Deadline
Sunday, August 28, 2016
Categories
Crime/Thriller, Drama, Fantasy, Fiction, General, Horror, Mystery, Romance, Science Fiction, Young Adult
Entry Fees
$10 for the initial entry. We are implementing a rolling rejection system. If your entry is rejected before the deadline, you may re-enter any number of times without any additional fees.
Prizes
1st place: $150+
2nd place: $50+
An additional $3 will be added to prizes for each initial entry after 20.
All winners and honorary mentions will have the opportunity to be published in our magazine.
Description
Contest is open from May 31 to August 28, 2016. Winner will be announced by September 30, 2016.
Rules
Submit a literary short story between 2000 to 8000 words that is set in a foreign location. The story must be original, previously unpublished, and follow these 2 rules:
(1) The primary setting of the story must not be your home continent where you currently live. Yes, we said continent. For example, if you live in North America, then the story can be set in any of the other six continents or on a remote island or out at sea, up in the air, in outer space, or in any imaginary, surreal or fantastical world that does not resemble wherever you live. The setting can be somewhere you have traveled to or lived in before (including your home country which is technically not “foreign” to you, but that’s okay), outside of where you currently reside at. It’s acceptable for re-imagined places to bear the same name as real world locations within in the continent where you live, assuming the imaginary setting has little or no resemblance to the actual place.
(2) The setting must be integral to the story, whether by shaping the cultural identities and mannerisms of its characters, taking on the aspects of a character (itself), creating conflict, or portraying a crucial image, etc. While setting needs to be a remarkable feature of the story, it doesn’t necessarily have to call attention to itself constantly. We’ll leave it up to you. A quick way to tell if you’re on the right track is to ask yourself whether the story changes or falls apart if the setting was substituted by some other place.
Be creative. Foreign doesn’t necessarily have to mean unusual or bizarre; a period piece can be as equally valid as science-fiction.