Further Writing Competition July 2011

I was searching on google for writing contests this July and stumbled upon this. Hope you might be interested.
If you are a writer who has written a novel opening anytime before 31st July 2011, The Next Big Author Competition and associated site youwriteon.com are running another initiative for novel writers in July 2011 with feedback from Random House and Orion, the publishers of Dan Brown and Terry Pratchett. The Top Ten highest rated authors of opening chapters between 5,000 to 7,000 words - written prior to 31st July 2011 - will be read by and receive feedback from Random House and Orion. Both publishers have been participating on youwriteon.com for several years. See the competition rules for this further competition on the website:
http://www.thenextbigauthor.com/Information/Further-Writing-Competition-July-2011.aspx

Sefi Attah's "Everything good will come"

Seffi Attah

I finished reading Seffi Atta's "Everything good will come" last week. It's a poignantly illustrative tale of the Nigerian middle class; the ones in Lagos. Good story, beautifully written and simple in style. i also like the innocent perspective and the intense optimism towards feminism which I find amusing. Kudos to Attah for making making a simple biography seem like an epic tale. I must confess i enjoyed it. No wonder it won the Wole Soyinka prize for prose. This is one of those things that make me wonder why more Nigerians are doing well in creative writing abroad while many are struggling to get published in the country. Seffi Attah lives in the United states with her husband. The book was published by Farafina books, who also publish Chimamanda Adichie in Nigeria.