Welcome to the Atlantis Short Story Competition 2021
"I don't believe you have to be better than everybody else.
I believe you have to be better than you ever thought you could be." -Ken Venturi
>> International Call For Entries - Writers from all around the world are welcome <<
***EVERY PARTICIPANT: BRIEF COMMENT AND EVALUATION TABLE ***
** DETAILED CRITIQUE AVAILABLE FOR ALL PARTICIPANTS **
Upcoming competition (2022): To be announced (request a free reminder via the free mailing list below)
Questions, problems, suggestions? Please use the contact form.
UPDATE 2021:
Please follow Caroline Dain on twitch.tv/carolinedain
Dear valued readers & writers!
The first volume of the official Atlantis Short Story Contest Anthology is available on Amazon! You can easily get your copy on your local amazon website.
The paperback is also LIVE now, available here (please click on links below):
Amazon.com, Amazon.com.au (available in 2019 - ebook here), Amazon.ca, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, Amazon.it, Amazon.es and Amazon.co.jp.
Or visit the amazon marketplace/website of your choice and country and search for "Atlantis Short Story Competition Anthology 2017 - 2018").
Australian readers, please head over to one of the Amazon marketplaces above and pick overseas shipping (if you want to receive your copy before Christmas).
Please subscribe above to the free newsletter. News in regard to future volumes and contests will follow! Also, the newsletter will contain writing and publishing advice.
Special thanks to Paul Douglas Robertson, who has painted the amazing cover. He is an Australian-based award-winning artist:
See more of his awe-inspiring art on bluethumb, redbubble, and on his website.
Last but not least, the Atlantis Short Story Contest is very pleased to honor and promote this roster of talented writers and their unmatched creativity. Thank you to everyone who participated, demonstrating the audacity to share your work with all of us!
Wishing you joyous and blessed Christmas preparations!
Main amazon distribution sites (ebook and paperback)
Australia: READ NOW
US: READ NOW
UK: READ NOW
Canada: READ NOW
India: READ NOW
Publication date: Oct 22, 2018 (ebook).
Publication date: November 25, 2018 (high quality glossy paperback).
Atlantis Short Story Contest Anthology
archived posts below
******************************************
September 16, 2018:
Alice’s story ‘Lilies’ came fifth out of 258 entries in the Atlantis Short Story Competition 2017/18 (please scroll down to see the winners)
and will be published in Atlantis’ first anthology in autumn 2018. Following on from the immensely useful feedback
and ongoing support from Raffael, she has continued to write and submits regularly to contests and literary magazines.
Her second story is to be published in late 2018 after being shortlisted in the Didcot Writers’ contest ‘The Most Normal Town in England’;
Didcot Writers is a creative writing community based in Oxfordshire, UK (edited and maintained by Alice Little).
Alice's website can be found at www.alicelambooks.com where you can read some of her short stories.
Thanks for stopping by! The release of the Atlantis Short Story Contest Anthology is just three weeks away.
******************************************
August 24, 2018:
Exciting news! Atlantis finalist Mara Blazic has made the Longlist of the U.K.'s Bath Short Story Award for the second year running. Her story is ranked in the top fifty of 1,100 submissions from around the world.
Mara was inspired by the comprehensive feedback she received from Atlantis to rework her story 'Lagoon Blue' which is an 'Honorable Mention' in this year's contest. She gave it a new name for Bath - 'The S.O.S. Dress'.
https://www.bathshortstoryaward.org/category/longlist-2018/
Her story 'Sign Of The Times' - this year's top 40 Atlantis finalist - has been selected for publication in our very first anthology coming out in October!
Apart from her story, the anthology features an impressive array of the top stories of the Atlantis Short Story Contest 2017/18
and you will be able to read them on amazon kindle.
So save the date and visit our website: The release is set to be on October 10, 2018.
Watch this space for the latest news and developments.
******************************************
May 25, 2018:
Dear valued participants,
there has been a plethora of splendid submissions. Indeed, every submitted story embodies a unique element or style.
Those who made it into the Top 40 or who are included in the Honorable Mentions can be particularly proud to have
succeeded thus far.
In the coming weeks of June, we will seek permission of the authors to publish the winning entries, so you get a chance
to immerse into a realm other than your own. The author retains all rights to her story.
No contest will be hosted in summer. Stay tuned and watch this space for future announcements! A free e-mail reminder
for the next submission opportunity can be requested here.
In the interim, there are three achievements by participating writers that we have announced just now. The accomplishments
are posted below the list of winners. Do not forget to check them out!
Without further ado, here are the winners . . .
The Atlantis Short Story Contest 2017/18 (258 short story entries) PROUDLY PRESENTS...
