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.

Thanks to all who sub­mit­ted. See our cur­rent con­tests here.


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.

Your Information
Submission 1

When you click "submit" you will be taken to our secure server for payment.