
The Vocal+ Fiction Awards
Enter our biggest Challenge yet: 25 winners, $125,000 in prizes, and Vocal's first ever book of short stories by our creators.
Prizes
- Total prizes:
- $125,000
- 25 winners receive:
- $5,000
25 Grand Prize winners will each receive $5,000, and be published in Vocal's first ever book, a collection of short stories by our creators.
1,000 runners up will be selected, and will each receive a free year of Vocal+ membership.
Status
CompletedTimeline
Submissions opened
Oct 13, 2021
Submissions closed
Dec 30, 2021 4:59 AM CUT
Results
Feb 25, 2022
Prizes
- Total prizes:
- $125,000
- 25 winners receive:
- $5,000
25 Grand Prize winners will each receive $5,000, and be published in Vocal's first ever book, a collection of short stories by our creators.
1,000 runners up will be selected, and will each receive a free year of Vocal+ membership.
Status
CompletedTimeline
Submissions opened
Oct 13, 2021
Submissions closed
Dec 30, 2021 4:59 AM CUT
Results
Feb 25, 2022
About this challenge
*Note from the Vocal Team: The Judges have spoken, and 1,025 Vocal+ Creators have been selected as finalists for The Vocal+ Fiction Awards! See if your story made the list here!
We've now had over 100,000 stories entered into Vocal Challenges, and we have given away over $500,000 directly to our creators through Challenges. And we're celebrating these milestones with our biggest Challenge to date.
For this Challenge, there is no prompt, genre or theme you must stick to, or requirement your story must meet. Submit your best piece of short fiction, between 600 and 4,000 words, in any style, genre, or topic of your choosing.
25 grand prize winners will be selected to receive $5,000 each, and have their stories published in Vocal's first ever book—a collection of short stories by Vocal creators, available for purchase, estimated for release in the spring of 2022. 1,000 runners up will be selected to receive a free year of Vocal+.
Learn more about this Challenge here.
*Note that due to high volume, submissions that have been entered into the Vocal+ Fiction Awards will not necessarily be moderated within the standard 24 hour timeframe. Please anticipate a 3-4 day wait period for all stories entered into the Challenge to be moderated. Thank you for your patience.
How to enter
Your story must be between 600 and 4,000 words and adhere to our Community Guidelines. Stories published on Vocal and entered into the contest up until December 29, 2021, at 11:59 PM EST will be entered for consideration. Official Rules for the Challenge can be found here.
The Vocal+ Fiction Awards are 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 third place 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.
Open challenges
Challenges you can enter now for a chance to win.
Steal From Yourself
Return to something you wrote years ago and use one idea, image, character, or line from it to create something entirely new.
$1,000 Grand Prize37 hours leftNot on the Menu
Write about something memorable you ate that you'd never find on a restaurant menu.
$1,000 Grand Prize8 days leftMy First Internet
Write a nonfiction story about a memorable experience from your early days online and what it meant to you.
$1,000 Grand Prize22 days leftIn Lieu of Gifts
Write a fiction story about someone who asks their family for one unusual favor instead of holiday gifts.
$1,000 Grand Prize29 days leftDark Before Dinner
Write a poem inspired by the early darkness of winter.
$1,000 Grand Prize36 days leftI Used to Hate This Song
Write a nonfiction story about a song you used to dislike and how it won you over.
$1,000 Grand Prize48 days leftBelow Freezing
Write a story where more than the weather turns cold.
$1,000 Grand Prize57 days leftEnough
Write a poem exploring what “enough” means to you.
$1,000 Grand Prize64 days left
Challenge resources
Scroll No More Challenge Winners
For Scroll No More , we switched off every smartphone in the world and left the aftermath to you. The results gave us plenty to laugh about, worry about, and occasionally even feel hopeful about along the way. Thanks again to Lightning Bolt ⚡ Bill for recommending this prompt!!
By Vocal Curation Teama day ago in Resources
Dead Air Challenge Winners
Dead Air brought out some incredibly creative and strange ideas, and we had a lot of fun seeing where everyone took the prompt. From creepy toys and mysterious phone calls to sinister supermarket intercoms and a full-blown musical nightmare, there was no shortage of unique ways to make us think twice about what we're hearing.
By Vocal Curation Team8 days ago in Resources
October Challenge Winners
October turned out to be a much stranger place than we expected, and we loved seeing where everyone took it. From familiar autumn scenes to some wonderfully unexpected settings, this challenge brought out a lot of creativity and imagination.
By Vocal Curation Team15 days ago in Resources







