PFN – After Happy Hour Contest Theme: Animals

For this year’s contest, we want submitters to go wild–or domesticated, or sentient, or whatever other form of beastly you’re feeling. In other words: we’re seeking work from any and all genres that involves non-human living creatures in some way, shape, or form.

Submissions that fit the theme will include some kind of animal. Note that this doesn’t need to be a real animal. It can be a cryptid like a chupacabra, a hybrid made via genetic engineering, a robot pet, or some new species that you’ve made up. It also counts if it’s a human who becomes an animal–a Kafka-style transformation, for example, or a were-beast, Selkie, etc. The animal can be an image or metaphor, too, but we’re looking for more than a passing mention of birds singing from the trees. The animal should be integral to the story in some way, be that as a character, a plot point, or a central theme.

Each $10 entry can be:

• 1 prose work of 1,000 words or longer
• up to 3 individual poems sent in a single document
• up to 3 flash or micro prose pieces in a single document

Numbers update 1/1: At the halfway point of the contest, we’ve received 67 entries and the prize pool is currently at $320.

Poetry: Send up to 3 individual poems, no line or word limits.

Fiction: Send a single short story or up to 3 flash or micro pieces (fewer than 1,000 words each) in a single document. We have no hard word count limits, and welcome stories in that hard-to-publish 5,000-10,000 word length that justify their real estate. That said, this is a print issue, so we won’t be able to publish anything that’s a true novella length.

Creative non-fiction: Send a single piece of 1,000 words or longer, or up to 3 flash or micro pieces (fewer than 1,000 words each) in a single document. We are specifically looking for lyric or narrative non-fiction, not scholarly essays (though if you’re using the tropes of scholarly essays within the context of a creative essay, that we do want to see).

Hybrid/Cross-Genre: Yes, please. Follow whichever of the above guidelines makes the most sense for your work.

Prize Info:
The winners and honorable mentions for this contest will receive a percentage of the total entry fees paid (including purchases of After Happy Hour print issues):

• Up to 3 “ranked winners” will split 30%.
• Up to 3 honorable mentions will split 15%

How this will look in practice will depend on the work we receive. Possible scenarios:

• Three 1st place winners, one each in fiction, poetry, and CNF, who each get 10%; three honorable mentions, one in each category, that get 5%
• Two 1st place winners, one each in poetry and prose, who each get 15%; two honorable mentions, one in each category, that get 7.5%
• Overall 1st (20%) and 2nd (10%) place, plus 1-3 overall honorable mentions
• A single Grand Prize winner who walks away with the whole 30%, plus 1-3 overall honorable mentions

The more submissions we get, the more winners and honorable mentions we’re likely to award. All submitted works will also be considered for publication in the issue. If we publish your work and you don’t win a prize, you’ll get $10 (basically you’ll get your entry fee back) and 2 copies of the print issue.

General Guidelines:

• Please include a brief (100 words max) 3rd-person bio with your submission.
• To limit editor bias, we read all submissions anonymously. To this end, we ask submitters to remove their name and contact information from the document before submitting it.
• Use standard manuscript format (11- or 12-point font, standard margins/spacing). We won’t reject you for weird spacing or a bad font (probably), but following this standard makes things easier to read, and that makes the editors happy. Poets/experimental prose writers have more liberty here if the non-standard formatting is used for stylistic reasons. Straightforward prose writers have no excuse.
• We accept submissions only through Submittable. Submissions sent to our e-mail will be deleted unread.
• Multiple submissions are allowed, but each submission must be accompanied by its own $10 submission fee.
• Simultaneous submissions are accepted for the contest. However, your entry fee will not be returned if the piece is accepted elsewhere and you need to withdraw it.
• Previously published work is not accepted for the contest. We are looking for new, unpublished stories for this issue.
• If you need to withdraw a longer prose piece, or an entire packet of poems or flash prose, you can choose the “withdraw” option on Submittable. To withdraw a single poem or flash piece from a packet, you can message us through Submittable or e-mail us (afterhappyhour [at] gmail [dot] com).
• Accepted submissions may be edited for grammar. All changes will be sent to the author for approval before publication.
• We acquire first publishing rights and electronic archive rights. All other rights are retained by the author. Following the work’s publication in After Happy Hour, you can re-publish and anthologize your work as you see fit. Content can be removed from the website on request, but cannot be removed from the issue in which it was published.