Thursday 28 May 2009

British Fantasy Society competition now open

This competition is open to anyone who has had no more than three pieces of fiction published in paying venues. You don't have to be a member of the British Fantasy Society either, although non-members must pay a £5 admin fee to enter. Nor does the story have to be fantasy - science fiction and horror are equally welcome.

First prize is £50 and publication by the British Fantasy Society. Runner-up prize is £25 and publication by the British Fantasy Society.

Entries should be no more than 5,000 words in length. Deadline is 31 August 2009.

Send all submissions - in standard manuscript format, attached as .doc or .rtf - to shortstorycomp@britishfantasysociety.org. Put "BFS Short Story Competition" as the title of your email.

See here for full competition rules.

Friday 8 May 2009

The Hub magazine competion extended

The Hub magazine announced its short story competition, Bootstrap SF, back in September last year. The original closing date was 14 May 2009. This has now been extended to 14 June 2009.

Bootstrap SF
The British are an unusual combination of heroism and fatalism, humour and malice. Their Science Fiction is unique, blending pragmatism with sarcasm and death with laughter. For the British, Science Fiction is something subtler than the standard utopias and dystopias, something more concerned with exploring the future with a healthy cynicism.

The genre faces stagnation. Fans who discovered SF in the Sixties and Seventies are now actively resisting the very progress that they embraced when they were younger, cutting out new audiences by relentlessly defending stories which have little relevance to newer, younger readers. SF has built a wall around itself, and for it to survive we must break it down.


The competition is only open to UK-resident writers who have not previously made a professional sale (i.e., 5p or more per word).

First prize is £100, and publication in The Hub #100 (August 2009). Twelve runners-up will also be published in The Hub. No further fee will be paid for either. The winner and runners-up will also be published in a paperback anthology.

Stories must be between 5,000 and 10,000 words, and should be sent as attached RTF files to Boostrap.sf(at)hubfiction.com. See here for details on the required layout of manuscripts, and for information on the judges.