The fifth annual Baen Fantasy Adventure Award contest opens this month. Entries will be accepted from January 22 to April 30.

We’re looking for blood-pounding, heart-stopping action with heroes you want to root for and villains you love to hate. Whether your heroes win the day with swords or sorcery, fireballs or flamethrowers—or even by their wits alone—all are welcome. Modern, medieval, and otherworldly settings are all acceptable, as long as you tell a rip-roaring good tale with a fantastical element!

“It’s hard to believe it’s already been five years since we first partnered with the Writer’s Symposium at Gen Con, and we’re thrilled to again present this award at their event,” said Baen executive editor Jim Minz. “Role-playing games and fantasy adventure fiction have gone hand-in-hand for decades, and Gen Con is the perfect melding of these forms.”

Each entry is limited to a short story of no more than 8,000 words, and only one entry per author. Entries will be judged by Baen editors and the award will be presented at the Writer’s Symposium at Gen Con, which will be held August 2-5, 2018, in Indianapolis, IN.

• 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 will receive a prize package containing $300 of free Baen Books.

Finalists will be announced by July 1 and winners will be notified no later than July 7, 2018.

The first four years of the contest has seen thousands of entries of fantasy stories from all over the globe.

The 2016 Baen Fantasy Adventure Award contest opened for submissions on January 1.

All entries must be received by midnight April 1. Each entry is limited to a short story of no more than 8,000 words, and there is one entry per author. The story may be epic fantasy, heroic fantasy, sword and sorcery, or contemporary fantasy. Additional guidelines may be found here.

Entries will be judged by Baen editors with finalists also being judged by authors Eric Flint and Larry Correia.

Baen executive editor Jim Minz wrote:

We are delighted to partner with Gen Con and its Writer’s Symposium again to present this award. We appreciate the deep history between gaming and adventure fantasy. We love games and gamers, and we know that Gen Con is the perfect place to seek out and showcase great fantasy talent.

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 Baen Books and merchandise.

Second and Third Place winners will receive prize packages of Baen Books worth $500 and $300 respectively.

The website cautions —

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.

Finalists will be announced by July 1, and the winners will be notified by July 7. Eric Flint will present the award at the Writer’s Symposium at Gen Con, to be held August 4-7, 2016.

The 2015 Baen Fantasy Adventure Award contest is open for submissions.

All entries must be received by midnight April 1. Each entry is limited to a short story of no more than 8,000 words, and there is one entry per author. The story may be epic fantasy, heroic fantasy, sword and sorcery, or contemporary fantasy.

Editor Jim Minz said in the press release:

“We’re looking for the best piece of original short fiction that captures the spirit and tradition of such great storytellers as Larry Correia, Robert E. Howard, Mercedes Lackey, Elizabeth Moon, Andre Norton, J.R.R. Tolkien, and David Weber. We want fantasy adventures with heroes a reader wants to root for. We’re looking for warriors, either modern or medieval, who solve problems with their wits as well as their weapons.”

Interestingly, this is identical to Minz’ quote in last year’s press release — with the exception that Marion Zimmer Bradley’s name has disappeared from the list of “great storytellers.”

Entries will be judged by Baen editors with finalists also being judged by author Larry Correia.

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 various Baen Books.

Second and Third Place winners will receive a prize package of Baen Books.

According to information on the award website, publication details will be worked out between winner and Baen Books. “In the unlikely event that none of the stories qualify for professional publication, a cash prize, of an amount equal to the amount it would have earned had it been published, may be substituted in lieu of publication.”

The website cautions —

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 winners will be honored as part of Gen Con’s Writer’s Symposium. Gen Con takes place July 30-August 2.

The full press release follows the jump.

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The winner of the first Baen Fantasy Adventure Award was announced at GenCon.

Grand Prize
“The Golden Knight” by K. D. Julicher

First Runnerup
“Phoenix for the Amateur Chef” by Scott Huggins

Second Runnerup
“The Girl with No Name” by Travis Heermann

Judging was done by the Baen editorial staff, with the finalists also judged by Larry Correia.

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 of Baen Books.