Canvas is calling for entries to the 4th Annual Romeo Forbes Storywriting Competition. A cash prize of P30,000 will be given to the winning author.

This year’s contest is based on an original and untitled oil painting by Joy Mallari, winner of the Philip Morris Philippine Art Awards and finalist of the Osaka Triennial and ASEAN Art Awards in 2001. She was part of the prestigious artist collective Sanggawa, which counts Elmer Borlongan, Joy Flores, Mark Justiniani, and Federico Sievert among its members.

Entries may be in English or Filipino and should not exceed 2,000 words. They must not have been previously published.

Aside from the cash prize, the winner will also see his story published in a full-color children’s book.

Now in its fourth year, the contest was named after the late award-winning artist Romeo Forbes, who topped the 1998 Instituto Cervantes art competition as well as the Petron and Shell art competitions, and the Asian Development Bank cover design contest in 2001. Forbes was recognized as one of the top artists in the Asia-Europe Young Artists Competition in 2000.

A pioneer of the Artery, a visual and literary group in Malate, Forbes was 24 when he succumbed to cancer in 2006.

Among the previous winners of the Romeo Forbes storywriting competition are Palanca awardee Becky Bravo (”The Rocking Horse”), Rowald Almazar (“Si Lupito at ang Baryo Sirkero”), and fictionist Fernando Rosal Gonzalez (“Ang Batang Maraming Bawal”).

Contest rules and other details can be found at the official Canvas blog.