The 5th Wordstock Short Fiction CompetitionThis international contest is a “double blind” competition. The judges, a collection of writers, academics, publishers, bookstore owners, and literary critics, will choose 10 finalists. All 10 finalists’ stories will be published in the Wordstock Ten, an anthology that will be available at the festival, at Portland-area bookstores, and online through the Wordstock website. Every writer who enters the competition will receive a copy of the anthology.
The winner of the competition, chosen from this field of 10 finalists, receives a first prize of $1,000 and publication in the October 2011 issue of Portland Monthly magazine. The final judge for this year’s competition will be novelist and story writer Aimee Bender.
This year, for the first time, Wordstock will only be accepting electronic entries to this competition. (Click here to go to the submission page!)
Submission guidelines
- All short stories must be works of fiction written in English
- Stories must be an original work and not previously published
- The entry fee is $20 per short story entry
- There are no genre restrictions, and comics are acceptable
- Manuscripts may be in Word or PDF format
- Manuscripts must be double-spaced
- Stories should be no less than 1,500 and no more than 3,000 words
- Each submission file you upload must omit the writer’s contact information—DO NOT put this information on the manuscript!
- Entries that do not follow these guidelines will be disqualifiedDeadline for 2011: July 15, 2011
Any proceeds from the Wordstock Short Fiction Competition are used to support Wordstock’s work with teachers and students.