The Geist Fortune Cookie Contest

Congratulations to the winners of the Geist Fortune Cookie Contest!

1st Prize
Leslie Vryenhoek “Impatient”

2nd Prize
Vaughan Chapman, “1963”
Yvonne Blomer, “In a Zen Garden”

3rd Prize
Lisa Van de Ven, “The Wedding”

Honourable Mentions
Shannon Blake, “Fig Leaves”
Jared Hazzard, “Yellow Pants”
Jill Mandrake “Lovetime”

To read the winning entries, please check back in December, 2009.

First Prize: $250 | Second Prize: $150 | Third Prize: $100
(more than one prize per category may be awarded)
Honourable Mentions: Swell Geist gifts

Welcome to the Geist Fortune Cookie Contest, the writing contest based on faux wisdom and vague predictions.

Send us a piece of writing inspired by a fortune cookie message. The relationship can be as tangential as you like, as long as there is a connection to the initial fortune cookie prophecy or aphorism.

Don’t eat Chinese food? Find a fortune online or make one up.

Riff on the fortune—story, essay, poem, rant, whatever—in 500 words or less.

Winning entries will be published in Geist and at geist.com. Entries must be previously unpublished.

Submit your entry below, double spaced, in at least 11-point type with one-inch margins. Judging is blind, so do not write your name on the entry, but please include the text of the fortune that inspired your piece above the title of your entry. When you click "submit" you will be taken to our secure server for payment.

Name your file with your own name as follows: last name - first name - story title. For example:

Doe-Jane-StoryName.doc or Doe-John-StoryName.pdf

File formats: use any of the following: doc, rtf, pdf or odf.

We also accept snail mail entries. Click here for more info.

Entry Fee: $20 CAD for the first entry (includes a one-year subscription or a subscription extension), $5 CAD for each additional entry. If you are already a Geist subscriber, you can donate your complimentary subscription to a Canadian public library or give it as a gift to a friend.

Deadline: June 30, 2009.

Maximum length: 500 words, fiction or non-fiction.

Questions? Call 1-888-434-7834 or email geist@geist.com.

Submit your work using the form below.