UPDATE: This contest took place in 2018. Sacred Chickens went through some changes - including a big move in the meantime. But Morty is considering holding another contest in 2020 or 2021. Please keep up with him on Sacred Chickens and he will let you know as soon as he can pull the whole thing together!

Here are the winning entries from the 2018 contest:

First Place - Coping Mechanism, by Adam Padgett

Second Place -Jolene, by Ethan Willis

Third Place - Master of the Marshes, by Danny Cove


A Message from Uncle Morty
 
Here at Sacred Chickens Blog, we have, strangely, come into a small amount of money.  Let’s not discuss how it happened or what we had to do to get it.  Water under the bridge.
 
Being the generous souls that we are, we’ve been wondering how to share it with you.  After much discussion, and truth be told, a momentary bout of fisticuffs, we have come to the conclusion that we should have a fiction contest with actual cash prizes.  We had some other prizes in mind, but our legal team advised against all of them. 
 
What kind of fiction, you might ask?  We’re not particular about the exact genre but at the end of the day, the readers should be able to describe your story as unnerving, unsettling, or questioning the status quo.  How well you meet this goal will be entirely at the discretion of the contest judge.
 
There will be prizes for three stories:
1st Prize - $500
2nd Prize - $200
3rd Prize - $100
 
Here’s how this is going to work:
 
Send the submissions to [email protected]
The subject line should say SacredChickens Story Contest
The entries will be submitted blind to the judge.  Each entry will be given a number and sent directly to our judge with no name attached. 
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You should include your full name for our submissions editor who will assign you a number before your story is sent to our judge.  If you win, you will be asked to provide information that will make it possible for us to pay you.  This can be a home address or you may request to be paid by PayPal.
 
The Contest will begin on April 1 and run through August 1 of 2018.
 
You should be 18 or older.  Why?  It seems like a nice arbitrary line in the sand.  And your parents can’t yell at us if you don’t win.
 
We do not hold the copyrights on any of your work.  You are free to publish them again if you like or print them up on fabric and make underwear.  Whatever.  You can make simultaneous submissions, but if someone else beats us to print with it, you must notify us and withdraw. (Printed underwear does not count if it’s your personal underwear.)

Your story should be at least 3000 words but no more than 10000. 
 
Your story should not have been published elsewhere in print or digital form, even on social media.  If you have been previously embodied, the story should not have been published during your previous lifetime, even on scrolls, animal skins, or cave walls.  (I’ve been told my condition is too rare to warrant this admonishment, but you get the picture.)
 
Multiple entries allowed but you can only get a prize for one story.  We’re not exactly made of money and we want to give everyone a chance.
 
The judge’s decision is final.  Julie, Jarad, and Morty will not be judging this contest.  So don’t be bothering us about it. 
 
This year’s contest will be judged by Jeff Weddle.  His first book, Bohemian New Orleans: The Story of the Outsider and Loujon Press (University Press of Mississippi, 2007), won the Eudora Welty Prize and helped inspire Wayne Ewing’s documentary, The Outsiders of New Orleans: Loujon Press (Wayne Ewing Films, 2007), for which Weddle served as associate producer. He is also the author of an award winning short story collection, When Giraffes Flew (Southern Yellow Pine, 2015). His poems, stories, and essays have appeared in dozens of venues, including the anthologies Surreal South ’13 (Press 53, 2013); Pressure Press Presents (Pressure Press, 2014); Stovepiper Book One (Stovepiper Books, 1994) and Mondo Barbie (St. Martin’s Press, 1993). Weddle’s most recent books are two poetry collections from Nixes Mate Books, Comes to This, and Heart of the Broken World, both published in 2017. An earlier collection of poetry, Betray the Invisible (OEOCO, 2010), is a limited-edition, fine press book handcrafted by master book artist Mary Ann Sampson. He is also the author of a chapbook of Barbie poems, Not Another Blonde Joke (Implosion Press, 1991), and co-author of The Librarian’s Guide to Negotiation: Winning Strategies for the Digital Age (Information Today, 2012). Jeff Weddle is an associate professor in the School of Library and Information Studies at the University of Alabama.