Today is not a national statutory holiday in Canada, but in Ontario, Family Day is celebrated on the 3rd Monday of February (and many of us have a holiday away from our daily jobs). This holiday was originally created for people to spend time with their families, however, it also allows a day off between New Years Day and Good Friday (which are three months apart). These three months are a loooooong stretch of time when the sunshine goes on vacation to Florida (to hang out with my parents). When this happens, the Canadians end up battling snowstorms every other day and need to deal with the extremely cold winds whipping through the land freezing our facial expressions of sadness until mid-April.
Family Day is great for people who have young kids that want to celebrate by playing board games all day in their jammies by the fireplace, or going snowshoeing, skating or skiing together in the -35 degree weather. But, if you don’t have children, or if you are like me, your kids have grown up and have moved out, Family Day becomes more of a “Catch-up-on-all-the-other-stuff-you-have-procrastinated-doing” Day.
If you are a writer, it also becomes a “Finish-My-Novel” kind of day or a “Let’s-Write-A-Short-Story” kind of day. After reading Seana Moorhead’s blog post on 10 Reasons to Write Short Stories on January 27th, I thought I should investigate all the possibilities of where to send these newly-created short stories. Then, I decided to share the information with you. There is no better feeling of sending out your work and having it be a finalist (or a winner) in a contest.
Okay, that was a little lie above…
A better feeling for a writer is to finish her damn novel and send it out to the editor, where he fixes all the stupidity in it, sends it off to an agent, they love it, want it, sign you, find a home for it, publish it, and then you are a ROCKSTAR, living the life of a bestselling author.
BUT, the sad reality is, let’s just write a short story because it is easier and quicker than finishing a whole damn novel.
Here are a TEN places you can send your amazing fiction or nonfiction short stories to, and the accompanying links to find all the rules and regulations…
Upcoming Short Story Contests:
- February 24th (Extended) ~ Writer’s Union of Canada Short Prose Contest. Submit 2500 words or less. Fee is $29.00.
- February 28th (5:00pm) ~ 2020 Toronto Star Short Story Contest. Submit up to 2500 words. Fee: FREE.
- February 29th ~ CBC Creative Non-Fiction Contest. Submit 2000 words. Fee is $25.00 CAN. Submit: Memoir, biography, humour writing, essay (including personal essay), travel writing and feature articles.
- March 1st ~ Bouchercon Anthology Short Story Competition. Stories must be between 1500 – 5500 words. Theme: California Schemin’—following that phrase wherever it might take you. Fee: FREE.
- March 8th, 2020 ~ Room Magazine Fiction Contest. Submit 3500 words. Fee $35.00 CAN.
- March 15th ~ Alice Munro Short Story Contest. Submit 2500 words or less. Fee: $25.00 CAN.
- March 28th ~ The Edna Staebler Personal Essay Contest. TNQ (The New Quarterly Magazine). No word limit. Fee is $40 CAN. Nonfiction; essay format.
- April 10th ~ Blank Spaces Magazine Write Prompt Flash Fiction Contest (Image based contest). 1000 words. Fee: FREE.
- May 28th ~ The Peter Hinchcliffe Fiction Short Story Award. TNQ (The New Quarterly Magazine). Suggested 3000 words for upper limit. Fee: $40 CAD. Fiction.
- May 31st ~ Eden Mills Writers’ Festival Short Story Contest. 2500 words. Fee: $15.00 CAN. Fiction.
Choose one. Choose three. Choose all ten! Go for it. Make me proud.
Happy Family Day to you and to all the people you love and consider part of your family… and good luck with your writing submissions this Spring. Don’t forget to tell me all about your experience with submitting a short story and all your acceptances! I can’t wait to read them!
In the meantime, buy books. Read them. Review them. Tell all your friends. Make authors love you. I will love you too. Spread the love… with a book!
