Taking Submissions: The Mike Resnick Memorial Award 2023

This is an annual award sponsored by Galaxy’s Edge magazine (published by Arc Manor) and Dragon Con that celebrates new authors. As well as publishing hundreds of books as author and editor, Mike Resnick was known for his “Writer Children”—paying it forward by helping new writers start their careers. This award was created to honor his memory and continue on his legacy by spotlighting the wonderful new voices in the writing world.

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For more information on eligibility and how to submit, Submissions Guidelines can be found on this page underneath the winner announcement for the 2022 award!

WINNER OF THE 2022 AWARD

Galaxy’s Edge magazine and Dragon Con have the pleasure of announcing the 2022 winner for THE MIKE RESNICK MEMORIAL AWARD for Best Science Fiction Short Story by a New Author:

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WINNER

“What Would You Pay for a Second Chance?” by Chris Kulp

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FIRST RUNNER-UP

“Seedpod” by Ellen Parent

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SECOND RUNNER-UP

“On the Left” by Sandra Sigienski

Congratulations to our winner and finalists, and thank you to all the talented authors who submitted entries for award consideration! Mike Resnick would have so loved to have been here to witness this achievement!

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SUBMISSIONS ARE NOW OPEN FOR 2023!

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

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New Author (definition): An author who has not had any work published (including short stories, novelettes, novellas, and novels in paper, digital or audio form) that has been paid a per-word rate of 6 cents a word or more or received a payment for any single work of fiction totaling more than $50.

If the author has self-published the piece then their total earnings from any single piece of fiction may not exceed $50 from all published venues.

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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.

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

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Submission Fee: None.

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Submission Process:

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

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2. The manuscript should be formatted with size 12 text, black Times New Roman font, lines double spaced. Pages need to be numbered and each page should also have the story title (this information can be included as a header or a footer).

The first page of the submitted story must contain ONLY the following information.​

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a) The title of the story.
b) The name of the author.
c) The approximate word count of the story.

d) Contact information for the author. Ideally this should include an email address, a phone number and a physical address.

e) A short statement that the author has read the eligibility requirements for the award and is in compliance with the requirements.

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Please do NOT include your name or contact information on any other page, other than the first page described above (this includes putting it in as a header or a footer). The judging process requires the judges to review the story anonymously and anything that identifies the author other than on the first page will make this difficult. The first page with identifying information will be stripped from the MS and replaced with an identifying code before it is given to the final judges.

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3. Submissions should be entered through our Moksha portal at

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https://arcmanorpublishers.moksha.io/publication/the-mike-resnick-memorial-award

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

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5. The winner of the Resnick Award in any previous year is not eligible to enter the competition again.

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6. You may submit a new story to the current year’s award, even if you submitted in previous years. However, if you win the previous year’s award you will automatically become ineligible (your submission may have been entered before the winner is announced). You may not resubmit the same story as you submitted in any previous year; it needs to be a new story.

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Submission Dates: Stories may be submitted between September 1, 2022 and April 1, 2023 for consideration for the 2023 Dragon Awards. 

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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 the panel of final judges who will choose the top five finalists 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.

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Finalist Judging Panel 2022: 

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Sheree Renée Thomas is the current editor of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. She is also a poet, writer, and anthology editor, and her two Dark Matter anthologies both won the World Fantasy Award. Dark Matter was also named a New York Times notable book of the year.

Jody Lynn Nye is the author or co-author of over 50 novels and 100 short stories. Her collaborations include those with Robert Lynn Asprin for books in the MythAdventures series and The Brain & Brawn Ship series with Anne McCaffrey. Jody teaches the Dragon Con Writer’s Workshop, is now the Coordinating Judge for Writers of the Future, and was the book reviewer for Galaxy’s Edge magazine for five years.

Finalist Announcement: The five finalists for the 2023 Award will be announced on July 1, 2023.

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Award Ceremony: Awards will be handed out during the Dragon Awards ceremony during Dragon Con 2023 to be held in Atlanta from August 31 to September 4. (Specific date of the Award Ceremony night updated once known.)

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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.

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Runner-up Prizes: The second-place winner will be given a prize of $100 and the third-place winner a prize of $50.

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Inquires: Inquiries regarding the award may be sent to [email protected]. Please put Resnick Inquiry in the subject line.

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ABOUT MIKE RESNICK 

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Mike Resnick, along with editing the first seven years of Galaxy’s Edge magazine, was the winner of five Hugos from a record thirty-seven nominations and was, according to Locus, the all-time leading award winner, living or dead, for short fiction. He was the author of over eighty novels, around 300 stories, three screenplays, and the editor of over forty anthologies. When he was not writing, Mike mentored new authors, taking great pride in his “writer children,” being as dedicated in helping them reach their career milestones as achieving his own.

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