Now that’s surreal! New competition launched

From Certys Limited, which runs the Global Short Story Competition (www.globalshortstories.net

Today, we are launching a highly unusual new free competition, one that is literally surreal.
The competition deals with surreal writing, the ability to produce work that is truly absurd. It offers the chance to see your work in print as well as winning a cash prize.

What on earth, we hear you cry, is surreal writing? Well, it tends to be humorous and was first really seen in the nineteenth century. Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass are excellent examples, using illogical thinking and absurdity for humorous effect. Many of Edward Lear's nonsense stories and poems are also basically surreal in approach.

But why, we also hear you cry, do you want to run a competition like that? Well, the idea has come from Gary Shove, one of our directors here at Certys and a publisher of illustrated books under the imprint of Carpet Bombing Culture. He is sponsoring the competition.

Gary is currently working on a book about the new wave of surreal photography, a form of photography that uses montages and similar techniques, which is due out next year. As well as information about the pictures, Gary also wants to include creative writing on a surreal theme.

The competition is seeking stories of no more than 2,000 words long, which must be surreal in nature. Any selected stories will receive a prize of £100 and will be featured in the book. The competition is free, the deadline is 31st December, 2010 and they can be entered by cutting and pasting them onto the group set up for the purpose at our social networking site globalwriters.net