Photo by Birmingham Museums Trust on Unsplash
Can you believe it? It’s almost April which means National Gooseberry Month is just around the corner. In celebration we are having our second annual writing contest. And we’re thrilled to have a brilliant writer and editor to judge our contest Melissa Llanes Brownlee.
Melissa Llanes Brownlee (she/her), a native Hawaiian writer living in Japan, has work published and forthcoming in Wigleaf, The Threepenny Review, Matchbook, Bluestem, Sunlight Press, Barrelhouse, Ghost Parachute, and Cutleaf Journal, and honored in Best Small Fictions, Best Microfiction, and Wigleaf Top 50. Read Hard Skin (2022) and Kahi and Lua (2022) and preorder Bitter over Sweet (2025) from Santa Fe Writers Project. She tweets @lumchanmfa and talks story at melissallanesbrownlee.com.
Here’s Melissa’s message about what she is looking for in this year’s submissions:
“My Dear Friends and Fellow Writers,
I’ve been racking my brain for the perfect prompt for Gooseberry Pie Literary Magazine’s 2nd Writing Contest in celebration of National Gooseberry Month! Peg Mokrass’ prompt inspired an amazing selection of stories and hope can I follow in the footsteps of such greatness. I shall certainly endeavor to try.
Write a 6-sentence story with no more than 400 words. I want transformation. I want renewal. I want resistance. I want darkness. I want light. I want truth. If you need additional prompt words, try: gooseberry, pie, bitter, sweet, centipede.
I look forward to reading your micros.
Mahalo from Japan,
Melissa”
Submission Guidelines are slightly different than our regular guidelines. Please follow these:
1. Submissions open April 1, 2025 and close on April 11, 2025.
2. Email one story to [email protected]. For the contest, we are only accepting one story per person. Copy and paste your submission into the body of an email along with you 40 word or less bio. We won’t open attachments.
3. Submit one story with exactly six-sentences and no more than 400 words. Title does not count as one of the six sentences or towards the word count. Follow Melissa’s prompt.
4. No previously published material. No AI.
5. Simultaneous submissions are fine. Notify us promptly if accepted elsewhere.
6. Contest is open to everyone, regardless of the date of your last submission or publication with Gooseberry Pie.
7. Be good citizens. No submissions with hatred, prejudice or violence.
Winners will be notified in early May and winning entries will be published in a special issue of Gooseberry Pie in May 2025.
Prizes will be sent via PayPal or Venmo. Do not provide this information with your entry. We will contact you for that information if needed. You must have one of these accounts (PayPal or Venmo) in order to receive your winnings. And the prizes are:
First Place: $300.00 (USD)
Second Place: $150.00 (USD)
Third Place: $75.00 (USD)
