The 2024 Short Story Contest:
“fireside”
the FIFTH annual short story contest
CONTEST CLOSED
open to all ages and all nations, submissions must be in English
The embers of the open campfire wander lazily into the cool night air. The breeze is perfect, just enough to keep the insects away, but not enough to blow the smoke into your eyes. You take a deep breath of the cool autumn air as a few loose guitar notes waft by from a distant neighboring campsite. It’s the end of the summer, the last perfect evening, and your friends are waiting for you to tell your long-anticipated tale. The firelight illuminates your face in its flickering warm glow, and you begin to speak. This, is your fireside story.
THE WINNERS
IN FIRST PLACE WE HAVE “THE BEAST OF THE WEST” BY JONATHAN SWANBERG. IN SECOND PLACE, “A LIGHT ALWAYS BURNS,” BY JONNY EBERLE. IN THIRD PLACE, “COYOTE HAUNTS,” BY LEVI MARCAS. OUR HONORABLE MENTION AWARD GOES TO “BUTTERFLY KISSES,” BY SEAFRA DUFFY.
GRAND PRIZE: A CUSTOM ROSE GOLD FINISHED GROMA KOLIBRI. IN PARTNERSHIP WITH UNPLUG TYPEWRITER CO, Philly Typewriter, and Indiana Star Typewriter Co.
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Laura Elmer
31 Days of Halloween
Wesle Baucom
A Goblin's Night
Cheryl Davis
A Life of Wanting
Cameron Knight
A Lilly in a Grave
Mike Dunbar
After the War
Kai Azor
AN OCCURRENCE AT LIVE OAK CEMETERY
Kan van de Dam
Autumn by the Windmill
Dreux Denny
Baby Blue
Séafra Duffy
Butterfly Kisses
Jed Bickman
Chin's Nose
Grit Matthias Phelps
Clothes
Levi Marcas
Coyote Haunts
Dewey Stewart
Crossover
Charlotte Lim
Dead Men Tell No Tales
Jean Philippe Brunet
Ding!
Tyler Macek
Down the Windy Fall Road
S. P. Tailor
Experimental Witchcraft
Moe Types
Girl in the Walls
Jose Valerio
I am a Brush
Matthew Murray
IHOP, 2:30am, Griffin, GA, Some time before 9/11
Michael Barr
Land God Forgot
Paul King
Lessons Over the Fire
Matthew Flores
Liminal
Yegor Shevtsov
Love-Struck and Crashed
Ira Richmond
Mending Hearts
Yolanda Wisher
Moutnain Lion Woman
Michael Bellchambers
My Friend Lizzy
Justin Possenti
My Mother's Name Is Millie
Craig M. Renwick
My Ride is Late
Lisa Lampo
New Tales for Old Friends
Abigail Rambeck
Northwood
Caitlin Brockenbrow
Not My Circus, Not My Monkeys
Torie Adler
Of Pirates and Shadows and Curses
James Bachelor
Oh-Tee Croak
Xerxes Price
One More Political
Kay Kro Kroger
Poetic Justice
Joseph Grady
Prelude to a Shotgun Wedding
Karis Pressler
Quarry Story
Christine Kearney
Red Goes to the Desert
Mike Pesarchick
Requiem in Reichs Cut
Kerry Sutherland
Safe
Henry Kneiszel
Skeleton Friday
Nicholas Siegel
Sound Privacy
Leslie Quitoriano
Summer of Silence
Suzanne LaPierre
Suriving Bear Season
Adam Sidle
Swallowing Sandcastles
Sadie Kleinman
The Bartender
Jonathan Swanberg
The Beast of the West
Elena Cisneros
The Boy and the Deer
Holly Lynn Purser
The Campfirebury Tales
Nathan Calley
The Crone in the Woods, or Spider's Milk
Eric Brehm
The Darby Gates
Cory Doyle
The Dream's Confusion
Mike Matzdorff
The Egg and the Ice Cream Truck
Martin Saffo
The End of my Light and the Beginning of my Darkness
Nico Girard
The Fire
Andy Garcia
The Ghost Boar of Greenwich Holt
Audrey Edmondo
The Ghost of the Witch Hunter
Craig Edelbrock
The Ghost Room
Brendan McLoughlin
The Gift
Josh Brindle
the Key-Rattler, Clicky-Clacketer
Dan Timonera
The Last Tijpmagus
Eli Barraza
The Night Hike
Jenna Salisbury
The Rotary
Lillian W
the Sing Song Girls
David Torres
The Typewriter, the Mummy, and the Ghost
Darrom E. Delzer
The Weed Garden
Cheri Ray
The Whispering Keys
RJ Binder
The Witch's Field
Chad Elmer
They are Among Us
Ashley Teatum
This is a Ghost Story
Gabriella Rodriguez
Trainee
Scott Connors
Typewriter Transgressions
Jack Valentine
Uncle Moose's Tower of Babel
James Kern
Unspoken Happenings at the LAAC
Alexander de Wolff
Up on the Sky
Felix Im
Versus God
Aaron Smith
What the Axe Forgets
Kirt Broussard
What Time is it?
