Deadline: April 30, 2023
Entry fee: £5
About the competition
Write a fantasy story on the theme of outsiders.
We’ve all felt lonely, misunderstood, or burdened by past experiences. Perhaps your protagonist is the outsider. Maybe it’s a group or community. The ideas presented in your story could be the outsiders, unorthodox in the world you create. Or it could even be your world itself that’s the outsider.
Your story doesn’t need to include a character like Geralt or Auri, but it could.
The winning submission and shortlisted stories will be published in Mirk Fantasy Magazine. Our editor-in-chief, Craig Kelly, will choose the winning entry from a shortlist.
Competition guidelines
- Word count: 1,000 to 2,500
- Simultaneous submissions: Yes
- Multiple submissions: Yes. An entry fee must be paid for each story.
- Format: Double-spaced and in Times New Roman 12pt.
- Identifying information: Please do not include any identifying information in the document, but you should save the document as [STORY TITLE:SURNAME].
- Payment: The winner of each contest is awarded £100.
- Bios and Headshots: Include a third-person bio up to 100 words. If you would like your photo printed beside your story, then please include a headshot with your submission.
- Response times: We respond to all submissions within one month after the contest deadline.
- Contract: We ask for exclusive first publication rights and archival rights. On publication, rights revert to you. That means you can publish your story elsewhere immediately. All we ask is you credit the relevant magazine (Tangled Web Magazine or Mirk) as the first home for your story.
- This also means you can ask us to remove your story from our website at any point if it helps you sell it elsewhere.
- Read the whole guideline and submit an entry here.
