Get your book published by Stone Soup! Stone Soup is thrilled to announce that we are accepting submissions for our annual book contest. This year we plan to accept two books for publication: one novel or short story collection and one book of poems. However, we do consider all submissions for potential publication. Contest Details Genre: Fiction (novel, novella, short story collection) or Poetry Length: For fiction submissions, the minimum length is 20,000 words. For poetry submissions, the minimum length is 40 pages, with no more than one poem per page. Novels in verse should be a minimum of 50 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: Sunday, August 21, 2022 11:59 pm (Pacific Time) Entry fee: $15.00 Submissions of multiple manuscripts by the same author are accepted but you must submit each as an individual entry and pay the fee each time. Results and Prizes: We will select two winning manuscripts—one in fiction and one in poetry—to be published 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. Previous Submissions: If you submitted to last year’s contest and have substantially revised your manuscript in the meantime, you are welcome to resubmit it this year. Submission Fee: The submission fee is important to us; it helps us defray the costs of the contest and of producing and publishing the two winning books. However, if the submission fee represents a financial hardship to your family, please write to editor@stonesoup.com. If you have questions, please review our FAQ page. If you can’t find the answer to your question there, please write to stonesoup@stonesoup.com. We reserve the right to select no winners in a given year.
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Congratulations to our Book Contest 2021 Winners!
We’re thrilled to announce the results of our 2021 Book Contest. It was a pleasure and an honor to read and consider all the manuscripts, and incredibly difficult to select our two winners. We are excited to share more about the books and the authors with you in the coming months! Winners Fiction Foxtale by Sarah Hunt, 14 Poetry Remember the Flowers by Enni Harlan, 14 Honorable Mention Days of Freedom, a novel by Sophene Avedissian, 13 Twenty Moons, poems by Maggie Berkson, 10 Adventures with the Robot of 1920, a novel by Srija Biswas, 13 A Lonely Lullaby, poems by Analise Braddock, 10 The Hotel Bellboy and Other Tales, stories by Steven Cavros, 10 The Legends of Atruviia, a novel by Ayesha Faruki, 13 Heart of Stars, a novel by Lillia Hamilton, 12 The Immortal Jellyfish, poems by Emma Hoff, 9 A Tale from Inside the Book, a novel by Jaslene Kwack, 11 Reunited, a novel by Olivia Lee, 10 Answering the Moon, a novel by Serena Lin, 10 This is the Song the World Needs Now And Other Poems, poems by Nova Macknik-Conde, 9, and Iago Macknik-Conde, 14 Book Zero, a novel by Leo Michelman, 11 Rainbow, a novel by Aanya Pandeya, 11 Serpent Throat and Other Stories, stories by Tayen Withrow, 11 The Poisonous Gift, a novel by Alice Xie, 13
Flash Contest #35, September 2021: Write a story about you, but in a parallel universe where you had a different life—our winners and their work
Our September Flash Contest was based on Creativity Prompt #168 (provided by Molly Torinus, Stone Soup contributor), which asked participants to write about themselves with one small twist: the story had to take place inside a parallel universe where they led a different life. The prompt was interpreted in myriad ways, with many branching into the realm of science fiction, others into fantasy, and some choosing to remain within the world of the mundane. We were dazzled by participants’ creativity, our minds taken on journeys to a car ride with a yapping dad, a dystopian future where fires reigned supreme, a skillfully disguised Magic Store, and much, much more! As always, thank you to all who submitted, and please submit again next month! In particular, we congratulate our Winners and our Honorable Mentions, whose work you can appreciate below. Winners “The Concert” by Lucas Hinds, 13 (Lenoir City, TN) “Recognition” by Serena Lin, 10 (Scarsdale, NY) “Are you Ready?” by Lui Lung, 12 (Danville, CA) “Phoenix” by Eliya Wee, 11 (Menlo Park, CA) “The Magic Store” by Chloe Yang, 12 (Cranbury, NJ) Honorable Mentions “A Day with My Drox” by Tahra Araujo, 9 (Brooklyn, NY) “The Puzzle” by Anushka Dhar, 12 (Hillsborough, NJ) “Normal Universe/Parallel Universe” by