Image via Bucks County Community College.

Award-winning author CJ Spataro is the final judge of the 2024 Bucks County Short Fiction Contest. She is the director of the MFA in Creative Writing and the MA in Publishing at Rosemont College. She was also a founding partner of Philadelphia Stories Magazine and PS Books.

Bucks County Community College has issued a call for submissions for its Bucks County Adult Short Story Contest. The submission deadline is Thursday, October 10, 2024, 12:00 p.m..

The top three winners of the competition will receive gift certificates of $200, $100 and $50, respectively, and will read from their works at a celebration on Saturday, November 9, at the college. They will be joined by writer CJ Spataro, who will serve as the final judge..

Adults ages 18 and older who reside in Bucks County may submit a story of up to 15 typewritten pages (double-spaced, Times New Roman, 12 point). Stories must be previously unpublished, including in online formats. Entrants cannot be full- or part-time employees of Bucks County Community College, although working students at the college may participate. A separate contest for high school students will be held in spring 2025.

Full rules and access to the online submission system can be found at bucks.edu/short-fiction-contest.

CJ Spataro directs the MFA in Creative Writing and the MA in Publishing at Rosemont College and is a founding partner of Philadelphia Stories. She is an award-winning short story writer. Her work has appeared in many literary magazines and anthologies, including Taboos & Transgressions, Iron Horse Literary Review, December, Sequestrum, And Demanding mussel. Her debut novel, More Strange Than True, was published by Sagging Meniscus Press in June 2024.

This event is supported by the Institute of Language and Literature.

For more information, contact competition coordinator Professor Elizabeth Luciano at [email protected] or visit Bucks County Community College.