Jersey Devil Press Novella Contest

Dear novella: we love you, even if none among us can actually say we definitively know what the hell you are. Never has an art form had so many brilliant examples that may or may not meet elusive criteria upon which no one even remotely agrees. Seriously, what the fuck, novella? What we do know is we think you’re nifty, albeit ill-defined. And while we’re all for the modern world of micro blogging and flash fiction, every once in while it’s nice to sit down with a wonderful piece of writing that’s distinctly longer than a short story, but significantly shorter than a novel. In fact, we love it so much, we’re hereby declaring the First Annual JDP Novella Contest. The what-fors, when’s, and fine print are as follows. The winner gets August. No, not a four-dimensional block of time and space, but the entire August issue of JDP (available online and in PDF format) all to him or herself. Most importantly, unlike our regular submissions, the novella contest is only open to work with some sort of fantastical or otherwise unearthly component. We are not looking for straight literary novellas, even weird ones. We’ll accept hard scifi, straight horror, old-fashioned fantasy, and, of course, magical realism, even though we honestly don’t know what that is. If you blend any of the foregoing and add a healthy dose of humor, you probably have the best shot.

Country of Publication

United States