THE 2021 LOVECRAFTIAN MICRO FICTION CONTEST IS OPEN!

DEADLINE IS EXTENDED TO SEPTEMBER 6, 2021

What is it?

Micro Fiction is very short prose fiction. Smaller than Flash Fiction but bigger than a haiku. Usually 500 words or less. There are some famous short short stories, including Hemingway’s - For Sale: baby shoes, never worn.

Lovecraftian fiction usually takes the form of Cosmic Horror, Weird Fiction, or Speculative or Science Fiction with a Horror twist, as well as horror or ghost stories with an uncanny tone.

According to Lovecraft, “The true weird tale has something more than secret murder, bloody bones, or a sheeted form clanking chains according to rule. A certain atmosphere of breathless and unexplainable dread of outer, unknown forces must be present; and there must be a hint, expressed with a seriousness and portentousness becoming its subject, of that most terrible conception of the human brain--a malign and particular suspension or defeat of those fixed laws of Nature which are our only safeguard against the assaults of chaos and the daemons of unplumbed space.”

What do I get if I win?

• The winning authors will be published in a book with the current year's Challenge From Beyond! Winning authors will receive 2 complimentary copies of the book.
• The overall winner will be invited to participate in the 2022 Challenge From Beyond round robin story project with some of the finest modern Lovecraftian Authors! (Past authors include Molly Tanzer, Joseph Pulver, Sr., Wilum Pugmire, Nick Mamatas, Ross Lockhart, Cody Goodfellow, Pete Rawlik, Sylvia Moreno-Garcia, Gemma Files, Lee Zumpe, Selena Chambers, Nadia Bulkin, Michael Cisco, and Tim Pratt.) Participation is not mandatory if you win.

• The overall winner, if planning to attend the Portland H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival, will have an author reading slot reserved for them so they can read their story at the festival! (this is optional)

How to Submit

Go to the submission page on ArkhamBazaar.com - and please read all the rules and guidelines! There, you can submit up to 5 entries.

Rules, Terms and Conditions

• Stories must be 500 words or less. Entries of more than 500 words will be disqualified with no refund. Please check your word count before submitting! Most word processing programs have a built in word counter. There are also web sites for this, like wordcounter.net
• All entries must be English language.
• Stories should not require any special formatting besides normal paragraph breaks. We're looking for content, not visual formatting.
• All entries must be written by you. You may not submit another author’s work. Your original stories only, please.
• Your entry must contain your legal name, your author name (if different), and story title.
• Deadline for entries is SEPTEMBER 6, 2021
• Winning entries will be notified no later than SEPTEMBER 10, 2021.
• The H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival® & CthulhuConTM reserves the right to publish the winning entries in a limited edition book with the current year's Challenge From Beyond, which may be sold to cover printing costs. All submissions may be used for promotional purposes. Authors of the top 10 entries will receive 2 complimentary copies of the book, for which shipping in the US is free, and outside the US may incur a small shipping fee. Additional copies will be available for purchase.
• Overall winner will be invited to participate in the 2022 Challenge From Beyond round robin story project, which will take place in summer 2022.