Alternative Reality Submissions

There are new submissions open for two anthologies at Alternative Reality. The two anthologies are called Summer’s End (wanting fantasy stories) and Broken Bones & Ten Dollar Bills (looking for science fiction stories).

The deadline is the 30^th April and stories should be between 2000 and 5000 word. More details can be found here.

Hic Dragones - micropress open call!

Hic Dragones is a Manchester-based micro-press and creative writing organisation. Their recently-launched anthology Impossible Spaces featured short stories from upcoming authors as well as long-established names such as Simon Bestwick and Ramsey Campbell.

Now Hic Dragones have another open call: this time, for an anthology titled Hauntings. Full details can be found over here. If this sounds like your bag, go see what they're looking for...

Radio Opportunity

BBC Radio 4 are inviting submissions from writers "new to radio" for their annual season of short plays, Opening Lines. By short, they point out, they mean around a maximum of 2000 words, with an emphasis on narrative rather than dialogue. They are also at pains to point out that they will be looking for plays that successfully link the end back to the beginning. Helpfully, the website - see here, folks - gives examples from last year's entries.

The submission window closes on December 14th 2012. For full details, see the link above.

Fields of Opportunity

NewCon Press has announced a new flash-fic competition, in association with the Institute of Agricultural Engineers. No, really, this does make sense. They're looking for stories that explore the possible futures for agricultural engineering, farming and food production over the next century. Successful stories are in line for a prize of up to £75, as well as publication in both the IAE's journal and a themed anthology from NewCon Press itself.

Details can be found here; the word limits are strictly between 800-900; and all submissions must be received by January 12th 2013.

In other news, don't forget that tomorrow night is the groop's second meet of the month - as ever, we're at the Old Queen's Head from 7.30ish. Look forward to seeing y'all there...

No one would have believed...

Canadian "micropublisher" Northern Frights is looking for sf short stories for a new anthology, War of the Worlds: Front Lines.

"... we would like to see are stories influenced by HG Wells' The War of the Worlds and containing Aliens in some form against Humanity. They don't have to be the tripod riding, octopus-style Martians from the original novel. In fact, we would prefer seeing what your imagination can come up with. And while the title of the anthology is War of the Worlds: Front Lines, we realize that wars between man and alien could be fought on many fronts, and in many ways. Feel free to send stories that span time, space, and genres."

Stories should be no more than 8,000 words. Payment is one cent per word, up to $50.00 (plus one contributor copy). Deadline is 31st December 2009. Submissions should be sent as RTF attachments to nfpsubmissions@gmail.com.

See here for full details. Check the guidelines - the publisher is quite particular about manuscript format.

Dog Horn Literature & Art Prize announced

Dog Horn Publishing, publishers of Polluto magazine, has announced their first Literature and Art competition for "works of a cutting edge or transgressive nature" in fiction, poetry and art.

"Entries should be experimental, cross-genre or post-something in nature. We want you to challenge traditional forms and ask difficult questions. We want you to have fun and, to coin a cliché, think outside the box. In fact, we want you to take that box, cram it with Semtex and blow it to pieces."

Competition ends 1 April 2010, and the winner in each category will win a publishing contract for a book-length project of fiction, poetry, art of combination of all three.

Entrants must be 18 at time of submission. Entry is not free, but as per the following:

• short stories cost £5 for the first entry (max 5,000 words) or £7 (max 5,001 - 10,000 words), with additional stories costing £4/£6, respectively
• poems cost £3 for the first entry (max 40 lines) or £4 (41 lines+), with additional poems costing £2/£3, respectively
• art submissions cost £10 for the first entry, and £8 for additional entries

See here for full details.

Blade Red Press anthology open for submissions

Blade Red Press's first anthology is now open for submissions. Blade Red Dark Pages - Volume 1 will be a dark speculative fiction anthology, available in early 2010 (before June). Only submissions sent between 17 September and 30 November 2009 will be considered.

Stories must be up to 7,500 words, and have "some element of a speculative nature" and "must also have a dark and gritty edge". Send stories as .rtf attached to an email to contact@blade-red.com. The subject of the email must read, "SUBMISSION: Story Title". The body of the email must include: story title, author's name, address, contact email, and wordcount of the submission.

Payment is AUD$25 per story, plus a contributor's copy of the anthology. Payment by PayPal only.

See here for full details.

Sunday Times Short Story Competition

The Sunday Times has created a new literary short story award, with the largest prize of any short sotry competition - £25,000 to the winner. There are also five runner-up prizes of £500.

The competition is open to anyone who has been previously published in the UK or Ireland (does not include self-published works, or on-line publication). Stories must be no more than 7,000 words, and seven copies must be provided.

Deadline is 30 November 2009. The winner will be announced at the Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival in March 2010.

See here for full details.

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.

BBC National Short Story Award 2009

The BBC National Short Story Award competition is now in its fourth year. It's not genre, but neither does it exclude genre stories. The competition is only open to writers who "previously have had works of prose fiction, drama or poetry published by a UK publisher (excluding self-publishing) or established printed magazine in the UK or broadcast by a UK national radio station".

Word limit is 8,000 words. Deadline is 5 p.m., 15 June 2009.

First prize is £15,000. Runner-up gets £3,000, and three other shortlisted stories wil lreceive £500 each.

See here or here for more details, entry form and terms and conditions (note: both are Word documents).

Concept Sci-Fi Short Story Competition

Concept Sci-Fi magazine has launched its first annual short story competition. Prize is £100, plus assorted "goodies" from sf author and competition judge Sean Williams. Entry fee is £3.50, and all short-listed entries will be published in a special edition of the magazine. Deadline is 15th June 2009. All entries must "conform to the following theme":

Frank Zappa once said that everything in the universe is part of one great big note. He wasn't far wrong. There's music in the earth's core, in the sun's atmosphere, even in the roiling fire of the Big Bang. There's music in our interior lives too, in the stories we tell. "Music can name the unnameable and communicate the unknowable", according to Leonard Bernstein, which makes it a perfect tool in the writing of space opera--my true but not my only love.

Way back in the late 1980s, I had to choose between two lives: one writing words and another writing notes. In an alternate universe, there's a version of me beavering away at a new symphony, or the score to a Hollywood movie. Here, the closest I get is putting Gary Numan lyrics in the mouths of my characters, and dreaming.

Dream for me. Tell me the note that ripples through spacetime in the wake of an ftl cruiser. Convey to me the songs that alien cephalopods whistle in their jovian soup. Give me the music of the spheres as you hear it. When the echoes fade, we'll all be richer for it.

See here for more details.

Genomics Short Story Competition

Genomics Network has launched a short story competition. The subject is, unsurprisingly, genetics:

Information about the genetic makeup of people, animals and plants impacts on every aspect of our lives. But do we understand this impact? And what should we make of it?

How is our understanding of who we are affected by the knowledge that we share so much of our genetic makeup with fruit flies, mice and even pumpkins?

Max length 3,000 words. First prize is £500. Closing date is 31st March 2009.

Winning entries to be posted on the Genomics Forum web site.

See here for more information.

Another Competition

The US National Space Society and Baen Books have teamed up to create a science fiction short story competition in memory of Jim Baen. They want "a short story of no more than 8,000 words, that shows the near future (no more than about 50-60 years out) of manned space exploration." There is no entry fee. Deadline is 1st April 2009.

Details here.

Aeon Award 2009 Now Open

The short fiction competition run by Albedo One magazine is now open. Grand prize is €1000 and publication in Albedo One. Second and third place prizes are €200 and €100 and guaranteed publication in Albedo One. Entry fee is €7 and you can submit as many time as you want.

Details here.