Judee C.
When You Were Mine
Shannon Stephens
Yeshua Garcia
If you do not see your name on this list please contact me immediately at ChicagoTyperCo@Gmail.com
The How-To
Below you will see two buttons. One says Rules, the other says Donate. The first link obviously tells you what to do to enter the contest. It is free, you are not required to pay a dime. The second link though, that one is to help me out, it is completely optional. Donations help make this contest possible!
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Erica Yamamoto - A uniquely talented creator with incredible skills in story-telling and digital art.
Arielle Noel - Veteran short story judger and avid consumer of literature.
Sarah Everett - Avid typewriter collector and the personality behind the ever-popular YouTube channel Just.My.Typewriter.
Woz Flint - Typewriter connoisseur and author of The Distraction Free First Draft, a book all about writing with typewriters.
Ephemeral Ephraim - that one guy at parties who thinks his film camera and large flash go unnoticed, but hopes everyone asks him about his pocket watch
Upload your story using the form to the right. Alternatively, you can chose to email your work to ChicagoTyperCo@gmail.com and use the subject line 2024 Short Story Contest. You can also mail it to the address at the bottom of the page. Pleas ensure you have read the rules before submitting. Thank you!!
Hi there!
Thank you for submitting your story for the 2024 Short Story Contest.
What’s Next
The contest closes on October 31, 2024. Our judges will begin reading shortly thereafter, and a winner will be announced in late November.
Thanks for sending your words our way!
-The 2024 Short Story Contest team
ABOUT
Hello everyone! I started this contest in April of 2020 at the beginning of the Pandemic. It was a difficult time for a great many of us, and I thought it would be a good idea to give people a project to put their minds to. The contest prize was a small typewriter, a fitting end goal for a writing contest, I thought. I have to say it went really well. Well enough that I am turning it into an annual event. It is, however, impossible without your participation! So if you have already participated, I thank you very much for helping to create a fun activity for the online writing community. If you have yet to participate, I thank you in advance. And if you are a returning participant, welcome back and good luck to you!
FAQ:
Do I need to pay for anything at any point ever? Not for this contest you don’t! Unless you want to, then click donate.
Does my submission need to be typewritten? Nope, but they do need to be legible.
How do I submit? There are several ways to submit, you can use the drop-box form below which helps me keep everything organized, or you can email your submission to ChicagoTyperCo@Gmail.com with the subject header “Short Story Contest.” In some cases, you can call me and arrange to mail in your submission, but it must be post marked by the due date.
Can anyone enter? Absolutely! All I ask is that submissions are written in English, and make use of polished grammar and spelling. Open to all ages from all corners of the world.
Can I enter again if I’ve already entered last year? Absolutely, you can enter as many times as you want (one story per contest), but a previous year’s winner cannot win again!
Do you cover international shipping? YES!
Will my stories be published elsewhere? Not at all! The three winners will appear down below in the “winner archive” but the copyrights to the stories are 100% yours. You own it all. Your stories will not be published in any other media, or be used for any promotional activity. You are free to do with them what you wish after the end of the contest.
Can I use something I have already written? Yes and no, but mostly no. No recycled stories please, the goal of the contest is to write something original and new. That being said, you can draw inspiration from your previous works, just no resubmissions please! They must be written FOR the contest.
How will I know if I am the one true and glorious winner? You will get a divine message from the heavens above that will strike you through the brain like a golden arrow—the ground will rumble, the air will grow warm, and the sky will open to the cosmos. The voice of a sentient quadruple-winged raven with Reese’s Pieces for eyes will call out to you and announce you as “the Chosen One.” Either that or you’ll receive an email.
Past Contest Winners:
2024 Short Story Contest Winners
Click down below to see the top 3 winners, first through third, picked by our judges. The Beast of the West, Jonathan Swanberg; A Light Always Burns, by Jonny Eberle; and Coyote Haunts, by Levi Marcas.
2023 Short Story Contest Winners
Click down below to see the top 3 winners, first through third, picked by our judges. Six Memories of Billy Thatcher, by Roux Bedrosian; 1960’s Retro Red Portable JCPenny AM/FM Radio! Works when plugged in!, by J. W. Surface; and Dark Night of the Soul, by Betty Narm.
2022 Short Story Contest Winners
Click down below to see the top 3 winners, first through third, picked by our judges. Under the Ice, Under the Snow, by Elizabeth Kepsel; Bumf*ck Nowhere, by Kevin Stallaert; and The Upgrade, by K.A. Lewis.
2021 Short Story Contest Winners
Click down below to see the top 3 stories picked by out panel of judges! Monument by Nick DuBois, Panic by Jasmyne Riniker, and Lawrence Beaumont’s Journal by Rhiannon Bloss.
2020 Short Story Contest Winners
Click the link below to see the top 3 stories picked by our judges. Emerald by Adeline Singer, Tears in Heaven by Kyle Feuerbach, and Anya by Betsy Martin.