Grand prize (published books): Five-day staying in Athens plus a special handmade ceramic designed especially for Eyelands Book Awards and publication (excerpts) online on our website.
Grand prize (unpublished books): Translation into Greek and publication from Strange Days Books
Ten more prizes, one for each category of every section, also win a handmade ceramic designed especially for Eyelands Book Awards and a book from Strange Days books!
Certification document for every prize. Online Certification document for every finalist upon request Final results are to be announced on December 30, 2023.
Eyelands gr. & Strange Days Books are glad to announce the
EYELANDS BOOK AWARDS 2023
Grand prize (published books): Five-day staying in Athens plus a special handmade ceramic designed especially for Eyelands Book Awards and publication (excerpts) online on our website.
Alternative prize: (in case of travel restrictions): online ceremony & translation of the prize winner book in Greek
Grand prize (unpublished books): Translation into Greek and publication from Strange Days Books
Ten more prizes, one for each category of every section, also win a handmade ceramic designed especially for Eyelands Book Awards and a book from Strange Days books!
Certification document for every prize. Online Certification document for every finalist upon request Final results are to be announced on December 30, 2023.
Submit your book or manuscript online $35.00 (30 euros)
Early bird submission $ 25 (20 euros) till September 1st, 2023.
Eligible submissions include: poetry, novellas, short story collections, novels, children’s and YA books, historical fiction/memoir, graphic novels.
Multiple submissions allowed.
Early bird submission fee for every additional submission
Simultaneous submissions allowed, but please notify us if full manuscript is accepted elsewhere.
Finalists for every category to be announced on November 20, 2023
Final results are to be announced on Wednesday, December 30, 2023.
There are no restrictions regarding nationality
Participants must be 18 years old otherwise we need parents’ consent to accept the submission.
Manuscripts must be written in English.
There is no restriction about the form or style of writing. We prefer the pages to be numbered. Files should be uploaded as an MS Word document or PDF. Fill the entry form, copy and paste it in the body of your email.
Grand Prize: A five-day holiday in Athens plus a special handmade ceramic designed especially for Eyelands Book Awards and publication (excerpts) online on our website. Eyelands cover all accommodation costs for the award winner. Air tickets not included.
Alternative prize: translation of the prize winnerโs book in Greek
Grand prize (unpublished books): Translation into Greek and publication from Strange Days Books
There will be five finalists for each category.
Five more prizes, one for each category, also win a special handmade ceramic designed especially for Eyelands Book Awards
Certification document for every prize.
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Section: Unpublished books
Grand prize: Translation into Greek and publication from Strange Days Books
Five more prizes, one in each category, also win a special handmade ceramic designed especially for Eyelands Book Awards
All prize winners
A special handmade ceramic designed especially for Eyelands Book Awards
Certification document for every prize plus a book โEnglish edition- from Strange Days books
There will be five finalists for each category.
Online Certification document for every finalist upon demand.
Grand Prize winners will be among the judges at the next EBA 2024
ENTRY FORM
(one entry form per book):
Title:
Author:
Category:
Publisher: (for published books only)
ISBN: (for published books only)
Address:
E-Mail:
AWARD CATEGORIES (select one per entry application):
The following are eligible:
1/Full-length books of fiction (novels or novellas of any genre)
2/Collections of short stories by one author
3/Collected and selected poems
4/Historical fiction – Memoir
5/Childrenโs and YA books – Graphic Novelsย ย ย ย ย ย
The limit is 250.000 words for every category of published books. The limit for unpublished texts is 150.000 words except for poetry category where there is a specific limit in pages.
Any text/poetry collection (up to 250 pages) written by a single author is eligible
Any text/book written by two or more writers is also eligible. In this case, accommodation in Athens will be shared
Click the ยซbuy nowยป button. Fill the description with: EBA
* After the payment is complete, you can send the email with your manuscript as an attachment and the entry form completed, copied and pasted in the body of your email
*An email confirmation that your entry has been received will be sent within three/four days
* We do accept simultaneous submissions
* Every writer can submit more books with the early bird payment fee of $25 for each book
*No fee for prize winners of previous EBA & Eyelands international short story contestsโ but no more than one free submission per person!
