The Little Bird Writing Contest is an annual, international contest I created exclusively for innovative, emerging short fiction writers.
It began in 2010, when I started posting writing prompts on Twitter. Now you can get those prompts delivered to your inbox every day. This contest is built to showcase the excellent stories that come from these prompts.
The winning stories, selected by an author I respect and admire, are published in an annual short fiction anthology: The Little Bird Stories.
It’s not too early to begin writing for Little Bird 2014, which will open for submissions next Spring.
Here’s what to do right now.
1. Are you receiving my prompts? Good. If you haven’t done so already, sign up to have a confounding and irresistible writing prompt delivered to your inbox daily.
2. Write. Get your story ready for next year’s contest. Under 2,500 words, please. Include, at the beginning of your story, the prompt that inspired it. Contest opens on March 1st, 2014.
3. Download the recording of the Little Bird Salon. On March 1st 2013, Alix Ohlin and I spoke on the phone with over 250 writers and readers listening around the world. We answered questions sent in from our listeners, and chatted about what inspires us, how publication happens, what we think about revision, and more. It was an inspiring, practical, and thought-provoking conversation. Click here to access the recording (it’s free).
4. Read the Little Bird Stories to see what winning writers did with prompts in Vols. I, II & III. I donate all of the profits from the sale of these eBooks to the Pelee Island Bird Observatory to help protect the real little birds out there. Download all these volumes below – they are $3.00 each.
Read the Little Bird Stories
Little Bird Stories Volume III
Contest Date: 2013
Stories selected by Alix Ohlin
Cover Design: Ryan Muscat
Winner: Leslie Greentree, for “The Room of Pickled Things”
Read the announcement on the blog.
Little Bird Stories Volume II
Contest Date: 2012
Stories selected by Zsuzsi Gartner
Cover Design: Michel Vrana
Winner: Frances Phillips, for “No Street Called Crow”
Little Bird Stories Volume I
Contest Date: 2011
Stories selected by Matthew J. Trafford & Jessica Westhead
Cover Design: Carolyn McNellie
Winner: Brittany Smith, for “Contrast Fluid”
Are you an ambassador for short fiction?
Me too! Sign up for Little Bird Contest updates and bi-monthly letters to support your writing (it’s free).
Thank you for joining me here, and celebrating writers who write short stories.
We love you.
xo,
