The Dream Foundry short story contest “for beginning professionals” is open to submissions from August 10 – October 11, 2020. The contest is open to writers who have published, in total, fewer than 4,000 words, earned less than $320, and have never been nominated for a major award.
Contest coordinators will select ten finalists, and judges will select first, second, and third-place winners from those finalists. First prize is $1,000, ...Read More
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ARNIE FENNER retired as senior art director at Andrews McMeel on May 29, 2020. He & CATHY FENNER will take over as directors of the Spectrum Fantastic Art competition and editors of the annual Spectrum art book, replacing JOHN FLESKES, beginning with the 28th competition this Fall. The Fenners founded the competition in 1994 and ran it until Fleskes took over in 2013. Further announcements regarding the new advisory ...Read More
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Baen Books has announced the ten finalists for the 2020 Jim Baen Memorial Short Story Award:
The Grand Prize winner ...Read More
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Winners of the New England Science Fiction Association (NESFA) SF/F short story contest were announced at Boskone 57, held at the Westin Waterfront Hotel in Boston MA, February 14-16, 2020. Prizes included certificates of achievement, books from NESFA Press, and free membership to a future Boskone convention.
The 2020 Poul Anderson Creative Writing Contest is open to Orinda CA high school students now through April 10, 2020. The contest is sponsored by the Friends of the Orinda Library, who will reward cash prizes in the categories of Science Fiction/Fantasy, Essay/Memoir/Biography, Poetry, and Short Story. For more information, see the contest website.
Continuum 16 is running a short story competition with the theme “Coming of age in other ...Read More
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Author and philanthropist James Patterson is offering bonuses (a total of $200,000) to Barnes & Noble booksellers this year in the form of a contest: he will give $300 to the bookseller in each B&N branch who creates the best display, as judged by store managers. He says, “I’m excited about all the recent changes at Barnes & Noble and to see where they go next. But I’ve always been ...Read More
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CoNZealand, the 78th Worldcon to be held July 29 – August 2, 2020 in Wellington, New Zealand, has opened the competition to design the base for the 2020 Hugo and 1945 Retro Hugo Awards. The competition is open to artists “living and working in New Zealand.” The deadline to submit proposals is January 17, 2020, with a winner to be selected by early February.
The winner will receive a membership ...Read More
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Dream Foundry, a “non-profit dedicated to bolstering the careers of nascent professionals working with the speculative arts,” has announced the winners of its inaugural writing contest, “open to anyone with a completed short story who had not yet been professionally paid for their work”:
The contest coordinator was William Ledbetter. Judges for 2019
Hawa Jande Golakai of Liberia is one of four Morland Writing Scholarship recipients, chosen for “Speculative fiction of soaring imagination featuring a tightly controlled underwater city of glass in a future mecca for black people in West Africa.” Each winner will receive ₤18,000, paid monthly over the course of twelve months, “to allow them to take a year off to write a book.”
The Morland Writing Scholarships are for “anyone ...Read More
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The Neukom Institute for Computational Science at Dartmouth College is open to submissions for its 2020 Literary Arts Awards now until December 31, 2019. Results will be announced in spring 2020, with $5,000 awarded to each winner in playwriting, established author, and debut author categories. The playwriting prompt is, “What does it mean to be a human in a computerized world?”
For more information, see the Neukom Institute website.
While ...Read More
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Dream Foundry, a “non-profit dedicated to bolstering the careers of nascent professionals working with the speculative arts,” has announced the finalists for its inaugural writing contest which “was open to anyone with a completed short story who had not yet been professionally paid for their work”:
The
Winners of the 2019 Baltimore Science Fiction Society (BSFS) Amateur Writing Contest were announced on October 19, 2019 during Capclave, held at the Rockville Hilton in Rockville MD.
The contest is open to non-professional writers residing in Maryland. The first place winner receives $250, an invitation to read
Dazzling by Chikọdili Emelumadu has won the inaugural Curtis Brown First Novel Prize. Emelumadu will receive £3,000 and an offer of representation from the Curtis Brown agency. The Wickedry of Mrs Wood by Lucy Barker was runner-up, and Barker will also receive an offer of representation; Monkeyflower by Debra Hills won a special commendation prize, earning Hills “a place on a three-month novel-writing course.” Curtis Brown Creative received “more than ...Read More
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The 2020 Jim Baen Memorial Short Story Award contest is open until February 1, 2020. Co-sponsored by Baen Books and the National Space Society, the contest focuses on stories of near-future space exploration.
The grand prize includes publication on the Baen website at “normal paying rates for professional story submittals,” an engraved award, an assortment of Baen books, free admission to the 2020 International Space Development Conference, a year’s membership ...Read More
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Gollancz and author Ben Aaronovitch, in partnership with NaNoWriMo and the Good Literary Agency, have announced a writing prize “to support Black, Asian & ethnic minority writers in the UK in the genres of scifi, fantasy & horror.”
Submissions for short story or novel beginnings from 5,000 to 10,000 words will open October 1, 2019 and close January 31, 2020. Prizes will include £4,000, a critique, and a year-long mentoring ...Read More
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The Arthur C. Clarke Award and the Rumble Museum have announced a new short story competition, open to residents of the UK, age 15 or younger. Contestants must submit “a premise and opening lines for a science fiction short story” based on the theme “Future Season,” including “a description of the world or society your story is set in, an outline of the main characters and plot, and first 350 ...Read More
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First Fandom Experience has announced the Cosmos Prize, a contest inviting writers to create a new final chapter for the novel Cosmos, published serially in Science Fiction Digest starting in June 1933. The novel was based on a plot by editor Raymond A. Palmer, who also coordinated the 16 writers who took part (including Edmond Hamilton, Otis Adelbert Kline, and A. Merritt). The contest organizers think Cosmos “deserves a ...Read More
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Results for the British Fantasy Society’s (BFS) short story competition have been announced:
First prize is £100 and a year’s membership in the BFS. Second prize is £50 and a year’s membership. Third prize is £20. All three stories will be published in BFS Horizons. The contest was judged by Allen Ashley.