* Early bird submission for finalists of Eyelands Book Awards previous contests.
Early bird submissions for writers on a low income
Free submissions for writers from Ukraine!
*All books must have been published between September 20, 2016 and September 20, 2023.
Hardy Griffin, author of Broken Kismet – Grand Prize winner on Eyelands Book Awards 2022, kindly answers to our questions about the prize, his writing career and future plans his memories from Greece and a lot more!
How does it feel to be the grand prize winner of an international books contest, especially when this contest is based in a country far far away from yours? It feels incredible, and Iโm so honored and humbled to have had Broken Kismet chosen. This also motivated me to submit my unpublished novel to literary agentsโIโve already had two ask to read the full manuscript in just one month, which is amazing. Iโm deeply thankful to the Eyelands Book Awards, the judges, Strange Days Press, and the translator, Gregory Papadoyiannis!
How did you hear about the contest? Through the Literistic.com newsletterโthe Eyelands Book Awards were a featured contest in October, 2022.
When did you start writing? My mother is a poet and as far back as I can remember we played with writing. Itโs funny how my big protest move was to become a fiction writer.
You wrote a brilliant book. What was the inspiration for โโBroken Kismetโโ? Thank you for saying that! My wife, our two children, and I were living in Istanbul in 2010, and I had a health scare, and as I was recovering, scenes from the novel came to meโin many ways, the conversations between the two main characters, Eser and her mother Sara, were based on conversations between my wife, Banu, and our daughter.
If your book will be adapted for a movie script, what kind of film do you think it would be? Iโd hope it would be a very novelistic film that might be a kind of cross between The Joy Luck Club and Girl on a Train. Many of the New York City scenes are set at dusk or at night, while I tried to have many of the Istanbul ones flooded with beautiful Mediterranean light, and I think that would carry over well in a film. Last but not least, thereโs a lot of kindness and warmth in intimate spaces in Istanbulโwhether thatโs Eser and her mother and grandmother at home or a hardware store owner who takes in someone who clearly needs helpโand this can contrast quite starkly with the sense one gets in public spaces. Thereโs an idiom in Istanbul that โthe person who honks and gestures at you in traffic would hug you and feed you full at their house,โ and Iโd want some of that to be captured in a film along with the beautiful light and incredible architecture of this ancient city.
Can you tell us more about another award winning book of yours, that is โโErmenilerโโ, book on the lives of Armenians in contemporary Turkey? This is a photography book with an extended introduction by an amazingly talented artist, Nuran Akkaya, about Armenians living in contemporary Turkey. These are photos of triumph, loss, bravery, kindness, and persistence coming through such events as annual ceremonies, Armenian artisans and performers, the destruction of a famous Armenian hospital, and the hundreds of thousands of Armenians/Greeks/Turks who marched in the streets to protest the senseless killing of Armenian journalist Hrant Dink in 2007. Here is a sample of these powerful photos.
Have you ever been in Greece? Yes, I was so lucky to go to Greece when I was young, to see Athens, Thrace, and a number of islands including Santorini, Mykonos, and Corfu. But I ran out of money there and actually worked as a waiter on the island of Zakynthos, where I worked for the last two months of the tourist season as a waiter. The couple that owned the restaurant were welcoming and thoughtful, and were always happy to teach me little bits of Greek. The other waiters were Greeks born in Albania and two Australians, and in the kitchen were the couple who owned the restaurant and an Egyptian chef. At the close of the season, I had saved enough drachma to buy a ticket back to the USโbut I have to say I missed Greece so much immediately afterwards, and Iโve often thought I should have stayed and learned much more Greek.
What are your plans as a writer for the future? One of the many things I loved about writing Broken Kismet was setting up the complex plot elements in both the past and present to weave together much like a mystery that slowly comes into focus. Currently, Iโm about halfway through the first draft of a mystery a bit in the vein of Orhan Pamukโs My Name is Red. Itโs quite complex, setting up something like that, but Iโm having a lot of funโlike putting together a literary puzzle.
