Contest #1: Twist-A-Tale

Note: This Contest Is Now Closed. For Current And Upcoming Contests, Visit The Official Contest Page.

Ever felt that some stories/poems could have different beginnings or middles or endings if they were written in this age? Could Rapunzel have been saved from the golden tower by a girl who had lost her way? What would have happened if Cinderella’s truth had been discovered at the ball? What would have happened if Hamelin was infested by rats today? What if the Emperor’s subjects decided they had had enough of his craziness and called a coup?

Fairy tales or short stories, comedies or tragedies, ballads or poems – here’s your chance to re-write them. Put on your thinking caps; get witty, humorous or sarcastic. Choose your story and give it a twist.

We’ve listed some stories to help you get started. “Can I choose something else?” Sure, you can! Just make sure the work you choose to re-write is not copyrighted.

1. Cinderella
2. Sleeping Beauty
3. The Emperor’s New Clothes
4. Taming of the Shrew
5. Pinocchio
6. Rumpelstiltskin
7. King Lear
8. Short stories from Panchatantra/Aesop’s fables/Mahabharata/Ramayana

Rules:

1. Short stories need to be between 800-850 words. There is no word limit for poems.
2. Any kind of explicit content will be rejected.
3. You can write the story on your own blog and leave the link in comments. Do remember to include the following line in your post on your website. “This story/poem is written as part of the Twist-A-Tale contest on Tell-A-Tale – reading and writing stories for this age”
4. In case you do not have a blog, you can send in your entry through e-mail to contact AT tell-a-tale DOT com. Subject of the e-mail should be “Tell-A-Tale Contest#1: Twist-A-Tale”. We will upload the entry on Tell-A-Tale under your name or as a guest author, depending on your choice.
5. The last date for sending entries is 28th February, 2014 (see updates).
6. Only original content written for the contest will be considered.
7. We would prefer that you stick to well-known stories. However, if you still want to pick a not-so-well-known story/poem, please provide us a link to the original content.

Prizes:

1^st prize – “Tongue of the Slip” by C.P. Belliappa, looking at the funny side of life through a collection of humorous and witty anecdotes by the well-known humor writer C. P. Belliappa.

2^nd prize – Flipkart voucher worth Rs. 100

The 5 best stories/poems will be published on Tell-A-Tale with credit to the author.

Note: Shipping the prizes – The winners need to notify us of their mailing address within 15 days of declaration of winner. If we do not receive the address within 15 days, another winner will be chosen.

UPDATES:

Multiple entries are allowed. But only one entry per person will be selected.

The last date of the contest has been extended to 15th March, 2014.

Our Judge – Sandhya Renukamba

Sandhya Renukamba is a doctor-turned-writer, mother to a tween, a history enthusiast, a lover of Hindustani classical music, a bibliophile who would like more people on this planet to read, and a compulsive buyer of books. She shares the books she and her daughter read at SaffronTree.org, and at her blog. Her thoughts can also be found at Womensweb.in, TheAlternative.in, zealotreaders.blogspot.com, and many other places.

This contest has now closed. Keep watching this space for the names of the winners.

AND THE WINNERS ARE!!!!

1st prize – Re-telling of the poem “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner“.

Judge’s comment: “Wonderful adaptation, wonderfully re-told. Loved the twist – the Mariner is not just the compulsive teller of the tale, but is something more sinister.”

2nd prize – Re-telling of the Panchatantra tale “The Bug and the Mosquito“.

Judge’s comment: “The fable is excellently adapted to give the reader a new moral. The narration also holds on to the interest of the reader.”

3rd – “The Little Mermaid”

4th – “Cinderella for our era”

5th – “Geppetto’s latest blog entry”