Deadline
Tuesday, June 30, 2020
Categories
Entry Fees
No entry fee. Enter once per quarter until you win!
Prizes
$5,000 grand prize, 1st place $1,000.00, 2nd Place $750.00 and 3rd Place $500.00. These prizes are given out 4 times per year (every quarter).
Winners for the year are published in annual national bestselling anthology. (you are paid professional rates for being in the anthology too) Winners are flown to Hollywood, California and given a week-long workshop with 12 New York Times bestselling author judges mentoring you.
Description
The contest has launched the careers of 13 New York Times bestsellers and has been ongoing for 37 years. Stories must be short stories between 4 and 17 thousand words long in fantasy, science fiction or light horror.
This is a quarterly contest – There are 4 deadlines per year. 31 March, 30 June, 30 September and 31 December. You may enter once every quarter.
The contest is anonymously judged. The best story wins, your age, gender, nationality does not matter. Stories must be written in English. This is for non-professionals only. You can only have 2 professionally paid short stories published, once you hit 3 you are no longer eligible. See full contest rules for future info.
The contest also offers a free writing workshop on its site featuring essays and video lectures by Orson Scott Card (Ender’s Game), Tim Powers (On Stranger Tides – yes the Disney movie based on his book), and David Farland (The Runelord Series). It is a go-at-your-own-pace workshop and takes between 10 and 15 hours to complete.
Enter your story right on the website (see below)