Name: Zeenat Haroon Rashid Writing Prize for Women
Category: Non-fiction writing
Word count: Maximum of 3000 words
Entry fee: Free for eligible writers
Prize: Rs.100,000
Closing date: June 30, 2020.
Submission is now open for the 2020 Zeenat Haroon Rashid Writing Prize for Women. The theme of this year’s contest is WOMEN AND PAKISTAN. Submission should be NON-FICTION WRITING in the form of memoir, biography or narrative or polemical essay. All entries must be original, unpublished works of no more than 3000 words.
ELIGIBILITY
The Competition is open to all women over the age of 18 of Pakistani nationality or Pakistani heritage with a valid CNIC, NICOP or Pakistani passport. Both published and unpublished writers can enter the contest. However, writers who are the family member, relative or close associate of Zeenat Haroon Rashid are not allowed to enter the contest. No previous competition winner may enter for two years subsequent to her win. A submission that has been long-listed for the ZHR Prize in any year may not be re-submitted in a subsequent year.
THEME, GENRE AND LENGTH
The theme of the competition is WOMEN AND PAKISTAN but your submission should have its own original TITLE. The genre for 2020 is NON-FICTION. Entries should be prose writing in the form of memoir, biography, or narrative or polemical essay. No short stories are permissible this year. Entries must be in English and be no more than 3000 words in length.
ORIGINAL
The submission must be the individual and original work of a sole author which has not previously been broadcast or published, in print or online. The submitted work may not be a winning or shortlisted work in any other competition or a translation or re-working of a previously published piece by the author or another author’s work. By submitting an entry you are confirming that the work is your own. Any evidence to the contrary will result in immediate disqualification and a permanent ban on the offending author for future competitions.
SUBMISSION OF ENTRIES
- The opening date for submission of entries is APRIL 1, 2020 and closing date is JUNE 30, 2020. Entries submitted outside these dates will not be considered.
- Only one submission per person is permitted.
- No pre-registration is required and there is no entry fee.
- Entries must be submitted via email only to [email protected]
- The submitted work should be a file attached to an email and the FILENAME OF THE ATTACHMENT MUST BE THE TITLE OF THE ENTRY.
- The subject heading in the email should be the ORIGINAL TITLE of the submitted work.
- The email must contain your NAME, DATE OF BIRTH, CURRENT POSTAL ADDRESS, CONTACT TELEPHONE NUMBER and CNIC, NICOP or PASSPORT NUMBER (do not send scans of these documents). Please ensure the accuracy of your personal details. If your current postal addresses not match your ID document, you will be asked to provide proof of residence should your entry be considered for the Longlist.
- Because the judging is “blind”, entrants should ensure that personal details are not visible on the document containing the work itself.
FORMAT
- The submitted work should be a separate file attached to an email. The file extensions must be either .doc, .docx, or .txt file. PHOTO OR SCAN FORMATS SUCH AS JPEGS AND PDFS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED. Please do not embellish the title page or text with illustrations or graphics of any kind.
- Black 12pt. font of any standard typeface should be used.
- The submitted work should have a TITLE PAGE on which the CATEGORY ( memoir, biography, narrative essay or polemic) is specified and a total WORD-COUNT noted. Please note that poetry will not be accepted. DO NOT PUT YOUR NAME OR ANY IDENTIFYING MARKS ON THE MANUSCRIPT
JUDGING
Experienced readers will choose submissions for a longlist from amongst all valid entries. The longlist will be considered by a panel of judges drawn from professional writers, editors and publishers. The judging panel will then decide a shortlist of 6 submissions from which they will select the winner. All decisions made by the judges are final and no correspondence will be entered into.
PRIZE
The ZHR Writing Prize for Women will award a cash prize of Rs.100,000 ( One Hundred Thousand Rupees) to the winner of the competition.
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