Previous Competitions

The 2022 Competition

Regulus Press extends a tremendous Thank You! to all who participated in the 2022 Literary Taxidermy Writing Competition. Writers came once again from around the globe — including the United States, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia, and Canada. But also Hungary, Belgium, China, Egypt, Romania, Slovenia, Cyprus, Netherlands, Estonia, Oman, Kyrgyzstan, Spain, South Africa, Malaysia, Singapore, Korea, Sweden, France, Japan, Jamaica, Nigeria, Israel, Ukraine, and many others. They took the opening and closing lines from “As I Grew Older,” a poem by Langston Hughes; “Ms. Found in a Bottle,” a short story by Edgar Allan Poe; “Happiness,” a poem by A. A. Milne; and “The Tragedy at Marsdon Manor,” a short story by Agatha Christie — and they fashioned hundreds of original stories and poems, spanning multiple genres. They were funny, serious, mysterious, romantic, scary, and occasionally just plain strange. For our fifth year, we shook things up a bit. For the first time, we offered personal feedback for all the participants who made it to the Honorable Mention level. Also, we ran the 2022 competition as a fundraiser for Ukraine. You can read the details here. We're a small organization, but we believe we can make a difference in the world.

The 2022 judges included Ann Catherine Barnett, Cuifen Chen, Elisa Donovan, Danny Gardner, Rick Moody, Brian Parks, Michael Pronko, and Cameron Tuttle. They had a challenging job, identifying two winners from twenty finalists selected from hundreds of entries.

The 2022 short story winner was CLARE KATE MAHON, an Irish teacher and doctoral student living in Cambridge in the United Kingdom, and author of the short story “The Stone.” The poetry winner was TRUDI PETERSEN, a nurse and shop-owner living in Wales in the United Kingdom, and author of the poem “Valparaiso.” You can read their work in this year's anthology, along with 18 other remarkable writers.

And guess what! The 2022 anthology is available now! It's called I FOUND HAPPINESS & TRAGEDY. Show your support for literary taxidermy and your desire for future competitions by purchasing your copy today. We're certain you'll enjoy these incredible writers, many published for the first time!

 


The 2021 Competition

Big thanks to everyone who participated in the 2021 Literary Taxidermy Writing Competition—run in association with an exhibition called Still Life | Wild Places housed at the Katherine Mansfield House & Gardens in Wellington, New Zealand. Once again, writers came from around the globe — including the United States, United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia, Panama, Canada, India, Zimbabwe, Finland, South Africa, Italy, the Russian Federation, Belgium, and Denmark. But also Romania, Nigeria, Malaysia, Germany, Switzerland, France, and many others. They took the opening and closing lines from two works by modernist author Katherine Mansfield and fashioned hundreds of original stories and poems, spanning multiple genres. They were serious, romantic, scary, funny, suspenseful, and occasionally just plain strange.

The 2021 judges included Hinemoana Baker, Ann Catherine Barnett, Jody Brettkelly, Helena Wiśniewska Brow, Kate Duignan, Brian Parks, Michael Pronko, and Mia Farlane. They had a challenging job, identifying just twenty finalists from hundreds of entries.

In 2021 we selected two winners—one story and one poem. Our short story winner was LAURA LOTT, a student living in the Midlands, UK, and author of the short story “The View from Here.” Our poetry winner was EMMA LAMONT-MESSER, a former lawyer living in Auckland, New Zealand, and author of the poem “Daleko Tea.” You can read their work in this year's anthology, along with 18 other remarkable writers.

The 2021 anthology is called THE ART of DEATH. We're certain you'll enjoy these incredible writers, many published for the first time!

 


The 2020 Competition

Once again, writers came from around the globe — including the United States, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and New Zealand. But also Belgium, China, Colombia, Cyprus, Egypt, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Italy, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, and Zimbabwe! They took the opening and closing lines from Brave New World by Aldous Huxley and Beloved by Toni Morrison, and then fashioned hundreds of original stories, spanning more than a dozen genres, including mystery, suspense, science fiction, metafiction, historical fiction, horror, poetry, and humor.

The 2020 judges included Catherine Barnett, Kelley Eskridge, Charles E. Gannon, Jerry Lange, Brian Parks, Michael Pronko, Nisi Shawl, and Melora Wolff. Along with the editors of Regulus Press, they had a challenging job, selecting just twenty stories from hundreds of submissions.

