The Literary Lab's "Variations on a Theme" Contest

Hot off the heels of The Clarity of Night's short fiction contest comes another worthy one from the good folks at The Literary Lab. Entitled "Variations on a Theme,"` it involves fairy tales, Anton Chekov and ... well, let's allow them to tell you about it:

As opposed to last year's celebration of free creativity with "Notes From Underground", this year we wanted to offer writers a more concrete jumping off point. Entries for "Variations on a Theme" should be inspired by one of two stories:

"The Tinderbox", a classic fairy tale

or

"The Huntsman" by Anton Chekhov

As there are different versions of both of these stories, you're free to use any version you choose as inspiration. If you click on the links above, you'll be taken to public domain versions you're welcome to use. (Or feel free to search for other versions of the story if you wish.) And, we're interpreting the phrase "inspired by" rather loosely, so writers definitely shouldn't feel too restricted by it.

Stories can be written in any genre and can be up to 3,000 words long. We do, however, prefer short stories as opposed to poems or visual artwork. The contest is open until December 31, 2011 at midnight PST. Paste your stories in the body of an e-mail to LiteraryLab@gmail.com.

Read the rest of the details here. In addition to the fact that Scott, Michelle and Davin's previous two anthologies have been quality through and through, this time around they're offering some serious cash money for the top two stories. Cash money, people! Get thee to thy Moleskin!

(Picture: Copyright 2011 by The Literary Lab; used by permission)