Every year, QSF holds a flash fiction contest to create an amazing new anthology of queer speculative fiction stories. We ask authors to do the nearly-impossible – to submit a sci fi, fantasy, paranormal or horror LGBTIQA story that has no more than 300 words.
It’s Our Tenth Anniversary!
Our 2023 contest launches on March 1st, and closes on May 1st, but we will soon be open for early entries. The theme for 2023 is “Rise”:
Rise (noun)
1) An upward slope or movement
2) A beginning or origin
3) An increase in amount or numberttaining certainty about something
4) An angry reaction
Rise (verb)
1) To take up arms
2) To return from death
3) To become heartened or elated
4) The exert oneself to meet a challenge
With the world in turmoil, we all need a little hope, so this year we chose a word rife in meanings and ripe for inspiration.
Tell us about rise in all its forms and the difference it can make on your characters, the culture, and the world, for better or worse.
We’ll be accepting works from across the queer spectrum, and would love to see more entries including lesbian, trans, bi, intersex and ace protagonists, as well as gay men. We also welcome diversity in ability (physical and mental) and in race. We had our most diverse set of entries yet in 2022 – let’s keep up the trend!
We always get tons of gay sci fi shorts every year, so if you try your hand at fantasy, paranormal or horror, especially with the other letters of the queer alphabet, you’ll have a better chance of standing out.
Try for something unique – take the road less traveled.
We welcome both strictly genre stories and genre stories with romance in the mix.
We have four main criteria by which each work will be judged:
- Is there at least one queer character and/or obvious queer content?
- How well does the work incorporate speculative fiction (sci fi, fantasy, paranormal or horror) tropes and concepts?
- Is the work well-crafted, with a plot, a beginning, a middle, and an end?
- How well/cleverly is the theme used in the work?
More info and official rules here. We’ll be launching the submission form soon.