Nominations are invited for the New South Wales Premier's Translation Prize, presented every two years with the NSW Premier's Literary Awards. The prize is offered by the NSW Government through Arts NSW and the Community Relations Commission for a multicultural NSW in association with Sydney PEN. Valued at $30,000 the prize is open only to literary translators who translate from other languages into English. Translators should be able to demonstrate a body of literary work which has been published or performed in recent years. This work can include poetry, stage and radio plays, and fiction and non-fiction works of literary merit. Translators may nominate themselves, or be nominated by authors, agents, publishers, translation and literary associations, theatre companies or radio broadcasters. The closing date for nominations is Friday 5 December 2008. The winner will be announced in May 2009. Guidelines and nomination forms may be obtained from Awards Staff, Arts NSW PO Box A226, SYDNEY SOUTH NSW 1235 Ph (02) 9228 5533, Fax (02) 9228 4722 or Email: jean.moylan@arts.nsw.gov.au or download them from Website: www.arts.nsw.gov.au

The 2009 Interactive Press (IP) Picks Awards for Unpublished Manuscripts are open for submissions until 1 December. Now in its eighth year, this national competition invites submissions for Best Fiction, Best Creative Non-fiction, Best Poetry and Best First Book. The Awards are open to citizens/residents of Australia, and, for the first time, citizens/residents of New Zealand. The winners in each category and two of the Highly Commended entrants are being published by IP under royalty contracts. One of the winners and one of the highly commended were subsequently endorsed by the Literature Board of the Australia Council. The winner for Best Poetry 2007 was Mark O'Flynn for his work What can be Proven. For entry forms and conditions visit the website www.ipoz.biz or send a self-addressed stamped envelope to IP, Treetop Studio, 9 Kuhler Court, Carindale 4152.

Budding poets can upload a two minute poetry slam video and compete for a wild card entry into the Poetry Slam National Grand Slam Final. The Grand Slam will be held at the Sydney Opera House on Thursday, 4 December and the online winner will compete alongside state winners for a chance of the $5,000 prizemoney. Anyone outside Sydney will be flown to the NSW capital and provided with accommodation. ABC Local Radio has joined forces with State Libraries to bring the Australian Poetry to all Australians. There is now a dedicated online Poetry Slam destination: abc.net.au/poetryslam. For the first time ABC Local Radio will broadcast and stream all State finals, plus the Grand Slam Final. The dedicated website will include video of slam performances from heats and finals as well as the video entries in the online competition. Visitors will have the opportunity to join in forum discussion and comment on poet works. The online competition closes on Sunday November 16. Online entries will be judged by some of Australia's leading writing professionals, including spoken word artist Miles Merrill, poet Alicia Sometimes and Sydney Writers' Festival Artistic Director Dr Wendy Were. For more details about the Australian Poetry Slam and to find out what is on the mind of poets and performers go to abc.net.au/poetryslam.

Poets on Wheels climb aboard the train to tour regional NSW soon. When they arrive in Orange you can hear three accomplished poets David Brooks, Mark O'Flynn and Marvis Sofield read their own work, quiz the writers, read your own poem in the open section, with prizes awarded for the best local poems, while enjoying wine tasting with Rolling Wines and bring a gold coin donation. It all happens during a wine tasting and poetry reading to be held at Orange City Library on Tuesday 21 October at 6.30pm. The next day join in a poetry workshop for adults from 12pm to 3pm with the Poets on Wheels at the West Room, Orange Regional Gallery, Byng Street. It will be a lot of fun and inspiring to learn from published poets. Cost is $10 and bring along ten copies of one of your poems plus pen and paper. Please book your place by calling the Central West Writers' Centre on 6393 8125.

Young people from regional and rural Australia 16-22 years of age are invited to submit a story in text, audio, pictures or moving images about their life issues and experience. Winning stories are selected from each of approximately 41 ABC regions around Australia to be broadcast on national ABC radio. Go to the ABC Heywire Blog for entry information and an entry form: http://blogs.abc.net.au/heywire/ or phone 1800 26 26 46 and ask lots and lots of questions. Entries close 3rd October.

