Translated from Utsudo’s original Chinese column.

Are local literary awards worth entering?Yes. Local literary awards have fewer entrants and fairly high prize money, and they’re where many literary talents hone their skills. Utsudo suggests reading past winning works to find your direction and reading the rules carefully. But she also points out a problem: “prize hunters” who submit near-identical works everywhere, just changing place names, with prize money as their goal.

Features of local literary awards

　　As you probably know, besides popular-fiction novel contests, there are actually many local awards of all sizes you can enter every year.

　　These local contests usually have fewer entrants, and the content leans toward local customs and culture. It seems they used to require entrants to have household registration in the area or experience studying there, socompetition is low and the prize money is fairly high — you could say it offers great value.

　　Even now that the restrictions on local experience and household registration have been removed, and you only need to involve local scenery or settings to enter, the number of entrants is still small.

　　To attract more entries, you sometimes see contests extended, or submission periods longer than the previous year — which tells you how short of entries they are.

　　Usually a contest is split into student, adult and senior categories, each with different requirements. You can find details in the rules —some require printouts, some require burning to CD. Please read them carefully with your eyes wide open and be sure to follow them.

Tips for entering local literary awards

　　I once watched a video by a literary expert and realized local literary awards seem to be where many literary talents “train.” Many big names in the literary world were once frequent winners of local awards.

　　So I recommend trying lots of them. First look at the style of past winning works to find a direction, then submit as much as you can. It also helps promote local literature — and of course winning an award would be ideal, definitely a plus.

The problem of “prize hunters”

　　Speaking of which, that literary veteran once revealed that judges make initial selections quite quickly, becauseafter first eliminating those who fail at basics like prose, what’s left is ranking among works that look a lot like they’re from “prize hunters.”

　　So-called “prize hunters” use near-identical works — very likely just changing place names — to submit to local literary awards everywhere, aiming for prize money. Someone once exposed this on PTT: a person swept up awards from many places across Taiwan, and tallying it up, his father held many jobs — sculptor, sailor and so on — living in Taipei one moment, Taoyuan the next, even down south. On top of that, the works’ formats were very similar, showing a formulaic trend.

　　The formula goes something like: a certain scene triggers memories of the past, linking childhood memories with a family member from a traditional occupation, stirring some emotional ripples, then ending with a line summing up an epiphany that echoes the opening.

　　I once discussed this with an editor, who also shook his head with a wry smile. Prize hunters apparently haven’t been news for a long time — even the submissions office in Pingtung once said “we try to avoid manuscripts that look like they’re from prize hunters」。

　　I think this may be one of the ills of local literature. There used to be restrictions like household registration; now the conditions are relaxed to just being related to the area, and with people generally paying less attention to local awards, all these factors let “prize hunters” run rampant.

　　Local governments tirelessly hold local literary awards every year, simply out of the good intention of encouraging people to take part in the arts and recording local memories. It’s truly frustrating to see it exploited by opportunists like this.

　　Maybe prize hunting is also a way of surviving —after all, the amounts really aren’t small.

　　I just don’t really agree with it. I still believe resources should go to the right people. But how to curb the “prize hunter” trend isn’t so simple, since the awards are judged anonymously — it’s really not easy.

　　What do you think?

FAQ

Further reading (in Chinese)

• Previous: #95 (in Chinese)
• Next: #97 (in Chinese)
• Start from the beginning: #01 — Utsudo’s debut
• Column introduction
• Utsudo’s books

About the author

Utsudo is a Taiwanese light novelist and novelist VTuber with more than ten years in the industry and 40 commercially published print books. Her novel 《遺失的情書》 received a 2022 Ministry of Culture youth creative award. The 《嘿！聽說妳在鬼島當作家》 series records her experiences as a novelist in Taiwan.