The James White Award is a competition for original short stories of not more than 6,000 words by non-professional writers. The closing date for entries to the 2009 competition is February 28, 2010. The winner will be announced at Eastercon 2010.

Who may enter

• This aim of the competition is to highlight new writers. It is open to writers of any age and nationality, but it is not open to professional authors.
• For the purposes of this competition a “professional author” is defined as one who is eligible for active membership of the Science Fiction Writers of America – that is a writer with three short story sales to qualifying markets or one novel sale to a qualifying market.
• A full list of qualifying markets can be found at the SFWA website.

The story

• Stories must be in English, and must be less than 6,000 words in length. Stories over 6,000 words will be disqualified.
• Submissions must be original – they should be the sole work of the author/s in whose name they are submitted – and should not have previously appeared in any publication – in any language or format.
• Stories should be Science Fiction (though we will take a broad definition of what that term means).
• Stories may not have been entered in The James White Award in any previous year.
• Stories may not feature characters/locations/ etc. that are part of other copyrighted works – i.e. nothing set in the universes of Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate etc.

Submitting your story

• For details on how to enter the competition, see the How to Enter page. Failure to comply with those details may see your entry disqualified.
• Each story must be accompanied by a completed entry form.
• Online entries must be accompanied by a completed online form.
• Mailed stories should include a paper copy of the Entry Form (which can be downloaded on the How to Enter page) paper clipped to each individual story.

Formatting your manuscript

• Manuscripts should be set in a plain, easy to read font (Courier, Times, Arial).
• If you are sending a printed copy, please print on one side of the paper only, double space the text, leave a sensible margin around the text on all sides (around 2.5cm) and indent the first line of each paragraph.
• More advice on sensible manuscript formatting can be found on our writers’ guidelines page.
• Do not put your name anywhere on you manuscript.
• The James White Award is judged anonymously, only the administrator knows the identity of the writers of each story.
• Your name should only appear on the entry form.
• Each page of the story should have a header containing the story title and page number. The author’s name should NOT appear on the page header.
• Please end your story with ‘The End’.

Administration

• An administration fee is required for every story entered. The fee for the 2009 competition is £5.00Stg/€6.00/US$8.00 per story
• The only exception to this rule is for BSFA members who are entitled to enter ONE story for free in each annual competition.
• The closing date for submissions is midnight on February 28, 2010.
• The competition administrator reserves the right to disqualify a story should it fail to meet the above criteria. If this occurs the entry fee will be lost. However, the administrator may instead decide to request the author to re-submit a story.
• Shortlisted authors will be informed when the shortlist has been agreed.
• When the shortlist has been agreed a statement will be made on this website. Stories that have not been successfully shortlisted should then be considered released for submission elsewhere.
• The 2009 James White Award will be presented at Eastercon 2010 as part of the BSFA Awards. Entrants are welcome to attend the award ceremony, but travel to the ceremony and any costs incurred are the sole responsibility of entrants.
• The competition administrator reserves the right to refuse to accept or disqualify any submission: in such a case, the administrator will inform the author as soon as possible, giving the reason for refusal or disqualification.
• The decisions of the judges are final.
• The judges may decide not to award the prize if in their opinion there is no entrant of sufficient quality.
• After the competition has ended, details of the shortlist and the winning entry will be published on the website.
• Any tax liability resulting from the prize is the sole responsibility of the winner.
• We regret that manuscripts cannot be returned after the judging. Please keep a copy.

If anything is unclear, or if you have any questions, please use the contact form for further information.