F – The Upper New Review Short Story Contest. Theme: A Sense of Place

Thank you for your interest in our 2024 Short Story Contest!

This is a short story fiction writing contest.

The short story contest is open to any English language writer anywhere on Earth, aged 13 years or older.

We are open to receiving submissions of short stories originally written in a language other than English, that have since been translated to English.  If this is the case, the original non-English manuscript must be available for review upon request.

The Theme: Sense of Place

The theme for this short story contest is A Sense of Place.

We don’t want to provide too much structure to our theme.  We hope contest entrants will interpret this theme as they see fit, expressing a keen sense of place within 3000 to 10000 words of fictional narrative.

However: Our simple definition for sense of place is: figuring out the reality of where you are, and how you perceive that reality, and what your perception of that reality means to you.

Submissions

We’ll be using our Submittable platform to accept submissions for the short story contest.

No other forms of submission will be accepted.

Prizes and Awards

The contest winner will receive a $200 cash prize.

Several honorable mentions may be awarded to additional short story submissions.

Additionally, three thematic prizes may be awarded in this short story contest, depending on the quality of submissions, at the discretion of The Upper New Review publisher.  These prizes include:

• Dana Meadows Award – for demonstrated systems wisdom
• Fritjof Capra Award – for demonstrated understanding of the hidden connections of the web of life
• Gary Snyder Award – for demonstrated understanding of bioregionalism

All winners (the contest winner, any honorable mentions, and any thematic prize winners) will be published in The Upper New Review.

Rules and Guidelines

The entry fee to submit a single manuscript to the short story contest is $15.

All short stories entered into the contest will also be considered for publication in The Upper New Review, regardless of the outcome of this contest.

Uploaded short story manuscripts should be properly formatted.  At a minimum, manuscripts should be double-spaced, using at least a 12-point serif font.  Please also include page numbers.

Several standard file formats are acceptable for uploaded manuscripts.  PDF is preferred, but not required.

Manuscripts do not need to be blinded for this contest.  This means that identifying information of the author should be included in the manuscript – this information does not need to be removed.

The minimum word count for short stories submitted to this contest is 3,000 words.

The maximum word count for short stories submitted to this contest is 10,000 words.

Authors may submit up to four total short stories for this contest.  Each short story entered requires a separate submission and $15 entry fee.  Additional submissions from a single author beyond the maximum allowed of four submissions will be automatically rejected.

The manuscript submission review process commences upon receipt of submission.

Manuscripts submitted early in the contest submission window may be accepted for publication before the end of the contest deadline.  Status for publication does not have any effect on the contest awards outcome.

All cash prizes may be awarded contingent upon the volume of submissions to the contest. Awards are subject to change based on these submission volumes, including the potential for increase in awards.

All contest submissions are final.  The Upper New does not offer refunds for submissions, except upon written request under extenuating circumstances.

Additional online events and curated publications may be announced for contest entries and winners, contingent upon the number and quality of submissions to the contest.