Enter The Fiddlehead’s 23rd Annual Contest today!

The winning entries will be published in the spring 2014 issue of The Fiddlehead (no. 259) 
and on our web site. 
The winning authors will be paid for publication in addition to their prizes!

$2,000 Ralph Gustafson Prize for Best Poem
$250 each for Two Honourable Mentions

$2,000 for Best Story
$250 each for Two Honourable Mentions

Deadline: Postmarked by December 1, 2013

Contest Rules:

• Entries must be original and unpublished elsewhere. No simultaneous submissions and no previously published (or accepted for publication) submissions. This means that an entry must not be under consideration elsewhere for publication or broadcast, nor accepted elsewhere for publication or broadcast, nor entered in any other contest. Work that has appeared on the internet is considered published and is ineligible. 
• Judging for the contest is blind. Do not identify yourself on your actual submission. Include a separate cover page that has on it the entry’s title(s), the category your entry goes in (short fiction or poetry), and your name and contact information (mailing address, phone number, and, if you have one, your email address). 
• All entries must be submitted by mail and postmarked by 1 December (or the next business day if the 1st falls on a weekend). No faxed, digital, or emailed submissions are allowed. 
• Word-processed or typed entries only. Please use white paper, print only print on one side; 12-point fonts preferred. Clip the sheets together, do not staple. 
• Please keep a copy of your entry; entries will not be returned even if accompanied by a SASE. 
• One short-fiction submission is one story (6,000 words maximum). Short-fiction entries should be double spaced and paginated. The word count should be noted on the cover page. 
• One poetry submission is up to 3 poems; no more than 100 lines per poem. The title and the number of lines for each poem should be noted on the cover page. Poems may be single spaced. If a poem is longer than one page, please make sure that each page is numbered and has the poem’s title on it. 
• An entry consists of one submission in one genre (either short fiction or poetry but not both). If you, for example, send 1 poem and a story, then you have sent two entries – one for the poetry category and for the short fiction category — and you must include payment for two entries. 
• Entry Fee: $30 for an entry from Canada and $36 for an entry from elsewhere in the world. 
• The entry fee includes a one-year subscription to The Fiddlehead. You will receive a one-year subscription to The Fiddlehead each time you enter the contest. Already a subscriber? — you’ll receive a one-year extension to your current subscription or you can choose to gift a friend by using this form. 
• Multiple entries are allowed; however, each entry must be accompanied by its own cover page and entry fee. Each entry is good for a one-year subscription. So, for example, if you send two entries and are from Canada, you will send two cover pages (one for each of your two entries) and an entry fee payment of $60, and you will receive a two-year subscription (or a one year subscription for yourself and a one-year gift subscription for a friend). 
• Paying by cheque or money order? Make your cheque or money order payable to The Fiddlehead and enclose it with your entry. International entries paying by cheque or money order must pay in US dollars. 
• Paying by credit card? Entrants wishing to pay by credit card or to give their contest subscription as a gift should download and print the contest credit card/gift form and enclose it with their entries. International entries done by credit card will be charged in Canadian dollars. 
• Contest winners (including the honourable mentions) will be contacted directly (by either email or telephone). Other entrants are not directly contacted about the results. The winning entries are published in The Fiddlehead’s spring issue and the results are also publicized on The Fiddlehead website and social media sites once the spring issue comes out. 
• The two first place winners will be interviewed. The interviews will be published on The Fiddlehead’s blog when the spring issue comes out. 
• The Fiddlehead occasionally swaps its subscription list with other literary organizations. If you don’t wish to be included in such exchanges, please state this on your entry’s cover page.

Ralph Gustafson Poetry Prize: 
Kim Trainor, Cradle Song: Six Variations

Poetry Honourable Mention: Sue Chenette, Inscription
Poetry Honourable Mention: Samantha Bernstein, Eulogy for Finn

Short Ficiton First Prize: 
Rhonda Collis, The Halter

Fiction Honourable Mention: Jennifer Manuel, Silent E
Fiction Honourable Mention: Vin Fielding, All Bones Recovered