Write or Die's First Ever Fiction Contest
Ends on
🖤 General Submission Window 🖤
May 1 – July 1, 2025
🏆 Prizes 🏆
1st Place: $1000
2nd Place: $400
3rd Place: $200
Winning stories will be published in Write or Die Magazine.
💗 Guest Judge 💗
Nora Lange's debut novel Us Fools was awarded the Sue Kaufman Prize by the Academy of Arts and Letters, is a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Fiction, was named a best book of 2024 by The Boston Globe and NPR, a Los Angeles Times bestseller, and a New York Times Editors’ Choice. Her short writing is forthcoming in the Believer, has appeared in BOMB, Hazlitt, Joyland, American Short Fiction, Denver Quarterly, HTMLGIANT and elsewhere. She has received fellowships from Brown University and is a fellow at USC’s Los Angeles Institute of the Humanities. She recently moved to Salt Lake City with her family and desperately misses Los Angeles.
👀 What She is Looking For 👀
Shock yourself. Take a risk. Loosen the reins of plot. Let the idea in your story shine. Get lost and call it found.
🎀 Submission Guidelines 🎀
- Your short story must be no more than 4,000 words.
- Submissions are open internationally to anyone writing in English.
- The story must be unpublished at the time of submission (this includes blogs, newsletters, and personal sites).
- Upload your story as a .doc, .docx, or .pdf.
- Do not include your name or any identifying info in the file or the filename.
- We encourage simultaneous submissions. If your story is accepted elsewhere, congrats! Just withdraw it via Submittable. No need to stress.
- We do accept multiple submissions, but each story must be submitted separately with a new entry fee. If you’ve got a few stories you’re deciding between, feel free to send them all—we’d love to read them.
- All entries will be considered for publication in Write or Die Magazine, whether or not they win a prize.
- We want to support writers who crave both validation and growth. That’s why we offer an optional editorial feedback package with your entry. This includes personalized margin notes from a member of our editorial team. (Limited slots available — first come, first serve.)
📞 Winners Announced 📞
September 2025
Good luck!! <3