Write Out Of This World Wants Your Sci-Fi Short Stories, Maybe

By Brent McKnight | Published

This article is more than 2 years old

Write out of this worldWe know that many of you, our loyal readers out there in Internet land, aren’t just sci-fi aficionados, you’re super creative folk in your own right. As such, we thought it only fitting to let you know of a cool opportunity for some of you that also like to dabble in the art of writing in our preferred genre. “Some” is the key word in equation, as there are certain parameters for participation. Seattle’s EMP sci-fi and rock and roll museum is looking for submissions to their “Write Out of This World: Sci-Fi and Fantasy Short Story Contest.” The key, however, is that the contest is only open to young writers, like in the 3rd to 12th grade range.

Entries will be broken down into three age-specific groups: 3rd-5th grades, 6th-8th grades, and 9th-12th grades. The submissions will be judged by a panel of professionals from the writing world, curators from the EMP museum, and an assortment of local public figures. At the moment there’s no word on who exactly that will be, but EMP usually assembles a nice collection of personalities for events like these, people with name recognition, but also expertise.

EMP has put together an interesting assortment of unique experiences for the winning entries. There are both writing and editing workshops to participate in—no matter how much you write, you never really stop honing your craft. The big prize is that the winners will also have the opportunity to team up with the folks from Jack Straw Productions, a non-profit audio-arts collective. They’ll get to have a recording session in order to produce an audio version of their story. You basically get your very own book on tape, how cool is that? You’ll also be invited to read with the other victors in May at Sky Church, which is usually a live music inside the Frank Gehry-designed building.

“Write Out of This World” isn’t specifically for Seattle-based young writers, but in order to make good on the prizes, it does look like you’d need to be in town at some point. But even without that, it’s a good chance to have people take a look at your stories, and it doesn’t cost anything to enter, so what the hell? Stories should be between 200 and 2000 words, and are due Friday, January 31. Winners in all three categories will be announced tome time this March.

Perhaps you’re too old to qualify for this contest yourself, but we know there are some parents out there raising talented youngsters. This could be a fun way to foster some creativity, or just have a damn good time.

EMP