edgar allen poe legacy contest

contest format

• Genre or Style: Gothic horror or psychological suspense with poetic language and vivid setting

• Prompt: Write a gothic story that explores fear, grief, madness, or guilt

• Word Count: 800–1,000 words

• Unique Rule: Your story must include a setting that reflects the character’s inner world

CONTEST details

Poe gave us madness, mystery, and melancholy — sometimes all in one breath. This contest asks you to write a story dripping with dread: not jump-scares, but slow, creeping horror. Think dark mansions, foggy landscapes, unreliable minds. The best entries will feel claustrophobic and poetic, haunted and human.

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We’re looking for gothic atmosphere, psychological depth, and emotional decay. Whether your horror is supernatural or internal, your story should feel like a dream gone wrong.

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• Use your setting like a mirror. Let the crumbling house reflect the character’s mind. Let the wind echo their fear. Every detail should carry symbolic weight.

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• Let guilt be the ghost. Even if your story has no supernatural elements, something should haunt the protagonist — a memory, a secret, a regret.

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• Use language as mood. Poe’s writing was rich and rhythmic. Consider using alliteration, long sentences, or repetition to create a hypnotic feel.

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• Choose one emotion to amplify. Obsession. Despair. Paranoia. Let that emotion color every choice, every image, every breath.

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• Reveal slowly. Dread grows best in silence. Let the horror unfurl like fog — until the reader can’t tell what’s real.

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• End with uncertainty. Leave us questioning what happened — or what it meant. A final line that turns the story inside out is Poe at his finest.