Short fiction and poetry wanted, short nonfiction and fiction for youth, and a contest for teen writers in Burlington

Note: Don't ever miss a post on Quick Brown Fox.  Fill in the "Follow Brian by Email" box to the right under my bio and get each post delivered to your Inbox. 

Also, you can hang out and chat with Quick Brown Foxes (and vixens) on my Facebook page (here). Just send a friend request to Brian Henry

Finally, if you’re not yet on my newsletter, send me an email, including your locale, to brianhenry@sympatico.ca ~Brian

Hi, Brian!

Here’s the copy for the Feb contest for Raconteur magazine. We're running a contest per month, so check back on the Contests page here.

Cheers,

Emily Potter

Shorter-story contest.

Submit your very best short story for a chance to win $50 cash. You only have (up to) 500 words to do it. Capture our attention, make us laugh, make us cry – do it quickly. Winners will be selected by our panel of international readers, who are themselves also writers. Good luck! Have fun!

Prize Pot: 1st prize: $50; 2nd Prize: 1 year e-mag subscription; 3rd Prize: 1 year e-mag subscription

Deadline: Not specified, but the winner will be announced Feb 28, 2020, at noon– so before then! Full guidelines here.

Besides their monthly contest, Racounteur also accepts submissions:

Fiction & non-fiction submissions under 2000 words.

Poetry submissions under 500 words.

“We may consider slightly longer entries if they are exceptional – but we tend to frown on submissions that don’t follow the guidelines.”

Pays Fiction & Non-fiction: $10; Poetry: $5

Deadline: Ongoing. Guidelines here.

Cricket Media seeks submissions for Faces world culture magazine for children aged 9–14 on theme of birds – deadline March 9, 2020 – and on the theme of New Zealand – deadline April 13, 2020.

Wants feature articles 700 – 800 words; supplemental nonfiction 300–600 words; fiction up to 800 words; activities up to 700 words; word puzzles, mazes and picture puzzles that relate to the theme.

Guidelines here.

See full range of submission guidelines for Cricket’s 9 magazines for children aged 6 months to 14 years here.

Every Day Fiction is seeking flash fiction up to 1000 words. There’s no such thing as too short for them – if your story works in 50 words, go for it. Pays $3. 

Deadline: March 28, 2020. Guidelines here.

Better Than Starbucks is a bi-monthly magazine of prose and poetry published out of Florida. Pays author of Featured Poem (publisher’s choice) $20 (US); author of Featured Poem (editor’s choice) $20; authors of Features Three, Four, and Five (poetry, fiction, or creative non-fiction) $20. They’re unable to pay for other pieces.

Always open for submissions. Guidelines here.

Burlington Public Library Teen Writing Contest

Open to students in grades 7-12 in Burlington, Ontario

Explore your world through storytelling and show off your creative talents. Tackle themes that are important to you, such as love, war, relationships, sexuality, relocation, isolation, poverty, illness, death. Teen Writing Contest is an open forum for young writers to express their ideas and creativity.

Contest judges, themselves published writers, provide feedback on your stories, poems, and comics. Get contest details and the official entry form at your local branch or download online February 1 to March 20..

At a special celebratory event in May, family and friends of all contest participants have the opportunity to hear these creative young people read from their original works at our annual Teen Writing Contest Coffeehouse.

Our judges for 2020 are Jennifer Mook-Sang, Tomy Bewick and Christopher Chamberlain. 

Jennifer Mook-Sang grew up with a book in each hand in Guyana. While reading bedtime stories to her two sons, she decided that writing a book for children would be the best thing ever! Her humorous middle-grade novel Speechless (Scholastic) was nominated for a slew of awards. It was named a ‘Best Book of the Year’ by the CBC. Jennifer lives in Burlington and loves to read, and cook (and eat), and talk about writing.

Tomy Bewick has been writing and performing since 2004. Having competed on national and international poetry slam stages, he started the Burlington Slam Project (BSP) in 2008. Tomy has featured across Canada, self-published several books of poetry, released 2 CDs of spoken word, and won the 2016 Ontario International Poetry Slam. He continues to facilitate writing workshops for youth and produce commissioned works.

Christopher Chamberlain is the co-creator of the comic Kid Robo, the illustrator of “How Aubey & Big Al Became Mascots” and the chalk painter of the mural you can see in Burlington’s the Hood Restaurant. His licensed and creator designed trading cards have been published by Perna Studios, Island Dreams, 5Finity, Cryptozoic and others. You can find him facilitating a Creating Comic class at the library, or giving an Intro to Drawing class at the Barnschool . His art has been featured in gallery hangings around the world and he is often commissioned as an artist.

• Entrants must be a resident of Burlington or attend a school in Burlington.
• Short story, maximum 1,500 words: Grades 7 to 9; 10 to 12
• Poem, maximum 25 lines: Grades 7 to 9; 10 to 12
• Comics, maximum 8 pages: Grades 7 to 9; 10 to 12
• 1st and 2nd prize winners are selected for each category.

Deadline March 20, 2020. Contest details here.

See Brian Henry’s schedule here, including writing workshops, weekly writing classes, and weekend retreats in, Bolton, Barrie, Brampton, Burlington, Caledon, Collingwood, Georgetown, Georgina, Guelph, Hamilton, Jackson’s Point, Kingston, Kitchener-Waterloo, London, Midland, Mississauga, Oakville, Ottawa, Peterborough, St. Catharines, Southampton, Sudbury, Toronto, Windsor, Woodstock, Halton, Muskoka, Peel, Simcoe, York Region, the GTA, Ontario and beyond.