How do you feel with the idea you will be the judge for the novels category in the Eyelands Books Awards 2023? Iโm wildly excitedโthis whole experience has been such an honor and pleasure and I canโt wait to read the many novel manuscripts later this year! Itโs always a delight to discover new and interesting novels in bookstores and libraries, and this is that much more exciting.
How do you feel that your book will be translated into Greek? ฮฆฮฑฮฝฯฮฑฯฯฮนฮบฯฯ! Itโs fantastic because so much of the novel is set in Istanbul, and of course so much of this ancient cityโs architecture and culture comes from Greek culture and civilization. For instance, thereโs an ancient stone wall in front of Sara and Eserโs apartment building that I imagine could well have been a divider between Greek farmersโ fields some 600 years ago. At the same time, much of the complex plot of the novel actually comes through everyday experiences and Iโd bet these are not so different between families living in Athens and Istanbul. Last but far from least, I love the sound and look of Greek, so seeing Broken Kismet in this fantastic language will be such a thrill and honor.
// BIO Hardy Griffin has published writing in Aesthetica Magazine, Fresh.ink, New Flash Fiction, Alimentum, Assisi, The Washington Post, American Letters & Commentary, and a chapter in The Gotham Writerโs Guide to Writing Fiction (Bloomsbury). His translations can be found in Words Without Borders, The Istanbul Biennial, and for Ermeniler, an award-winning book on the lives of Armenians in contemporary Turkey. He is the founding editor of Novel Slices, a publication dedicated solely to novel excerpts.
Broken Kismet will be translated into Greek by Gregory Papadoyiannis and is scheduled to be released in Greece on September 2023
Stories, Mostly Short, Often Deadly – Townsend Walker /USA
Townsend Walker draws inspiration from cemeteries, foreign places, violence and strong women. A collection of short stories, โ3 Women, 4 Towns, 5 Bodies & other stories,โDeeds Publishing,2018. A novella, โLa Ronde,โ Truth Serum Press, 2015. Over one hundred short stories and poems published in literary journals and included in fifteen anthologies. Two nominations for the PEN/O.Henry Award. He reviews for the โNew York Journal of Booksโ During a career in banking, he wrote three books on finance: โA Guide for Using the Foreign Exchange Market,โ โManaging Risk with Derivatives,โ and โManaging Lease Portfolios.โ His website is https://www.townsendwalker.com
SHORT STORIES PUBLISHED
12 Random Words / 12 Mots au Hasard –ย Fabiana Elisa Martรญnez /USA
Fabiana Elisa Martรญnez was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She graduated from UCA University with a degree in Linguistics and World Literature. She is a linguist, a language teacher, and a writer. She speaks English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, and Italian. She has lived in Dallas, Texas, for twenty years. She is the author of the bilingual short story collection 12 Random Words, the short story Stupidity, published as an independent book by Pierre Turcotte Editor, and the grammar series Spanish 360 with Fabiana. Other short stories of hers have been published in Rigorous Magazine, The Closed Eye Open, Ponder Review, Hindsight Magazine, The Good Life Review (UK), The Halcyone, Rhodora Magazine (India), Mediterranean Poetry, Writers and Readers Magazine (UK), Libretto Magazine (Nigeria), Automatic Pilot (Ireland), Lusitania (Buenos Aires), The Pilgrims of the Plate (Buenos Aires), Heartland Society of Women Writers, Egophobia Journal (Romania), Defunkt Magazine, Brilliant Flash Fiction, Freshwater Literary Journal, Syncopation Literary Journal, The Ravenโs Perch, and the anthologies Writers of Tomorrow, Pure Slush-Love, Lifespan 4 Anthology (Australia), the 2022 Wordrunner Anthology, the Crossing the Tees Firth Short Story Anthology (England), and Pure Slush-Marriage, Lifespan 6 Anthology (Australia). Two short stories were featured in the Manawaker Flash Fiction Podcast.
