Deadline
Wednesday, January 15, 2020
Categories
Entry Fees
No Entry Fees
Prizes
$500 cash prize pool as well as copies of publications
- One Grand Prize consisting of $300 in cash, as well as copies of FFE’s publications: The Visual History of Science Fiction Fandom: A Tour of the 1930s; The Complete Science Fiction Digest and Fantasy Magazine, a three-volume set including Cosmos.
- One Second Prize consisting of $100 in cash, as well as a copy of FFE’s publication: The Visual History of Science Fiction Fandom: A Tour of the 1930s.
- Two Third Prizes, each consisting of $50 in cash, as well as FFE’s publication: The Visual History of Science Fiction Fandom: A Tour of the 1930s.
Description
First Fandom Experience is a cooperative publishing project whose goal is to honor, preserve, and bring to life the story of the “first fans” — the pioneers who were instrumental in defining, driving, and growing science fiction and fantasy in the 1930s and beyond. First Fandom Experience is so-named because we hope to capture — or even recreate — the sense of what it was like to participate in the inception and early growth of organized science fiction fandom. To this end, we’re pleased to announce our first writing contest: The Cosmos Prize.
Cosmos was an ambitious serial novel orchestrated by the staff of Science Fiction Digest (later Fantasy Magazine) beginning in June, 1933. The story of Cosmos spanned 17 chapters written by 16 different authors. Raymond A. Palmer drafted the plot outline and coordinated the work of the writers. The young fanzine editor was able to convince many of the prominent professionals of the day to participate.
You can read the entirety of the novel and explore the full history of the event at The Cosmos Project web site (https://cosmos-serial.com/)
As you can imagine, making this all work was a major challenge. The results… well, also not surprisingly, are a bit of a hash. Still, Cosmos represents an iconic event in the early history of science fiction fandom, and deserves remembering.
Even more than remembering, Cosmos deserves a better ending than it got. In this writer’s humble opinion, the final chapter utterly failed to capitalize on the potential of the installments that preceded it. Penned by no-less an esteemed professional as Edmond Hamilton, the concluding Chapter 17 — Armageddon in Space — seemed to ignore much of what came before. This has always bothered us. The Cosmos Prize is our attempt to right (or re-write) an historic tragedy.
First Fandom Experience will award prizes, both cash and merchandise, to selected writers who submit alternative versions of Chapter 17 of Cosmos.
For full contest information, please visit our website here (https://firstfandomexperience.wordpress.com/)
Contact Information
Visit the contest page at https://firstfandomexperience.wordpress.com/writing-contest-500-in-prizes/
Or, contact us at [email protected] or [email protected]