Here鈥檚 a tale for you: each year, issues a call for short stories, previously-unpublished manuscripts with a limit of 2,500 words. After a winnowing and judging, one story is selected for publication, with the winner taking home $800.
Tonight, that winning entry in the Chronicle鈥檚 20th annual Short Story Contest will be announced in .
Chronicle Books editor tells us that 鈥渨e had just under 560 submissions this year, significantly up from last year. But not only were the numbers up, I think the overall quality of the submissions improved this year, too. In the first round, every story is read twice by a Chronicle staffer or 鈥榝riend of the family鈥� and rated 0 to 5. The scores were a lot higher this year. I might've worried we're all just getting soft, but I read about 150 or so of the stories myself and was pretty knocked out by the talent out there. 鈥�
After that first round, the entries make their way to a group of judges for further ranking. This year鈥檚 panel includes Mandy Brooks, director of children's events and marketing at ; Kari Ann Roy; reporter and commentator , and novelist .
鈥淭he first- through third- place stories will be read tonight out loud by the winners, and it's a great opportunity to hear first-hand what a new generation of writers is capable of producing,鈥� Jones continues. 鈥淚 think people will be impressed; I know I sure was.鈥�
The reception and readings start at 7 p.m. at BookPeople, 603 N. Lamar
