Entries: Subject to the quality of entries, if the judge finds 48 to 64 poems of high enough quality, then we shall publish them as an anthology edited by Geoff Stevens (Editor, Purple Patch magazine) and Nnorom Azuonye (Editor, Sentinel Literary Quarterly)

Entry deadline: 31st March 2009 (Results due: 5th May 2009)