NOVEL UNPUBLISHED
Ainโt No Jazz in Kansas City – Bruce Rodgers /USA
I began a freelance writing career in 1980 though I started writing earlier in typical teenage angst fashion in high school. While freelancing I held a variety of blue-and white-collar jobs including government bureaucrat, substitute teacher, bartender, landscape laborer, delivery driver, deli cook and correctional officer. I landed a full-time writing/editing job in 1993 as editor of a Kansas City liberal newsweekly. Left that job after a corporate buyout and bought a small, regional publication focusing on antiques and historical tourism. Sold that publication eighteen years later, moved to Florida and began writing short stories, essays and reworking my novel. I was a draftee during the Vietnam War era, thankfully never sent to that tragedy in Southeast Asia. As one gets older the writing life becomes more centered in memories and the sharing with others about what happened and could have happened.
NOVEL PUBLISHED
Buttercups in the Basement – Jane Harvey /United Kingdom
Dreena Collins was born in Jersey, Channel Islands. She has a background in teaching and Special Educational Needs and now works as the Deputy Executive Officer of a Mental Health charity. She lives with her husband, teenage son, and a very grumpy dog. As well as her feel-good Hummingbird House novels (under Jane Harvey), Dreena has published a number of short fiction collections and a suspense novel, And Then She Fell. She has been listed and placed in numerous writing competitions, including The Bridport Prize and Bath Flash Fiction Award. Her flash fiction collection, Bird Wing, was a finalist in the 2020 SPR Book Awards. Her hobbies include eating spicy food and unintentionally waking at 3.30 am, and she makes it a matter of principle to fall over at least once a month.ย
*(Contemporary fiction as Jane Harvey)
HISTORICAL NOVEL / MEMOIR UNPUBLISHED
A Girl Called Redemption – Sophie Neville /United Kingdom
Sophie Neville began writing A Girl Called Redemption on an Eyelandsโ Three Rock Residency in Crรชte. This historical novel set in the early 1960s is the sequel to Makorongoโs War which won a Eyelands prize in 2019. An Anthropology graduate, Sophie spent twelve years collecting stories in southern Africa, bringing out two humorous memoirs:ย Ride the Wings of Morning, andย Funnily Enough serialised inย iBelieveย magazine. After her ebook The Secrets of Filming Swallows & Amazons became a bestseller, she was commissioned to writeย The Making of Swallows and Amazons(1974),ย now published by The Lutterworth Press.After acting in movies as a child, Sophie went into television production, working on BBC drama serials and directing her first documentary for Channel 4 when driving from London to Johannesburg. She wrote a number of her own programmes for BBC Education and worked freelance for the BBC Natural History Unitin Botswana and Namibia. While president of The Arthur Ransome Society, Sophie wrote forewords for books and gave Q&As at cinemas, also speaking at literary festivals, on BBC Radio and ITV News. She is now focused on writing novels set in Africa.
HISTORICAL NOVEL/MEMOIR PUBLISHED
The Common Wife: Getting Lost, Dancing Naked & Collecting Seashellsย – Lindy Hughes /Canada
After forays into journalism and astrology, and a failed attempt at joining the circus, Lindy Hughes taught English literature at the University of South Africa. For the past 23 years, since immigrating to Canada, she has lived in a navy-blue cottage in Eagle Harbour, BC, where she writes, dances, and edits a community newspaper. Her writing workshops (in different parts of the world) break as many rules as possible. She collects rocks, burns stuff under the moon, and walks barefoot whenever she can, even though it embarrasses her family. The Common Wife: Getting Lost, Dancing Naked & Collecting Seashells is her second book, and she wrote it during her peculiar midlife crisis. The crisis led to her secret life as a middle-aged burlesque dancer, and then a 700-kilometre pilgrimage along the Camino de Santiago, all in an attempt to find her Big Life and hunt down God. She failed on both counts. Lindy still goes walking with Petunia, her purple backpack. She also still gets lost – often – and each time, in her lostness, she finds the most fantastic surprises. Like strangers. And their stories. She is presently working on her fourth book. You can find her at LindyHughes.com.
