MICRO AWARD OFFICIAL WEBSITE
Big changes are afoot for the
3rd Annual Micro Award. To recap what was said in the last update,
the submission period will last three months, from October 1 to December 31. (For
what it’s worth, the post-submission grace period has been shortened to seven
days, as I have found that sufficient time for letters to get across the
country.) And editors will be allowed to submit two stories, subject to a few
conditions.
The first item of breaking
news is that the cash prize for the winner is being upped to $100, and no
trophy will be awarded. The truth be told, I never liked the borkly little
acrylic trophy that went to the first two Micro Award winners. Most working
writers consider remuneration to be the sincerest form of flattery, and so we
have phased out the trophy in favor of a larger share of E PLURIBUS UNUM—I think most of our contestants would prefer it
that way.
Second, self-published
stories will be allowed to compete from now on. For some people, this may
conjure visions of our judges being buried under an avalanche of subliterate
stories. I would reply that over-participation is certainly no problem at this
point in the Micro Award’s history, and that a good many meritorious flash
stories now appear only on author websites. Given the time and effort needed to
sell a short story of any length to a worthwhile market, many established
writers routinely post flash stories on their websites and nowhere else. (Bruce
Holland Rogers, our first winner, has been doing this for years, on a
pay-per-view basis.) Therefore I have decided to open the gates to
self-published stories; some of them will certainly be bad, but separating
diamonds from dung is what judges are for.
Last, I have posted my
personal email address for the convenience of anyone with questions or
comments. THIS ADDRESS IS NOT FOR SUBMISSIONS. Once again, I will elaborate the
reasons why we accept only postal submissions:
1.
Attachments can
harbor viruses and insertions are often garbled to some extent.
2.
We are trying to
maintain parity between submissions from print and online venues, and email
submissions are useful only for submitting from online venues.
3.
The cumulative
expense of printing hard copies for our judges is substantial. Anyone so
inconsiderate as to begrudge the cost of postage and stationery for his one
submission is someone whose participation we can do without.
We have two new judges this
time, Sherrie Flick and Tara L. Masih; stalwart Len Fulton, a judge from the
start, is with us again. That is all for now. Read the rules and send in those
stories.
Robert Laughlin,
Administrator
July 1, 2009
MICRO AWARD COMMITTEE
(Administrator) Robert Laughlin
is a former professional student. Years of writing about dull subjects
functioned as literary aversion therapy, and only now is he undertaking a
full-time career as a writer of fiction. His short stories, “In the Evening
Made” and “The Spirits of ’26,” are Million Writers Award Notable Stories, and
he served as a Million Writers Award preliminary judge in 2009. His first
novel, Vow of Silence, was released
by Trytium Publishing in December 2008.
His website is at www.robertlaughlin-fictionwriter.com.
(Judge) Sherrie Flick is
author of the award-winning flash fiction chapbook, I Call This Flirting, and the novel, Reconsidering Happiness. Recent anthologies include Norton’s New Sudden Fiction and Flash Fiction Forward, and The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Writing
Flash Fiction: Tips from Editors, Teachers, and Writers in the Field. A
recipient of a Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Fellowship, she lives in
(Judge) Tara L. Masih is
editor of The Rose Metal Press Field
Guide to Writing Flash Fiction (2009). She has published fiction, poetry
and essays in numerous anthologies and literary magazines (including Confrontation, Hayden’s Ferry Review,
(Judge) Len Fulton was
educated at the
MICRO AWARD RULES
The Micro Award is presented
annually to a work of prose fiction written in English, not above 1000 words in
length. Poetry, performance scripts, non-fiction, translated fiction, excerpts
from longer works of fiction, and visual art with literary texts are all
ineligible.
Stories considered for the 3rd
Annual Micro Award must have been published originally in 2009. Qualifying
venues are any form of print or electronic publication designed for public
display. Self-written and self-published stories are eligible. Story
submissions may be typed, printed or photocopied; it is also permissible to
submit extracted pages of a print publication that bear the story’s text. One
story per person may be submitted; the senior editor of a magazine or anthology
may submit two stories if both are from his own publication and neither is
self-written. Any story submitted must be as originally published and include a
cover letter with (1) the date and venue of publication and (2) contact
information if the story is submitted by its own author or editor. Submissions
must be postmarked from October 1 to December 31, and addressed to Micro Award,
683 E. 4th,
Submitted stories shall be
distributed equally among at least three judges chosen by the administrator of
the Micro Award. Each judge shall choose three nominees, at least two of which
must be from the stories he was assigned. The judges shall then read all
nominated stories and each judge shall send a final list of three nominees to
the administrator. The story that appears on the most lists shall be declared
the winner; in the event of a tie, the administrator shall cast a tie-breaking
vote. The authors and editors of the winning story and non-winning nominees
shall be notified as soon as possible. By the end of February 2010, results
shall be posted on the Micro Award Official Website. The author of the winning
story shall receive $100.00 US.
The decision of the Micro
Award Committee is final and not subject to appeal. Any violation of the rules
may be grounds for disqualification. The administrator has authority to appoint
and remove judges, amend and interpret rules, and decide any issue not covered
in the rules. Stories written by Micro Award Committee members and their
families are ineligible, as are stories released in publications at which
Committee members are currently employed. The Micro Award is a non-profit
organization.
Questions and comments should
be addressed to Robert Laughlin, Micro Award Administrator, at pc-privconfounder@sbcglobal.net.
FORMER MICRO AWARD WINNERS
#2
WINNER
“Let x” by
OTHER NOMINEES
“Between the Keys” by Robert Swartwood; elimae, July 2008.
“Cracked Open” by Jane Banning; Birds By My Window, December 9 2008.
“Custard’s Last Stand” by Matt Bell; Dogzplot, February 2008.
“Ice Water, Here on Earth” by Damian Dressick;
“Offerings” by Desmond Warzel; Shroud Magazine #4, Fall
2008.
“Silent Notes” by Jessica Hollander; The First Line, Spring 2008.
“Spring Melt” by Gay Degani; Every Day Fiction, June 6 2008.
“A Wizard of MapQuest” by Alex Wilson; Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet #23,
November 2008.
JUDGES
Benjamin J. Biesek, Stefanie Freele, Len Fulton.
#1
WINNER
“Reconstruction Work” by Bruce
OTHER NOMINEES
“Incident in Itawamba” by Gary R. Hoffman; Food Writing, August 7 2007.
“Killer Shift” by Michael Giorgio; Workers Write! Tales from the Cash Register.
“100 Pounds of Ugly” by Diane Arrelle; Futures Mystery Anthology Magazine,
January/February 2007.
“The Painter’s Wife” by Kirk Nesset; The Kenyon Review, Fall 2007.
“Passage” by Christopher Woods; Pequin, August 2 2007.
“Powers” by David Ramsey; Subtropics, Fall/Winter 2007.
“Stockyards” by Zachary Amendt; Underground Voices, July 2007.
“Swimming Pond” by Larry Caldwell;
JUDGES
Clark Brown, Len Fulton, George Keithley.