English Short Story Contest
The CIRCLE is happy to announce an English and American short story contest.
The first prize will consist of $50 (fifty dollars) The second prize will consist of $40 (forty dollars) The third prize will consist of $30 (thirty dollars) The fourth prize will consist of $20 (twenty dollars) The 5th to 9th prizes will consist of a free subscription to The Circle for one year.
The 10th to 14th prizes will be a copy of our new volume: The Male Body in Drawings.
The contest will be open to subscribers and non-subscribers alike.
Length of the stories should not exceed the eight pages of our monthly English
section.
About the kind of stories we would very much like to read in this contest: Stories relating to the particular interest of our group have in the past tended to follow outworn and threadbare formulas: they have concerned themselves with the prelude to action-the familiar boy-meets-boy, discovers obstacle to achieving his goal, overcomes obstacle, and goes off gaily to a rose-colored Pollyanna existence in some idealized trouble-free Utopia. The Circle would prefer, in this contest, to have more emphasis placed on reality and less on a wishful and sloppy romanticism; and would enjoy receiving manuscripts in which factual, down-to-earth elements and relationships are treated. It is also the hope of the editors that the pseudotragic or suicidal endings of maladjusted and neurotic victims of their 'fate' be avoided as much as possible. The door is not closed, of course, to the sentimentalists, if their manuscripts are fresh and original and of literary value; but such submissions must be superior in every respect in order to be seriously considered.
Manuscipts should reach us by December 1st, 1961. Contributors should also kindly give on the Mss the author's name under which a prize winning story should be published. The manuscripts should preferably be typed, double spaced, on one side of the paper. The outcome of this contest will be published in the January issue of 1962, an issue which will also mark the beginning of our 30th year in publishing The Circle.
We shall be happy to have our many friends all over the world take part in this contest. Address manuscripts to: Lesezirkel Der Kreis (English Short Story Contest), P. O. Box 547 Fraumunster, Zurich 22, Switzerland.
With our best greetings,
THE CIRCLE
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