Saturday Submissions: ‘Islamicate SF’ Short Story Contest

This contest, sponsored by islamscifi.com, aims to reward three stories that feature “Science Fiction with Muslim characters or Islamic cultures (Islam in the cultural sense and not necessarily in the religious sense)”: 

Submissions are accepted only in English, although there seems to be no reason they can’t be translations. From the organizers:

Islamicate refers to the cultural output of predominantly Islamic culture or polity. Thus while the culture has its foundation and inspiration from the religion of Islam, it need not be produced by someone who is Muslim. The term Islamicate is thus similar to the term West as it encompasses a whole range of cultures, ethnicities and schools of thought with shared historical experience. The contest is open to all people regardless of their religious affiliation or lack there of. Thus a person of any religion, nationality, ethnicity race, gender, sexual orientation can submit. A collection of the best stories from the submissions will be released as an epub and available to download for free. Only the top three stories that win the prize will be given the prize money, the others will be published without the money.

The contest will be judged by Islam and Science Fiction founder Muhammad Aurangzeb Ahmad, univerity dean Ahmed Naumaan, Emirati SF novelist Noura Al-Nouman, SF critic Muhammad Handara Hankins, and scholar-librarian Rebecca Hankins.

Prizes are currently set at $200, $150, and $100 for first, second, and third places respectively, although that might rise if organizers are able to raise more funds.

Submissions will be accepted through June 8, 2016.

You can find out more about the contest — and submit — online.