Rain Never Stops Play

A summer short story competition from Creative Tourist and Rainy City Stories

‘If you look hard enough, you can find romance and mystery and dark undercurrents everywhere in life,’ the author Jonathan Coe said recently, and this seems especially apt to us when considering writing set in cities. The city is the ultimate microcosm, a collection of souls whose experiences and views and memories of their shared home are infinitely varied and individual.

We love cities (especially our famously wet Manchester, but really, all cities.) We love good writing. So to celebrate great urban writing, Creative Tourist and Rainy City Stories have teamed up to launch a new short story competition, Rain Never Stops Play.

We’re looking for great tales from the city. By this we mean stories that encapsulate some of the romance or the horror, the daily drudgery or the surreal moments, the beauty or the decay of modern urban life. Stories should be contemporary or set within the last ten years, and should provide a detailed snapshot of city life. Rather than just being the place the action happens, the city must be fully present in the story, almost having the same stature as another character. We want to walk the streets with your characters, see what they see, hear what they hear – be transported there.

The competition is open to anyone, from any city. We will be selecting one Manchester winner and one winner from elsewhere. The winning stories will be published on Creative Tourist and Rainy City Stories, and the winners will receive a cash prize of £100 and tickets to some very special events at this year’s Manchester Literature Festival (we have to keep these under wraps until the programme is officially announced  but we promise you’ll love them).

The stories will be selected by a judging panel including author Jenn Ashworth, poet John McAuliffe of The University of Manchester’s Centre for New Writing, Creative Tourist editor Susie Stubbs and Rainy City Stories editor Kate Feld… and you.  In July, Creative Tourist will publish the first 500 words of a shortlist of six and open the shortlist up to a public vote (the vote will count as 40% towards the selection of the final winner). The final winners will be announced on 2 August.

Some more important details: the competition is open to all writers, both published and non-published, but the story entered must not have been published previously, either in print or online. Please note that all stories must be 3,000 words or less, longer entries will not be considered, and please only send in one entry per person.

To enter, email your story as an attached word document to info@creativetourist.com. Please put ‘Rain Never Stops Play’ in the subject line. Please specify where your story is set, and include your full name, place of residence and a 2-3 sentence biography, including any relevant blogs or website links. Please make sure we have your contact details, including a telephone number. This competition is now closed for entries. We’ll be announcing details of the shortlist soon. Terms and conditions apply (see below).

Terms and Conditions

1. This competition is not open to employees of Manchester Museums Consortium and its nine associated venues; Marketing Manchester, Visit Manchester or any agency or company connected with this competition or family members of employees of these organisations.

2. Only one entry per person.

3. No prize alternative is available. Prize is non-transferable, non-refundable and non-changeable. Our decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.

4. The competition will be closed at 6pm on Friday 2 July 2010. Any entries received after this date will not be entered into the prize draw.

5. Entrants acknowledge that their entries may be released or displayed to the public by Manchester Museums Consortium/Creative Tourist, Rainy City Stories and/or or any agency connected with the competition and assign all rights necessary for promotion and publication of such entries to Manchester Museums Consortium/ Creative Tourist. Winners agree to grant Manchester Museums Consortium/ Creative Tourist or any agency connected with the competition the right to use their name and likeness and excerpts from their story for advertising and publicity purposes without any additional compensation.

6. The winning Manchester story will be published on Rainy City Stories and both the winning Manchester and non-Manchester story will be published on Creative Tourist. By entering you agree to allow Manchester Museums Consortium/Creative Tourist and Rainy City Stories to publish in full your competition entry. Excerpts from six entries will also be published on Creative Tourist and opened up to a public vote and by entering the competition you agree to allow Manchester Museums Consortium/Creative Tourist.

7. Copyright for all entries remains with the author(s).

8. The competition shall be governed by the laws of England and Wales.

9.These terms and conditions do not confer any rights to any third parties under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999