Sometimes I spend Friday nights sitting cross-legged in pajamas and a ski hat (because I’m too lazy to close the window), drinking my roommate’s whiskey and ginger, writing and reading. This past Friday, I did just that: Nabila is visiting so we holed up in my living room – she working on her website, and I working on a recent story that I wanted to enter into the Zoetrope: All-Story short fiction contest. Deadline: Friday night at midnight.
Though I have no illusions of grandeur that I’ll actually win, it felt good to hunker down, do some serious revision and send my baby out into the world. Rejection is just a reminder that you’re still trying.
That said, I want to start off the month of October with that attitude, and I thought I’d share some fiction contests coming up.
October 4: Opium Magazine’s 7-Line Story Contest. From About.com: “$1000 and publication in Opium9 for a story or prose poem of seven lines or fewer (8.5″ x 11″ paper with 1″ margins). The winning story along with runners-up will be featured in Opium11, slated for release in March. Submit stories online. $10 entry fee.”
Opium’s a pretty cool magazine. I attended a Literary Deathmatch that they hosted at the enormous room in Cambridge, and it was a great representation of how lively and interactive writing can be.
More contests after the jump…
October 15: 2011 William Van Dyke Short Story Prize. Award: $1,000 and publication in the Spring 2011 issue of Ruminate. Entry fee: $15 (includes a free copy of the Spring 2011 issue).
October 15: Indiana Review Fiction Prize. Award: $1,000 and publication in Indiana Review. Entry fee: $15, which including a subscription to Indiana Review. Accepting submissions up to 35 pages.
October 15: Italo Calvino Prize in Fabulist Fiction. Award: $1,500, publication in Salt Hill Journal, and an all-expenses-paid trip to read at the University of Louisville’s annual Louisville Conference on Literature and Culture. Entry fee: $25 . Guidelines: Up to 25 pages of a short story, short story collection, novel, or novella in the fabulist fiction vein of Italo Calvino.
October 31: Dana Awards Literary Competition. Award: Three prizes of $1,000. Entry fee: $15 for five poems of no more than 100 lines each; $25 for a short story of up to 10,000 words; $25 for the first 50 pages of a novel. Guidelines: Unpublished group of poems, a short story, and a novel or novel-in-progress.
October 31: Glimmer Train Press Family Matters. Award: $1,200 and publication in Glimmer Train Stories, and 20 copies of that issue. Entry fee: $15. Guidelines: A short story of up to 12,000 words about family.
October 31: Kore Press Short Fiction Award. Award: $1,000 and publication by Kore Press. Entry fee: $15. Guidelines: A short story of up to 4,000 to 12,000 words by a woman.
October 31: Narrative Magazine 30 Below Contest. Award: $1,500; all entries will be considered for publication in Narrative Magazine. Entry fee: $20. Guidelines: A short story, essay, or excerpt from a work of fiction or creative nonfiction of up to 15,000 by a writer under 30 years of age.
October 31: The Writing Site Arthur Edelstein Prize for Short Fiction. Award: $1,000 and publication on writingsite.com. Guidelines: Short story of up to 6,000 words.
November 1: Reed Magazine John Steinbeck Short Story Award. Award: $1,000 and publication in Reed Magazine. Entry fee: 
$15, which includes a copy of the prize issue. Guidelines: Short story up to 6,000 words.
Well, there’s a condensed list of some of the contests I’ll hopefully be entering this fall. Let us know of any contests you’re entering or have won! For more contests than you can probably afford to enter, check out the submission calendar over at Poets & Writers.
The things they read. 