Imagine it's just you and your words for two minutes with a mic in the spotlight. Orange City Library is calling all poets, hip-hop artists and other outspoken wordsmiths to polish their rhymes and lyrics for the Australian Poetry Slam.

On Thursday 22 July - at 6pm for poets to sign up and from 6.30pm to perform - Orange will host one of 8 slam heats planned across the state. Winners from the Orange heat will go on to perform at the regional final and a chance to perform in the State final.

Host Tug Dumbly (pictured) is one of Australia's greatest spoken-word artists and he will host this electric live event.

An initiative of the non-profit literary arts association, Word Travels and State Libraries, the Australian Poetry Slam is the nation's largest and richest poetry slam with cash and a gig at Ubud Writers & Readers Festival in Bali up for grabs.

The Orange heat offers a $100 prize for the winner. And four heat finalists will go on to perform at the regional heat to be held in Bathurst on Saturday 7 August at 8pm as part of Cabaret Kite at the Bathurst Memorial Entertainment Centre.

All contestants have just two minutes to impress the judges (selected at random at each heat) with their spoken word, poetry, hip hop, monologues and stories. We need people to get up and have a go and for others to be in the audience - so come along for a fun night out.

Thank you for everyone to entered the 2010 Banjo Paterson Writing Awards. We are pleased to announce the following winners: Prose: Jacqueline Winn, of Possum Brush NSW, for The Dangers of Swimming, Greg McFarland, of Orange NSW, for Roadside Memorial and Kate Rotherham, of Allans Flat VIC, for Shelter.

Open Poetry: Brenda Saunders, of Randwick NSW, for Wonderland. Bush Poetry: Ron Stevens, of Dubbo NSW, for Behind the Flag and Ellis Campbell, of Dubbo NSW, for The Toll and Ellis Campbell, of Dubbo NSW, for A Dynasty's Demise.

Children's Writing Awards supported by ABC Local Radio: Chris Frith, of Baradine NSW for The Downpour, Eleanor Delaney, of Orange NSW for The Last Dee Why Day - A True Story and Chester Fitzhardinge, of Balgowlah NSW, for The Dream Protectors.

The Yvonne Zola Encouragement Award goes to Elise Sinclair, of Orange NSW, for her story, Tommy in Trouble. Congratulations!

Do you dream of being a published writer? Enter Australia's most prestigious award for an unpublished manuscript. The Australian/Vogel Literary Award is one of Australia's richest and the most prestigious award for an unpublished manuscript by a writer under the age of thirty-five. Offering publication by Allen & Unwin and prize money totalling $20,000, the Vogel Award has launched the careers of some of its most successful writers, including Tim Winton, Kate Grenville, Gillian Mears, Brian Castro, Mandy Sayer and Andrew McGahan. Vogel-winning authors have gone on to win or be shortlisted for other major awards, such as the Miles Franklin Award, the Commonwealth Writers Prize and the Booker Prize.

Entry forms for the 2010 Australian/Vogel Literary Award are now available from the Allen and Unwin website: http://www.allenandunwin.com/default.aspx?page=442 This year is the 30th anniversary of The Australian/Vogel Literary Award and some exciting changes are afoot. After the judges make their final decision, the winner will be contacted by Allen & Unwin and work will begin on the winning manuscript. However, it won't be until May 2011, that the winner's name will be made public simultaneous with publication of their winning book

Oberon Writers' Workshop, Friends of Oberon Library & Burraga Ag Bureau present the 2nd Oberon Young Writers' Competition for Young Writers (18 years & under at 30/06/10: NARRATIVE: 1st $50, 2nd $20 An original piece of narrative writing of 100 to 1500 words, not previously published. Theme: Water. No entry fee, limit of two entries per section. POETRY: 1st $50, 2nd $20 An original poem or suite of poems in any style, 50 lines or less in total, not previously published. Theme: Water. No entry fee, limit of two entries per section. Conditions of Entry Entries close 30th June 2010. Winners will be announced at 51st Burraga Sheep Show & Country Fair on Saturday 28th August, 2010. Each entry must be accompanied by a separate cover sheet, with title of entry, writer's name, date of birth and contact details. Writer's name must not appear on item submitted. Entries to: Ms A Russell, 1303 Isabella Rd, Isabella, NSW. 2795. For further detail phone: 02 6337 0363 or email everanne@activ8.net.au. (Prizes donated by Burraga Ag Bureau, Friends of Oberon Library & Oberon Writers' Workshop). Good Luck.

