Market Mondays: Contests - Free Ones

Continuing on a little bit of a contest theme from last week, I've compiled a short list of some of the better Speculative Fiction Contests to enter. Ones with a name that are reasonably trustworthy.
* though I will note the Hubbard one does send a lot of emails, if you sign up for the newsletter
More Below...


FREE Short Fiction Contests: (no entry fee)

The L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Short Fiction Contest. Each year the winners of the contest wind up published in the Writers of the Future Anthology. Good books, and many good Authors have been winners in the past. This is a contest judged by some of the biggest names in the industry : Kevin J. Anderson, Gregory Benford, Orson Scott Card, Anne McCaffrey, Larry Niven, Frederik Pohl, Jerry Pournelle, Robert Silverberg and more.
Quarterly Entries.

The Jim Baen Memorial Short Fiction Contest sponsored by The National Space Society and Baen Books . This is a great contest meant to really encourage new writers. There are no guarantees of being published but the opportunity to have your writing evaluated by Baen Books senior editor Hank Davis and Authors Eric Flint and Mike Resnick is pretty valuable.
Deadline: April 1, 2009.

PARSEC Science Fiction and Fantasy Short Story Contest. This is the 14th iteration of this annual contest. This year the judges are Tor Books Author Walter Hunt, Young Adult Author Sarah Beth Durst, and Author S.C.Butler. The winner will be published in the program book for the Confluence 2009, the annual literary Sci-Fi convention in Pittsburgh.
Deadline: April 15, 2009

The First Annual Spectra Pulse Short Fiction Contest. This one actually closes in a few days, but I'm mentioning it because it meets the criteria of a good contest and with luck will be run again next year. This contest is sponsored by Bantam Spectra, which ultimately traces back to Random House Publishing. This contest will feature the winners story in the summer issue of Spectra.
Deadline: January 31, 2009

Good luck. If you are looking for more contests, below are some of the sites I use.

The Canadian Authors Association website lists a number of markets, and contests.

Ralan's Webstravaganza contains both Market listings and contest listings.

Good information can also be found at Young Adult Author David Barr Kirtley's Resources for Teen Authors (not all the contests there are restricted to teens).

* remember to evaluate the contests before committing your work or money to anything