franz kafka legacy contest

contest format

• Genre or Style: Surrealist fiction, existential horror, or satirical bureaucracy story

• Prompt: Write a story set within a surreal institution (school, office, courtroom, ministry) where one rule or process defies logic

• Word Count: 800–1,000 words

• Unique Rule: Include at least one invented rule, form, or law that shapes the character’s experience

CONTEST details

Kafka made paperwork terrifying. He showed us systems so tangled and inhuman they warped the people inside them. This contest invites you to create a surreal world — maybe even your own — shaped by absurd rules, senseless processes, or unreadable forms.

Bureaucracy is the horror. You are the witness - we want stories where logic collapses: where language turns strange, where your character is trapped in something they cannot understand — and yet must follow.

Let it be funny. Let it be awful. Let it be familiar.

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• Start with a normal premise. A student receives a letter. A worker files a form. Then twist it. Make the system slowly devour sense.

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• Make the rules visible. Show the reader the regulation, the line item, the code. Let it become a character.

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• Use plain language to describe absurdity. The more calmly the nonsense is narrated, the more disturbing it feels.

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• Let characters comply — until they break. Kafka’s characters try to follow the rules. That’s what makes their collapse tragic.

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• Introduce one impossible element. A form that changes answers. A job you’re not allowed to leave. A name that can’t be spelled.

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• End unresolved. Kafka rarely tied things up. Let your story finish with a stamp, a question, or a door that never opens.