Stories of the Nature of Cities 2020

The theme of this year’s stories is City in a Wild Garden. See the contest rules below. The contest was open for submissions until 1 January 2020.

Rules for the 2020 Contest: City in a wild garden 

Write a short story (“flash fiction”, up to 750 words), set in the present or future (near or far) and inspired by the phrase “City in a wild garden”. You do not have to literally use this phrase in your story. You may interpret liberally any of the words in the phrase: city, wild, and garden.

Plot elements must include cities, nature, and people. It has to be fiction (that is, a story, not an essay)—any genre, from science fiction to magical realism—and can be about anything: climate change; food security; utopias; wild nature; a love story; … anything. At TNOC, we are very interested in imagining cities in which nature and people co-exist, cities in which the relationships between the human-made and the natural are imagined differently.

There will be, at the Judging Committee’s discretion, up to 6 money-winning stories: One 1st place story receives $2,000; two 2nd place stories receive $1,000 each; three third prize stories receive $500 each. A larger number of stories will be included in a book to be published (in late 2020 or early 2021) by Publication Studios.

The rules are simple. The work must:

(1) be 750 words or less, not including the title (i.e., “sudden fiction” or “flash fiction”);

(2) be fiction, a story (that is, not an essay, poetry, or other form);

(3) be successfully submitted to the organizers no later than 1 January 2020 (midnight EST)

(4) be submitted via the contest’s web-based form;

(5) be set in a city (the notion of “city” may be liberally interpreted);

(6) include as significant plot elements both nature and people;

(7) be submitted in English;

(8) be an original work by the submitter, to which he or she holds the rights;

(9) be previously unpublished, not under consideration in other contests, and remain so during the duration of the contest;

(10) not be racist, sexist, homophobic, gratuitously violent, or otherwise offensive.

(11) Individual authors (under actual name or pseudonym) may submit no more than one work.

(12) Authors must be at least 16 years old as of 1 January 2020.

Don’t forget: the theme of the contest is “city in a wild garden”, but this is not a formal “rule”.

Click here for details