That first time you walked through a haunted house, watched that scary movie which left you sleepless, or when your older sibling first told that terrifying myth about the empty house up the street–everyone can remember that first time they were threatened with the terrors created by their own imagination. This October, writers have the chance to harness that fear and imagination into a short story for the first-ever AAU scary short-story contest.
Below is the prompt, instructions, and rules for entering the contest which will be judged by Lennon Wall Editor-in-chief Mae Bryant, Writing Club President Isabella Fattore, and Student Council member Alan Bakiyev.
THEME: Fear The Familiar
Writers are given a large amount of creative liberty, we only ask that you keep the story within the theme of the uncanny valley, the horror which lurks beneath what seems comfortable and familiar, liminal spaces and rotten nostalgia. For further guidance, below is a quote from horror author Thomas Ligotti:
“In the right surrounding our entire being is made of eyes that dilate to witness the haunting of the universe. But really, do the right surrounding have to be so obvious in their spectral atmosphere? Just a little doubt slipped into the mind, a little trickle of suspicion in the bloodstream, and all those eyes of ours, one by one, open up to the world and see its horror.”
PRIZES
First Place: 500czk gift card to Shakespeare & Sons Bookstore and story published on Lennon Wall Website
Second Place: Cafe de Taxis Voucher and story published on Lennon Wall Website
Third Place: Story published on Lennon Wall Website
FORMAT
12 pages maximum, no page minimum, line spacing and font size does not matter.
SUBMISSION
All stories must be submitted to: AAUhorrorstory@gmail.com in a PDF or Word format.
DEADLINE
When the clock strikes midnight on Halloween. (Oct. 31st).
With Ligotti’s words as your guide, we invite you to imagine a world where nothing is as it seems.
