Swartwood Reloads "Hint Fiction" Contest

There's still a day left to enter Robert Swartwood's "Hint Fiction Contest Reloaded," commemorating the one-year anniversary of Swartwood's "hint fiction" concept of creating "a story of 25 words or fewer that suggests a larger, more complex story."

The judge of the contest is the notorious James Frey, and the lucky winner he chooses will receive a plethora of literary goodies, including:

> $100

> A copy of "The Best of Every Day Fiction: Two"
> A copy of The Los Angeles Review
> A copy of Sententia
> A copy of Space and Time
> A copy of "[first year]: an mlp anthology"

> A copy of PANK
> A copy of Fox Force 5

In addition, the second-place winner will receive $50, the third-place winner will receive $25, and one of 10 copies of "Sudden Fiction Latino" will be awarded to each of the winners and finalists, as well as to some "random contestants."

To enter the contest, simply submit up to two entries in the comments section of the contest post. At the time of this writing there are 154 posts, many of which contain multiple entries. A personal early favorite is John Jodzio's "#2":

"Someone had written the word 'Shite' on our baby's forehead in permanent marker. Someone broke in, I said. No one broke in, my wife said."

The contest ends at midnight (EST) on April 30. Swartwood's "Hint Fiction: An Anthology of Stories in 25 Words or Fewer" (that's the cover image above) is set for release from W.W. Norton & Company on Nov. 1.

Holden McGroin Steps Up for Writers

Author Robert Swartwood continues his campaign against journals taking advantage of aspiring writers in his latest blog post, "Reminder Redux: Money STILL Flows To The Writer," a follow-up of sorts to a previous post taking the journal Narrative to task for charging $20 to submit a prose manuscript.

In response to the journal's recent call for interns, Swartwood set up a Gmail account under the name "Holden McGroin" and began a correspondence with the editors. A highlight: When the editors respond that "Holden" failed to attach a resume to his previous e-mail, Swartwood replies:

"Dear The Editors,

"I am very sorry about that. I was not aware I had already started something. What would you like me to resume?"

Wonderful.

I agree Narrative has it coming. Yet, unfortunately, even Swartwood must agree it's a person's own fault if they shell out $20 to submit to a journal.

P.S. If anyone wants to pay me $20 to consider their work, feel free to shoot me an e-mail. I, like Narrative, will accept multiple submissions, since I, like Narrative, feel that "it's unreasonable to expect writers to give a magazine an exclusive look at a work unless the magazine can respond within two to three weeks."

I mean the last thing I want -- and I'm sure Narrative must feel the same -- is to be unreasonable.

(The image above is from The Writers' Police Academy, whose motto appears to be "Sweat Now, So Your Manuscript Doesn't Bleed Red Ink Later." Nice.)