From the Life’s Too Short site:

“The short story is what you make it. As a genre it has been used by writers as varied as Maupassant, Chekhov, Faulkner, Mansfield and Manto. It can be a gem consisting of a few paragraphs or the seed of a larger idea – both The Great Gatsby and The Sun also Rises started life as short stories.

The life’s too short Short Story Prize was conceived to reinvigorate this oft-neglected genre in Pakistan. With the increasing success of short story collections in the global publishing market, they are becoming big news again. Now we would like people to read yours.

Sponsored by the ZZ & Zohra Ahmed Foundation, entry to this competition is free of charge and the prize money is the most substantial for any such endeavour in Pakistan.”

The Prize Money referred to above ranges from Rs 10,000 to 100,000 although of course no true writer writes for money…right? 🙂

“Entries must be emailed to entry@lifestooshort.pk

‘The life’s too short short story prize’ should be written on the subject line of the email

The short story should be the body of the email. Emails with attachments will not be considered.

Each entry must include the name, address, telephone number(s) and email address of the writer

Submission deadline is June 30, 2009.”

The judges for this competition are well known desi authors: Kamila Shamsie, Daniyal Mueenuddin and Muhammad Haneef.

So if you’re interested, you know the details…for further information click the link above. Happy writing!

– T(he)P(owers)T(hat)B(e)