Speculative Prose Poem/Flash Fiction Contest

Adult division: 18 and over, $10 entry fee per story/poem; multiple entries allowed
Prizes: $500 to first place; OddCon membership + books to top 3

Youth division: under 18 as of Jan. 1, 2014, NO entry fee, but send no more than one entry
Prizes: $50 to first place; OddCon membership + books to top 3

Details: Send 500 words or less of speculative (science-fiction/fantasy/horror) flash fiction or prose poetry (paragraph form). No previously-published work, but simultaneous submissions are allowed, and multiple adult submissions are encouraged. $10 entry fee must be paid for each adult entry submitted. Youth entries are free, but entrant must be under 18 as of January 1, 2014. Please do not enter before October 15. See definitions of “speculative,” “prose poetry,” and “flash fiction.” Read the previouswinning entries!

2014 judge: Laurel Winter, laurelwinter.com
2013 judge: Louis Jenkins, louisjenkins.com
2012 judge: Terry Garey
2011 judge: Marion Boyer
2010 judge: John Rezmerski
2009 judge: Joe Haldeman, home.earthlink.net/~haldeman
2008 judge: Bruce Boston, hometown.aol.com/bruboston

Judging process: Blind judging. Preliminary readers who are SF writers and fans will select the top manuscripts in each division to be sent to the final judge. All entries are read by several different readers. We send not only the entries receiving the highest cumulative scores to the final judge, but also those that are the top picks of individual readers. Convention committee members, their close friends and families, and degree-program or professional students of the judge may not enter. Winners to be notified and results posted by March 15. Winning poems/stories will be read at OdysseyCon, published in the program, and posted on the website.

Entering: pay Adult entry fee of $10 per story/poem via PayPal to treasurer@oddcon.com (click button below to pay), or mail a check payable to OddCon to address below (postmark by January 15). E-mail your work (maximum length 500 words, excluding title), pasted into body of e-mail or attached as .doc or .rtf, to contest14@odysseycon.org. Put last name, first name, and CONTEST: Youth or Adult in the subject line. Be sure to include your name, date of birth if Youth entry, mailing address, phone number, and the name/e-mail under which payment was made for Adult entry if not the one used to enter. Receipt will be acknowledged within 3 days. IMPORTANT NOTE! We need your street address AND telephone number. If you win, we mail you books. The information will not be used for anything other than this contest. Also, we send notification of receipt via e-mail; if you do not hear from us within 3 days of sending your entry, please adjust your spam filter accordingly and contact us. Notification does not come from the contest e-mail address.

Postal mail: Please do not send postal entries unless you have absolutely no access to e-mail. All judging is done via electronic media, and the transcription process from hard copy is unreliable at best.

Questions? E-mail the contest chair, F.J. Bergmann, at contest14@odysseycon.org or call 608-566-9087.

>via: http://odysseycon.org/contest/guide.html