The cycle for the 2018 Nick Joaquin Literary Awards Asia-Pacific is now officially closed. But, like the best of things, the end of one cycle heralds the opening of a fresh cycle.
It is with great pleasure that we announce the opening of the competition cycle for the 2019 NJLA Asia-Pacific.
We said this when we announced this new edition of the Nick Joaquin Literary Awards, and we are saying it again: We seek fresh works from new voices across the region, including Filipinos in the diaspora.
Specifics
The NJLA will accept entries of original poetry and short fiction works in English (written originally in English, or translated into English, with credit given to the translator if the translator is not the author) from member-states of the ASEAN, Australia and New Zealand making up the countries in the NJLA Asia-Pacific.
Expatriate Filipinos residing in these areas may join the Asia-Pacific NJLA, but they must provide proof of residency in these host countries/territories. Writers native to these territories are also encouraged to compete in the Asia-Pacific NJLA.
The works will be published in the Tony & Nick section of the BusinessMirror newspaper and on the website of the BusinessMirror.
The contest secretariat and Literary Editor of both the Philippines Graphic magazine and BusinessMirror will only select for publication works that have not been previously published in any online or print publications—including, but not limited to, periodicals and anthologies.
The cash prizes for the winners of the Asia-Pacific NJLA, given in US dollars, are as follows: $1000 (first prize), $600 (second prize) and $400 (third prize). A single Tony & Nick Poet of the Year will be selected by the panel of judges and the Literary Editor and will receive a cash prize of $1000.
These prizes, and any other prizes the Asia-Pacific NJLA sponsors may see fit to add to the prize pool will be given to the winners during the Asia-Pacific NJLA awards night in the Philippines. The winners and the international judge will be transported to and billeted in Manila prior to the awards night and provided with transport back home, courtesy of the contest sponsors. Any visa requirements for Australia and New Zealand residents will be shouldered by the winners.
The contest period for this cycle of the Asia-Pacific NJLA will cover all works accepted for publication by the Literary Editor from November 4, 2018 to the second week of October 2019.
Submission Guidelines
We prefer works to be submitted via email, to asia-pacific.njla@gmail.com.
Because private messages on social media cycle so fast, we discourage the submission of literary work to us via attachment to a PM over Facebook, or via DMs over Twitter or Google +Hangouts. We would hate to miss your submissions just because they get swamped under other private messages.
We prefer to receive work formatted in MSWord, .txt and .rtf, with the typeface set at 12 points, Times New Roman.
We accept manuscripts of between four to eight 8”X11” pages of double-spaced text.
If their bylines are shorter versions of their full legal names, the authors should also include their full legal names, as appear on their valid government IDs (passports, driver’s licenses, social security IDs), as well as proof of residency in their home or host countries in the information they send along with their literary submissions.
We will accept between one and two poems for publication per submission. Any additional poetry may or may not be accepted for future publication. The Literary Editor will inform the author of this as part of the acceptance email she will send to the author should this be the case.
The literary editor has set a minimum of three months as the interval between multiple submissions by the same author. We do this so that we can give the best exposure to all qualified works by all the authors who send us their best work.