The  1000 Word Herd Competition of 2026

TL;DR is a writer’s community and publisher, focused on connecting writers with growth opportunities and creating anthologies for charity. We are dedicated to providing an inclusive platform to writers of all ages, genders, races, and sexualities Whether you’re a fresh faced newcomer to the world of words or a grizzled veteran of publications, you can find your place in our herd.

TL;DR Press

The 1,000 Word Herd Flash Fiction Contest is a writing competition and fundraiser for TL;DR Press. Guaranteed feedback and a $200 top prize!

Thank you for your interest! We have either run out of tickets, or the competition has started and we can no longer accept entrants.

<h2>1 week. 2 prompts. 1,000 words. $800 in prizes.</h2>TL;DR Press is back with our seventh installment of the 1,000 Word Herd Competition! Sign up to participate in this week-long flash fiction competition, with $800 worth of prizes for the top 25 placing stories!The competition costs $7 USD to register + tax/fees.We are also proud to offer each entrant guaranteed feedback on their story from the judges. Offering writers a chance for feedback is one of the Press’s core missions, along with our philanthropic mission to create anthologies to benefit charities.This feedback means we only have 300 spots – once they’re gone, they’re gone!Registration opens May 2, 2026, and closes on May 27, 2026.The competition begins at 12:01 am on Sunday, May 31, 2026, US Eastern time and ends at 11:59 pm on Saturday, June 06, 2026, US Eastern time.You can find all of our<a href="http://tldrpress.org/index.php/1kwhc-rules/" title="http://tldrpress.org/index.php/1kwhc-rules/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer"> rules and regulations</a> here on our website. <h3>How does it work?</h3>The 1,000 Word Herd Competition will run for one week beginning on Sunday, May 31, 2026 at 12:01 am US-Eastern time, and ending on Saturday, June 06, 2026 at 11:59 pm US Eastern time. Each entrant will receive two individual prompts at the beginning of the competition, a character and an object/situation. There are no genre restrictions. Each entrant must create a 1,000-word-maximum original flash fiction story and submit by the end of the competition time.The judges will read, score, and provide feedback on each story to create a Top 25 Winners list. The top 25 stories will be announced, and prizes will be given to the winners as well as an ebook publication made of the top stories to benefit a charity (more below under “Publishing”).<a href="http://tldrpress.org/index.php/1kwhc-rules/" title="http://tldrpress.org/index.php/1kwhc-rules/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">You can find all of the rules and regulations on our website.</a> <h3>How can I join?</h3>Sign up through Eventbrite before the registration deadline ends at midnight, Eastern time on May 27, 2026, and before all 300 slots fill up.All entrants will receive an email at 12:01 am US Eastern time (or a few minutes after, allowing for possible mass email lag) on Sunday, May 31, 2026, with your individual prompts and the form to submit your story. You will have until 11:59 pm US Eastern time on Saturday, June 06, 2026, to write a 1,000-word-maximum flash fiction story based on those prompts. <h3>Fundraising</h3>This competition is a charity fundraiser. The prizes are first priority; once the entry fees cover the prize pool total, the remainder of the fees--and 100% of the e-book sales--will go to our selected charity.Our charity is <a href="https://translifeline.org/" title="https://translifeline.org/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Trans Lifeline</a>, a grassroots hotline and microgrants 501(c)(3) non-profit organization offering direct emotional and financial support to trans people in crisis – for the trans community, by the trans community. Thank you to Trans Lifeline for partnering with us!In the event that we cannot fully fund the prize money, we will do everything in our power to raise the money through other means. We will refund any tickets sold should the competition be cancelled for any reason. <h3>Prizes</h3>1st Place: $200 USD2nd Place: $150 USD3rd Place: $75 USD4th-10th Place: $30 USD11-25th Place: $15 USDall winners will receive eBook copies of each of our TL;DR Press collections to date, including the 1KWHC 2026 winning collection. <h3>Publication</h3>The Top 25 Winners will be published in an eBook anthology in addition to their prize money. The anthology will benefit our charity of choice for this project. <h3>Frequently Asked Questions</h3>Find all of our <a href="http://tldrpress.org/1kwhc-rules/" title="http://tldrpress.org/1kwhc-rules/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">official rules and regulations here</a>. If you have any questions, please ask us through tldrpress@gmail.com.Can I use ChatGPT or another AI tool to help me write my story?No. All work must be the sole creation of the writer. The Press will disqualify any entry that they deem has been partially or wholly generated via an AI tool. Any qualifying entries later determined to have utilized AI will be removed from the featured collection and must return their prize within 15 working days of receiving notification from the Press. The Press will permanently ban any entrant that has used AI in generating any part of their submission from this contest and all future contests or anthology calls.Can I sign up more than once?No. We only have 300 slots, and we want to provide feedback to as many people as possible, so participation is limited to one entry/one story per person. Thank you for your enthusiasm!What are the formatting guidelines?Our house style (which we will also include in our email to participants) is simple:<ul><li>Double spacing.</li><li>Indent first line of paragraphs.</li><li>12 pt, in a standard font, such as Times New Roman, Calibri, Arial, Helvetica, etc.</li><li>Submit in .doc or .docx format. Do not submit a PDF.