Photo by Ryutaro Tsukata: pexels.com
It’s almost April which means National Gooseberry Month is just around the corner.
In celebration we are having our third annual writing contest with $1,100.00 in cash prizes. And we’re excited to have an award-winning writer to judge our contest, the amazing Dan Crawley.
Dan Crawley is the author of Straight Down the Road (Ad Hoc Fiction), The Wind, It Swirls (Cowboy Jamboree Press) and Blur (Cowboy Jamboree Press). His writing appears in numerous journals and anthologies, including JMWW, Pithead Chapel, Best Small Fictions 2023 & 2024, North American Review, SmokeLong Quarterly: The Best of the First Ten Years, Wigleaf, Quarterly West, and Atticus Review. He is a recipient of an Arizona Commission on the Arts creative writing fellowship and appears on the Wigleaf Top 50 longlist (2019, 2021-2023).
Here’s Dan’s writing prompt for this year’s competition submissions:
- Start the story with a bad day getting worse and by the last line, everything is better in an unexpected way. FYI: I dig strong imagery, character action, and irony.
Submission Guidelines are slightly different than our regular guidelines. Please follow these:
1. Submissions open April 1, 2026 and close on April 22, 2026. Our judge Dan Crawley will receive a short list by April 30, 2026 and will read the submissions blind. Dan will select 1st, 2nd, and 3rd prize along with five honorable mentions.
2. Submit one story via Submittable 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 Dan’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. No submissions with hatred, prejudice or violence.
Total of $1100.00 in prizes
First Place: $500.00 (USD)
Second Place: $250.00 (USD)
Third Place: $100.00 (USD)
Five (5) Honorable Mentions: $50.00 (USD) Each
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.
Winners will be notified in early May, and winning entries will be published in a special issue of Gooseberry Pie on May 14, 2026.
