Cape Fear Crime Festival-Short Story Contest

The Cape Fear Crime Festival Short Story Contest

The 2007 Judge will be announced later.

Sarah Shaber Served as Judge of 2006 Short Story Contest!
Sarah Shaber is a resident of Raleigh, NC and is an award-winning mystery author. She graduated from Duke University with an honors degree Sarah Shaber, Short Story Contest Judge, 2006 in history and received a Master's Degree in Communication from UNC-Chapel Hill. She has worked in advertising and public relations, winning several awards for radio copywriting and production. In 1996, the manuscript for Simon Said won the St. Martin's Press annual contest for best traditional mystery written by an unpublished author. Snipe Hunt in 2000 was selected as an alternate of the Mystery Guild Book Club. The Fugitive King was published in 2002 and The Bug Funeral was published in May 2004. Her latest book, as editor, is Tar Heel Dead, a collection of mystery tales.

Story Contest Mission

The CFCF Short Story Contest was created in concert with the annual Cape Fear Crime Festival. The contest organizers are dedicated to promoting and growing the contest in the coming years, and to establishing it as a premiere competition for mystery and crime writers of all experience levels and backgrounds. The contest strives to achieve several goals:

To provide a forum in which to discover, publish, and promote new writers
To introduce new authors by the publication of their work in a chapbook
To play a key role in bridging the imagined gap between genre and non-genre fiction
To add a relevant and enjoyable element to the programming of the Cape Fear Crime Festival as a whole

Contest organizers believe in providing an equal opportunity for all writers, and in publishing stories that demonstrate excellence in ability and imagination.

The Story Contest Committee
Nikki Smith, Chair and Chapbook Editor, Dorothy Gallagher, Chapbook Designer

Contest and Submission Rules

(Printer-friendly version of the contest rules)

Submissions must be no longer than 4000 words, of a previously unpublished and unsubmitted short story with a strong crime or mystery theme. No other genres will be considered! A $10.00 entry fee must accompany each submission

Prizes

1st, 2nd and 3rd Prize winners will receive free registrations to CFCF, be honored at the CFCF Dinner on Saturday, October 27th. The First Place winner will receive a cash award of $100. Second Place prize is $75, and Third Place is $50.

The winning stories will be published in chapbook form and distributed to all CFCF attendees. Prize winning stories may also be included in a Cape Fear Crime Anthology, to be published at a later date. Each winning story is subject to editorial review and will be copyedited for grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, and libelous language. All editorial changes will be shared with the winning authors BEFORE the chapbook goes to press.

Contest Guidelines

1. You may enter as many manuscripts as you like! 4,000 words maximum, and each story must have a strong theme consistent with the festival!.

2. Preparing Your Entry:

Your entry must be accompanied by an Official Entry Form or facsimile, and the required entry fee, $10.00 (check or money order made payable to Cape Fear Crime Festival). If you are entering more than one manuscript, you may mail all entries in the same envelope and write one check for the total entry fee; however, each manuscript must have its own entry form/facsimile.

Your entry must be original, unpublished and unproduced, not accepted by any other publisher or producer at the time of submission. The Cape Fear Crime Festival retains one-time publication rights to the prize-winning entries in chapbook form, to be distributed to festival attendees, and made available for a nominal fee to people unable to attend the festival, as well as the rights to publish prize-winning stories in a later anthology of prize winners.

Your entry must be typed on one side of 8-1/2 x 11 white paper (computer printout acceptable). All manuscripts must be double-spaced. Your name, address, phone number and email, (if available) must appear in the upper left-hand corner on a separate cover page. Your name must not appear on the manuscript itself, otherwise your entry is disqualified.

Be sure of your word count! Entries exceeding the word or page limits will be disqualified. Type the exact word count (counting every single word, except the title) on the first page of the entry.

Judging and Notification

Every entry will be read by the judges. Judges' decisions are final.

Entries must be postmarked by June 1, 2007. We cannot return submitted manuscripts; however, to receive notification of the receipt of your manuscript, send a self-addressed stamped postcard along with your entry.

The following are not permitted to enter the contest: members of Cape Fear Crime Festival Organization, and their immediate family members.

Top Award Winners will be notified by mail or email before September 15, 2007.

To enter, click the link below for an entry form, print it, complete it, and send it with your manuscript and $10.00 entry fee to:

Cape Fear Crime Festival Story Contest
P.O. Box 12295
Wilmington, NC 28405

You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to download the entry form. Entry Form

Entry Deadline: June 1, 2007.