Following the announcement of this year’s Dell Magazines Award for Undergraduate Excellence in SF/F Writing, Administrator Rick Wilber offers the guidelines for next year’s award.
The Dell Magazines Award for Undergraduate Excellence in Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing (formerly the Isaac Asimov Award for Undergraduate Excellence in Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing) has been established by Asimov’s Science Fiction magazine and the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts and is supported by the Humanities Institute at the University of South Florida and the School of Mass Communications at the University of South Florida.
The $500 award will go to the best unpublished and unsold science fiction or fantasy short story submitted by a full-time undergraduate college student. The winner will be invited to the IAFA annual Conference on the Fantastic in mid-March in Orlando, Florida, and the winning story will be considered for publication in either Asimov’s or in the on-line version of the magazine.
In general, the winner of the award will be the story that best meets the expectations of the judges. Those stories typically are “character oriented”; i.e., the characters, rather than the science, provide the main focus for the reader’s interest. Serious, thoughtful, yet accessible fiction will have the best chance of success. The judges do enjoy humorous stories, but pun endings have little chance of success, and the judges are not interested in sword & sorcery, elves, trolls, or dragons. They are not interested in explicit sex or violence, either. Generally, bear in mind that all fiction is written to examine or illuminate some aspect of human existence, but that in science fiction the backdrop against which events occur is the size of the universe.
Deadline for entries for this year’s contest is Tuesday 5 January 2010. The submission must be postmarked by that date. The contest is open to all full-time undergraduates at accredited colleges and universities. The award is not limited to unpublished authors, but all submissions must be previously unpublished and unsold, and they should be from 1,000 to 10,000 words long. Writers may submit an unlimited number of stories, but each manuscript must include a cover sheet with the writer’s name, address, phone number, and the name of the university the writer attends. There is a $5 entry fee per story.
Your manuscript should be neatly typed, double-spaced on one side of the sheet of paper, with adequate margins. Mail it flat in a 9″ X 12″ envelope. Make sure the cover sheet of the manuscript has on it your name, address, phone number, and the university you attend. Your name should not be on the manuscript itself.
The judges reserve the right to double-check your university status. For this year’s contest, you must have been a full-time undergraduate during the fall 2008; spring 2009; summer 2009; or fall 2009 semesters (or quarters) of your university or college. Story submissions should have been written during your time as a student. However, if you attended college full-time during a qualifying semester and then graduated, went to part-time status or quit entirely for a time, you are still eligible.
E-mail submissions are accepted. Your story submission should be in the same format as described above, including a cover sheet. You should send the e-mail submission as a Word or WordPerfect or rich-text file attachment to: RWilber at cas dot usf dot edu. You may send the submission fee by separate mail to the address below.
IMPORTANT: There is a special class-project category. Any instructor may submit an unlimited number of stories from any one class for a flat rate of $15. The manuscripts must meet the general requirements of the award and should be put into one envelope along with a brief cover letter from the instructor listing the college or university and the name of the class. This offer is for any college class and not limited to creative-writing classes.
Manuscripts cannot be returned, but if you include a self-addressed stamped envelope, we will send you an announcement of the winner and runners-up.
The winner will be determined by the editors of Asimov’s magazine and the award administrator. The check should be written to Dell Magazines Award/Wilber, and submissions should be sent to:
Dell Magazines Award
CIS 3095
School of Mass Communications
University of South Florida
4202 E. Fowler
Tampa, FL 33620
If you have any questions, you can reach Dr. Wilber at this e-mail address: Rwilber at cas dot usf dot edu.
Stories by previous winners and/or additional information is available at the Asimov’s Science Fiction homepage or at iafa.org (click on Awards) or at rickwilber.com/dellaward.htm.