Entries for the eighth annual Baen Fantasy Adventure Award contest will be accepted beginning February 14, 2021 at 12:01am EDT. Full guidelines at the link.

What We Want to See

Adventure fantasy with heroes you want to root for. Warriors either modern or medieval, who solve problems with their wits or with their weapons—and we have nothing against dragons, elves, dwarves, castles under siege, urban fantasy, damsels in distress, or damsels who inflict distress.

What We Don’t Want to See

Political drama with no action, angst-ridden teens pining over vampire lovers, religious allegory, novel segments, your gaming adventure transcript, anything set in any universe not your own, “it was all a dream” endings, or screenplays.

The contest closes for submissions April 30th, 2021 at 11:59pm EDT. The winners will be officially announced during the Baen Traveling Roadshow at Dragon Con, which is scheduled for September 2-6, 2021, in Atlanta, Georgia.

Each entry is limited to an original short story in the English language of no more than 8,000 words, and only one entry per author. Complete guidelines here. Entries will be judged by Baen editors

• The GRAND PRIZE winner will be published as the featured story on the Baen Books main website and paid at industry-standard rates for professional story submittals. The author will also receive an engraved award and a prize package containing $500 of free Baen Books.
• SECOND place winner will receive a prize package containing $500 of free Baen Books.
• THIRD place winner will receive a prize package containing $300 of free Baen Books.

Finalists will be announced no later than July 1, 2021

Winners will be notified no later than July 21, 2021.

Since its beginning the contest has received thousands of entries of fantasy stories from all over the globe.