» Interesting Thoughts Competition: Home / 7-12-09
Guess what? dotdotdash is holding another essay competition for Issue 3: Home!
What do I have to do? Write a critical essay on the key thought ‘home’.
What makes a good entry? Entries will be judged on their readability and rhetoric, as well as their ability to explore interesting philosophical and cultural notions of home. If you would like some useful examples, feel free to refer to Pam Sutton’s essay ‘Ugly’ in our upcoming second edition, or Janice Loreck’s essay ‘Quicksand and Culture’ in our first edition. But as long as there is an argument somewhere and a link to ‘home’, all things are possible.
What’s in it for me? The winner of the competition will be published in dotdotdash Issue 3 and receive a $200 cash prize. Commended entries may be published on the website.
How long do I have? Until 15 January 2010.
How do I enter? You can send us your entry electronically or by post. Please observe the instructions here.
» Issue 2 competition results! + sneak preview / 7-12-09
dotdotdash Issue 2: Ugly will be officially released on 12 December 2009. Until midnight 11 December, you can pre-order the magazine for the special price of $13 (plus postage) by clicking here; or, come to our launch party and receive a free copy.
To tide you over, we’d like to officially announce the winners of the Brian Dibble Shortest Story Competition, the Deborah Hunn Haiku Competition and the dotdotdash Interesting Thoughts Competition, as well as give you a sneak preview of the magazine.
Special thanks to Professor Brian Dibble, Dr Deborah Hunn and Dr Alzena D’Costa for judging and sponsoring the competitions, and to Naama Amram and Alice Yeow for their editorial assistance.
Without further ado:
The Brian Dibble Shortest Story Competition
Winner: Michael Burrows (WA)
Highly commended: Jason McNamara (WA), Heather Mackenzie (QLD), Erin Pearce (WA), Anne Salatlija (WA)
The Deborah Hunn Haiku Competition
Winner: Sara Elderfield (WA)
Highly commended: Sara Elderfield (WA), Rebecca Higgie (WA), Gary Colombo De Piazzi (WA), Jo Mills (WA), Gail Willems (WA), Gavin Austin (NSW), Annie Otness (WA)
The dotdotdash Interesting Thoughts Competition
Winner: Pam Sutton (WA)
Highly commended: James Pengelley (WA)
If you like what you see and want to get your hands on a copy of dotdotdash Issue 2: Ugly, remember to pre-order here before midnight 11 December!
Good tidings,
The dotdotdash team
» Submissions open for dotdotdash Issue 3: Home! / 21-10-09
We are pleased to announce that dotdotdash now accepts electronic submissions in all categories! If you would prefer to submit electronically, please remember to include the same details that are on the submission form (e.g. Name, Address, etc.) in the body of your email.
The theme for Issue 3 is Home. Submissions will close 5pm, 15 January 2010.
For your convenience, we have also added a few items to the FAQ, including our rules about submitting under pseudonyms, sending electronic entries and the kind of feedback our editors can offer.
As of yet we do not have any competitions for Issue 3, but will certainly announce it here if we do!
Thank you to everybody who has submitted to Issue 2: Ugly! We hope to be able to contact you by the beginning of November.
Cheers,
The dotdotdash team
» Duck meets slam / 15-10-09
The Perth heats of the Australian Poetry Slam have begun! Contestants have a microphone, two minutes and asmanywordsastheycanfitintwominutes to impress five randomly-chosen judges (it could be you!).
Two heats have already passed, but there are three more heats left, plus the state final:
Third heat: Friday 16 October
Fourth heat: Friday 23 October
Fifth heat: Friday 30 October
WA Final: Friday 6 November
Each heat starts at 7:30 PM at the Rosemount Hotel 459 Bar, 459 Fitzgerald St, North Perth, and it costs $5 to enter.
For more information, visit the official website!
And finally, dotdotdash will be holding a zine stall at the WA final on 6 November. If you are interested in having your zines stocked at this event, please contact 
so we can organise some kind of pick-up thing in a shady alleyway, where we will exchange the goods and perform the secret handshake. If you’re not sure if you will have the goods ready on time, you can bring your zines on the night instead. We will stock your zine for free (all profits go to you).
Incidentally, if you sold zines at the dotdotdash launch party and you still haven’t picked up your zines or money, please contact us immediately. (It has just come to our alarming attention that there are some people who haven’t collected them.)
Slammingly,
The dotdotdash team
» Extended dotdotdash submission deadlines! / 2-10-09
1) The deadline for art submissions has been extended to 7 October. Please remember to complete a submission form for each entry, and make sure there are no identifying marks (e.g. signatures) on your artwork so that pieces may be judged anonymously.
