---

The Escape Artists Flash Fiction Contest is back again, and it’s PodCastle’s turn! The contest will be taking submissions beginning March 1, 2021, and ending on March 31, 2021, at 11:59 p.m. EST. PodCastle Associate editor Craig Jackson, or Ocicat on the forums, will be our Guest Editor for the contest!

Each author may submit one original fantasy story of 500 words or less. Stories will then be sorted into categories, anonymized, and posted to our forums for all to read and vote on in a tournament-style contest (you can check out past contests over there as well)! The three winning stories will be purchased at our usual payment rate, USD $0.08 per word, and the stories will be run together as an episode of PodCastle. Note that stories will be published on a members-only section of the forums, so first publication rights will not be expended by participating in the contest. And it’s easy to become a member! In fact, you can head on over to the forums and do that right now. All the pertinent details and rules will be posted under “The Arcade” section of the forums; voting will commence in April!

Check back here on March 1 or follow us on social media for links to our Moksha portal where you can upload your contest entries. Best of luck to everyone participating!

---

[NOTE: A previous version of this post indicated that we would be purchasing stories for USD $30 each. That has been corrected to $0.08 per word to reflect our increased payment rates.]