Announcing Winners of 2024 Extra Fiction Contest

Announcing Winners of 2024 Extra Fiction Contest

for Short Stories in English and Spanish​

For the first time in seven years of conducting the Somos en escrito Extra Fiction Contest, we have first places winners in both English and Spanish story-telling. A different judge presided over each competition. The top winners will receive a $100 prize; they and the runners up earn publication in Somos en escrito Magazine.

The judges this year are Ernest Hogan, perennial arbiter of English languages entries since the contest started, and Roberto Perezdiaz, who assessed the Spanish language entries. Hogan is considered the godfather of Chicano sci-fi literature; Perezdiaz is  a publised writer in his own right and a career translator.
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The top winner for an English language story is:
Jan Karlo Lopez for The Pepper Inspector.
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​His autobio reads: “…a pathological liar turned writer. His self-published short-story digital anthologies and physical Zines have generated over a thousand dollars in revenue. Some of the profits were used to purchase school supplies for Oak Cliff (Texas)  teachers, or donated to a foundation that buys shoes for underprivileged kids in Oak Cliff, and the rest was either spent on food, drugs, or traveling.” Jan Karlo is Oak Cliff born, raised, and resident but leaves as often as financially possible. He has been published in Open: Journal of Arts & Letters, In Parentheses, LIT magazine, and Thirty West Publishing House which nominated his story for Best of the Net. 

Runners up:
Colton Campbell, for The Wasp and the Roach.
Joseph Martinez II, for Angel at the Wake. 
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First place in the Spanish language competition is:
RaXel Gallegos, por Calmate un chingo.

​According to her autobio, Raxel is: “…an Afro-Indigenous masewalli /human/2spirits/Indigiqueer, currently learning how to become complete within the incomplete-ness of colonial obstructions. An aspiring anti-colonial, de-colonial, and re-Indigenizing educator. They have used IN XOCHITL IN CUICATL as a methodology to integrate non-canonical contemporary Indigenous literary works; no longer giving into arguments of whether Indigenous literatures have literary value within English and Spanish academic circles. Their/her/his/ writing style no longer respects the imposition of grammar as a form of mental policing that keeps minds within the parameters of colonial writing systems; for them, commas, tildes, and letters are nothing else but an ornament.”  

Runners up:
Alex V. Cruz, for Pajanú.
Yubany Checo, for Peluche
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​All their short stories will be published in the coming weeks. Besides publication, each writer will receive a copy of Our Creative Realidades, published in 2024 by Somos en escrito Press, a collection of varied genre by Raza writers dedicated to expressing a world view from our perspective, not that imposed or peddled about us in in mass communications, social media, and corporate America.

HEADS UP FOR 2025 EXTRA FICTION CONTEST
Contest submission is free and is open for any person born or residing in the USA of American Indian, Chicano/Mexican American, Puerto Rican, or Latin American origin. There is a $100 prize for first place winners.

Manuscripts must be unpublished, in English, Spanish, or Ingléspañol. Put “[year] Extra-Fiction Contest” in the email subject line. Submit your manuscript using 12 point Times New Roman font (.docx) plus a short bio in third person as a separate Word documenr and the author’s photo in jpg format.  (label the photo using your name, not author photo) to [email protected]. One submission per author, 6,000 word limit; contact us beforehand if the submission is over 6,000 words. 

THE  SUBMISSIONS PERIOD OPENS August 1st and the deadline is November 1st. Extra-fiction stories published in Somos en escrito during the year may be considered for the contest.