13 Days of Dark & Holy Contest
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December’s Short Fiction & Poetry Challenge
13 Days and The Mad River Literary Journal are teaming up again, this time with a challenge and a free-to-enter contest celebrating both Darkness and Light….Change and Tradition. Like with October’s event, “13 Days of Dark & Weird”, our publications will be sharing and showcasing your themed stories and poetry in the final 13 days of December. Read on to learn more about the Challenge, Contest, & Prizes!
The Challenge
13 Days of Dark & Holy wishes to honor the merging and divergence of darkness and light. Practices and beliefs that we seek in moments of sadness and desperation & celebrate in moments of thanks and remembrance. Traditions we uphold with fading understanding. Or the ways in which we sacrifice our convictions when all hope seems lost…
The word “holiday” originates from Old English “halig daeg” or “holy day”: a day of religious festival. In modern times holidays have transformed to include many interpretations of meaning, celebration, and tradition. Holidays honor birth, death, prophecy, solstices, culture, deities, sacrifice, harvests, mores, tragedy, history… For this challenge you might use a holiday as a backdrop, as a main character, or choose to look beyond the holiday itself, into the deeper meaning behind them.
What does Holy mean to you?
We want to read about Krampus, and cults worshiping Cthulhu, and Faeries that require first-born tithes in exchange for immortality… but we also want to read about darkness and the light found in faith, the obsessions of ritual, and how beliefs can seem to run through our veins.
How we find and sometimes lose ourselves in the traditions of our ancestors. How we discover meaning in religious passages or struggle to find purpose in robotic ceremony.
a few prompt Keywords: tradition, Holiday, holy, religion, ritual, cult, dark, light, belief, ceremony, ancestors, faith, purpose, self, discovery, awaken, change, diversity, sacrifice, honor, worship, solstice, food, remembrance, devotion, family, passage, scripture, time, loss, history, deity, mythology, replenish, preserve, trust, denial, creation, birth, death, renewal, obsession, tithing, afterlife, enlightenment
The Contest
In addition to holding a themed challenge, we are also hosting a short story and poetry contest of the same theme. Each writer may submit one piece in each category*.
Please use the Contest Entry Form when you are ready to submit your best short story or poem.
Prizes**:
Short Story Contest (300–2500 words)
1st Place: $40 USD and an Author Feature on both publications.
2nd Place: $20 USD and an Author Feature on both publications.
Runner-up: an Author Feature on both publications.
Poetry Contest (no more than 500 words)
1st Place: $30 USD and an Author Feature on both publications.
2nd Place: $15 USD and an Author Feature on both publications.
Runner-up: an Author Feature on both publications.
*You may enter both contests, but you may not win both. Winning pieces will be chosen at judges’ discretion.
**All prizes will be delivered via PayPal. If you are unable to use PayPal please email us at 13DaysDW@gmail.com prior to entry.
How to Participate:
- Interested in the Challenge & Contest? Post “Challenge Accepted” in the comments below to let us know to expect your submissions. Please clap and share to get the word out.
Be sure to follow The Mad River and 13 Days on Medium so you don’t miss any updates, prompts, or published stories.
You can also follow us on Twitter: @The_Mad_River and @13_Days to see announcements and your fellow writers’ stories as they are posted.
- - Pieces for the challenge may already be published on Medium, but may not be with another publication at the time of submission.
- - Pieces for the contest must be fresh/unpublished pieces. If you happen to be writing something that already fits the bill prior to seeing our post, that is acceptable, but it must be new to public eyes.
- For all submissions: Use a “short story” or “poetry” tag and leave one tag space open for “13days” or use the tag yourself. The other three tags are yours to decide.
You may submit up to 3 short stories and 3 poems for the themed event “13 Days of Dark & Holy” (that’s 6 total, including your contest entries).
- Even if you are already a writer for The Mad River or 13 Days, please do not submit your challenge or contest entries directly to the publication. Use our submission forms linked below:
Only one entry per writer, per contest.
You may submit one short story contest entry, and one for the poetry contest. You may not use the same piece (in whole or in part) for both contests. When you’re ready to enter the contest, use our Contest Submission Form.Other Challenge Submissions for the Dark & Holy theme should use our “regular” Challenge Submissions Form.
All submissions and contest entries must be in by December 18th, 11:59 p.m CST. If you have a story or poem you’d like to enter after the 18th, please note it will not be considered for the contest, and may or may not be published for the challenge.
All submissions, including contest entries, will be published during the last 13 days of December (12/19–12/31).
Contest Winners will be chosen and notified by email on or before January 1st, 2019 11:59p.m. Prizes will be sent and authors featured by January 10th, 2019.
Questions?
Ask your questions in the comments or send us an email at 13DaysDW@gmail.com
You can also find us on Twitter @13_Days ; @The_Mad_River ; @Daphelba ; and @PeculiarJulia
A few words on Rights:
By submitting works to our publications you agree that it is original, of your own composition, and that you have all the relevant rights to do so.
If your work is accepted, you agree to give 13 Days… or The Mad River first serial electronic rights to your work and nonexclusive electronic and print rights. You are agreeing to let us archive your work on our website www.The-Mad-River.com and to include it in future publications and anthologies.
Your work is yours, but we will continue to have the right to share it.
If your piece has been previously published elsewhere you agree that you have informed us and give 13 Days… and The Mad River the right to republish, print, and archive the work (and that you have the right to do so).
All other rights revert to the author upon publication.
If you publish the work elsewhere in the future, we ask that credit be given to 13 Days… or The Mad River (as appropriate) for first publication.
If you have any questions about Rights, please email 13DaysDW@gmail.com.
