17 Jul 2014

Enter the Reader's 2014 Short-Fiction Contest: I'm with the Banned! Deadline September 2!

By Administrator

For our 2014 short-fiction contest - co-sponsored by the Bettendorf Public Library - we're celebrating banned and challenged books. Our 20 prompts are all drawn from famous (and sometimes infamous) novels that school boards, governments, or other arbiters of taste and morality didn't want people to read.

The deadline for entries is September 2.

We'll publish winners and favorites in the September 18 issue of the River Cities' Reader - just in time for Banned Books Week, which this year runs September 21 through 27.

We're also planning an event featuring readings of winning and favorite stories at 7 p.m. on Thursday, September 25, in the Bettendorf Room of the Bettendorf Public Library. More details will be announced later.

29 May 2014

Winners from the River Cities' Reader's 2014 Photo Contest

By Administrator

We received 116 entries in our 2014 Photo Contest in four categories: Fun in the Sun, In the Garden, Summer Nights, and Heat Wave. We're happy to present this selection of winners.

27 Mar 2014

Enter the River Cities' Reader's 2014 Photo Contest! May 9 Deadline!

By Administrator

A 2013 photo-contest winner by Jess Ellis

The theme for the River Cities' Reader 2014 photography contest is summer - in large part because we want to erase memories of our beastly winter.

The four categories are "Fun in the Sun," "In the Garden," "Heat Wave," and "Summer Nights."

The deadline for entries is May 9, and the rules are below. We plan to publish the winners in our May 29 issue.

(The photo above, by Jess Ellis, is a winner from our 2013 contest, incidentally.)

05 Sep 2013

Winners and Favorites from Our 2013 Short Fiction Contest

By Administrator
"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth."

These are the first words of the Bible, and they were also one of 50 "great beginnings" that we offered our readers as opening lines for our 2013 short-fiction contest. (See the full list at RCReader.com/y/fiction.) We had lots of submission rules, but the other main criterion was a 250-word limit beyond the chosen prompt.

We received 134 entries, and we're printing prize-winners and other favorites here.

Enjoy!

24 Jul 2013

Enter the Reader's 2013 Short-Fiction Contest: "Great Beginnings"

By Administrator

Admittedly, some of our previous short-fiction contests have been a bit cruel.

So we're making it easy for our 2013 contest, which runs through August 20. (Our favorite entries will be published in the September 5 issue of the River Cities' Reader.)

All you need to do is start with one of the beginnings below and finish your story in an additional 250 words. And we've been extremely generous, giving you 50 options!

I should probably wait to tell you that the previously mentioned beginnings come from the Bible, Moby-Dick, Infinite Jest, A Tale of Two Cities, The Color Purple, Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone ... . And one - offered here in its entirety - might be the shortest story ever written.

30 May 2013

Winners of the River Cities' Reader's Spring Photo Contest

By Administrator

We had 69 entries in our spring photography contest, with the categories "brazen," "future," and "illumination." As you might guess, that last one got the majority of the entries, and there were admittedly some struggles in making connections between the prompts and the pictures in the other two.

That's part of the fun of these contests, however. On these pages you'll find some of our favorites, with whatever commentary the photographer provided.

Thanks to all who entered!

Illumination, First Place: Skylar Davis.

Brazen, Third Place: Jess Ellis.

09 May 2013

Enter the Reader's 2013 Photo Contest! Deadline Extended to May 21

By Administrator

The three categories for the River Cities' Reader's 2013 photography contest are "illumination," "future," and "brazen." The deadline for entries is May 21, and the rules are below. We plan to publish the winners in our May 30 issue.

27 Sep 2012

Winners and Favorites from the 2012 Short-Fiction Contest

By Administrator

We received 69 entries in our fiction contest, and prize-winners and a selection of other favorites are published here.

To refresh your memory, we set a limit of 250 words per entry. (For future contests, a bit of advice: Count by hand - at least twice.) We also required each entry to conform to one of five prompts in genre (ghost story, romance, tall tale, noir, or biography), point-of-view character (inanimate object, child, polygamist, criminal, or nun), and conflict/action (betrayal, reunion, shame, obsolescence, or unrequited love). And for the brave and/or foolish, we offered the elective option of writing in the style of Dr. Seuss, Ernest Hemingway, William Shakespeare, William S. Burroughs, or Twitter. Who knew there were so many stories waiting to be told about longing objects, sensual nuns, and Seussian polygamists?

26 Jul 2012

Enter the Reader's 2012 Short-Fiction Contest! Deadline September 7!

By Administrator

We recently freed our short-fiction-contest troll from his five-year captivity in the River Cities' Reader dungeon, and based on the rules he devised for the 2012 competition, he's grumpy. (Some might note that Jeff is always grumpy, but never mind.)

Let's start with the easy rules.

16 Feb 2012

Winter Photography-Contest Winners

By Administrator

Our winter photo contest - the first such reader competition we've held since 2008 - brought 80 submissions over three categories: attraction, resistance, and ambivalence. Thanks to all who entered!

In these pages are the top five finishers in each category as judged by the River Cities' Reader staff. We considered both the technical merits of the photograph as well as how well it fit or played off the category in which it was entered. Accompanying each photo is a short statement from the photographer. Click on the photo for a larger version.

While we restricted photographers to three entries, some entrants placed more than one photo among these top 15.

Ambivalence, First Place, Aric Keil


"This was taken along a fence line outside of Lost Nation, Iowa, in 2011. All of the goats (except one) seemed timid yet curious when I stopped to take the photo. They did not approach me or run away from me; they just stared ambivalently."

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