Cairo Book Fair
22 January - 5 February. The British Council in Cairo accepted an invitation from the General Egyptian Book Organisation (GEBO) for the UK to be guest of honour at the 2009 Cairo International Book Fair. Working with the London Book Fair, The Publishers Association, Independent Publishers Guild and other organisations a wide range of activities will take place during the two-week event. These will fall into three categories: Reader Development, Professional Development for Publishers and Writers and their work. The British Council has invited 10 authors from the UK to deliver a programme of lectures, book signings and so forth at the fair and other venues around Egypt. Visit http://www.publishers.org.uk/filemanager/root/site_assets/book_fairs/CairoBookFair2009-Circular2.pdf for full details.


Kolkata International Book Fair, Kolkata, India
28 January - 8 February 2009 Visit http://www.kolkatabookfaironline.com/ for full details

2009 American Library Association Midwinter
Denver, CO-January 23-January 26, 2009 Visit http://combinedbook.com/ for full details

Hong Kong International Antiquarian Book Fair
Saturday January 17th, 2009 - Monday January 19th, 2009
Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre
Wan Chai North, Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong
Contact > admin@hongkongantiquarianbookfair.com
Internet > http://www.hongkongantiquarianbookfair.com/

The Arts Centre and Myer Presents Bowl Memories Competition

"February 2009 marks the 50th anniversary of the Sidney Myer Music Bowl.

To celebrate this milestone, the Arts Centre is now seeking stories, photos, videos, posters and other memorabilia you might have about the bowl.

Did you have your first kiss at the Bowl? Do you remember being there when it first opened in 1959? Did one of the bands in the 1970’s inspire you to do something special? Have you got a rare signed poster that no one else has ever seen?

We’re going to use the stories and images during the festivities in February to support the celebration. If we get enough we might do a book about it.

We’re looking for stories, photos and video footage, artwork and memorabilia items.

The Bowl Memories Competition is open from now to close of business (EST) 28 January. All submissions must be received via website, phone or post by this time to be eligible for the competition.

The entries will be judged by curators of the Arts Centre Performing Arts Collection, a representative of the Myer Foundation during the week commencing 2 February".

See http://theartscentre.com.au/bowlmemories/ for full details

Times Are Tough

Droubble/Drabble Writing Competition

Deadline: January 15, 2009:

Take a look at the picture on site.

It is of a homeless man leaning against a storefront during the Great Depression. Write about this man and the picture. What is he doing there? Where is he? Who is he? Why is he there? Why is he homeless? These are some of the questions open to exploration.

We'll be awarding two $100 prizes. One for the best Droubble and the other for the best Drabble.

Per Wikipedia: "A drabble is an extremely short work of fiction exactly one hundred words in length, although the term is often misused to indicate a short story of less than 1000 words. The purpose of the drabble is brevity and to test the author's ability to express interesting and meaningful ideas in an extremely confined space. Richard N. Hill recently coined the phrase "dribble" to describe a story that is only 50 words. Michael Kent of The Next Big Writer added "droubble" for a double drabble, a story in exactly 200 words."

To enter: Posting your writing story anytime during the Contest period. The Drabble submission must include the tags Tough Drabble (entered as tough_drabble) while the Droubble must include the tags Tough Droubble (entered as tough_droubble)..

Deadline: 11:59 PM ET on January 15, 2009

Awards:

• $100 to the best Droubble.
• $100 to the best Drabble.

See http://www.thenextbigwriter.com/competition/index.html for full details

BrevityThing: fiction in 250 words or less.

The January 2009 competition topic is: TOWN AND COUNTRY - feel free to interpret that as widely as you like.

The winner and runners-up will have their work featured on the site. There's a first prize of £50. Entries are £2.50 (via PayPal below).

We're not bandits, so all work will remain copyright of the author, though competition entry will be taken as granting BrevityThing first electronic publication rights, and we may ask if the work be made available for future BrevityThing anthologies.

Submit your entries: to competitions AT brevitything.co.uk by the end of the month (31st Jan 2009).

Make sure you include:

a) The entry itself - either in the email body (this is preferable) OR as an attachment in .doc, .rtf or .pdf format.
b) The name you'd like to be known by.
c) Your preferred contact details.
d) Entries fees are £2.50 per piece of flash fiction (up to a maximum of five stories per month). Use the PayPal button below to send your entry fee.

See http://www.brevitything.co.uk/competitions.html for full details