Minds Shine Bright

Minds Shine Bright acknowledges the Yalukit-Willam clan of the Boon Warring people of the Kulin nations, theTraditional Custodians of the land where we live and work and where this website was made. We pay respects to their long history and culture, and their Elders, past, present and emerging.

Winners announced

The winners of the Minds Shine Bright CONFIDENCE writing competition have been announced. Helen Booth from Anglesea, Victoria, Australia was the overall winner for her short story Drift

There were four category winners. The winner of the Poetry prize was Valerie Wallace from Michigan City in Indiana, US for Carnelvarium. Dan Micklethwaite from Yorkshire, Great Britain won the Short Story prize for Blackpool Solo. The winner of the Flash fiction prize was Kathryn Le Mon from Columbus, Ohio for When I am the Wolf  and Grace Keller from Dallas, Texas was the winner of the Script prize for The Last Ten Seconds. You can view the full list of winners, the shortlist of 35 commended writers and poets and the Longlist here.

Keep up to date by checking our latest news and events

What is Minds Shine Bright?

Minds Shine Bright is an arts business based in Melbourne Australia committed to supporting the arts and writers. We run two fiction writing competitions; Minds Shine Bright Confidence, a longitudinal look at the theme confidence in fiction and poetry, and Seasons a competition with a changing external theme.

We also publish anthologies. Confidence, Minds Shine Bright Anthology 2022 was our first publication. After couple of topsy turvy years forty-six writers from eight countries explore the confidence theme in stories, script and poems. It was launched at the Wheeler Centre in Melbourne.

Storm Minds Shine Bright Seasons 1 2023 is now available after being launched progressively across Australia starting with a tour to Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane and South Gippsland in Victoria. This collection will please lovers of stormy people, places and animals.

We are always looking for new ways to connect with readers, place our books into bookshops and libraries and places where book lovers gather. and to build our following of readers and writers.

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You can purchase Minds Shine Bright anthologies at the Minds Shine Bright bookshop or at bookstores that support independent publishers and stock Ingram books.

If you prefer to borrow you can request that your local library order a copy in. The ISBN for CONFIDENCE Minds Shine Bright Anthology 2022 is 978-0-6455231-0-2 and for STORM Minds Shine Bright Seasons 1 2023 is 978-0-6455231-2-6.

MSB Writing Competitions

Minds Shine Bright holds one writing competition per year which opens in August and closes in March, alternating between our Seasons and Confidence writing competitions. The entry form for our next Confidence writing competition will be published here in August.

Seasons writing competition

The Seasons writing competition has a changing theme that relates to the external world, and imagined worlds. This competition has smaller prizes, smaller word limits and focuses on a smaller set of writers. Our first two competitions themes were Storm and Light and Shadow.

The Storm Anthology, featuring the winning and commended entries from the first Seasons writing competition is available now. The Light and Shadow writing competition has now closed, and a new Seasons anthology Light and Shadow will be published later this year.

Prizes

All prizes are awarded on literary merit. Cash prizes will be paid in Australian dollar value. A first prize of $500 will be awarded to the most outstanding piece of fiction or poetry overall. Second prize will receive $400, third prize will receive $300, fourth prize will receive $200.  Commended entries will be awarded $100 each.

Winning and commended entries will form the competition Shortlist and shortlisted entries will be published in a Minds Shine Bright Seasons series anthology. Each winning and commended entry author  will receive a print copy and e-book of the  anthology.

Longlisted entries will each receive Minds Shine Bright e-certificates of merit. Ten further entries will be awarded certificates of recognition and a small gift featuring the embroidered Minds Shine Bright logo.

Terms and Conditions

Each entry must be original, unpublished fiction or poetry written by the submitting author and included the theme in some way. No brand references are allowed. The word limit for each entry is 2500 words.

Please read the full list of terms and conditions on the Seasons Terms and Conditions page.

Confidence writing competition

Minds Shine Bright Confidence writing competition aims to captures and share how fiction writers explore the theme of confidence over time. There are four categories including short stories, poetry, flash fiction and short scripts. The competition is blind judged, entries are assessed against ten criteria and there are many entries so the judging process takes several months. Once judging is complete there is an online Awards Event and once the anthology is curated, edited and designed and published there is a celebratory launch.

As writers discover and explore different elements and layers of the confidence theme we look forward to seeing how the series of Confidence anthologies evolves and what we can learn from it about our times, trends in contemporary writing and ourselves.

Confidence 2024/25 is planned to open in August 2024 and to close in March 2025.

Prizes

In 2023 we increased our prize pool for the Confidence Writing Competition to support our aim of paying writers fairly for their work. All prizes are shown in Australian dollars. International entries are welcomed.

$1600 – The overall winner, plus publication in Confidence Minds Shine Bright Anthology 2023

$800 – awarded to each of the four category winners plus publication in Confidence Minds Shine Bright Anthology 2023 (The overall winner is excluded from all other prizes) Categories include short stories, short scripts, flash fiction and poetry. If there are insufficient entries for one of the categories then only three category winners will be selected.

$175 – for each commended entry plus publication in Confidence Minds Shine Bright Anthology 2023

15 certificates of recognition and gifts will be sent to writers whose creativity shone in some way.

Terms and Conditions

Each entry must be original, unpublished fiction or poetry written by the submitting author and included the theme of confidence in some way.Please read the full list of terms and conditions on the Terms and Conditions Page.