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Monthly short-form Contest Guidelines

What is the Short-Form Contest?

Last week, I introduced my students to flash fiction and it blew their minds: half of them stood up and shouted, “What? A story can be only one sentence long? That's crazy!” I nodded sagely then said, “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus,” and they were so excited they started doing jumping jacks, but I made them sit back down, so we could go around in a circle and talk about our feelings (“Again?” they muttered, but I know they liked it). That, my friends, is the power of the short form.

What We Want From You

Your very best, in 300 words or less, of poetry, fiction, or nonfiction. Please send only one submission at a time. Simultaneous submissions are fine; just let us know ASAP if you need to withdraw your piece.

How It Works

We are now accepting electronic submissions via Submishmash!
On the first day of each month, our guest judge (a dislocate staff member or an MFA student from the University of Minnesota) will read submissions in the order that they were submitted. As soon as a piece gets our judge jumping-jacking—a winner!—the contest is over for the month. All unread submissions will be held for the next month's contest. All submissions will also be considered for publication in dislocate's print journal.

Please note: we do not consider entries from University of Minnesota faculty, staff, current students, or alumni who have graduated in the past five years. We do not accept entries from dislocate.org staff writers.

You Win!

Each monthly winner will receive fame and glory, in the form of publication on the front page of the dislocate website as well as in the Past Winners archive, and a copy of the latest issue of dislocate. Winning entries are also considered for publication in the upcoming print issue.

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