</li></ul>You can find other rules regarding anonymity and title page in the rules and regulations. Only anonymity (not putting your name INSIDE your document, we will scrub document titles before judges receive them as Google Forms tends to add names and that is a known issue), including the prompts, and word count are necessary to be considered.We are welcome to experimental styles. While we may make copyediting/formatting changes to stories that will be published, we will not penalize stories for not staying within a specific style. If you have any questions, please ask us through tldrpress@gmail.com. We want to make this a fun and rewarding experience for all participants, and thus we are not citing a specific, extensive style to follow. <h3>Community</h3>Competitions are better together. Share using the #1KWHC hashtag on <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/tldrpress.bsky.social" title="https://bsky.app/profile/tldrpress.bsky.social" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Bluesky</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/TLDRpress" title="https://twitter.com/TLDRpress" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Twitter/X </a>, or share our competition on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/tldrpress" title="https://www.facebook.com/tldrpress" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Facebook</a>!Need some eyes on your entry, or just some encouragement along the way? TL;DR Press manages a writing community on Slack, <a href="http://tldrpress.org/index.php/join-in/" title="http://tldrpress.org/index.php/join-in/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">apply here to join</a>! <h3>Judges</h3><a href="https://twitter.com/CallRowLand" title="https://twitter.com/CallRowLand" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Callum Rowland</a>Callum is a fiction writer, and co-founder of TL;DR Press. He writes across all genres; though science fiction, fantasy, and horror are closest to his heart. His short stories have featured in various magazines, anthologies, and zines, including Daily Science Fiction, Fictive Dream, Aphelion Webzine, and Bandit Fiction.He is Director of Charity for TL;DR Press, and has also worked as either a curator or editor on a number of TL;DR releases, most recently as a curator on Growth. <a href="https://twitter.com/writelikeashark" title="https://twitter.com/writelikeashark" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Joe Butler</a>Joe lives and works in London, but dreams of living and working elsewhere. He is the author of two sci-fi novels, Of All Possibilities and Strange Days in the House of August. His writing has been featured in Pilcrow &amp; Dagger, Story Bits, Bandit Fiction, New Orbit, Ghost Orchid, Second Chance Lit, and the Found anthology edited by Gabino Iglesias and Andrew Cull. He can be found on twitter at <a href="https://twitter.com/writelikeashark" title="https://twitter.com/writelikeashark" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">@writelikeashark</a> and on his website <a href="https://www.writelikeashark.com" title="https://www.writelikeashark.com" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">writelikeashark.com</a>.He is one of the co-founders of TL;DR Press, and has been involved in all of the collections the press has published as either a curator or an editor as well as the marketing manager and cover artist for eight of the ten currently released collections. He was also a judge for previous 1KWHC competitions, and loves reading stories where the prompts are used in ways you might not expect. <a href="https://twitter.com/jennaharvie" title="https://twitter.com/jennaharvie" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Jenna Harvie</a>Jenna Harvie is a writer, painter, and photographer from Atlantic Canada. She spends her days ​writing and editing technical documents for a cybersecurity company and her evenings working on her own fiction, editing, and reading anything she can get her hands on. Jenna is currently editing her first horror novel, writing a few more, and she always has a short story or two on the go. Jenna has been editing and judging for TL;DR Press since 2019, and she also sits on the Board of Directors. And when that’s not enough, she paints landscapes and abstractions and plays around with photography.​Visit Jenna's website at <a href="https://jennaharvie.com/" title="https://jennaharvie.com/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">https://jennaharvie.com/</a>. <a href="https://twitter.com/atomicjackalope" title="https://twitter.com/atomicjackalope" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Mia V. Moss</a>Mia V. Moss is a speculative fiction author from the Pacific Northwest, now living in the SF Bay area. She is the author of the sci-fi noir novella, Mai Tais for the Lost. Her short stories have been published in Cat Ladies of the Apocalypse, StarShipSofa, Galactic Stew, and elsewhere. Mia is currently working on an epic fantasy series. When she’s not writing, she DMs tabletop campaigns, wildscapes her yard, and admires her ever-growing TBR pile.She can be reached at <a href="http://www.magicrobotcarnival.com/" title="http://www.magicrobotcarnival.com/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">magicrobotcarnival.com </a>or @atomicjackalope on <a href="https://twitter.com/atomicjackalope" title="https://twitter.com/atomicjackalope" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Twitter </a>&amp; <a href="https://www.instagram.com/atomicjackalope/" title="https://www.instagram.com/atomicjackalope/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Instagram</a>. <a href="https://twitter.com/hhulbert" title="https://twitter.com/hhulbert" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Hannah Hulbert</a>Hannah Hulbert is a full-time mum and part-time writer from the south coast of England. She enjoys looking for mushrooms, doing crafts, and drinking tea, especially when she is supposed to be writing.You can find her stories in Metamorphosis, Hexagon, and the anthology Cat Ladies of the Apocalypse, among others. Her story ‘Ruler of Waves, God of Trees’ from Growth (TL;DR Press, 2021), received a Pushcart nomination.You can find her via her website, <a href="https://hannahhulbert.wordpress.com/" title="https://hannahhulbert.wordpress.com/" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">hannahhulbert.wordpress.com</a>. <a href="https://twitter.com/justpenfold" title="https://twitter.com/justpenfold" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Penfold</a>Penfold is a writer, software security engineer, and a connosieur of gourmet punctuation marks. He is a founding member of TL;DR Press and has served as curator and editor on various anthologies, as well as judge in the previous 1KWHC contests. He lives near Indianapolis with his wife, two kids, and a number of cats as ever-changing as the sea. He is writing a collection of stories about the madness-inducing suburbs of the midwest. His stories have appeared in previous TL;DR Press anthologies, and you can find him at <a href="http://justpenfold.com" title="http://justpenfold.com" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">justpenfold.com</a>, or bluesky at <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/penfold.bsky.social" title="https://bsky.app/profile/penfold.bsky.social" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">@penfold.bsky.social</a>.

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The 1000 Word Herd Competition of 2026

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