Did you know that the good folks at Island Books are having a short story contest for all ages? Please see the details below (from their blog).
Share Your Story: A Contest
More than one person approached us last week, wondering if it wasn’t time for us to sponsor a short story contest. Yes, we thought, that’s a thing we do. How long has it been? Six months? Eighteen months?
Come to find out, it’s been 48. We’re a mite overdue. So we hereby announce the opening of our Quadrennial Short Story Contest. What do you need to know to enter? Not much. Here’s the short version:
There are prizes!
The deadline is March 12, 2017.
Stories should be 1000 words or fewer.
Same basic deal as last time around. If you want to read the winning entries from that contest, you can hop over to the blog post that announced them. Well worth doing, we think. Oh, there is one new wrinkle: we have a celebrity judge! Mark Holtzen, author of the bestselling picture book A Ticket to the Pennant and the middle-grade novel The Pig War, will be sifting through the submissions and making the ultimate decision. So you can bribe us all you like, but the process will remain corruption-free.
If you want further details, try these:
No thematic or topical restrictions. Whatever you want to write about is fine by us.
We’re looking for flash fiction, sudden fiction, short-short fiction, call it what you will. Your limit is 1000 words. One submission per person, please.
We’ll choose three winners, one in each of three age categories: Adult (18 and over), Teen (13 to 17), and Kid (12 and below). Winners will each receive a $50 Island Books gift certificate.
You can submit stories via email (send to [email protected] with the subject line SHARING MY STORY) or in person. Please include your contact information (phone number and/or email address) and your age (if you’re not submitting in the adult category). In-person submissions will not be returned.
Your deadline is close of business (5:00pm PST) Sunday, March 12, 2017.
Winners will be announced on or before March 31, 2017 on the Island Books blog, Message in a Bottle. Winning stories will be published there subsequently.
No previously published material, please. Island Books reserves the right of first publication on our blog and/or our store website for all submitted material in entirety or in excerpt. After that, your story’s all yours.
Current employees of Island Books and their immediate families are ineligible.
Clear enough? We’re excited to start reading your miniature masterpieces, so send ‘em our way soon!
–James