Our next competition is all about crafting a review. Choose a work of speculative fiction – preferably with a New Zealand connection – that you enjoyed, and write a review of 500-1000 words. Entries will be judged by David Larsen, freelance journalist and regular contributor to the New Zealand Listener and Metro.
A successful review:
- Is clear and follows a well structured argument
- Gives the reader a sense of what the book set out to do and how successful it was
- Backs up claims made by the reviewer with evidence from the text
- Gives a sense of the plot without spoilers
- Is interesting to read
- Demonstrates the relevant degree of familiarity with the genre
- Comes to a clear conclusion, enabling the reader to decide whether they might like to also read the book.
Details
This competition is open to SpecFicNZ members only – new members are always welcome. Email your review to specficnz.fiction(at)gmail(dot)com as a .doc .docx or .rtf file, no later than midnight on 14 February 2015. Include your name in the email but not in the attached document. Multiple submissions are permitted to a maximum of 3 – please send a separate email for each review.
The winner will receive a cash prize of $50 and their review will be published on the SpecFicNZ website. We may request to use other reviews on our website by mutual agreement. You retain copyright to your work.