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Tales Retold
Retell a classic fairy tale with a twist.
Prizes
- Grand Prize:
- $600
- Second Place:
- $200
- 10 Runners-Up :
- $25
Status
CompletedTimeline
Submissions opened
Aug 01, 2023
Submissions closed
Aug 23, 2023 3:59 AM CUT
Results
Sep 07, 2023
Prizes
- Grand Prize:
- $600
- Second Place:
- $200
- 10 Runners-Up :
- $25
Status
CompletedTimeline
Submissions opened
Aug 01, 2023
Submissions closed
Aug 23, 2023 3:59 AM CUT
Results
Sep 07, 2023
About this challenge
The Prompt
Retell a classic fairy tale with a twist.
Have you ever envisioned Little Red Riding Hood's encounter with the Big Bad Wolf in a dystopian future? Or an alternate spine-chilling horror ending to Rapunzel? Perhaps you've always imagined the Seven Dwarfs as a team of detectives in a noir-style mystery, solving the case of Snow White? This is your opportunity to explore these narratives, and many more.
The challenge is to take a beloved fairy tale - whether universally known or specific to one culture - and retell it in your own unique way. We are open to any genre - modern, fantastical, horror, or sci-fi for example - the world is your oyster, the fairy tales are your pearls.
Your story must be a reimagining or a retelling of an existing fairy tale, not a completely new creation. Aside from that, there are no boundaries to the unexpected spins you can put on these timeless tales.
Check out this list of fairy tales to get your ideas flowing.
In order for your submission to qualify, it must be:
- Between 600-5,000 words.
- Based on an existing fairy tale.
This challenge was inspired by L.C. Schäfer's and Stephanie Hoogstad's suggestions to Shape the Future of Vocal Challenges.
The Prizes
- Grand Prize: $600
- Second Place: $200
- 10 Runners-Up: $25
How to enter
For your story to be eligible, it should be between 600 and 5,000 words, and adhere to our Community Guidelines. Stories published on Vocal and entered into the contest up until 11:59 PM ET on August 22nd will be entered for consideration. Official Rules for the Challenge can be found here.
The Tales Retold Challenge is exclusive to Vocal+ members. To learn more and upgrade to Vocal+, visit https://vocal.media/vocal-plus.
To be eligible to win the grand prize, second place, or runners-up prizes, you must be over the age of 13 and residing in a country where Stripe is available at the time of entry. A complete list of countries where Stripe is available can be found here—winners will need to have a Stripe account created and connected in order to receive the prizes. For this reason, entrants located outside of any of these countries will not be eligible to win.
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Challenge resources
Summer Solstice Challenge Winners
‘Safety Net’, by Meredith Harmon, begins in a confiding tone. ‘What town?’ the tale asks. ‘We're an enclave. We're farmers. We till the soil like our forefathers, and our children's children's children will till it, till the end of time.’ There is a folkloric sensibility here, suited to the prompt, but also something contemporary and practical. This winning story of a community trying to protect and preserve itself has echoes of Shirley Jackson’s famous tale ‘The Lottery’, Meredith is a strong Vocal Creator with 225 stories to her name; and this is her second first place win of a challenge; huge congratulations.
By Vocal Curation Team9 days ago in Resources
Let's Talk About AI and Vocal Challenges
We might as well cut to the chase. Yes, we run every challenge entry through our AI detector; if we find an entry has been generated, it’s disqualified. As Justin Maury, Founder/CEO of Vocal has written, we use these detection systems because we know our readers enjoy authentic content; we also ask you to disclose when you’ve posted on the platform using AI assistance. But a different issue comes into play when we’re thinking about Challenges, and we believe it’s an important one.
By Vocal Curation Team11 days ago in Resources
Dialogue Poetry Challenge Winners
Hannah Moore is a first-time grand prize winner with her dialogue poem, On Receipt of Bad News. This was a poem that genuinely engaged both with the exchange of our prompt, but also focussed on the way poetic rhythms of language could support the writer's conceit. It felt very truthful, too, the way one speaker wishes to ignore the news and focus on practicalities; there was a quiet heartbreak, here. Well done.
By Vocal Curation Team16 days ago in Resources