For more
The National Fantasy Fan Federation (N3F) is accepting submissions for the 2019 N3F Amateur Short Story Contest, open to writers who’ve sold fewer than two stories to professional SF venues or publishers. “Stories entered in the contest must be original, unpublished, not longer than 8,500 words in length—and must be related to the science fiction, fantasy, or similar genres in the opinion of the judge,” Jefferson Swycaffer. There are no ...Read More
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The New England Science Fiction Association (NESFA) SF/F short story contest is now open to entries from amateur and semi-professional writers. Winners will be selected by a panel of judges and announced at Boskone 57, to be held at the Westin Waterfront Hotel in Boston MA, February 14-16, 2020. Prizes include certificates of achievement, books from NESFA Press, and free membership to a future Boskone convention.
Deadline for submissions is ...Read More
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The International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts (IAFA) has announced that starting in 2020, the Imagining Indigenous Futurisms Award will be presented at the International Conference for the Fantastic in the Arts (ICFA).
The $1,000 award, now in its tenth year, “recognizes emerging authors who use science fiction to address issues of Indigenous sovereignty and self-determination.” Deadline for entry is November 1, 2019.
For more information, see the ...Read More
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The 2019 Illinois Science Fiction in Chicago (ISFiC) short fiction contest for unpublished writers of science fiction and fantasy is open to submissions through September 1, 2019. First prize includes $300 and publication in the Windycon 2019 program book and on the ISFiC website.
For details and rules, see the ISFiC site.
While you are here, please take a moment to support Locus with a one-time or recurring donation. We ...Read More
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Finalists for the sixth annual Baen Fantasy Adventure Award have been announced:
The ...Read More
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The New Visions Award writing contest for YA/middle grade novels and graphic novels by authors of color and indigenous/Native writers is open to submissions through August 31, 2019. The winning submission will receive a $2,000 cash prize and a publishing contract from the Tu Books imprint of Lee & Low Books, and an Honor Award winner will receive $1,000. For details and rules: <www.leeandlow.com/writers-illustrators/new-visions-award>.
While you are here, please take ...Read More
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Baen Books has released the list of ten finalists for the 2019 Jim Baen Memorial Short Story Award:
The Grand Prize winning story will be featured on the Baen website. The author will be given a trophy and paid a professional rate.
Grand Prize, second, and third place ...Read More
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The 2019 Jim Baen Memorial Short Story Award contest is open until February 1, 2019. Co-sponsored by Baen Books and the National Space Society, the contest focuses on stories of near-future space exploration.
The grand prize includes publication on the Baen website at professional rates, an engraved award, an assortment of Baen books, free admission to the 2019 International Space Development Conference, a year’s membership in the National Space Society, ...Read More
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Shortlisted stories for the inaugural FutureBook short fiction contest, in partnership with The Pigeonhole reading app, have been announced:
Finalists were chosen from 36 entries, judged by FutureBook associate editor Molly Flatt, The Pigeonhole founder Anna Jean Huges, and Arthur C. Clarke
Results for the British Fantasy Society’s (BFS) short story competition have been announced:
First prize is £100 and a year’s membership in the BFS. Second prize is £50 and a year’s membership. Third prize is £20. All three stories will be published in BFS Horizons. The contest was judged
Light Bringer Project and Sci-Fest L.A. have opened submissions for the Roswell Award for short SF by adults living anywhere, and for the Tomorrow Prize for short SF by Los Angeles County high school students. Three special awards are included: the Women Hold Up Half the Sky award presented by Artemis Journal and the Hollywood Chapter of the National Organization for Women, the Best Translated Science Fiction Story Award, and ...Read More
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FutureBook and The Pigeonhole reading app are launching a short story contest to be judged by FutureBook associate editor Molly Flatt, The Pigeonhole founder Anna Jean Huges, and Arthur C. Clarke award director Tom Hunter. The contest will focus on stories that “explore the future of reading, writing, publishing and bookselling.” The winning author receives a full set of novels from the 2018 Clarke Award shortlist and will be invited ...Read More
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The Guardian announced the shortlist for the third annual Guardian and 4th Estate BAME short story prize, which offers “a chance to win £1,000, an exclusive one‑day publishing workshop and a taste of online publication.” The six authors shortlisted are Savannah Burney, Jason Deelchand, Kit Fan, Gurnaik Johal, Yiming Ma, and Varaidzo, and include short stories of genre interest.
“The prize is open to all black, Asian, minority ethnic writers ...Read More
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Regional winners for the 2018 Commonwealth Short Story Prize have been announced, including several titles of genre interest: “Ghillie’s Mum” by Lynda Clark is the winner for the Canada and Europe region; “The Divine Pregnancy in a Twelve-Year-Old Woman” by Sagnik Datta is the winner for the Asia region; and “Passage” by Kevin Hosein is the winner for the Caribbean region.
The Commonwealth Short Story Prize is awarded for the ...Read More
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