We had two winners this year. The winner of the Morrison contest was ERIKA BAUER, a teacher in Michigan, and author of the short story “You Know, He Knew, I Said.” The winner of the Huxley contest was AMANDA LA BAS DE PLUMETOT, a writer in Melbourne, Australia, and author of the short story “Cornucopia.”

The 2020 anthology collects the finalists and winners of this year's competition into a single volume called 34 STORIES / 124 BELOVED, available as both digital download and paperback. Yes, that's right — both the Huxley anthology and the Morrison anthology are combined together in one book. For the paperback edition of the omnibus, each anthology is rotated 180° relative to the other. This unique binding, called tête-bêche (from the French meaning "head-to-toe"), means that the anthology's back cover is really just another front cover; and when you reach the end of one of anthology, the next page is the upside-down last page of the other. A unique collection for a unique competition!

In addition to the tête-bêche omnibus editions, each anthology from the 2020 Literary Taxidermy Short Story Competition is also available as a standalone paperback. Both 34 STORIES and 124 BELOVED are available now.

Show your support for literary taxidermy and your desire for future competitions by purchasing your copy today. We're certain you'll enjoy these incredible writers!

 


The 2019 Competition

Regulus Press extends a tremendous Thank You! to all who participated in the 2019 Literary Taxidermy Short Story Competition. Writers came from around the globe — including the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, New Zealand, and Ireland. But also India, China, France, the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Israel, Panama, Peru, and many others. They took the opening and closing lines from Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury and fashioned hundreds of original stories, spanning more than a dozen genres.

The 2019 judges included Catherine Barnett, Kelley Eskridge, Christine S. O'Brien, Brian Parks, Michael Pronko, Becky Selengut, Nisi Shawl, and Melora Wolff. They had a challenging job, selecting just twenty-one stories from hundreds of submissions.

The winner of the Bradbury contest was CUIFEN CHEN, a student in Singapore, and author of the short story "Sunshade, Starlight."

The 2019 anthology is available now! Show your support for literary taxidermy and your desire for future competitions by purchasing your copy today. We're certain you'll enjoy these incredible writers!

 


The 2018 Competition

Thank You! to all who participated in the 2018 Literary Taxidermy Short Story Competition, sponsored by Regulus Press. Writers came from around the globe — including the United States, Canada, Germany, Belgium, France, China, India, New Zealand, Australia, and the United Kingdom. They took the opening and closing lines from The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett, Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll, and "A Telephone Call" by Dorothy Parker, and fashioned nearly a thousand original stories, spanning many genres, including horror, mystery, science fiction, meta-fiction, erotica, poetry, and satire. They were serious, humorous, political, romantic, and sometimes quite unnerving.

The 2018 judges included Catherine Barnett, Kelley Eskridge, Stephen Graham Jones, Holly Kowitt, Brian Parks, Michael Pronko, Becky Selengut, and Nisi Shawl. They had a challenging job, selecting winning stories from hundreds of submissions in each competition.

We had three winners this year. The winner of the Parker contest was NINA KAUSHIKKAR, an eighteen-year-old American student from Illinois, and author of the short story "Usha's Sarees." The winner of the Hammett contest was SHANTA GYANCHAND, a British writer living in Pune, India, and author of the short story "Genesis." The winner of the Carroll contest was JENNY HANSON, Australian author of the short story "May 8th, 2025."

All three competition anthologies are available now! Show your support for literary taxidermy and your desire for future competitions by purchasing one, two, or all three anthologies today. We're certain you'll enjoy these incredible writers, many of whom are published for the first time.

 


The Gymnasium

And if that's not enough literary taxidermy for you, check out The Gymnasium, the collection of stories by Mark Malamud that inspired this competition.

Discover a Hellenistic god who can't escape his past, a rock band whose music is so bad it paralyzes from the waist down, and a black-market vegetable genetically-modified for self-abuse — these are just a few of the stories of melancholy and wonder from the author of The Timeless Machine. By "re-stuffing" what goes in-between the opening and closing lines of classic works by Milan Kundera, Philip K. Dick, Thomas Wolfe, Ian Fleming, and others, here are nineteen wholly-original fictions.

 


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