TOP 15:
- Repentance (non-fiction) by Rebecca Sanger
- You Are Wonderful (non-fiction) by Katharine Blachford
- Wrapped in Brown Paper by Donna Smith
- THE LOOP by Heledd Williams
- Lilies by Alice Lam
- Weighing Up The Risks (non-fiction) by Pauline Mary Curley
- DON’T KNOW MUCH ABOUT HISTORY by Heledd Williams
- Trade Winds by Anan Singh
- Hans and Greta by Rebecca Alexandra-Green
- Corpses by Paul Whelan
- The Artist by Hannah Joy
- Mystery Car by Trevor A. McGregor
- LOVE TRIANGLE by Bronwyn Clifton
- Through the Mahogany Door by C J Bouniu
- The Deliberate Swan by Ginger Rigdon
TOP 16 - 40 (in alphabetical order):
A Letter Stained Red by Steven Cini
Adrenaline by Jo Mularczyk
AUSSIE HAPPY HOUR! (non-fiction) by Paul Douglas Robertson
Black and Blue and Red All Over by Gina Burgess
Break Her, Not Our Culture by Kerri Sullivan
Buri Khabar by Anan Singh
Crocodile Creek by Timothy Nicol
Eleanor’s Lemurs by Cosima Armstrong
HERO by Poem Schway
Invisible by Julie Vanessa Baker
Joseph, Joseph by Leigh Dolinger
Marooned by Lenore Hirsch
Pikachu, Tiaras & ECT (non-fiction) by Laura O'Hare
Reflections from SoCal by Jin An Hirst
SIGN OF THE TIMES by Mara Blazic
Spring Rain is a Different Entity by Joyce Butler
The Black Wasp by Stephan Ward
The Funeral Procession of Birds by Sonja Murphy
The Great Escape by Ketron Halasa
The Grown-Ups by Jane Law
The husband’s coat (creative non-fiction) by Anne Howell
The Long Goodbye by Martin McSweeney
The Sanshin by Judy S. Richardson
THERE WAS NO APPOMATTOX by Bruce Feldhauser
Wavy by Preston Copeland
HONORABLE MENTIONS (in alphabetical order):
Behind the Call by Gabriel Sharp
BLACK BAG by Anna Downes
Do-Over by Tom Chambless
ELSIE'S TOAST by Tony McGettigan
Ewen's Ponds (non-fiction) by Ineke van Os
Fleeing to Safety (non-fiction) by Barbara Boothe Loyd
Head in the clouds by Gautam Banerjee
iPerson by Annie Baker
ISAKOV IN A VALLEY by Atorina Saliba
Lagoon Blue by Mara Blazic
Leeches (creative non-fiction) by Rebecca Isaacs
Lithium by Aileen Ferris
Memories Need Not Apply by Kali Myers
Scars (non-fiction, memoir) by Ashleigh Hardcastle
St Bernard Spoiled The Party by Eamon O'Leary
The Adventures of Aria the Orca: Aria in Australia by Dominique Potvin
The Aroma of Popcorn (non-fiction) by Myra Koch
The Bookshop by Meghan Douglass
THE FREEZER by Theresia Benker
The Shite House Crooner by Cathy Collins
Celebrated accomplishments
Little Wonder Radio Plays
My name is Keith Crawford (follow on twitter) and I’m director of Little Wonder Radio Plays (follow on twitter),
an anglophone production company based in Paris, France. We publish 10-20 minute long full-cast audio dramas, both new and classics, free to download or stream, every 2nd and 4th Thursday of the month. This post is about what we do, how I got into it, and why writing radio play is a great thing for any writer to try – including you, if you enter our free competition from July.
But first, here is the latest radio play, written by yours truly and fresh from Soundcloud:
Back in 2014 my wife fell pregnant and I decided to quit my job lecturing law at Sciences Po, stay at home with the kids, and write fiction full time. One of the first things I did was enter the Atlantis Short Story Competition - I wrote about my experiences here.
That was tremendously encouraging. I wrote a novel, which is currently being read by publishers and agents (exciting!), but being at home with the kids all the time left me feeling a little out of touch. I needed to find a form of writing that would challenge me viscerally without crippling me practically. That was where radio plays came in.
Radio plays are a wonderful medium for people with more imagination than time or freedom. I can write about anything I want, spaceships or dragons or small walking trees living in people’s bloodstreams, without having to worry about budget or feasibility. My professional actors rehearse and record three new plays in an afternoon, instead of the months of rehearsal for a play or the complicated set up for film, and modern recording kit is excellent: see this behind-the-scenes preview we put up on YouTube last week for an example of us in action.
As well as recording classics, I set up a writers group to produce new scripts which we shared, improved together, and staged a public performance at Moving Parts (an anglophone theatre company in Paris)
– all six scripts are in post-production now and you can check out our release schedule for the year.
We’re also looking for new writers, as we expand and grow. That’s where you come in.
Little Wonder are running a short radio play competition that will be open from July12th-August 30th for entries of plays between 1600 and 2000 words long. The competition is free to enter, and all longlisted entries will receive feedback on their plays and a chance to review before submitting for the shortlist. Shortlisted plays will be performed and recorded live before the winner, in turn, gets the full cast audio treatment. For more information about the competition, check out here.
And to keep in touch with our project, subscribe to the website Little Wonder website or any of the social media platforms described here:
Atlantis was a big turning point for me: the first moment I started to believe I could really be a writer. If you’d like to have a crack at radio, whether you have experience or not, then why not try with us? Don’t want to write? Subscribe, listen, and give us feedback: we appreciate the audience!
Last but not least, we are delighted to hear that Ruth O'Shea is the third of ten winners in the Fish Publishing Short Memoir Prize 2018. Her winning memoir "Glue" will be included in the anthology available for purchase in July. Most recently, Ruth has won a bursary to participate in a Flash Fiction workshop this weekend in London with the Word Factory. The theme of the workshop is the Suffragette movement which is timely seen, as the Irish people vote on whether to grant women the right to a legal abortion or not tomorrow.
Ruth Mary O'Shea is a Celtic Blues vocalist, musician, filmmaker and writer from County Meath, Ireland. She has performed across the US, Canada and Europe and was a recent winner in the annual Fish Publishing Short Memoir Competition. Her collection of short childhood memoir stories, "Glue", will be published as part of the Fish Publishing
Anthology 2018. She is currently working on a new album and a series of short stories for children.
She is always interested in collaborating with other musicians and filmmakers. Visit her website here.
Since 2011, many more participants reported their impressive achievements. Read further success stories here
Questions, problems, suggestions? Please use the contact form or write to submit@atlantis-shortstorycontest.com .
What participating writers say about us. Read here
Read the winners of the 2016/17 competition here