Nova Macknik-Conde, 9 (Brooklyn, NY) “Mechanical Master” by Rishab Suresh, 13 (Sanford, FL) “Duplicates” by Emily Tang, 12 (Winterville, NC) Lucas Hinds, 13 (Lenoir City, TN) The Concert Lucas Hinds, 13 “Time to get up, boys!” my mom shouted, waking me. “Please, just 30 more minutes,” I mumbled. “No way!” she said sternly. “We have to get ready. We have a concert to go to.” A muffled sigh came from behind me. I looked back, but didn’t see Peyton anywhere. He was buried in the warm, comfy sleeping bag. Tired from our late sleepover shenanigans, we grudgingly got ready to go. When we finally walked out the door—the sun shining high and bright in the sky—we got into the truck and headed out. My dad plays trombone for the Oak Ridge Community Band, and all the concerts are at the amphitheater in Oak Ridge, so we get to visit the ‘Secret City’ any time my dad has a concert, which is quite often. Today was one of those days. “What a beautiful day!” I said sleepily. “I hate mornings,” I heard Peyton mumble. “I’ve always been a night owl.” The trip was extra uneventful. My family has never been that talkative during car rides. You hear stories about games and songs and all kinds of things families do during rides. Not our family. All we do is listen to the radio and enjoy the scenery. Only the occasional history lesson from my dad about the Oak Ridge National Laboratories or stories about the river being radioactive. My dad was so predictable in this respect that you could sense when he was about to go off. I knew he was about to go off on a tangent. “Get ready. My dad is about to go off on one of his stories. I can sense it,” I warned Peyton. “Wait wh—” “Boys, we’re about to pass by one of the most secret laboratories in the US. They made a lot of progress in nuclear technology and—” My dad was interrupted by a powerful force hitting our truck, nearly toppling it over, then we heard an ear shattering BOOM! As we looked outside, the sky was thick with a purplish hue. “What was that?” Peyton asked. We looked around and were surprised to see no effect on the surrounding environment. “Probably just some dumb teenagers trying to cause trouble,” my dad guessed. “I remember doing things exactly like this when I was your guys’ age. In fact, back in my time, you could…” “Oh, here he goes again,” I whispered to Peyton. The rest of the ride was filled with tales from my dad’s childhood. When we finally made it to the concert, everyone was shouting at us. “Tom! We’ve been waiting for you! What happened?” “Come on! Are we gonna warm up or what?” He was visibly confused at first, but then he realized something. “Alright! Let’s get started!” He shouted to the band. “Let’s start with something simple, ‘The Star Spangled Banner!” “What’s going on? He’s not supposed to be the conductor.” I whispered to Peyton. “I don’t know, but something’s up.” He replied. “I think it has something to do with the explosion back there. Maybe an experiment gone wrong.” The rest of the warm-up and concert went by without conversation. Everything went smoothly, even with my dad in charge, and we didn’t discuss anything until we got back home. “What happened?” I questioned my dad, hoping he had a simple explanation. “We’re in a parallel universe.” “Funny joke, dad. But I’m being serious! Why were you the conductor! And why did nobody find it strange that you were suddenly in charge?” “I just told you. One of the trombone players told me what happened. Apparently, he’s a scientist at the labs. He said they were doing experiments with time travel, but instead of time travel, they figured out how to go to parallel universes. One of the experiments with these universes got out of hand, and now here we are,” he said. “I knew I shouldn’t have done this sleepover,” Peyton complained. “Something weird happens whenever I’m with you guys.” “Do you have his phone number, honey?” My mom asked. “If he’s the one doing these experiments, maybe he can get us back.” “I already arranged a meeting. Today at 3 PM.” “Well? What do we do until then? We have about 2 hours!” I said. “Play games, duh,” Peyton said. “Well, I think we should go shopping. Just because it’s a parallel universe doesn’t mean they don’t have good deals!” said my mom. “Sounds like a plan,” my dad said, and we left for the nearest grocery store. When we got there and started shopping, I saw a familiar face. Zander, or, as his close friends called him, Z.
