Fix, Grist’s solutions lab invites you to submit a hope-filled climate fiction short story for its second annual contest, Imagine 2200: Climate Fiction for Future Ancestors.

Prize

• Cash prizes
• Publication on Fix’s site in the fall of 2022
• Also, a reason to stay hopeful

The winning writer will be awarded $3,000, with the second-and third-place finalists receiving $2,000 and $1,000, respectively. An additional nine finalists will get $300 apiece. Moreover, all winners and finalists will have their stories published in an immersive collection on Fix’s website; each with its own original art and will be celebrated in a public virtual event.

Submission Story Guideline

Stories must be set anytime between today and the year 2200, and show a path to a clean, green, and just future. Fix especially want to read and share narratives that center solutions from the communities most impacted by climate change and stories that envision what a truly equitable, decolonized society could look like. In 3,000 to 5,000 words, show us the world you dream of building.

However, Fix doesn’t expect you to be overly optimistic or Pollyannaish; 178 years of equitable climate progress will involve hard work, struggle, and adaptation, and it invites you to show that, too.

It is also especially interested in cultural authenticity; rich characters with intersecting identities; and stories that challenge the status quo in which wealth and power are built on extraction, oppression, and violence.

Core Elements

Fix’ll be looking for these core elements:

• Hope
• Vivid characters
• Cultural setting
• Creative solutions
• Decolonized futures

It will also judge submissions based on the quality of artistic voice, originality, craft, and technique, as well as the depth of the environmental, scientific, historical, and/or cultural background that informs the story.

Inspiration:

Imagine 2200 draws inspiration from Afrofuturism, as well as Indigenous, Latinx, Asian, disabled, feminist, and queer futures. The contest is also grounded in hopepunk and solarpunk — literary genres that uplift equitable climate solutions and continued service to one’s community, even in the face of despair.

Rules and Guidelines

• Entry is free!
• The contest is open to writers anywhere in the world.
• Authors must be 18 years or older at the time of submission.
• Also, submissions must be fictional stories between 3,000 and 5,000 words.
• Submissions must be in 12-point Arial font and double-spaced. Pages must be numbered.
• Previously published or simultaneous submissions are ineligible.
• In addition, only one submission will be accepted per entrant.
• Submissions will only be accepted through Submittable
• Worldwide copyright and ownership of each story remain with the author.
• If a story is accepted for publication, Grist retains the first serial rights of the work to publish, produce, reproduce, distribute, as well as the market.
• Moreover, all other remaining rights revert to the author upon publication.