Scribe will be publishing another anthology of short stories, New Australian Stories 2.0, again edited by fiction acquisitions editor, Aviva Tuffield. New Australian Stories 2.0 will be published in February 2011. The anthology will feature established stars of the short-story firmament alongside new and emerging ones. Scribe are collaborating with two partners: Varuna, the Writers' House, will be running the Varuna/NAS national short story competition, with the winners (judged by Peter Bishop, Cate Kennedy and Aviva Tuffield) to be published in New Australian Stories 2.0, and/or to be awarded a week-long residency at Varuna to work with Cate Kennedy, one of Australia's finest writers of short stories. Submissions to the Varuna/NAS competition open on 1 June and close on 30 June. Visit the Varuna website for more details: www.varuna.com.au. And they are teaming up with the Ned Kelly Awards to publish the winner of the S.D. Harvey Short Story Award in New Australian Stories 2.0. This award was established in 2009 in honour of Sandra Harvey, a respected journalist who worked both for the Sydney Morning Herald and the ABC's Four Corners program, and was fearless in her pursuit of the truth. The prize money for the S.D. Harvey Short Story Award will be in excess of $1000. Applications for the S.D. Harvey Award close on 31 May. For more information about entering the award, go to: www.nedkellyawards.com

In 2010, two new prizes have been added to the Awards to recognise literature for younger reading audiences.

The two new categories--Young Adult and Children's fiction--acknowledge the importance of literature for young audiences and its power to give rise to a lifelong passion for books.

The winners of the four categories, fiction, non-fiction, young adult fiction and children's fiction will each receive a $100,000 tax-free prize, bringing the total Award prize to $400,000.

Call for entries Entries are invited to the Prime Minister's Literary Awards--Australia's richest literary prize for Fiction, Non-Fiction, Young Adult's Fiction and Children's Fiction.

The Prime Minister's Literary Awards recognise the contribution of Australian literature to the nation's cultural and intellectual life.

The Minister for the Arts called for authors, publishers and literary agents to enter their books into the 2010 Awards for the opportunity to win this prestigious literary award.

Works must be written by living Australian citizens or permanent residents, first published in English and first offered for general sale between 1 January 2009 and 31 December 2009.

Entries are due at 5pm on Friday 16 April 2010.

More information including the guidelines and entry form can be found at www.arts.gov.au/pmliteraryawards

Australian Book Review is reviving the Short Story Competition, with a first prize valued at $2000. There are two other prizes. All three place-getters will be published in the magazine. Stories in English of between 1000 and 3000 words are eligible, as long as they have not been published previously or are not on offer elsewhere. Multiple entries are acceptable. The closing date is May 10. For an entry form go to: http://www.australianbookreview.com.au/competitions/short-story-competition

or call (03) 9429 6700. ABR now publishes short fiction. They welcome submissions from authors.

Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson was born on February 17, 1864 and to celebrate his birthday Orange City Council, Central West Libraries, Central West Writers' Centre supported by The Central Western Daily and ABC Central West Radio announce the call for entries to the Banjo Paterson Writing Awards. It is important to note that entries into the Prose (Short Story), Open Poetry and Children's Writing Awards categories of the competition do not have to be in the style of Banjo's writing. Entry forms are available from Central West Libraries branches, by phoning 6393 8120, email: writing@orange.nsw.gov.au or [download here]. Entry is $10 for adults and $5 for children per entry. The competition closes on Friday 16 April 2010 and winners will be contacted by phone on Monday 21 June 2010. There are cash prizes to be won and the winning Prose (Short Story) entry will be published in the Central Western Daily.

The Dungog Film Festival is one of the most vibrant and unique film festivals in the country. Set in the tiny historic NSW town of Dungog, the four-day non-competitive annual event is now the biggest festival of Australian film content in the world. The Dungog Film Festival In The Raw live script read program is a key festival event, which has attracted an impressive list of writers including Fiona Seres (Love My Way) Dave Warner (Garage Days) and Julia Leigh (The Hunter). Leigh's 2008 In The Raw script Sleeping Beauty was recently financed by Screen Australia and is set for production in 2010. In the Raw is more than just reading the scripts aloud, it is an intimate workshop environment for writer-producer teams to put their projects to the test in front of leading industry professionals and public. This is an opportunity to see what's working, and what's not and have a real audience provide valuable feedback. The 4th Dungog Film Festival In The Raw program is calling for submissions of unproduced feature, miniseries and TV series scripts by Australian nationals. Selected scripts will receive $9,000 (approx.) in script development support to perform the script live for audiences at the 2010 Festival. To enter, simply visit http://www.dungogfilmfestival.org/film-entry/ and download an In The Raw entry form. Dungog Film Festival is on the NSW Master Events Calendar and is proudly supported by Events NSW and Screen NSW.

For more information and entry guidelines visit: www.dungogfilmfestival.org or email: info@dungogfilmfestival.org. DEADLINE: Monday 1 March 2010

Entry to the sixth annual Australian Book Review Poetry Prize is now open. First place prize money is $4000, and shortlisted poems receive $250 each. Poets must reside in Australia or be Australian citizens living overseas. Each entry must be a single poem of no more than 100 lines. Multiple entries are permitted, and all poems will be judged anonymously. A shortlist comprising a maximum of six poems will be announced and those poems published in the March 2010 issue of ABR. The winner will be announced in the April 2010 issue. Entry forms available from the ABR website. Entries close on 1 December 2009.