The next installment of the Richard Hugo House Genre Competition Series will focus on speculative fiction. Just what is speculative fiction? In this context, a speculative fiction story calls into question the status quo of reality. It can be science fiction, it can be futuristic, apocalyptic, cyberpunk, utopian. It can have elements of magical realism. Anything from Borges and Kafka to Elizabeth Hand, Octavia Butler, Neil Gaiman, or Neal Stephenson.
Submissions must be received by April 16, 2007. And with this contest, we'll be increasing the prize amount to $500, all for a $5 entry fee.
The competition will be judged by Leslie Howle, (executive director of Clarion West Writers Workshop & NW Media Arts) and Richard Paul Russo (winner of the Philip K. Dick Award & author of Ship of Fools and The Rosetta Codex).
The winner of the competition will read with Greg Bear at Richard Hugo House during the Speculative Fiction Competition reading on May 3, 2007. The winning story will also be published on the Hugo House Web site.
Greg Bear is the author of more than 30 books of science fiction and fantasy, including Blood Music, The Forge of God, Darwin's Radio and Quantico. He has received many accolades, including five Nebula Awards® and two Hugo awards for science fiction.
Here's the challenge: You must use all four of the following elements in some way in your story. How you use them is up to you-anything from a cameo character appearance to the basic theme of the story. It's OK to be subtle; the challenge is to spark the imagination.
Evo(lution): Change, progress, mutation, transformation. Is our society equipped to handle the shifting and unseen horizon? One can only speculate. In Darwin's Radio, Greg Bear imagined the societal impact of a new stage in human evolution. Harry Harrison "economized" in Soylent Green (Novel: Make Room! Make Room!). Think how evolution itself was turned on its ear in Planet of the Apes (Pierre Boulle). Or shine your floodlight inward as Marge Piercy did when she imagined the future through the fragile psychic state of her heroine, Constance, in Woman on the Edge of Time. Tell us: what's that crack in your crystal ball?
Emo(tional): Emo is pop culture shorthand for "depressed emotional," and between war and global warming, there are a lot of emo dudes out there today. One of the things speculative fiction does best is explore the impact of what's happening in the world of our inner landscapes. Philip K. Dick examined one man's moral crisis in the multilayered, award-winning Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? — the story that the film Blade Runner was based on. But really, tell us what "emo" means to you.
Eco(logical): What will nature do? What could nature do? How will we transform it? Restrain it? Weather, disease, mutation, earthquake or pollution-induced mayhem-oh my!... How about nuclear winter? Or supernova? In Forty Signs of Rain, writer Kim Stanley Robinson begins a trio of well researched books that drop us into an intimate look at our lives a few years from now as global warming becomes a runaway train.
Ego: Character development is essential in any story. What kind of development and what kind of character is up to you.
Winner will be announced on April 24, 2007.
Please send a $5 entry fee — we can accept cash or a check/money order-to Richard Hugo House. You can enter as many times as you like as long as you pay an entry fee for each story.
Manuscripts must be under 5,000 words and should be double spaced, with one-inch margins and 12 point type. The author's name should not appear on the manuscript. Include one cover sheet with story title, author's name, address, phone and e-mail address. The story title should appear on the first page of the manuscript. Please number your pages.
Send a total of three (3) copies of your manuscript and one copy of your cover sheet.
We cannot return manuscripts, so please keep a copy!
You must live in Washington, Oregon, Montana or Idaho.
Questions? Contact Chris Leasure: development@hugohouse.org
Quattro is sponsored by Maelstrom Productions LLC
— Leslie Howle
Many resources for writers are available on the web. Check out SFWA's Writing section (including articles on proper manuscript format) and the SFWA Bulletin, Writer Beware, Miss Snark the Literary Agent, and "Pitfalls of Writing SF & Fantasy."