The Historical Short Fiction Prize 2008 NOW CLOSED

 

Welcome to Short Histories IV
The Historical short-fiction competition run by
Fish Publishing, in conjunction with the
Historical Novel Society

Following the great success of the Short Histories Prize over the last three years Fish are happy to introduce Short Histories IV.

Our intention is to publish the best modern short-form fiction on an historical theme.

 

Short Histories IV - Competition Summary

Summary - The Rules - Entry Fees - On-Line Entries - Postal Entries - Judges

 

Title: Short Histories IV
Opens: 1 June 2008
Closing date: 31 August 2008
Results: 30 September 2008

Judges --TBC

 

Enter Competition Here

 

A First Prize of €1,000 goes to the winner, plus publication in the Fish 2009 Anthology and ten copies of the Anthology.

Five runners up will also be selected to appear in the Fish Anthology and will each receive an award of €100 plus five complimentary copies of the Anthology.

All winning authors will be invited to read their work at the launch of the Fish Anthology 2009.

The Historical Novel Society's definition of historical fiction is:

"To be deemed historical (in our sense), a story must have been written at least fifty years after the events described, or have been written by someone who was not alive at the time of those events (who therefore approaches them only by research).

We also consider the following styles of novel to be historical fiction for our purposes: alternate histories (e.g. Robert Harris' Fatherland ), pseudo-histories (eg. Umberto Eco's Island of the Day Before ), time-slip novels (e.g. Barbara Erskine's Lady of Hay ), historical fantasies (eg. Bernard Cornwell's King Arthur trilogy) and multiple-time novels (e.g. Michael Cunningham's The Hours )".

 

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The Rules

•  No entry form is needed. Entry is on-line only

•  The Prize is open to writers of any nationality writing in English.

•  There is no restriction on period or style but the theme must be historical.

•  Maximum length 5,000 words. Any stories significantly longer than this will be disqualified

•  Winning stories must be available for the Anthology and, , must not have beenpreviously published .

•  Copyright remains with the author.

•  Notification of receipt of entry will normally be by email.

•  The judges' verdict is final.

•  No correspondence will be entered into once work has been submitted.

•  Stories cannot be altered or changed after they have been entered.

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Entry Fees

The cost of an On-line entry is fixed in Euro and any translation into your local currency will be done automatically by your credit card company according to the current exchange rate.

Payment is by credit card only.

  On-Line Entry
€
Per Entry €20.00
Critique (Optional) €45.00
   

 

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On-Line Entries

ALL ENTRIES MUST BE SUBMITTED ON-LINE THROUGH OUR WEB SITE. PLEASE DO NOT SEND ENTRIES AS E-MAIL ATTACHMENTS.

PLEASE ENSURE THE TITLE OF THE STORY DOES NOT APPEAR ON THE FIRST PAGE, THE TITLE IS AUTOMATICALLY APPENDED BY THE SYSTEM.

PLEASE DO NOT PUT YOUR NAME ON THE STORY. YOUR STORY IS AUTOMATICALLY LINKED TO YOUR NAME.

 

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Postal Entries

This is an on-line only competition. Postal entries will not be accepted. However if you have any difficulty with our on-line submission system or with our on-line payment system we will be glad to work with you to sort things out. Simply E- mail us at techsupport@fishpublishing.com


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Judges

TBC

 

 

THE WINNERS OF
THE SHORT HISTORIES AWARDS 2007
ARE:

WINNER:

THE BURNING - CLARE GIRVAN, EXETER, ENGLAND

RUNNERS-UP:

TAKING THE KING'S SHILLING - MIN LEE, GERS, FRANCE

THE TRUE HISTORY OF BONA LOMBARDA - VAL WATERHOUSE, SONDRIO, ITALY

THE SILVER STOPPER - SARAH LINE LETELLIER, WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND

THE SONS OF CAIN - PATRICK HOLLAND, QUEENSLAND, AUSTRALIA

TYMES OF MONSTERS - LYNDA  McDONALD, EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND

 

 

Winners of Short Histories II

Lane Ashfeldt with her story "Dancing on Canvey"

 

The Runners-up were:

Jo Campbell* - A Journey to the Sun
London, England

( *Winner - Short Histories 2005)


Leslie Patterson - The Medical Glance
Colorado, USA

Margaret Mulvihill - A Goose of a Swan
London, England

Carys Davies - Waking the Princess
Lancaster, England

Stuart Tallack - Cerulean
West Sussex, England

 

 

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Short Stories to read online

Read online some of the winning entries from previous Fish Anthologies. These are examples of the calibre that win the Fish Short Story Prize. Short Stories to read online

Writing Short Stories

Our new Writing feature provides some suggestions on the art of story writing. The page is designed to provide writers with on-going, constructive information about how other authors achieved success with writing short fiction. For more information visit our Writing Short Stories page.

Online Book Shop

You can buy Fish Publishing's Anthologies of short stories on-line in our online book shop – The Fish Shop.

Online Entry

Our Fish-On-Line online entry system provides a convenient way to enter our contests on the web. Register as an online Fish author and you can enter current and forthcoming Writing Contests. Writers may also enter any of our competitions by post. See our Writing Contests page for full details

Writing Contests - Assistance

Fish Publishing offers an Editorial Consultancy and Critique Service. designed to provide writers thinking of entering writing competitions with constructive feedback on their work, whether it is a complete novel or just the beginnings. The Service is available to writers prior to entering the Fish writing competitions.