The fellowship of Australian Writers North Shore Regional have organised a Super Short Story Competition with an open theme and maximum 700 words. Prizes are: 1st - $100; 2nd - $50, with Highly Commended and Commended certificates. Entry fee is $5 with cheques to be made payable to Fellowship of Australian Writers North Shore Regional. Stamps or coins will not be accepted as payment for entry. Please enclose a business-size envelope SSAE for results. No entry form required. Story text, title and page numbers only to appear on entry, which must have a cover sheet attached containing writer's contact details, title of entry and word count. No clip art or decoration of any kind. Submissions must be the original unpublished work of the author, not having won a cash prize at close of competition and not submitted concurrently elsewhere, typed on single-sided A4 paper, double-spaced. Send entries to: Competition Secretary, 1 / 2 Rogal Place, North Ryde, 2113 or for further information; please phone (02) 9887 1257 or email fawnorthshore@gmail.com Competition closes Friday 31 October.

The Australian Poetry Slam 08 returns to Orange after being a wild tonque twisting, word flinging success for performers and audience alike last year. Host Miles Merrill returns for two heats in the Central West.

Macquarie Regional Library, Dubbo Saturday 13 September at 2.30pm

Orange City Library, Orange Thursday 18 September at 6.30pm.

We are looking for poets, hip hop artists, storytellers and other outspoken wordsmiths to speak, scream, howl or whisper or sing your original poem, rhyme, rap or story. Performers can sign up from 30 mins before the start and have 2 minutes at the microphone to impress the judges. Be in the audience to have a chance of picked as a judge (the trick is to catch the frisbee). It is an electric live event and entertainment plus. Two winners from the Orange heat will win Sydney flights and accommodation courtesy of Orange Regional Arts Foundation to be able to attend the State Final at the State Library of NSW on Friday 21 November. Come along or be part of it. For more information call the Central West Writers' Centre on 6393 8125 or go to State Library of NSW website http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/poetryslam/index.html

See you at the Poetry Slam - can't wait!

The Annual Peace Poetry Competition, held in conjunction with World Peace Day and sponsored by the Cowra Guardian is calling for entries but be quick – entries close on Friday 15 August. Winners will be notified by phone and invited to read their poems at the World Peace Day Ceremony on Tuesday 23 September. There are sections for Primary and Secondary School Students where entry is free and for the Open Section entry is $6. Winning poems will be added to the collection which is housed in special folders at the Cowra Library. A Book of Peace Poems has been printed, containing all prize winners for the first 10 years of the competition and is available from the World Peace Bell Association committee (cost $17 posted). Works must be on the theme of Peace. For entry forms and further information call 6342 2975 or PO Box 910 Cowra or call into Cowra Library.

Applications close 31 July for this one. The British Council is now calling for Australia's best and brightest to enter the 2008 Realise Your Dream competition. It's a professional development award open to all Australians aged under-30 who are involved in creative industries. Winning candidates will be flown to the UK to work with a mentor, and even get $8,000 to help live the dream. To go into the running, applicants need to demonstrate their creative potential, and tell how they'll benefit by connecting with Britain's best. If they're a winner, the British Council will help organise a personally tailored work experience programme with a leader in their field. Placements have included fashion houses Luella, Burberry and Lara Bohinc; time with creative director Tom Dixon at Habitat; Zaha Hadid architects; BBC Interactive; advertising agency BB/Saunders; and textile designers Timorous Beasties, The British Museum, independent record labels - amongst many others. For more information visit www.realiseyourdream.org.au or email realiseyourdream@britishcouncil.org.au with any questions.

The winning short story in the 2008 Banjo Paterson Writing Awards "Exposure" by Margaret Betts of VIC, has been published in today's Central Western Daily (CWD) on page 9 and you can also read it, along with other winning entries, on the Central West Libraries website Reading and Writing page. This story stayed with the judges for a long time afterwards - its evocation of a boy running away to sea and the tragic death of the boy's father following his return. This story is beautifully written, building up the atmosphere of the piece with a skilled control of language and metaphor. The descriptions of the natural world are original and enchanting, emotionally charging the landscape with a sense of dread and foreboding. From details of seaweed, clouds, damaged crabs and wind, to the domestic descriptions of a bed stripped bare – exposing its naked base – an 'iron black skeleton' – this is first class writing. Catch up with the winners of the Children's Writing Section featured in the CWD today too on page 5: http://orange.yourguide.com.au/news/local/news/general/banjo-would-notice-stories-made-of-the-write-stuff/793522.aspx