Railyard Fictions:

A competition for poetry, short stories and other fictions

Call

The Railyard Fictions competition is looking for original, unpublished poems, short stories (flash fiction), and other fictions that take place in and significantly feature the Fire Station, other railyard buildings and the grounds of the Albuquerque railyards. The goal is to imaginatively re-inhabit the Fire Station and other places in the Albuquerque Railyards in ways that encourage the establishment of a vibrant community on these grounds. 

We are looking for seeds of imagination that could help this place develop. A Bear Called Paddington, Bless Me Ultima, Make Way for Ducklings, the TV show Cheers, and many other fictions have had strong influences on the actual places in which they were set. Can we tell fictional stories of the Albuquerque Railyards that will help a future community grow and flourish? 

All genres of work are acceptable. However, they need to be able to be read to an all-ages audience; be original, unpublished work of the author; and not be libelous or infringe on copyrights or other ownership rights. 

· Poems may be up to 30 lines or 500 words maximum. 

· Short stories / flash fiction may be up to 1000 words.

· Other fictions (e.g. lyrics, fictional future news reports…) may be up to 1000 words. These may be an excerpt from a longer work.

Site Tour

A tour of the Albuquerque Railyards will be scheduled in December or January for interested writers. Please check saap.unm.edu for the date and time.

How to Submit

Submit you work to Submittable, Railyard Fictions Competition. Please submit .docx files one submission at a time.  Please do not include any information that identifies the author in the body of the work.

Submissions start Feb 1 and end March 15

Selection Committee

The decisions of the jury will be final.

Mark C. Childs, Interim Dean School of Architecture and Planning, University of New Mexico

Clark Condé, Weekly Alibi  clarke@alibi.com

Maria Leyva, Poet 

Elise McHugh, University of New Mexico Press 

Michelle Otero, City of Albuquerque Poet Lauriat

Awards & Events

There will be up to three awards of $200 in each category – poems, short stories, and other written fictions. 

The Alibi Magazine will select at least one work from the awarded works in each category to publish, and all of the awarded works will be read (by the authors if they choose to do so or by the selection committee) at one or more events in Albuquerque. The selection committee reserves the right not to grant awards in any or all categories, and if no awards are given in a category then the Alibi will not publish a work in that category.

Winners grant The Alibi Magazine first North American serial publication rights. Winners will read their work (or allow the work to be read) at a public event and grant the right for that event to be filmed and otherwise recorded and grant the right for the film and/or recordings to be published and presented to the public. Authors retrain all other rights.