CHILDRENโS BOOK PUBLISHED
The Venetian Pearls – Karin Bachmann /Switzerland
Karin Bachmann was born in the year of the first moon landing. Perhaps this explains why she is equally interested in technology, history, and stories. Karin has been writing children’s and YA books for over 30 years. She’s the author of over 10 whodunits and several short stories, has won prizes for her writing, and has appeared on the radio and on local TV. In 1993 and 1995, she travelled to New Zealand, ostensibly to learn English. That was when she became permanently infected with the travelling-bug. She spent every free minute exploring the country and its people โ and, incidentally, earned her Proficiency in English qualification. Since that time, she has been expressing her whims and her passion for adventures in English as well. In 2021, Karin was awarded the Cultural Prize (Kulturpreis) of her hometown of Pieterlen in the Swiss Canton of Berne. One of her books in German (Monster im Dunkeln) will be on the IBBY list of Outstanding Books for Young People with Disabilities in 2023. Karin lives in an apartment full of books that also serves as a base camp for hikes in the Alps and the Jura Mountains.
POETRY UNPUBLISHED
Obits, tales & accounts from WW1 โ Joan Michelson
Joan Michelsonโs collections are: โThe Family Kitchenโ, 2018, The Finishing Line Press, USA, โLanding Stageโ, 2017), SPM Publishers, UK, โBloomvale Homeโ, 2016, Original Plus Books, UK and โToward the Heliopauseโ, 2011, Poetic Matrix Press, USA. Sheโs received fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, the Virginia Centre for the Arts, Valparaiso, Spain, Sangam House, India and other foundations. A folio collection โAccidentโ was one of five finalists in the Manchester 2020 International Poetry Prize. Her collection โRefugeesโ was one of five finalists for the Eyelands, Greece, 2021 International Book Prize.ย Her poems have won the Bristol Poetry Competition, the Torriano International Poetry Competition, the Hamish Canham Prize, and others. Originally from the United States, she lives in London and teaches creative writing to medical students at Kings College, University of London. Previously an English lecturer at the University of Wolverhampton, she was responsible for Creative Writing and Holocaust Studies. Her reading, research and teaching of the Holocaust, in particular, artistic responses to it, lies behind the poetry collection,ย โObits, Tales & Accounts form WWIIโ
POETRY PUBLISHED
The Moral Judgement of Butterflies – k.eltinaรฉ /Spain
k.eltinaรฉ is a diaspora poet of Sudanese-Nubian and Mediterranean descent, whose work is centered around otherness, cultural/geographic displacement, generational trauma, and exile. His work has appeared in World Literature Today, The Ordinary Chaos of Being Human: Many Muslim Worlds (Penguin), The African American Review, and Michigan Quarterly Review, among others. His debut collection The Moral Judgement of Butterflies won The Beverly Prize for International Literature 2019 (BSPG Press). He is a World Literature lecturer and an Oldies and Classic Afrobeat Disc jockey residing in Granada, Spain.
SPECIAL PRIZE
Fluffy Happiness -Iryna Polishchuk /Ukraine
Iryna Polishchuk is an author of children’s literature, English teacher with twenty years of teaching experience in higher educational institutions, translator. She is 44 years old. She was born in Kyiv, Ukraine and spent most of her life there. She is a mother of two children and is engaged in charity work now, helping displaced persons by conducting free lessons and consultations. Finalist of the “Children’s Coronation” competition in 2021. She gave the last copies of her books to orphans who were forced to move from Kyiv to Lviv due to the war. All others were successfully sold before the full-scale invasion. Author of book series: – Fluffy Happiness – Letter of Hope – Top-5 the best children novel of Ukraine in 2021 – Brave Heart 2022 โ not published yet She considers it her public duty to spread the human values โโwith the help of literature. She loves children and finds the time to teach them. She adores music, books and good cartoons. She tries to make a world a little bit better. Her books are full of beauty and hope, which are very important things in our troubled world.
