The Jerboa Lit 250 is a weekend-long mini-flash fiction contest!
It’s shortER, just as fun, and your story could win $500.
This contest works the same way as the Jerboa Lit 500: we send you a prompt, and your story (250 words this time) is due 48 hours later. The prompt will include a genre and item that must appear/be used in your mini-flash. All parts of the prompt are still randomly selected out of our Video Hat. It’s very exciting.
The best part of the Mini-Contests is the quick turnaround: although this contest does not offer feedback, results are announced within a month!
RULES AND GUIDELINES
PROMPTS
The parts of the prompt are as follows:
GENRE: While there are no specific story elements that absolutely must appear in your piece of fiction in order to have it count towards the selected genre, the judges will expect your story to reflect, stretch, play with, distort, or embrace the traditional fundamentals of the genre assignment. For more information on these fundamentals, please see the Genre Descriptions page.
CHARACTER: A character who must appear in the story, whether in the present action or in a flashback. They do not have to be the main character or the narrator of the story, but should be physically present in the piece (that is, if the character element is chef, two characters mentioning a chef in dialogue is not enough, but a character eating at a restaurant who sees the chef back in the kitchen would count.)
VIDEO HAT
In order to choose the Genre and Character that make up the contest prompt, several possible Genres and Characters will be written on slips of paper and randomized inside a hat. The judges will draw one (1) Genre and one (1) Character from the hat, at which point the Prompt will be complete and the contest will begin. The drawings will be streamed live at www.youtube.com/@JerboaLit, and the video of the drawing will be archived at the same site afterwards.
PRIZES
FIRST PLACE: $500 USD
SECOND PLACE: $300
THIRD PLACE: $200
HOW TO SIGN UP
Entrants can sign up to participate in the Jerboa Lit 250 short fiction contest at the Jerboa Lit website: www.jerboalit.com/registration-250
At the time of sign up, a submission fee of $15 is due. The entrant is then added to the email list and will be sent a reminder email one week before the contest prompt is revealed. They will then be emailed shortly after FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 27, at 10:00 PM Central time with the contest prompt. They will have until SUNDAY, MARCH 1, at 11:59 PM Central time to submit their stories. Registration closes at 9:00 PM CDT on FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 27, so be sure to sign up before then!
In addition to receiving the prompt via email on FEBRUARY 27, the prompt will also be posted on this website.
HOW TO SUBMIT
Entrants can submit their stories via the link included in the prompt email.
Stories must be uploaded in the following format:
Microsoft Word (.doc/.docx) or .pdf file
Times New Roman, 12-point font
Title at the top
Please do not include entrant name in the story document. At the time of uploading, the form will ask for your name and email, but the submissions themselves are anonymized for judging.
After the contest closes on SUNDAY, MARCH 1, at 11:59 PM Central time, the judges will begin reviewing all submissions over a 1-month period. The results will be announced on APRIL 3, 2026. All entrants will receive the results via email on the same date, and the winners will also be posted on the following site: www.jerboalit.com/results
Winners will be paid within one month after the contest closes!
PERMISSIONS/COPYRIGHT
All authors retain the rights to their own work at all points in the contest. Jerboa will email the winners to obtain their permission to post the winning stories on the Jerboa website and share them on the Jerboa social media accounts. The winners are also free to submit their short stories elsewhere even after they’ve been published on the site.
WORD COUNT
The story should be a maximum of 250 words. There is no minimum word count, and the title of the story does not count towards the 250-word maximum.
ELIGIBILITY
No friends, family, or persons with a close relationship to the Jerboa Lit judges and administration are eligible to submit.
PROHIBITION ON ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
If an entrant is found to have used ChatGPT (or similar AI programs) in the creation of their story, they will be disqualified from the competition. Please write your own work!