Contest based on Monday’s Daily Creativity Prompt Every weekday morning from March to late August 2020, we published a Daily Creativity prompt. We decided to get everyone focused by turning every Monday’s prompt into a Flash Contest! For this rolling weekly contest, all you have to do is pick up the Daily Creativity prompt published on a Monday, and submit your response to it via Submittable by midnight PST on the Friday of the same week. Contest Details Genre: The Daily Creativity prompt will specify exactly what we want you to do. Make absolutely sure that you are responding to the prompt that was posted on the Monday of the current week by checking the date on the post. Find the prompt here. Look for the words “Flash Contest” added to the title (especially if you are looking on a different day of the week). Length: It depends on the prompt. Some of them will have specific instructions (e.g. write a 10 line poem, or a three paragraph piece of prose, or compose a still life photograph). Other writing prompts might be more open, suggesting you write a story or rework one you already have, or make a piece of art on a theme. Where the prompt specifies, follow the guidance on length and/or medium. If it doesn’t specify, it’s up to you how long or short you make your writing (but remember, this is a flash contest, so we don’t expect you to write a novel!). Age Limit: For the flash contests, we will accept work from those age 14 or under. Deadline: Fridays at 12:00 midnight (Pacific Time). Entry fee: Free! How to Enter: Via Submittable. Results and Prizes: We will select up to 5 of our favourites by the following Wednesday. Publication: We will announce the names of each week’s winners and any Honorable Mentions in the following week’s Saturday Newsletter; and publish the winners’ work on the Stone Soup Blog on the same day.
Contests
Book-Writing Contest 2020
Get your book published by Stone Soup! Stone Soup is thrilled to announce that we are accepting submissions for a book contest. The winning manuscript will be published by Stone Soup as a standalone book (see the other awards below!). For prose submissions, the minimum length is 20,000 words. For poetry submissions, the minimum length is 40 pages. There is no maximum word or page limit. As always, we have no preference in terms of genre, topic, or form: you can submit a manuscript of poems or short stories, a novel or a memoir. We are simply looking for excellent, innovative, unusual, powerful writing. You have the rest of spring and all of summer to work on your book. We can’t wait to read it! Contest Details Genre: We are reading in all genres. You can submit a collection of poems, a memoir, a short story collection, a collection of personal narratives, a novel, a graphic novel… you name it! Length: For prose (fiction or memoir) submissions, the minimum length is 20,000 words. For poetry submissions, the minimum length is 40 pages. There is no maximum word or page limit. Age Limit: For this contest, we will accept manuscripts written by those age 14 or under. Deadline: Monday August 10, 2020 11:59 p.m. (Pacific Time). Entry fee: $15.00 Multiple Submissions are accepted but you must submit each as an individual entry and pay the fee each time. Results and Prizes: We will select one winning manuscript to be published in 2021 and distributed by Stone Soup in both print and ebook forms, available for sale on Amazon, in the Stone Soup store, via our distributors, and advertised along with the rest of our books to libraries and other vendors. We will also name a handful of finalists. Publication: We will consider all work submitted as part of the contest for potential publication in the Magazine or as standalone volumes, if our budget allows. Submissions: All entries must be sent to us before the closing date via our Submittable portal, here.
Congratulations to our Personal Narrative Contest Winners!
First Place “Locked out of Kindergarten” by Kateri Escober Doran, 12 Second Place “Swirling Arabesques” by Zoe Kyriakakis, 10 Third Place “Gratitude” by Alicia Xin, 13 Honorable Mention “Cody’s Last Day” by Elena Baltz, 10 “A Story” by Asher Jenvey, 10 “Life in the Jungle” by Arielle Kouyoumdjian, 13 “Writer” by Vandana Ravi, 13 “Believing” by Lily Shi, 11 “Kingdom in the River” by Lydia Taylor, 13 “Gentle Hands” by Michelle Wang, 12 We are delighted to announce the winners of our Personal Narrative Contest with the Society of Young Inklings (SYI). Naomi Kinsman, Founder and Executive Director of SYI and Emma Wood, Stone Soup’s Editor, were both so honored to read these submissions as well as grateful for the big and small ways these writers let us into their minds and hearts. Writing nonfiction seems easy—you don’t have to make anything up!—but it is not. Personal narratives require honesty, deep thought and reflection, the ability to see patterns and narratives in past events, as well as the capacity to accept that sometimes there are no patterns or narratives—just the events themselves. Like all writing, they also require an eye for detail, an ear for language, and an aptitude for play. In her winning narrative, Kateri Escober Doran vividly recounts a sharp memory from a day in kindergarten, seamlessly blending evocative storytelling with thoughtful reflection. In second place, with “Swirling Arabesques,” Zoe Kyriakakis meditates on a single phrase while on the bus home from school—showing us how even the smallest moments can become meaningful and beautiful in the writer’s hands. Finally, in third place, with her narrative “Gratitude,” Alicia Xin gives a moving account of the summer she spent in a historically poor county in rural China. We are excited to share these pieces with you in future issues of Stone Soup Magazine (and will add links to this page as they are published). We say this every time, but every time it is truer and truer: it was so difficult to select winners and finalists for this contest. A sincere thank you to everyone who trusted us with their work. Remember, we are thrilled to be reading personal narrative submissions year-round, not only during the contest. When you’re ready, submit your personal narrative here.
