A Magical Realism Story Contest That Takes the Marvellous at Its Word
Quick answer: A magical realism story contest with a published rubric: Writory accepts original stories of 100 to 3,000 words in any language, judged blind on the five published marks, and reads the impossible in the tone the story tells it. Entry is $8, the deadline is 25 November 2026 at 11:59 PM IST, and every entrant receives a certificate and a score out of 100.
Writory's short story contest reads magical realism of 100 to 3,000 words in any language, judged blind against a published rubric. Entry is $8, the deadline is 25 November 2026 at 11:59 PM IST, and every entrant receives a certificate and a score out of 100.
How the rubric reads magical realism
Magical realism is judged as magical realism, which means the judges accept the impossible in the tone you offer it and then ask what it is for. Gabriel García Márquez's "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" (1968) reports an angel in a chicken coop in the voice of a parish notice, and the story is about the villagers, not the angel. Originality & Voice, 20 points, is scored on that voice: the flat, unastonished register is the form's signature, and a writer who holds it without a wink earns the mark.
Character & Emotional Impact, 25 points, is where the impossible has to pay its way. The marvellous element must carry a feeling the realist version could not; Julio Cortázar's "Axolotl" (1956) is a man becoming a salamander, and it is about loneliness so complete that the tank is a relief. If the levitation or the rain of flowers could be cut and the story would still mean the same, the judges will read the magic as decoration and the Structure mark, another 25, will show it, because the impossible event has no cause and no cost.
Craft notes for magical realism in 100 to 3,000 words
Keep the rest of the world exact. The form works by contrast: one impossible fact inside a room where the kettle, the electricity bill and the neighbour's dog are all precisely observed. Toni Morrison's Beloved (1987) is a ghost inside a house whose every board is real. Report the marvellous in the same sentence rhythm as the ordinary and never let a character stop to disbelieve; the moment someone says "that's impossible", the story has become fantasy and its tone has broken.
Do not explain. Magical realism has no rule system, and a paragraph accounting for why the grandmother floats is both unnecessary and fatal to Language & Craft, 20 points, which marks exposition down. Let the impossible thing recur and change meaning, as an object does in a realist story. Avoid whimsy: the marvellous in this tradition is usually tied to grief, history or power, from Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children (1981) to Isabel Allende's The House of the Spirits (1982), and a floating grandmother who is merely charming will score low on Impact & Resonance.
End on the ordinary. The strongest closings in the form return to a realist detail that the impossible has quietly changed: the coop is empty and the woman goes back to cutting onions. Franz Kafka's "The Metamorphosis" (1915), often named as the form's grandfather, ends not on Gregor but on his sister stretching in a tram. The free Story Craft course at /academy/story-craft covers structure and ending at this length, and /short-story-prompts has starting points.
Any language, one pool, and what you receive
The form has roots in Spanish, and Writory reads stories in any language in that language, in one pool with everything else in the round; a Malayalam story with a river that talks stands beside an English one with a floating aunt. Writers must be 13 or over and the work must be original. Entry is $8 for one story, $14 for two and $25 for five, each judged separately. The first contest runs from 1 September to 25 November 2026 at 11:59 PM IST, with results and certificates on 30 November 2026. From December the contest is monthly: entries close on the 25th, results on the 30th, and the next round opens the moment they land.
Every entrant receives a certificate and a score out of 100 on 30 November 2026, with the five marks shown separately: Storytelling & Structure 25, Character & Emotional Impact 25, Language & Craft 20, Originality & Voice 20, Impact & Resonance 10. The top story takes $100 and free entry to the next round; free entry is earned, not open to all. Writers keep all rights, optional written feedback is available at entry, and the criteria are published at /short-story-judging-criteria.
The published rubric, 100 points
- Storytelling & Structure (25 points): Does every scene cause the next, and does the ending pay off the opening?
- Character & Emotional Impact (25 points): Do we want something with your character, and does the story make us feel it?
- Language & Craft (20 points): Clean, deliberate prose: rhythm, precision, and nothing wasted.
- Originality & Voice (20 points): The angle only you could write, told in a voice that sounds like nobody else.
- Impact & Resonance (10 points): What the story leaves behind after the last line.
How it works
Submit an original story of 100 to 3,000 words by 25 November 2026 at 11:59 PM IST. Every story is judged blind against the rubric above, and results arrive on 30 November 2026: every entrant receives a certificate with their name and a score out of 100. Writers keep all rights. Monthly winners earn free entry to the next round. Enter at https://writoryofficial.com/submit-story.
Common questions
Is magical realism eligible in the Writory short story contest?
Yes. The contest accepts original stories of 100 to 3,000 words in any genre, and magical realism is read as itself: the judges accept the impossible in the tone the story sets and score what it carries. There is no separate literary or fantasy category; one pool, five marks.
What does entry cost?
$8 for one story, $14 for two, $25 for five, each judged and scored separately. The winner of a round takes $100 and free entry to the next; free entry is earned that way and is not open to everyone.
What do I receive if I do not win?
A certificate and a score out of 100 split into the five rubric marks. For magical realism the telling comparison is Originality & Voice against Storytelling & Structure: a high first and low second usually means the tone was held but the impossible event had no cause and no cost.
How long should a magical realism story be?
Anything from 100 to 3,000 words is eligible. García Márquez's angel story is under 3,000 words and Cortázar's "Axolotl" is shorter still, so the cap fits the form well. A very short piece with one impossible fact and one realist ending is complete and is read as flash.
How is magical realism different from fantasy here?
The contest does not separate them, but the judges read what the story attempts. Fantasy builds a world with rules and characters who know the rules; magical realism puts one impossible fact into the real world and nobody remarks on it. The moment a character explains the magic, the story has changed shelf.
Can the magic be drawn from my own culture's folklore?
Yes, and the tradition began that way: García Márquez said his grandmother told him impossible things in a flat voice. A story in which a village goddess or a household spirit is simply present, unexplained, in a realist setting is exactly the form, and a story in the region's language is read in that language.
More story contest pages
About Writory
Writory (writoryofficial.com) is an international monthly poetry contest founded in 2025 by Shivay Mehra. Poets from 31 countries have entered, readers come from over 150 countries, and every submitted poem is judged and scored out of 100 across five criteria: creativity, emotion, structure, language and impact and resonance. Every entrant receives a certificate; winners receive cash prizes and are published by name. Entries close on the 25th of each month and results are announced on the 30th. Writory is listed by Duotrope, Poetry Kit, Christopher Fielden's competition list and Creative Writing NZ, among other organisations. Past results are public at past winners and the leaderboard.