Thank you for your interest in submitting to F(r)iction's contests!

Fall 2024 Contest Information

Deadline: November 1, 2024
Results: Announced April 18, 2025
Prizes: Win $1,600 in prizes!
Guest Judges: Lindz McLeod, KRISTINE ESSER SLENTZ, and Catherine McNamara

Categories Accepted

• Short stories: 1,001 – 7,500 words
• Flash fiction: up to 1,000 words per piece
• Poetry: up the three pages per poem

Please visit our guidelines page to properly format your work for submission. We won't reject a submission flat out for not following guidelines, but we will frown the whole time we're reading.

What We Look For in Submissions

Our editors have drafted up this fantastic page on our website to share what we look for in our creative submissions. We strongly recommend you read this and check out the examples before submitting to get an idea of our general publishing aesthetic. 

We also highly recommend checking out a past issue of F(r)iction. We have several pieces available online, but there’s nothing like holding a glossy, full-color issue in your hands. You can check out all of our issues in our shop. 

Our Submission Guidelines

The winner will be announced publicly on April 18, 2025. All participants will be notified about the contest results through their Submittable account so please do not contact us before this date asking about the results. Judges' decisions are final. 

We accept work, written in English, from anywhere in the world—regardless of genre, style, or origin—and welcome speculative writing and experimental literature. Strange is good. Strange with a strong character arc is even better. Keep it weird, folks.

Writers over the age of thirteen are welcome to submit. Please note that if you are aged 13 – 16 and your work is selected for publication, we will require a signature from a parent or a guardian.

We are unable to offer refunds for contest submissions, so please read these guidelines and choose your submission category carefully. 

Staff members are not eligible for participation.    

We read all submissions anonymously. Please include your name and contact information in your cover letter only and remove any identifying information from both the submitted manuscript and the file name as well.

Any work previously submitted to F(r)iction for publication is not eligible.

Please also be aware that as we receive hundreds of submissions for each of our contest we are unable to offer personalized feedback. It's not that we don't want to, but there's only so many volunteer staffers on our team.

We accept, and encourage, simultaneous submissions and only ask that you withdraw your piece(s) using Submittable upon acceptance elsewhere. 

We do not accept work previously published elsewhere.

We edit every piece accepted for publication, including all our contest winners, whether you work is selected for publication through our online blog or in our print magazine. For this collaborative process we will pair you with one of our Senior Editors. All our editors have been trained to help guide the development of each piece to reach its fullest potential in keeping with the author’s vision. This does not mean we will take on a wild jumble of words and half-formed musings. But it does mean that we value your work and want to help each piece to be as unforgettable as possible.

No AI Submissions

We currently do not accept work from artificial intelligence ("AI") generators or similar. By submitting your entry here, you are attesting that your work was not created, in whole or in part, with an AI generator or similar. Should any portion of your work be discovered to be the product of an AI generator or similar, by submitting here, you agree to indemnify Brink Literacy Project for all losses, fees, and damages it suffers relating to your submission and/or misrepresentation, including but not limited to, direct and indirect damages, loss of sale, reputational damages, attorney fees, and other expenses. You further agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless Brink Literacy Project against any third-party claims relating to the work you submit.

NOTES: 

F(r)iction (and its parent nonprofit organization, Brink Literacy Project) reserves the right to discuss contest entries, finalists, and winners in podcasts and marketing materials.   

F(r)iction reserves the right to NOT award a winner in any categories if the submissions do not reach a publishable standard. In this case, reading fees will NOT be refunded and a winner will not be announced. Although this has rarely come to pass in our six year publishing history, our top priority must remain with the quality of work we publish.