THE MIKE RESNICK MEMORIAL AWARD
FOR SHORT FICTION

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Annual Award for the

Best Unpublished Science Fiction Short Story by a New Author

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Sponsored by Galaxy’s Edge (published by Arc Manor) and Dragon Con

Short Story (definition): A story up to 7,499 words, as defined by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA).

New Author (definition): An author who has not had any work (including short stories, novelettes, novellas and novels) published by any of the professional publishers listed by SFWA as an “eligible” publishing venue.

Eligibility: New science fiction short story by a new author. The story must not have previously been released to the public via any means, including online, digital, or paper publications, or privately through such avenues as newsletters, Patreon and the like. This award is exclusively for science fiction stories, not any other form of speculative genres (including fantasy and horror) and Arc Manor (the publisher of Galaxy’s Edge magazine) will be the final decider of this criteria in case of any disputes.

Submissions are open to everyone. They do not need to be current members of Dragon Con.

Submission Fee: None.

Submission Process:

1. All submissions must be made electronically as an MS Word document or an RTF (Rich Text Format) document.

2. The manuscript should be formatted with size 12 text, black Times New Roman font, lines double spaced, and the entrant’s address (physical and email), phone number and approximate word count should appear at the top of the first page of the manuscript above the title (which should be in capital letters) and byline. Please do NOT add an extra title page, with specialized fonts or colors or images inserted.

3. Submissions should be emailed directly an email address which will be listed here. Please check back after January 1st, 2021 for the correct email address.

4. Only one submission per entrant is allowed for the current submission year.

Submission Dates: Stories may be submitted between January 1, 2021 and April 30, 2021 for consideration for the 2021 Dragon Awards ceremony.

Finalist Announcement: The five finalists for the award will be announced on [date to be determined].

Award Ceremony: September [date to be determined], at Dragon Con 2021.

First Place Prize: The first place winner will get a trophy, a cash award of $250.00 and have their story bought (at the magazine’s prevailing rate) by Galaxy’s Edge for publication in the magazine.

Runner-up Prizes: (please note that changes have been made to this based on feedback).

The second place winner will be given a prize of $100 and the third place winner a prize of $50.

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Dragon Con Reading: The five nominees will be invited to read their stories to an audience at Dragon Con followed by a short discussion of the merits of each story.

Judging Process: All submissions will be considered by a pool of readers organized by Arc Manor. Those determined to be the best stories will be forwarded (with all identifying information about the author deleted) to a select panel of writers and editors who will choose the top five entries and decide upon the winner. All decisions by Arc Manor and its judges are final and binding. Arc Manor will not entertain any discussion about the merits, techniques, judging criteria or any other aspect of the competition.