2025 Summer Contest Prompt

It’s no question what teens love to read: fantasy. Many students have submitted short stories in this genre that it seemed time to create a bigger contest to encourage students to perfect their fantasy craft.

For this contest, create a fantasy short story about anything. The word limit is between 2,000-3,000 words (about 4-6 pages SINGLE-SPACED). It’s ok if you go a LITTLE bit under or over the word limit.

How do you create a “fantasy” story? You tap into your imagination like no other assignment has allowed you to do.

Here is a useful definition to help guide you: The fantasy genre is a type of fiction that features magical and supernatural elements, often including imaginary worlds, creatures, and beings with extraordinary powers, where stories are set in settings that could not exist in reality, typically involving magic, mythical creatures like dragons and elves, and quests undertaken by characters with unique abilities; essentially, it's a genre focused on imaginative and non-realistic elements.

So, what worlds will you create? The winners will craft mesmerizing settings, in-depth characters, thought-provoking dialogue, and compelling conflicts.

One important rule about the theme of your story: Your short story must have some sort of message/idea that you want to get across to your reader about HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS (even if there are no “humans” in your story, the story should be a METAPHOR for human relationships, of course).