THE ASKANCE SHORT STORY COMPETITION IS BACK!

The 2015 competition is now open for entries.  Closing date: 31 May 2015.

We are pleased to announce that Askance are running a competition again this year. Building on the success of our 2012 and 2013 competitions, we have made a few exciting changes for 2015.

To be inclusive, there is no theme this year and Askance will be accepting short stories of any length. You can also enter more than one story.  Our 2015 competition is open to all writers over 16, from anywhere in the world.

Entrants are able to submit unpublished stories that may or may not have been submitted for other competitions, and as before, must be happy for Askance to publish their story if it is shortlisted.

Askance Publishing are keen to encourage innovative writing and provide a showcase for writers who might not otherwise have a chance of publication. Experienced writers with a previous publishing record should not feel excluded – they are also very welcome.

Askance are funding a first prize of £300 (roughly $500) for the winning story selected by our judges. The entry fee for each story is £15 (or $25).

We very much look forward to reading all your stories this year and announcing the shortlist and the overall winner in September 2015.

Please see the Conditions of Entry below for how to pay the fee and submit a story.

In the meantime why not read the stories by our winners from previous years?

2013 FINALISTS ARE PUBLISHED HERE

2012 FINALISTS ARE PUBLISHED HERE

CONDITIONS OF ENTRY

1. Entries to be received by 31 May 2015.
2. There is a fee of £15 ($25) for each story submitted.
3. Fees may be paid by PayPal by clicking here or direct to askance.publishing@gmail.com(If you don’t have a PayPal account you can use a credit or debit card through PayPal.)
4. There is no word limit.
5. Each story must be previously unpublished in any form, including peer review websites.
6. Each story submitted must be the author’s own work, written in English. You are welcome to submit co-authored work.
7. The competition is open to any writer aged 16 or over.
8. Entrants may be resident anywhere in the world.
9. Entries may be submitted by email to askance.publishing@gmail.com as an attachment in either .doc, .docx, .odt, .txt, .rtf or .pdf formats.
10. Entries must be page numbered and preferably contain the title of the story on every page, but must NOT contain the name of the author.
11. The email submitting the entry as an attachment should contain the PayPal payment reference, the author’s full name, full address including postal code, and daytime contact telephone number. The subject of the email should be ‘Askance 2015 Short Story’ followed by the title of the story being submitted.
12. By submitting a story to the competition, authors accept all rules and outcomes.
13. Up to 20 of the entries will be selected for inclusion in the Askance Short Story collection to be published in digital formats in 2015. One story will be selected as the overall winning entry and receive a prize of £300 (approximately $500).
14. The copyright of each story submitted remains entirely with the author.
15. By submitting the story to the competition the author grants an exclusive licence to Askance Publishing, which allows them to publish the story in any form for a period of one year from 31 May 2015.