Writers of the Future: next deadline is 31 December

Submitting to Writers of the Future has been one of my writing goals for a while now. The key problem: I’ve always been an inveterate ‘seat of the pants’ plotter, and somehow I always find myself at or near the permitted word count with the plot only half done. The draft goes onto the pile of ‘novels I’m going to finish someday’ and I move on.

However, I’ve been working hard on my summarization and outlining skills so you never know - this might be the year. But with the David Drake Memorial award and the N3F short story contest also crowding the calendar, there are some tough choices ahead.

So far as Writers of the Future is concerned, the current quarter, the first of the 2027 contest year, closes at 11:59 p.m. Pacific on December 31st, 2026.

The contest is free to enter, and entrants keep all rights to their work. Stories can be science fiction, fantasy or light horror, up to 17,000 words. It's for new writers only, so professionals need not apply, and AI-generated work isn't accepted. You can enter one story per quarter, and judging is anonymous.

Each quarter pays $1,000, $750 and $500 to its top three stories. The year's grand-prize winner also receives the Golden Pen Award and an extra $5,000.

Rules and the entry portal: https://writersofthefuture.com/enter-writer-contest/
Cover photo by Art Lasovsky on Unsplash.