The Missouri Literary Festival is pleased to announce the creation of the Missouri Literary Festival Award for Short Fiction. This short story award contest is open to all writers who would like to share their creative work. Each author will have a chance to win one of three cash prize awards plus receive special recognition during Missouri’s premier literary festival.

Prizes will be awarded as follows: Winner, $300; Second place, $200;  Third place, $100. Outstanding works will be presented in a public reading at the Park Central Square Branch Library during the Literary Festival, which will be held Oct. 2, 3 and 4.

Guidelines
1. Each story must be no longer than 3,000 words.

2. Each story must be the unpublished (and not under consideration of being published), original work of the entrant.

3. All entries must be accompanied by an official entry form, which contains the name, address, e-mail address, and phone number of the author, as well as the title of the story. Click here for a copy of the entry form. Each entry must be typed, double-spaced on one side of 8+1/2 x 11 paper and no longer than 3,000 words. Please submit the story using Microsoft Word or as an RTF Text file.

4. Names and copyright markings must be omitted from the manuscript, which will go to judges anonymously. Include the title and page number at the head or foot of each page.

5. Only one entry per person. A $15 fee is required when the story is submitted. Personal checks or postal money orders preferred.

6. Do not send originals – no entries will be returned.

7. Entries must be received no later than 9:00 PM, Friday, July 31. Mail a print copy of your story to Attn. William Brandon Bowman, Missouri Literary Festival, 411 North Sherman Parkway, Springfield, MO 65802. You should also email a copy of your manuscript to FictionPrize@gmail.com.

8. Copyrights of winning manuscripts remain in the name of the authors, but the Missouri Literary Festival reserves the right to publish the winning entries and any honorable mentions and to reproduce them electronically on our website.

9. Prizes – Winner $300, Second Place $200, Third Place $100

In light of Bo Burlingham’s April 2 visit to Drury University, part of Drury’s Entrepreneurship & Innovation Convocation Series, the Missouri Literary Festival is proud to announce that Burlingham will join forces with fellow business authors Jack Stack and Norm Brodsky to present Business by the Book, a business-focused seminar and luncheon, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Oct. 2. Tickets will be $35.

Burlingham, the author of “Small Giants: Companies that Choose to be Great Instead of Big” and an editor-at-large for Inc. magazine, collaborated with Springfield ReManufacturing Co. founder and open-book management pioneer Jack Stack on his books “The Great Game of Business” and “A Stake in the Outcome.” Burlingham has also collaborated with Norm Brodsky, who writes the Street Smarts column for Inc. and The Morning Norm at Inc.com.

The business authors’ seminar is one of several special events slated for the three-day literary festival, a first-time event which will be held Oct. 2-4 at Hammons Field and The Creamery Arts Center. The festival will feature programs, panels and book signings by writers of fiction, nonfiction and poetry, including novelists Daniel Woodrell and Katie Estill, children’s author David Harrison, women’s issues expert Nancy O’Reilly, Missouri Poet Laureate Walter Bargen and 2001 U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins. The festival will also offer a full slate of children’s authors, programs and activities; live music, theater and dance performances; a poetry slam and workshops by Top 10 spoken-word poet Joaquin Zihuatanejo; an appearance by author and recording artist Jennifer Rothschild; and of course, books, books, books.

Besides Business by the Book, special ticketed events during the festival will include an Authors Gala with the festival writers and Saturday Brunch with Laura Shapiro, who will discuss her new biography of Julia Child.

The Missouri Literary Festival, a Celebration of Arts, Literature and Literacy, is a nonprofit event focused on raising funds to benefit arts programming and literacy organizations. General admission will be $5 for ages 11 and up; children 10 and under get in free. Festival beneficiaries are Springfield Regional Arts Council, Ozarks Literacy Council, Family Literacy Centers of Springfield, the R-12 Title I Schools and the Writers Hall of Fame scholarship program.

For information on sponsorships and booth rental, please contact William Brandon Bowman, festival chair, at (417) 865-0450.