// GRAND PRIZE 2022 โ UNPUBLISHED
Broken Kismet – Hardy Griffin /USA
Hardy Griffin has published writing in Aesthetica Magazine, Fresh.ink, New Flash Fiction, Alimentum, Assisi, The Washington Post, American Letters & Commentary, and a chapter in The Gotham Writerโs Guide to Writing Fiction (Bloomsbury). His translations can be found in Words Without Borders, The Istanbul Biennial, and for Ermeniler, an award-winning book on the lives of Armenians in contemporary Turkey. He is the founding editor of Novel Slices, a publication dedicated solely to novel excerpts.
GRAND PRIZE 2022 โ PUBLISHED
AMPโD โ Ken Pisani /USA
In addition to his work as a novelist, Ken Pisani is an Emmy-nominated TV producer, screenwriter, playwright, and comic book author. His Los Angeles Times best-selling debut novel โAMPโDโ was a finalist for the Thurber Prize for American Humor. Earlier this year, Ken optioned his quirky mystery novella, โ4 Corners,โ for television. His recent novel, โThe Defection and Subsequent Resurrection of Nikolai Pushkin,โ (pub date TBD) is a decades-spanning farce based on true events. He recently completed a new novel, โDays Are Here Again,โ and is working on a variety of new projects. Follow on Twitter: @kpsmartypants or visit kenpisani.com.
We are happy to announce the prize winners of Eyelands Book Awards 2022!
SHORT STORIES UNPBLISHED
Stories, Mostly Short, Often Deadly – Townsend Walker /USA
SHORT STORIES PUBLISHED
12 Random Words / 12 Mots au Hasard – Fabiana Elisa Martรญnez /USA
NOVEL UNPUBLISHED
Ainโt No Jazz in Kansas City – Bruce Rodgers /USA
NOVEL PUBLISHED
Buttercups in the Basement – Jane Harvey /United Kingdom
HISTORICAL NOVEL / MEMOIR UNPUBLISHED
A Girl Called Redemption – Sophie Neville /United Kingdom
HISTORICAL NOVEL/MEMOIR PUBLISHED
The Common Wife: Getting Lost, Dancing Naked & Collecting Seashells
– Lindy Hughes /Canada
CHILDRENโS BOOK PUBLISHED
The Venetian Pearls – Karin Bachmann /Switzerland
POETRY UNPUBLISHED
Obits, tales & accounts from WW1 โ Joan Michelson
POETRY PUBLISHED
The Moral Judgement of Butterflies – k.eltinaรฉ /Spain
SPECIAL PRIZE
Fluffy Happiness -Iryna Polishchuk /Ukraine
//
GRAND PRIZE 2022 โ UNPUBLISHED (NOVEL)
Broken Kismet – Hardy Griffin /USA
GRAND PRIZE 2022 โ PUBLISHED (NOVEL)
AMPโD โ Ken Pisani /USA
//
PRIZES & PUBLICITY
Section: Published books
Grand Prize: A five-day staying in Athens to attend the ceremony of the EBA Awards* plus a special handmade ceramic designed especially for Eyelands Book Awards and publication (excerpts) online on our website. Eyelands cover all accommodation costs for the award winner. Air tickets not included.
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Section: Unpublished books
Grand prize: Translation into Greek and publication from Strange Days Books
All prize winners
A special handmade ceramic designed especially for Eyelands Book Awards
Certification document for every prize.
*Alternative prize : If for any reason the writer wonโt be available to attend the ceremony or the ceremony cannot be held for other reasons:
Translation into Greek and publication from Strange Days Books
Grand prize winners will be the judges of our next contest, EBA 2023!
//
We want to thank all participants for great works submitted to us. Year it was very difficult to choose the prize winners. We also have to thank all bloggers and editors for supporting us all these years and special thanks to our judges Judges: P.H.C. Marchesi, Alicia Hokanson and Djanco Wylie
Eyelands Book Awards 