Jan 10, 2010

Calling All Bloggers













Are you a Poet, Short Story Writer or a Photographer?...then read on....

For the second year running the Left Coast Eisteddfod is being held in Portland Oregon. What is an Eisteddfod?   An Eisteddfod is essentially an arts competition and the Left Coast Eisteddfod is an online arts competition. It features four categories:- Poetry, Short Story, Photography and Video.  The first Eisteddfod was held in 1176 in Cardigan in Wales. The National Eisteddfod and Bala Eisteddfod are held in Wales every year and more all over the world, wherever Welsh people settled. The competition is open to both Americymru members and non-members and submissions need not have any Welsh relevance.

Why should this be of interest to bloggers?

  • Cash prizes of $150 dollars in all competition categories!
  • Submissions judged by experts with international reputations!
  • Winning submissions and other entries stay on a heavily trafficed page-rank 4, social network site for more than a year together with backlink!
  • No registration fee!

Two ways to submit your entry

If you have an original poem,short story, photograph or video that you would like to enter you can either,

  • Join the site. Americymru is an American Welsh social networking site on the Ning network BUT if you have no Welsh heritage fear not. You can simply check the Eisteddfod option when categorizing your profile or copy and paste the following ....'I am here to compete in the Eisteddfod', in the 'About Me' field. Registration only takes a minute or two. Please remember that in order to qualify your blog must have some literary, poetic or photographic content. If this is the case please feel free to include a link to your blog on your profile page. To join Americymru go here.
  • If you prefer not to join but still wish to compete, email your submission to americymru@gmail.com. We will post it for you together with your backlink. You may request that your submission be removed at any time and we guarantee to respect your copyright. Your content will not appear on any other page than the submission page.

The winners will be announced at the Left Coast Eisteddfod in Portland Oregon on Oct 6th 2010. Winners will be notified via email and checks mailed shortly after.

Why are we doing this?

Welsh culture is rich with artistic tradition in poetry, song and story.  Our mission is to promote art in the Welsh tradition in North America and to bring the Eisteddfod and the Welsh love of the arts and the art of the word to artists around the world.

( Submissions deemed to be of insufficient quality may be rejected by the Eisteddfod Organizing Committee.Please enter your best work. Blatant link-dropping will not be tolerated. )

To all our contestants both current and future we wish the very best of luck:)



9 comments:

  1. Pamela7:56 PM

    This is a great competition for blogs as well as photographers. If I had a blog in that area of expertise I would enter it. I am going to educate myself on the Welsh culture so I can get a better understanding of what the contest is about.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Arsena7:57 PM

    A couple questions

    Is this a yearly contest

    What is deemed as insufficient quality ?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Americymru8:31 PM

    Hi Arsena

    The answer to your first question is a straightforward yes. If you follow he links in the post you'll find reports of last years 'live' Eisteddfod events ( at which the winners of the online competitions were announced ). You'll see there that we were even graced with a visit from the Mayor of Portland, Sam Adams.

    The answer to your second question is not so straightforward but mainly we are concerned to prevent people from attempting to exploit the competition. If someone were to submit a four line limerick to the poetry competition, or an unfocused picture of their cat to the photography competition and demand a link as a consequence....then we would probably consider that they were not being entirely serious. Of course qualitative judgements are all somewhat subjective and arbitrary so, to avoid unnecessary dispute and disappointment, it might be a good idea to look through the submissions we have already had in from members. That should give people an idea of what they're up against. I hope none of this sounds too intimidating...we most certainly want people to compete and we will only reject submissions as a last resort.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Cinnamon5:42 PM

    This looks like a fun contest and a great way to promote the Welsh culture. The four different mediums poetry, video, short story and photography provide many options for submissions.

    ReplyDelete
  5. cellbloggy4:22 AM

    Hello Sir, The information regarding this contest is very useful. i too have a blog. please tell me could i participate in it?
    http://cellbloggy.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous12:37 PM

    Hi

    Absolutely yes. If you wish to compete in the Eisteddfod and you are not of Welsh descent simply join the site and say 'I am here for the Eisteddfod' in the About Me field on the sign up form.. We will welcome you as we would any other member and you can then go ahead and post your entry in the Competition Groups whenever you are ready. The Americymru group is a Welsh group BUT the Eisteddfod is an international competition open to all nationalities. I guess its a little bit confusing but please do not hesitate to to post if you have any further questions at any time.

    If you decide to join....welcome to Americymru, and we look forward to your submission. Best of luck in the Eisteddfod.

    Best Regards

    Ceri Shaw

    ReplyDelete
  7. Americymru12:42 PM

    Heres the procedure:-

    1. Join the site indicating in the 'About Me' field that you are here to participate in the Eisteddfod. To join go here:- http://americymru.ning.com/main/authorization/signUp?

    2. After we have approved your membership ( which we will as soon as we recieve the email ) you can join any of the Eisteddfod Competition Groups. You will find them on the groups page which is linked from the main navbar ( and from several other places on the site )

    3. Read the submission instructions in the groups. Basically as a member all you need to do is cut and paste your submissions as individual discussions in the groups. Directions for that are on the main group page. If you want to include backlinks to your site or blog please do so on your submission pages. We would appreciate a reciprocal link to the main Eisteddfod competition page ( http://americymru.ning.com/page/the-left-coast-eisteddfod-2010 ) from your site but that is NOT obligatory.

    If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to email. We are also looking for suggestions as to how to streamine the submissions process and make it a little more intuitive. We realise that it is a little convoluted at the moment. In part we are constrained by the limitations of our chosen platform BUT if theres anything we can do to make things easier, we are all ears:)

    Best Regards

    Ceri Shaw

    ReplyDelete
  8. Americymru1:03 PM

    I apologise for the duplicate comments above. Haloscan seems to have gone crazy this morning

    ReplyDelete
  9. Brian D. Hill6:03 PM

    Sounds like an amazing place for Welsh ancestry and Welsh related stuff. This site is a great alternative and social site to Ancestry.com.

    ReplyDelete

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