Contest

OWC Contests

Short Story Contest

(For the Elizabeth Bolton Poetry Contest, click here.)

For a printable flyer on both contests, click here.

Contest deadline: August 15, 2011

Short Story - both True and Imagined Awards:

First prize: $200
Second prize: $100
Third prize: $50
First Honorable Mention: Certificate of Achievement.
Additional Honorable Mentions credited in Colonygram and on OWC website.
First place winners are featured on the cover of the Colonygram. All winners listed inside Colonygram and on this website.
Winners are invited to read from their winning entry at the awards ceremony.

Short Story Contest Rules:

Original, unpublished short story, fiction or nonfiction.
Word limit: 2500 max.
Fee per entry: $10/OWC member, $15/non-member
$10 optional fee for judges’ constructive critiques.
Standard manuscript format (double-spaced, one-inch margins, 12pt. Courier or Times Roman font).
Title, word count and category (fiction, nonfiction) on first page.
NO author name on story. This is an anonymous contest.
Multiple entries okay.
One entry per submission packet.

Include in Short Story submission packet:

Four stapled copies of one entry. (Keep originals; entries will not be returned.)
One business envelope -- labeled fiction or nonfiction -- with the following inside:
- Check for entry fee. (Can combine with optional critique fee.)
- 3x5 card (please no odd-sized cards) with:

Category (fiction or nonfiction)

Entry title

Name, address, phone, email

OWC member or non-member

How you heard about this contest. Specifically - if online, where?

Critique request if you include optional critique fee.

SASP (Self-addressed stamped postcard for receipt and your piece of mind.)
#10 SASE if you request judges’ constructive critiques (mailed to you in early October.)

Judging Criteria (for fiction and nonfiction short stories only, not necessarily in order of importance.)

Plot (hook, complications, climax, satisfying resolution).
Evokes emotion in reader (e.g. chuckle, sadness).
Theme (what story is about beyond the plot (e.g. courage/fear, loss/gain).
Mechanics (grammar, point of view, showing/telling etc.).
Sensory detail
Originality
Depth of character/character arc
Tension Follows contest director's nit-picky Contest Rules

Mailing address for Short Stories - Both True and Imagined:

OWC Contest

C. Lill Ahrens

306 NW 32^nd St.

Corvallis, OR 97330

For inquiries email C. Lill Ahrens

Short Stories - Both True and Imagined, Final Judge: Jessica Morrell

Jessica Page Morrell lives in Portland, Oregon - a place that feeds her inspiration both from nature and the creative atmosphere found there. Since 1991 she has been teaching, editing, and coaching writers. She is the author of: Thanks, But This Isn't For Us - A (Sort of) Compassionate Guide to Why Your Writing Is Being Rejected; The Writer's I Ching - Wisdom for the Creative Life; Voices from the Street- Truth About Homelessness from Sisters of the Road; Between the Lines - Master the Subtle Elements of Fiction Writing; and Writing Out the Storm.

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