American Short Fiction blog

Our flash fiction contest opens TODAY, Monday, February 15, and runs through May 1. Guidelines here.

We accept entries of 1,000 words or less. This contest includes two cash prizes, and both come with publication. Winners will be published in our Fall 2010 issue.

Over the last few weeks, we’ve intensified our reading schedule—in order to review the many, many contest submissions. On Saturday, a group of 10 editorial readers gathered to begin selecting the top 10 stories. These 10 entries will be passed on to our contest judge, Rick Moody, at the end of the month. He will pick the two winning stories.

We’re not done selecting the top 10 yet, but the stack is starting to come together. We found some commonalities among the stories we were reading. Animals (including a weeping camel) cropped up a lot in these entries, as did neuropathy, or the lack of feeling in characters’ extremities. And several stories featured big babies.

Stay tuned for more news on the contest, plus details on our flash fiction prize. We start accepting entries in flash fiction February 15.

Our short story contest—judged by Rick Moody—opens next Tuesday, September 15. Guidelines are here. You can prepay for your contest entry now and get friendly contest updates and submission reminders from us.

Our September web exclusive is up now. It’s John Maradik’s biting, disturbing, and really, really good “Tied to Us.” Go read it.

Next week, we’ll have a full report on what ASF staff is reading. But right now, we wanted to share this object of beauty: Pictorial Webster’s: A Visual Dictionary of Curiosities. We need one. Uh, for the office.

The book, which was more than 10 years in making, is “a little universe of 19th-century America.” With beautiful, strange engravings. Check out this behind-the-scenes video from fine-press bookmaker John Carrera. Or enter a drawing to win your own copy.

ASF has glimpsed that rare creature—a free contest worth entering. Actually, we’ve spotted a half dozen.

There’s David Letterman’s Top 10 List, for which you can win a somewhat useful prize if your joke makes it into Dave’s list. Enter weekly.

Esquire Fiction Contest. Deadline: midnight of August 1. Winner gets 2500 smackers and publication in the magazine. Submit electronically only. See contest’s Complete Official Rules.

The Greensboro Review‘s Robert Watson Literary Prize for fiction is worth $500 and publication. Deadline: September 15. 7,500 words max. See submission guidelines and mailing address.

The Iowa Short Fiction Award and the John Simmons Short Fiction Award:  writers who have not yet published a book of prose fiction are eligible. Postmark entries between August 1 and September 30. Winning manuscripts will be published by University of Iowa Press. See site for full details.

Memoir (and)‘s 6th contest open to prose, graphic novel, and more. Deadline: August 15. Grand prize for fiction: $500, publication, and copies. See submission guidelines. Bonus: even if your entry doesn’t win, it’ll be considered for regular publication.

Review Fuse’s Flash Fiction Writing Contest is open to international entries. Winner takes away $100. While the contest doesn’t cost anything, Review Fuse operates partly as a peer review site, which means to qualify for the prize, you must submit and critique three other writers’ 1,000-word pieces on the site by July 31.

If you win any of these contests, let us know.

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Know of any other free contests? Let ASF readers know in the comments section.

Tania Hershman at The Short Review celebrates the short story collection. Recent highlights: new work outside the United States, including Deborah Kay Davies’s debut short story collection, Grace, Tamar, and Laszlo the Beautiful, which has won the 2009 Wales Book of the Year; Pasha Malla’s debut; and Canadian Trillium Book Award winner The Withdrawal Method.

Ms. Herman notes, too, some two dozen short story collection competitions, some of whose deadlines are approaching, including. . .

The Drue Heinz Literature Prize (June 30)

The Drue Heinz Literature Prize recognizes and supports writers of short fiction and makes their work available to readers around the world. The award is open to writers who have published a book-length collection of fiction or at least three short stories or novellas in commercial magazines or literary journals.

The Story Prize (July 15)

Eligibility for The Story Prize is restricted to collections of short fiction (at least two stories and/or novellas) by a living author, written in English. Eligible books must be first publication of the work in the United States during the calendar year, in either hardcover or paperback, and available for purchase by the general public. Collections must also include work previously unpublished in book form.

The Scotiabank Giller Prize (August 1)

The Scotiabank Giller Prize is worth $70,000 (Canadian) annually. A purse of $50,000 is awarded to the author of the best Canadian full-length novel or collection of short stories published in English. Each of the finalists will receive $5,000.

Fiction Collection Ronald Sukenick/American Book Review Innovative Fiction Contest (November 1)

The Ronald Sukenick/American Book Review Innovative Fiction Contest is open to any writer of English who is a citizen of the United States and who has not previously published with Fiction Collective Two. Submissions may include a collection of short stories, one or more novellas, or a novel of any length. There is no length requirement. Works that have previously appeared in magazines or in anthologies may be included. Translations and previously self-published collections are not eligible. To avoid conflict of interest, former or current students or close friends of the final judge for 2008, Michael Martone, are ineligible to win the contest. Employees and Board members of FC2 are not eligible to enter.

See the full Short Review list of contests and awards for short story collections here.

Writer’s Digest and WritersDigest.com are searching for a student blogger who will be in an MFA program during the 2009-2010 school year. The contest is called “MFA Confidential” and it’s free. Deadline is July 1, 2009; the winning blogger will be responsible for posting three times a week from September 2009 through May 2010 at WritersDigest.com.

Check out the guidelines and other details at http://www.writersdigest.com/mfacontest.

The deadline for our first annual American Short(er) Fiction contest is quickly approaching. We’ll be accepting submissions through this Friday, May 1. First prize is $500 and publication in our Fall issue; second prize is $250 and publication in our Fall issue. The entry fee is only $15 for up to three shorts! You can find the full contest guidelines here and enter here.