Competition for unpublished fairy tales:

The following details are taken from the website for the award and their press release (note that on the website in quite a few places it talks about 'inedited' fairy tales, but I think this is a mistranslation of unpublished, there are also two different closing dates mentioned–the 15th and the 25th–it's probably best to go for the earlier one!)

The Hans Christian Andersen Fairy-tale Award, devoted to children’s literature and unpublished fables, has been taking place in Sestri Levante since 1967. It is an important and prestigious price recognized both in Italy and at international level. In the past editions, the Andersen Award has involved as main characters and jurors, renowned names such as Italo Calvino, Alberto Moravia, Sergio Zavoli, Peppino De Filippo, Mario Soldati and Emanuele Luzzati.

The Award is dedicated to unpublished fables which are divided into four categories differentiated by the authors’ age. These are: Nursery School (between 3 and 5 year old, in groups), children (6 to 10 year old), teenagers (between 11 and 16 year old) and adults (over 16 year old). The Award is also open to foreign authors who can write fairytales in English, French, German and Spanish.

Fairytales can be sent online through the website: www.andersenpremio.it. The rules state that foreign authors can participate in the Andersen Award with an unpublished fable, no longer than three pages, to be sent, no later than March 15 th, 2010.

The winners will be announced at the Andersen Festival (27th to the 30th of May 2010) which will take place in Sestri Levante, a place which Andersen visited and said this about:

“What a fairy-tale evening did I spend in Sestri Levante! The inn was very close to the sea, and a strong undertow lapped against it; clouds in the sky were crimson red and the mountains were sparkling in the brightest colours. The trees themselves were like gigantic fruit baskets, full of rich bunches of grapes.” 1883

The town's Baia delle Favole (Bay of Fables) is named in honour of Andersen.