Fabula Press’ annual short story competition has two segments – a free section, and a paid section. At least 3 submissions from the free section will be selected for publication in the Fabula Press Anthology and on the Fabula Press website; for paid submissions, at least ten entries will be included in the anthology on the website. Submissions for both segments will be accepted simultaneously, and other than the number of submissions considered for the final shortlist, there is no difference in the submission process of the competition rules / processes. Both free and paid submissions are eligible to be considered for the contest prizes.

There is no theme for our contests; also, barring a few exceptions, we are flexible about genre. Simply put, we are looking for are great stories that stay with the reader; so while we are heavy on ‘literary fiction’, we would welcome a Poesque tale of horror or mystery, an enchanting work of historical fiction, or light science fiction in the style of Connie Willis’ Firewatch, or Edgar Pangborn’s The Music Master of Babylon. Hard science fiction, fantasy, young adult or chick lit do not work for us, though.  

The contest will be judged by four independent judges, and three winners will be selected from the entrants, and will be awarded prizes as detailed in the below guidelines (see ‘Prizes‘). In addition, depending on the length and quality of submission, a long-list of stories will be selected for publication in an anthology which will be sold through leading online bookstores, and all authors so published will be paid an honourarium of US$75 each.

Please read through the contest guidelines before submitting. 

To submit through Duosuma Submissions Manager, please click the button below. Kindly note that both free and paid submissions are listed in the same page.