A Rochester Speculative Literature Association Short Story Contest
The final submission deadline for From the Lockdown entries was April 30, 2021. Submissions are now closed. Please watch the R-SPEC website, Facebook & Twitter accounts for the name of the May winner!
The Rochester Speculative Literature Association (R-SPEC) invites authors in the Rochester, New York, metropolitan area (Monroe, Genesee, Livingston, Ontario, Orleans, and Wayne counties) to put those long, lonely lockdown hours to use and submit works of speculative fiction from 1,500 to 10,000 words in length for our From the Lockdown contest. We are looking for works of prose, not poetry.
The contest will run for three months, with $100 going to the winner for each month. There is no entry fee. Winning entries will be published on the R-SPEC website for a period of one year from the date of the award. R-SPEC reserves first online publication rights. Entrants retain all other publication rights to their submissions.
The submission period opens on January 1, 2021 and ends on April 30, 2021.
- If you submit by February 28, 2021, your entry is eligible to win a prize in any of the three months of the contest.
- If you submit by March 31, 2021, your entry is eligible to win a prize in the last two months of the contest.
- If you submit by April 30, 2021, your entry is eligible to win a prize only during the last month of the contest.
Stories must be submitted using our submission form, to ensure that the judges remain unaware of the identity of submitters.
The winning entries will be announced and published on a rolling basis. Winners will be paid upon acceptance.
- The first winner will be announced on March 30, 2021
- The second winner will be announced on April 29, 2021
- The third winner will be announced on May 30, 2021
Contest Rules and Guidelines:
- Theme: any work of speculative fiction (science fiction, fantasy, science fantasy, horror, alternate history, etc.)
- Previously unpublished works in English
- Digital submission only (.doc, .docx, .rtf formats only)
- Manuscript format is strongly preferred
- Authors may submit up to three works for consideration, but can only win once
- Authors must reside in Monroe, Genesee, Livingston, Ontario, Orleans, or Wayne county
- No stories in copyrighted settings
- No hate speech or explicit sexual content
All entries will be stripped of personally identifying information and judged anonymously. Authors may withdraw their work from consideration at any time before publication.
