Season Six Starts Now: Double Header Edition!
Join a community, write, submit and be recognized.
Today marks the start of Lunar Awards season six. We’ll be accepting submissions for the Short Story category this season, and we’ve got a special treat. In celebration of Major League Baseball’s opening day today, we’re calling this our “Double Header Edition”. That means you can submit TWO short stories for consideration this season! And, thanks to our sponsor, the monetary prize has been doubled to $50!
Keep reading, because the prize pack gets even better.
Sponsor
Storyletter XPress Publishing is back, and founder Winston Malone has some exciting news to share along with this sponsorship. His indie publishing house is going to be releasing their first anthology, “Take Me There: A Speculative Anthology of Travel.” He has chosen season six of the Lunar Awards to reveal the cover, which will occur on the same day our winner is announced. The winner will receive a free hard cover edition!
(The book will be shipped upon publication to the winner using applicable shipping methods available in the United States or internationally (USPS/UPS). If the winner's country does not support the chosen shipping methods, an ebook will be sent via email. The winner will need to provide a valid mailing address and email address to Storyletter XPress Publishing for the sole purpose of shipping and payout. The approximate date of publication is June 2024, but is subject to change.)
Season Details
Please read the FAQ, which contains the complete rules, including word limits. Ask in the comments if you have questions. The judging period is 7-14 days after the deadline before a winner is announced.
Short Story Submission Period:
Short stories must be published on Substack after Thursday, March 28, 2024, 12:00am UTC (season start), and before Wednesday, April 17, 2024, 11:59am UTC (season end). A total of 21 days. All times are UTC so there is no confusion on time differences.
Prompt Quest #1 Exemptions:
If you contributed a short story to Prompt Quest #1, then it is exempt from the publication start date rule. It’s one of your rewards for completing the quest, but it must follow all other rules (like word count). Since this is our Double Header Edition, you could choose to submit both your prompted short story and a second entry that falls within the submission period.
Award Season Six Judge:
Prizes
A six-month paid comp to the Lunar Awards, which grants you 7-day early access notification for the next award season.
A $50 monetary prize. US residents may choose either PayPal (minus fees and conversion rate), an Amazon.com e-gift card or a Bookshop.org e-gift card. International residents will be paid via PayPal in participating countries.
A hard copy edition of “Take Me There: A Speculative Anthology of Travel”.
A permanent link on the Past Winners page, including a high-resolution badge to display on your Substack.
Short Story Entry
Post a link to your short story in the comments of this post. The entry will be verified with a confirmed ✅ response comment. If it violates a rule, it will be considered temporarily declined until a correction is made.
Looks like this season is off to a great start. Good luck, everyone! I'm very excited to read awesome stories from the Lunar Awards community. Happy writing! :)
My first entry is "Take Your Daughter to Work Day" which has been enjoyed by a few people and is regarded as an Indiana Jones meets Lord of the Rings short story. It was my prompt quest entry and I loved the challenge. https://open.substack.com/pub/hannadelaneywrites/p/take-your-daughter-to-work-day?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=2byo0o