Title: Odd
Voices
An Anthology of Not So Normal
Narrators
Authors: K.C.
Finn, Kell Cowley, Eddie House,
Mary Ball Howkins, Tonia
Markou, Jack Bumby, A Rose, Colby Wren Fierek, Oceania Chee, Catherine Johnson
Genre: Short
Story Anthology of diverse YA voices
Release Date: 21st February 2020
BLURB supplied by Silver Dagger Book Tours
In every new story we pick up, we’re
seeking an exciting original voice. So why are there still voices we don’t hear
from nearly enough? Why are there characters that so rarely take centre stage?
In this collection from Odd Voice Out press, we discover the stories of twelve
teenagers who stand out from the crowd and who’ll not easily be forgotten.
With settings that range from Scotland to Syria, Mexico to Mauritius, Africa to
Russia, these stories take us to all corners of the globe and into the lives of
young people with their own unique circumstances and perspectives. Characters
dealing with issues of culture and class, exploring their sexuality and gender
identity, or letting us into their experiences with illness, disability or
neurodiversity. Their tales span all genres and can’t be reduced to labels.
These are stories about bending the rules and breaking the law. Stories of
fighting for survival and finding your place in the world. Stories of family
solidarity, unlikely friendships and aching first love told by teenagers who
don’t always fit in and aren’t often heard.
With a foreword by award winning YA author Catherine Johnson, this anthology
brings together the top ten stories of Odd Voice Out’s 2019 Not So Normal Narrators
contest, as well as bonus stories from in-house authors Kell Cowley and K.C.
Finn.
PURCHASE LINKS
Teens of
Tomorrow Writing
Contest Information:
YA Fiction's
March into the Future
Open for Entries: Friday 21st February, 2020
Deadline: Monday 31st August, 2020
Prompt: Future-Focused Diverse Teen Fiction
Prize: £200, £100, £50 (First, second and third prize respectively)
Publication: A dedicated anthology will include the top ten tales, available winter 2020/21.
Wordcount: 2000 - 5000
Internationally open to entrants aged fourteen and above.
We stand at the dawn of a new and uncertain decade. Here at Odd Voice Out press we are calling for short stories that reflect the socio-political issues that young people are dealing with now and will continue to tackle in the coming years. Entries submitted to our Teens of Tomorrow contest can be any genre - fantastical or realistic - and they may be set in the future, the present or even the past, provided that they centre on forward-looking teenage characters grappling with the world around them, the times ahead of them and the roles they personally aspire to play. Send us your utopias, dystopias, protest stories, political thrillers, social satires, climate fiction and prophetic steampunk.
Turn the hashtags trending today into a powerful
Open for Entries: Friday 21st February, 2020
Deadline: Monday 31st August, 2020
Prompt: Future-Focused Diverse Teen Fiction
Prize: £200, £100, £50 (First, second and third prize respectively)
Publication: A dedicated anthology will include the top ten tales, available winter 2020/21.
Wordcount: 2000 - 5000
Internationally open to entrants aged fourteen and above.
We stand at the dawn of a new and uncertain decade. Here at Odd Voice Out press we are calling for short stories that reflect the socio-political issues that young people are dealing with now and will continue to tackle in the coming years. Entries submitted to our Teens of Tomorrow contest can be any genre - fantastical or realistic - and they may be set in the future, the present or even the past, provided that they centre on forward-looking teenage characters grappling with the world around them, the times ahead of them and the roles they personally aspire to play. Send us your utopias, dystopias, protest stories, political thrillers, social satires, climate fiction and prophetic steampunk.
Turn the hashtags trending today into a powerful
YA story of tomorrow!
Enter at http://contest.oddvoiceout.com
Any enquiries to oddvoiceout@gmail.com
Any enquiries to oddvoiceout@gmail.com
The Full
Details
Your short stories with ‘odd voices’ must be written for a YA audience (that’s
around 12 to 19 years old), but other than that they may be set in any genre or
time period. This means that relevant content which is sexual, violent or
contains extreme language will be accepted, provided it is somewhat moderated
for a teen audience, rather than for adults (think about movies rated 15,
compared to 18).
