The greatest short short of all time is of course
Hemingway's: "For sale. Baby
shoes. Never worn." The art of the
short short is to compress yet not lose narrative power. It is closer to poetry than it is to fiction.
Everything matters. Just a simple paragraph break can have enormous narrative
consequences. This is not a Twitter game.
This is the search for a white star of language.
Entries must be 78 words, in honor of Esquire's
seventy-eighth birthday. We're calling these short shorts "Aspens."
Ten winners will be flown to New York for a fiction
workshop taught by Colum McCann, followed by an exclusive evening literary salon. The grand prize winner will
receive a full-paid scholarship for the advanced fiction workshop during Aspen
Summer Words (June 17-22, 2012).
All entries due by Oct 7, 2011. Must be submitted
electronically at esquiresubmissions.com
What are we looking for, exactly? Beat this....
Contest of skill:No purchase necessary to enter or win.
Short, Short Fiction Contest. Sponsored by Hearst Communications, Inc and the
Aspen Writers' Foundation, a program of the Aspen Institute. Beginning
September 1, 2011, at 12:01 AM (ET) through October 7, 2011, at 11:59 P.M. (ET)
submit entries at esquiresubmissions.com. Must be 18 or older and a legal
resident of the 50 United States, District of Columbia, or Canada. Void in
Puerto Rico, the Province of Quebec, and where prohibited by law. Contest is
subject to complete official rules available at esquire.com/fiction-contest.
