The 2019-2020 NESFA Science Fiction & Fantasy Short Story Contest will be open from June 2019 through September 30, 2019, with winners to be announced at Boskone 57, February 14–16, 2020.

For those of you who would like to learn more about the contest, here’s a short clip from the NESFA Short Story Contest website:

The purpose of the NESFA Short Story Contest is to encourage amateur and semi-professional writers to reach the next level of proficiency. We will look for engaging openings, good character development, well structured plotting, powerful imagery, witty or humorous language, unique word or phrasing choices, and convincing endings. This contest is intended for beginning writers. If you have received more than $1000 for your fiction writing from any source on the date you submit your story, and/or have published, in any paying publication, a novel or multiple shorter works adding up to more than 40,000 words you are no longer eligible. If you are unsure, send us your publication history.

The deadline for submissions is September 30, 2019. All submissions must be made via email to storycontest@boskone.org in flat text, rich text, PDF, or any format readable by MS Word, Open Office, or LibreOffice. Please include your submission as an attachment rather than in the body of the email. Story pages should be numbered, with the page number and the title of the story at the top of each page.

A qualifying story must have strong science fiction or fantasy elements and must be shorter than 7,500 words. Stories must be original works of fiction, submitted by their authors. No reprints, fan fiction, or poetry please.

For the full set of rules, please visit the NESFA Short Story Contest website where you can also find the list of past winners. Submissions that do not conform to the guidelines and rules will not be considered. So, be sure to visit the NESFA website to review the full set of details.

We look forward to announcing this year’s winner during the Saturday night Awards Ceremony at Boskone 57! Good luck to all who enter!!