PEN South Africa Philosophy Through Fiction’s Short Story Competition : pensouthafrica.co.za

Organization : PEN South Africa
Competition Name : Philosophy Through Fiction’s Short Story Competition
Applicable For : Open to everyone graduate Students & philosophers
Competition Deadline : 1 February 2017
Prize : $500 USD

Website : http://pensouthafrica.co.za/enter-philosophy-through-fictions-short-story-competition/

PEN Short Story Competition

Eligibility :
** Short stories that are eligible for this competition must be some form of speculative fiction (this includes, but is not limited to, science fiction, fantasy, horror, alternative history, or magical realism), and must explore one or more philosophical ideas.

Related : Writers’ College International Short Story Competition January 2017 : www.southafricain.com/2773.html

** These can be implicit; there is no restriction on which philosophical ideas you explore.
** The story should be unpublished, which means it should not have appeared in a magazine, edited collection, or other venue.

** It should not be published on an author’s personal website or similar online venue either, at least from the time of submission until the editorial board’s decision, or – if it is published – at least six months after its publication in Sci Phi Journal.

** This is a common publishing norm in speculative fiction.
** The competition is open to everyone, regardless of geographic location, career stage, age, or specialization.
** In other words, it is also open to, e.g., (graduate) students and philosophers outside of academia.

** We allow only one submission per author. Co-authoring is allowed, in which case the prize can be split.
** We encourage philosophers who are new at writing fiction.
** Submissions should be at least 1,000 words and no longer than 7,500 words.

** The submission should be accompanied by a brief “Food for Thought” section (maximum word count: 500, not part of the overall word count), where the author explains the philosophical ideas behind the piece. Examples of such Food for Thought sections appear at the end of these stories: Unalienable Right by Leenna Naidoo and Immortality Serum by Michaele Jordan. Evaluation of the quality of the Food for Thought sections will be an important part of the process. There’s a 500 word cap on this section, so please feel free to write something more substantive than what you see in the two examples.

Dates :
** The deadline for this competition is February 1, 2017.
** The winner will be announced by March 31, 2017.
** The winning story will appear in the following issue of Sci Phi Journal.

Submission Requirements :
** Please submit your story to philosophythroughfiction AT gmail.com.
** You can use the same e-mail address for queries.

** Your story should be anonymized, i.e.,contain no name or other form of identification.
** It should have a distinct title (not “philosophy story submission” but e.g., “The Icy Labyrinth”), and it should be at least in a 12-point clearly legible font.

** The file format should be doc, docx or rtf. Please use the subject line “submission for short story competition” for your e-mail.
** Attach the story (the filename should be an abbreviated form of your story title, e.g. “labyrinth.rtf”) to the e-mail.
** The Food for Thought section should be at the bottom of the same document, with a separate header “Food for Thought”.

** Please include word counts for both the story and the Food for Thought at the top of the document.
** Place your full name, institutional affiliation or home address and the full title of your story in the body of the e-mail.
** We cannot accept submissions past the deadline of 1 February 2017.
** We are planning to publish an edited volume of invited speculative fiction philosophy stories.

** Strong pieces entered into the competition may be considered for this volume.
** If you do not want your submission to be considered for this volume, please state this explicitly in the body of your e-mail.
** In the absence of this, we will assume you agree that your story is simultaneously considered for the competition and the volume.

Review process :
** All stories will first be vetted for basic quality by a team of readers at Sci Phi Journal.
** Stories that pass this first stage will be sent in anonymized format to a board of reviewers who will select the winning story.

** The reviewers will examine how effectively the stories explore philosophical ideas.
** By entering the competition you agree that their decision is final.