FRIENDS OF THE WRITTEN WORD

Summer Writing

Contest for Adults

Genre: Short Story

Deadline: September 8, 2025

Contest Guidelines:

· 1,000-5,000 word limit. Any length less or more will not be considered.

· Open theme. Any topic, theme, or idea is accepted!

· Format entries that are readable and easy for reading. Recommended format: 12pt, double-spaced, Times New Roman (or basic text font)

· The entry fee is $25, which you will pay through Eventbrite. When checking out, Eventbrite will give you an order number tied to your ticket; keep this number. It will be vital in verifying your payment. This fee is nonrefundable.

· Entrant must be a resident of Texas.

· Submit your entry through Google Forms link provided. When submitting, you will be asked for your Eventbrite order number. You must provide your order number in order for your entry to be considered.

· Ensure no identifying information is left on the document itself or in the document’s title. This will ensure anonymity when judge's are reading your work. Identifying information will be collected through Google Forms. When titling your document, make it only the story's title.

· Must be 18+ years old.

· AI generated works will not be accepted in any regard. If an entry is found to be created through Chat GPT, Grok, or any other AI service, it will be immediately disqualified.

Entries will potentially go through three rounds of judging. The first panel of judges will decide the shortlist; the second panel will decide the longlist, or those who placed highest. The longlist will then be handed off to our top judge, Bret Johnson who will decide the overall winner.

By submitting to the Hill Country Short Story contest, you acknowledge that, if your piece wins, the Friends of the Written Word maintain First Serial Rights to your work. You retain ownership of your work and, once published by the Friends of the Written Word, you are free to take your piece elsewhere.

Meet Our Top Judge:

Bret Anthony Johnston is the author of the internationally best-selling novel Remember Me Like This, which was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, a Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers selection, and the winner of the 2015 McLaughlin-Esstman-Stearns Prize.  The book has been translated around the world and is being made into a major motion picture.  Bret is also the author of  the award-winning Corpus Christi: Stories, which was named a Best Book of the Year by The Independent (London) and The Irish Times, and the editor of Naming the World and Other Exercises for the Creative Writer. His work appears in The Atlantic Monthly, Esquire, The Paris Review, Glimmer Train Stories, Virginia Quarterly Review, The Best American Short Stories, and on NPR’s Selected Shorts.

In 2017, Bret won The Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award, “the world’s richest and most prestigious prize for a single short story.” Other awards include the Pushcart Prize, the Glasgow Prize for Emerging Writers, the Stephen Turner Award, the Cohen Prize, a James Michener Fellowship, the Kay Cattarulla Prize for short fiction, and many more. His nonfiction has appeared in The New York Times, the New York Times Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, Tin House, The Best American Sports Writing, and on NPR’s All Things Considered.

A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, he’s the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship and a 5 Under 35 honor from the National Book Foundation. He wrote the documentary film Waiting for Lightning, which was released in theaters around the world by Samuel Goldwyn Films.

After directing the creative writing program at Harvard University for eleven years, Bret is now the Director of the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas in Austin.

How to enter:

(1) Read the guidelines above;

(2) Go to the Eventbrite event and pay the $25 entry fee. Obtain and copy your order number;

(3) Go to the Google Form at the link below, fill out the information including your Eventbrite order number and upload your writing entry.

Winning entries will be recognized at the 2nd Fredericksburg Book Festival in January 2026. Winning entries will also be published in the Fredericksburg Standard Radio-Post newspaper and on the Fredericksburg Book Festival website.