Teens across the country still have a few more days to enter the One Teen Story competition for a chance to have their short story published and win a cash prize. The deadline to submit is Monday, November 27, with very little guidelines for what a story must consist of.

Co-founders Hannah Tinti and Maribeth Batcha were ill at ease when they noticed short story publications becoming endangered. Short stories are important pieces of literature that can deliver a strong message in few words. They are also vital in getting up and coming writers noticed for their work. In 2001, Tinti and Batcha put their own time and money into launching One Story in 2002.

Stories that are accepted for publication will be sent out one at a time, following through with Batcha’s idea of having them mailed like a letter to a friend. Dinitia Smith for The New York Times comments, “At a time when literary writing seems like a dying art, when little magazines are folding left and right, when publishers bemoan the sinking bottom line, here lies a spot of hope…It is called One Story.”

Any prospective winners need to craft a fictional story that is between 2000-4500 words that is purely about the teen experience. Submissions cannot include a story that had been or will be published elsewhere. They also cannot be written with the help of an AI software. The story can be in any genre, but overly explicit subjects such as gratuitous profanity, sex, and drug abuse should be avoided.

Three winners will be chosen for publication and three others will have their names written in honorable mentions. Chosen writers will be able to work with an editor before their story is published in the upcoming issue of One Teen Story. They will also receive $500 and 25 copies of the issue with their piece in it.

Hopeful applicants should be sure to make plenty of edits to their story and review the submission guidelines on their own. Best of luck!