Searching for new voices in SF

The Roswell Award and the new Feminist Futures Award are international short science fiction story writing competitions which accept entries from emerging writers aged sixteen and older located anywhere in the world. Both awards are run by the

Omega Sci-Fi Awards as part of the California-based Light Bringer Project. The Roswell Award is for general science fiction, while the Feminist Futures Award is a new award created for fiction which exemplifies ‘excellence in feminist storytelling’. It is open to people of any gender and/or no gender.

Entry is free. The deadline is 11.59pm PST on 21 December. You may submit one story between 500 and 1,500 words to either the general science fiction category – the Roswell Award – or to the Feminist Futures Award, though stories not chosen for the FFA may be considered for the RA. Submissions must be original and previously unpublished.

Entries should focus on telling an engaging story with strong characters, imagery, mood, tone, themes, etc. You are encouraged to experiment with your writing style. While the judges will accept a wide range of science fiction, you are encouraged to know the difference between SF and fantasy – ie, no stories involving magic.

Stories will be judged in three rounds, with honourable mentions announced in April 2022, and the winners declared on 21 May. The prizes for the are $500, $250 and $100 plus options for a free place on UCLA Extension Writers Program, either in person or online. Prizes for the Feminist Futures Award were still to be announced at the time of writing. Submit your entry using the form at https:// bit.ly/roswell-ffa

Follow the full guidelines, which can be downloaded in PDF format from www. lightbringerproject.org/sciencefiction-competitions. The same page also has links to the terms and conditions and the submissions page.