Under Purple Clouds

The Prompt

Write the first chapter of a magical realism story that starts with the following sentence:

In order for your submission to qualify, it must:

• Be between 600-5,000 words.
• Begin with the first sentence from the prompt.

What is magical realism?

Magical realism is a literary genre where the narrative takes place in the real world, with magical or supernatural elements integrated into the story as if they were natural occurrences.

In magical realism, the supernatural elements are presented as part of the normal, everyday world, and are not explained in the way that they would be in a traditional fantasy story.

The genre often challenges conventional notions of reality and truth.

The Prizes

• Grand Prize: $1,000
• Second Place: $250
• 10 Runners-Up: $25

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 March 9th will be entered for consideration. Official Rules for the Challenge can be found here.

The Under Purple Clouds 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.