Maskew Miller Longman Children's Literature Awards for all 11 official South African languages

Maskew Miller Longman invites you to submit your unpublished and original children's stories and illustrations for children. Entries will be judged by children's literature experts in each of our 11 official languages.

More than R100 000 in total prize-money to be won!

Closing date: 30 April 2009

2009 Award Criteria

Entries are invited in two categories:

• Category 1: Children's story
• Category 2: Illustration for children's story

An official entry form MUST accompany all entries.

Prizes:

R7 500 will be awarded to the story winner in each language and to the illustration winner. There will also be a runners-up prize of R3 500.

Category 1: Children's story

• The stories should appeal to South African children aged 9 to 13.
• The length of the stories submitted should be between 4000 and 18000 words.
• Established and new writers may submit original manuscripts in any of the eleven South African official languages.
• The work submitted should be original, unpublished and untranslated from any published material.
• The winning entry in each language category will be published by Maskew Miller Longman. Non-winning entries may also qualify for publication.

Category 2: Illustration for children's story

• Entries should consist of at least 2 full colour illustrations of one A4 page each. The illustrations should appeal to South African children aged 9 to 13. They should illustrate the following scenes:
• Picture 1: An African boy and girl, around 10 years old, are collecting wood in the bush. They have a pile of wood in a wheelbarrow, and their small dog is with them. There are dark clouds building up in the sky.
• Picture 2: Later in the story, there is a big storm. The same two children and their dog are running towards a cave to shelter there during the storm.

Competition rules

• The competition is not open to MML staff members or their immediate families and the judges/screeners of the competition.
• The judges' decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.
• Entrants MUST Be South African citizens or permanent residents.
• Category 1: Manuscripts should be typed on one side of unbound A4 page in double spacing with all pages clearly numbered. E-mail entries will not be accepted. Authors are advised to retain a copy of their manuscript as submitted copies will not be returned.
• Category 2: Original artwork needs to be submitted, I.e no photocopies. The artwork will not be returned.
• No restrictions on the number of entries. An official entry form MUST accompany every entry.

Entry forms are available from the Maskew Miller Longman website and from the Centre for the Book, 62 Queen Victoria Street, Cape Town.

Find form at http://www.mml.co.za/docs/2009LitAwardsForm.pdf

For more information please contact: Brenda Alexander at 021 532 6185 / balexander@mml.co.za