SF twitfic contest for young writers

To celebrate the recent successes achieved by the We See a Different Frontier: postcolonial speculative fiction anthology, we're going to run another "twitfic" microfiction writing contest over the first couple weeks of the new year. If you are under 20 years old, this is your chance to win a handful of lovely prizes by writing a short story that fits within a single tweet (with space for hashtags) on the topic of colonialism-themed speculative fiction.

The rules:

• To be elligible to enter, you must not yet have reached your twentieth birthday on the day you post the tweet
• Your entire story should be under 125 characters long. Post your story in a tweet along with both the hashtags #wsadf #YAscifi
• Your story can be in any of the subgenres of science fiction, fantasy, horror or even surreal or magical realist, whatever works for you, so long as you include the theme of colonisation from the perspective of the colonized
• For an idea of what sort of stories themes might work, see the original call for submissions for the colonial SF/F anthology
• The closing date for entries is midnight UTC on Wednesday January 15th, 2014
• Prize-winning stories may be used in promotional contexts and other materials for the We See a Different Frontier anthology. All other rights, including full copyright, remain with the authors.

The prizes:

• One winner will receive a hardcopy of We See a Different Frontier; a one-year e-book subscription to Crossed Genres magazine; a signed copy of Sofia Samatar's A Stranger in Olondria; a reading slot in the outro of an instalment of one of the Escape Artists fiction podcasts; a copy of Ilike Merey's graphic novel a+e 4ever from Lethe Press.
• At the judges' discretion, one or more runners-up may in addition be offered e-book copies of the WSaDF anthology.

The judges:
The winning story and runners-up will be selected by the panel of judges, made up of:

• Malinda Lo (author of Ash and Huntress)
• Catherine Krahe (Alpha Workshop and Strange Horizons)
• Regina de Búrca (TFF co-editor and YA author)

New Issue: 2013.28

“What is your writing engaging with, if not power, history, social forces, injustice, culture, moral issues, personal fears and interpersonal values?”
—Stephen Volk, Coffinmaker's Blues

Issue 2013.28

• ‘Hunting Unicorns’, Jo Thomas (art by Lisa Grabenstetter)
• ‘Nettles’, Arley Sorg (art by Martin Hanford)
• ‘The Tuner’, Kip Manley (art by Laura Anca Adascalitei)
• ‘Terminal City’, Zoë Blade
• ‘Soul Catcher’, Christel Bodenbender (art by Christina Cartwright)
• ‘Sweet Like Fate’, Sara Puls (art by Cécile Matthey)

Download e-book version: PDF | EPUB | Mobi

Acclaim for We See a Different Frontier

Today's been a good day.

The We See a Different Frontier anthology has been receiving good press; we're very happy with most of the reviews we've seen, and will be surprised if some of the wonderful stories in our pages don't end up on various awards shortlists in the new year. Sales have also not been bad, for a small press publication. We're delighted with the quality of the anthology, but we're also very happy with the reception it has received.

Today got even better.

1. First we learn that Gardner Dozois Year's Best Science Fiction anthology for 2013 contains two stories first published in WSaDF in its pages. This means that, in Dozois's estimation, of the many thousands of SF short stories published in the last twelve months, two of them were in this small press publication. That's a pretty good endorsement. (Table of contents.)
2. On the same day, as a cherry on the top, BFS award-winning SFF reviews site Pornokitsch listed WSaDF in their five favorite anthologies of the year (which is saying something, as I think it's been a great year for anthologies).

There have been lots of other good things said about WSaDF in the last few months (see the reviews and endorsements listed on our press page, for example), but today has felt like icing. I'm especially happy that this anthology is being read and enjoyed by general science fiction and fantasy readers, not only those interested in social justice, diversity and postcolonialism who supported the fundraiser last year.

To celebrate, we're going to run another Twitter writing contest (this time for young authors) just after christmas, with copies of the anthology and other goodies to give away. Watch this space.

If you would like to find out whether you agree with these acclaimed anthologists and reviewers, you can buy the We See a Different Frontier from all the usual online booksellers. Links again on our press page.