Our contest is open to writers aged fourteen and over from all nationalities
and backgrounds (you should be at least fourteen years old by the closing date
for entries). Entries must be no more 5,000 words long and be a minimum of 2000
words. Your entry should not have been previously published, self-published or
accepted for publication in print or online, or have won or been highly placed
(e.g. shortlisted or semi-finalist) in another competition at any other time.
Longlisted stories are acceptable, provided they have not been in print or
online in full.
After our closing date of Monday 31st August, we will select ten finalists to
feature in an anthology collection that will be made available in ebook and
print editions, to be released alongside our usual book range. The winning
entry will also receive a £200 cash prize, whilst second and third place will
receive £100 and £50 respectively. All ten finalists will also be invited to
participate in social media promotions, live events, interviews and broadcasts
as per the promotion schedule for the anthology.
To cover prize fees and reading time, there is a small entry fee of £4 per
story, payable via PayPal at the time of entering. Authors may enter up to five
different stories, but must pay the entry fee for each one as a separate entry
and transaction.
Co-authored stories are accepted, up to a maximum of two authors per story, and
in the event of winning, authors would share the prize money
evenly.
Odd Voice Out is an independent literary press,
publishing YA and crossover stories filled with unique characters thrown into
extraordinary circumstances. Our genre-bending books take contemporary social
and political themes and explore them through a range of historical,
futuristic, surreal and supernatural settings. Our diverse young heroes are
never your typical leading guys and girls, but are flawed insecure misfits
struggling with everything from racial and sexual identity, to body issues,
disabilities, mental health and worst of all, being teenagers growing up in
worlds gone mad.
EXCERPT
Introduction by Odd Voice Out Publishing
Odd Voice Out
press is the brainchild of offbeat YA writers, K.C. Finn and Kell Cowley – two
author friends from Chester who decided to go into business together and start
their own literary label. They settled on the name Odd Voice Out, partly
because the shape of its acronym inspired the cute bespectacled owl logo. But
mostly because this name set the tone for the sort of YA fiction they love to
read and write. They are dedicated fans of oddball fiction, misfit fiction,
stories that are unusual and voices that stand out from the crowd.
During their own experience writing for YA publishers, agents and anthology
collections over the years, they have been frustrated to find there is still a
depressing amount of conforming to standards, the same conventional characters
always taking centre-stage and genre tropes that are seldom subverted. And
there’s still far too much playing it safe rather than pushing the boundaries,
even in a time when readers are demanding greater diversity and own voices in
the stories they want to see. So when it came the first short story competition
for OVO Press, they wanted to hand the mic to the type of YA protagonists who
aren’t often heard. Having received submissions from all over the world, they
found writers of all different backgrounds, experience levels and ages – some
of them still teenagers themselves. This resulted in the incredible anthology
of Odd Voices that's now available worldwide!
Thoughts On Diverse YA Fiction from
multi-award-winning author Catherine
Johnson
My advice to
anyone creating a different and distinctive character remains the same. When I
read, I want to be swept away by the story. That’s all I ever want. Whether
it’s a book that I pick up off a Waterstones shelf or an unpublished story by a
mentee – that’s what I want. All stories are character and situation. Your
characters have to be three dimensional, they have to have wants and needs. And
the best way to get to know them is by seeing them in action. If you were
making a friend, then you wouldn’t present them with a list of statistics or
ask what they have in their pockets. Let’s see what they do and how they talk.
That’ll tell us who they are.
I absolutely believe all our stories should be diverse – and this isn’t a stick
to beat new (or old) writers with. It’s a widening of the playing field and
offers more opportunities to many, many, more sorts of stories. Trust your
story and trust yourself. Tell the sorts of stories you’d like to read, and
more importantly than that keep writing. It’s most often not your first story
that will find an audience but your fourth, your fifth, or your eleventh. Just
keep going!
GIVEAWAY
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