Dear Republic,
We’re very happy to announce the first-ever Republic of Letters short story competition!
We’ll have three winning pieces. The first winner will receive a $500 cash prize. The piece will be published on The Republic of Letters and read aloud at The Republic of Letters’ launch party.1
The final deadline for story submissions is March 1. We’ll likely cap submissions at 100 stories so let that be extra incentive to get the stories in earlier. Please send all submissions to republic.of.letters.substack@gmail.com with “Short Story” in the subject line. Please send as a Word or Pages document or similar and without your name in the attached file.
Short stories are defined as any work of fiction or imagination. There’s no word limit, but just keep it together guys. ~5,000 words is a reasonable target. 10,000 words is pushing things. Use of AI in submissions is grounds for disqualification.
We’re also putting out a call for judges. If you think you have what it takes to be a Republic of Letters literary judge — to be discerning, fair-minded, and, most importantly, to be willing to read on the order of ~30 short stories — then write to republic.of.letters.substack@gmail.com with “Judge” in the subject line, just say a word about yourself and link to something you’ve written. The deadline for the judging submissions is February 1.
What was that about a ‘launch’? Yes, The Republic of Letters has somehow put out something on the order of 200 pieces, all rippling with substance and soul and iconoclasm, and all without having actually officially launched. Ok, so maybe it’s an ‘anniversary’ more than a ‘launch’? Anyway, there will be an event, with more information to come soon, and the winning short stories will be featured at it.
CALL FOR LONG-FORM AND SUBMISSIONS
In addition to our short story contest, we are also open for long-form pitches and submissions. What distinguishes a long-form piece from a regular piece?, you might ask. A long-form piece is not a take or a commentary or a polemic (though these can be sections within it)—it is a self-contained, fully crafted literary work of the kind that you might find in a print magazine with a thru-line—an argument, interest, fascination or other thread that is being traced.
This could be a personal essay, literary essay, a travel-essay, an argument essay, a reported piece or a magazine-style profile of a writer (for an example of excellent reported profiles of authors, read The New Yorker or see a profile of Benjamin Labutut here; or for an example of a literary journey in search of an author, see here). We are not looking for essays that only make sense to a narrow slice of people, say academics or a narrow subculture, but work that is oriented toward speaking to a broader audience.
This call may seem overly broad or vague, and that is purposeful—oftentimes magazines ask for certain things and limit submissions to certain “themes” or “approaches” or subjects, and that is bad because it might discourage people who feel they don’t fit into that narrow frame. The subject of the piece can be big or small, it doesn’t matter, as long as a writer is able to deftly expand it like an accordion. What we are interested in are your truest ideas (true to idiosyncratic you and idiosyncratic interests), not just the ideas you think might best fit THE MARKET or WHAT IS BEING TALKED ABOUT NOW or a Republic of Letters frame. Pieces that last, that are not just momentary. These will likely run at 3,500-7,000 words, but of course depending on the material, can go longer or shorter. These pieces are paid $200 a pop. Send pitches or finished essays/profiles to republic.of.letters.substack@gmail.com.
AND, TO CONSOLIDATE THEM, HERE ARE OUR CURRENT CONTESTS
How publications should deal with AI. Deadline January 25 with “AI” in the subject line.
What you think about as you fall asleep/wake up. Deadline February 1 with “Sleep” in the subject line.
Where’s Philip Traylen? Deadline February 8 with “Where’s Philip” in the subject line.
What it’s like to live through a dictatorship/civic breakdown. Deadline February 15 with “Dark Times” in the subject line.
Please send all submissions to republic.of.letters.substack@gmail.com. All accepted contest pieces receive $25 plus possible bonuses.
Haven’t totally formalized the prizes for the runner-up pieces but there will also be cash and recognition.
YES
Are we limited to submitting only one story? Or can we submit two or several?