Contests

The Results

Note: All five finalists will appear in the third issue of Bartleby Snopes due out in January, available free online in a lovely .pdf format.

1st Place ($410)- David Williams, "Cooking Chinese"

Guest judge j.a. tyler said "this one was able to get the most complex story out of a mimnum of language, making the conversation resonate from within rather than filling itself with exposition / explanation. It also managed to feel natural and easy, the flow of a conversation as we are known to have them, us when we are not writing."

2nd Place ($10) - Mel Bosworth, "Cash and Coupons"

3rd Place ($10) - CS DeWildt, "A Wager Between Scientists"

4th Place ($10) - R.F. Marazas, "Post-Coital Conversation"

5th Place ($10) - Allen Kopp, "The Clown Who Stole Lady Chatterly's Lover"

Thank you to all who participated. All entrants have been notifited of their current standing. If you think you have not received word from us, please let us know.

Thank you to j.a. tyler from mud luscious press for serving as a guest judge (www.aboutjatyler.com).

Final Prize Info:
Grand Prize - $410 (and publication in issue 3 due in January 2010)
4 Honorable Mentions - $10 (and publication)

The Rules: Compose a short story entirely of dialogue. You may use as many characters as you want. Your entry must be under 3000 words. Your entry does not have to follow standard rules for writing dialogue. Your entry cannot use any narration (this includes tag lines such as he said, she said, etc.). These are the only rules. Manipulate them however you see fit.

The Winner: The winning entry will be the story that most effectively uses dialogue to deliver a powerful and engaging story.

Entry Fee: $10 for unlimited entries. Entry fee must be received via Paypal before your submission will be considered. Please follow the link at the bottom of the page. Update: Since we have received 25 entries, the contest will not be cancelled and no entry fees will be returned.

Deadline: All submissions must be received by September 30th.

Submission Guidelines: (Submissions are Closed) All entries should be submitted to dialoguecontest@bartlebysnopes.com with the following subject line: Dialogue Submission: Last Name. Please attach each submission as a separate word or rtf document. Do not paste the submission into the body of the email. Your name, contact information, bio and word count should appear in the body of the email and at the end of your story.

No simultaneous submissions or previously published stories are allowed. If your story is discovered to be simultaneous or previously published, you will become ineligible from competition in the contest and your entry fee will be forfeited.

Your entry fee must be received before your submission will be read. Once we have received your fee, we will send you a verification email. If your fee has not been received within 48 hours, we will send you a friendly reminder.

By submitting, you are stating that you are the sole author of the work and that it has not been published before. Work posted on blogs, message boards, personal websites, etc. all counts as previously published material.

For regular submissions, please see our Submission Guidelines page.