ST. CLEMENTS SHORT STORY COMPETITION

The popular Mondays at St. Clements programme has introduced a Short Story Competition comprising 100 words or less.

“In celebration of the shortest day of the year, which falls on June 21, Mondays at St. Clements is celebrating National Short Story Day,” explains founder member, Pieter Scholtz. “We follow the lead of a UK-wide celebration with the same name, an initiative aimed at promoting fiction in its succinct form, focusing on South African writing that lends itself to this tradition.

“James Parker, an innovative member of our breakfast club, wrote recently from England: ‘There was a competition here in England recently, in which writers had to compose a story in one hundred words or less. I think the narrative and style of each is perfect. The third story has a poignancy that is emotionally evocative. The fourth story has a simplistic style of a child, which opens one up to the humour of the last line. They each demonstrate how a reader can be drawn in, and some significant history of a character can be revealed succinctly. The technique of having a little twist at the end also works well.’

“Not only shall we read the four stories he attached,” continues Pieter Scholtz, “but also all the stories submitted for our own short story competition (one hundred words or less)”

The short stories need to be a maximum length 100 words (virtually two or three short paragraphs) and entries by email should be submitted to kwasuka1@mweb.co.za The entries need to state the author’s name and wordcount and typed in Times New Roman, 14 pt. The stories will be adjudicated by Kobus Moolman and authors’ names will be deleted for adjudication. The author of the winning story will receive a presentation box of Wildekrans Estate wine

St Clements is situated at 191 Musgrave Road on the righthand side a short way down Musgrave after the St Thomas Road intersection. Mondays at Seven run between 19h00 and 20h00. Booking is advised on 031 202 2511. There is no cover charge but there is a donations box to support presenters