2) The deadline for the dotdotdash Interesting Thoughts Competition has been extended to 14 October. Write a critical essay on the thought ‘ugly’ and you could win a cash prize!
3) The deadline for Draw Rites contributions has been extended to 30 October. Sign up here to collaborate with another artist or writer.
Thank you to everybody who has submitted work to Issue 2 so far. We’ll do our best to get in touch with you by the beginning of November. In the meantime, we have to go into hiding and read your excellent submissions!
Cheers,The dotdotdash team
» dotdotdash Issue #1 / 9-9-09
What's in it? Short stories, poetry, creative non-fiction, artwork and editorials!
How much does it cost? RRP is $15!
Where can I get it? You can purchase dotdotdash from our website (on the left sidebar, click 'Subscribe or Purchase'). As for which bookstores have agreed to stock us, we'll keep you updated.
I demand a sample viewing! Here we go:
Other pertinent information
Submissions are open for dotdotdash Issue 2: Ugly! In addition to accepting short stories, poetry, creative non-fiction, artwork and challenges (this issue, it's three-panel comic strips), dotdotdash is running three competitions:
1) The Deborah Hunn Haiku Competition: self-explanatory! Send us your best haiku.
2) The Brian Dibble Shortest Story Competition: write a story in 50 words, including the title.
3) The dotdotdash Interesting Thoughts Competition: write a critical essay of up to 2,000 words on the thought 'Ugly'.
All of these competitions hold the promise of prize money and publication in dotdotdash!
Competitions and general entries to dotdotdash close 30 September 2009, which is coming up soon. Don't miss it! For more details, click here.
Ps. Also, don't forget the Draw Rites workshops!
Cheers,
Elizabeth and Sj Finch
» Issue #1 release date: Friday 4 September 2009 / 27-8-09
Hark! An update!
Production for dotdotdash Issue #1: Quicksand officially finished this morning! It’s now in the professional hands of Lamb Print. Thank you to everybody for making this happen – submitters, contributors, sponsors, magazine staff and mentors. We’re very excited about our launch party and will plug it at every single opportunity.
If you would like to get involved in the launch party (Friday 4 September!), we’re looking for writers and artists to get involved in a few activities on the night – namely, spoken word performance and an art exhibition. If what you see on the Facebook page interests you, please contact Sj Finch at
.
Late nights and eye luggage,
Alex and Elizabeth
» Website relaunch / 31-7-09
Hello,
Welcome to the re-launched dotdotdash website. We hope this space is a little cosier now, and maybe even more professional. We want this website to sing for you. To sing and dance. For those who have wandered in here after googling for dot dot dash! designer action toys, dotdotdash is a creative journal based in Perth, Western Australia. We were student-run, but have since graduated from university, hence the newfound professionalism. We have changed this website to make it more useful for aspiring writers, artists, and other people who want to create things.
Creative writing lecturers always said to me was that the hardest thing for an aspiring writer outside of university was the lack of a support network, the lack of peers who will listen to you and your creative work. And I suppose that same issue plagues a lot of artists too. So we will use this site to let people know about places and projects that they can get involved in. We want people to realize their own creative projects. We want to help them do stuff with their dreams.
We’ve added a participate page, which you can find on the site sidebar to the left. The participate page currently contains an upcoming calendar of events and workshops, and a non-exhaustive listing of creative journals and publishing houses that you can submit work to, or get involved in. In the future we hope to include articles like ‘how to make your own ‘zine’ and ‘tips and hints for spoken word artists’. So if you’d like to contribute to helping people out, please let us know. Our contact details are also on the sidebar.
Also accessible via the sidebar are our blog and facebook. Our blog currently hosts writing challenges every Sunday, as well as various articles and samples of creative projects that people have let us know about. We would be glad to post up your creative projects if yould like us to. Our facebook currently functions as a mailing list to keep you up to date on events that we have planned, and opportunities we have heard about. We love being contacted about anything so feel free to drop us a line.
One last thing… Thank you. Thank you all who believed in us from the start, thank you all who have encouraged us, every single one of you that sent your work in to us when we were small and beginning and very green. It has meant a great deal to hear people say ‘Yes! Yes this is a good idea’. We are extremely grateful to be able to do this, to give our fellow aspiring creative professionals the soapbox and the encouragement that they deserve.
Cheese toasties and Bubbletea,
Sj Finch
Ps. Submissions are now open for dotdotdash Issue 2. The theme is ‘ugly’. Check out the ‘Submit!’ page, accessible via the sidebar, and try not to think of the WWF.
Pps. Our web designer has gone nuts with an easter egg somewhere on this site.