contest format

• Genre or Style: Lyrical fiction, historical drama, or modern period-inspired storytelling; romantic, tragic, or disillusioned tone

• Prompt: Write a story set in a glamorous era that hides emotional decay — whether it’s the 1920s or your own invented version

• Word Count: 800–1,000 words

• Unique Rule: Your story must include:

  • A party or social gathering that reveals deeper character truths

  • A lie (spoken or unspoken)

  • A moment of longing or nostalgia

CONTEST details

Fitzgerald captured the glitz and ghosts of the 1920s like no one else. Beneath the glittering surface of flapper dresses and champagne towers was always something aching: disillusionment, loneliness, the slow decay of dreams. This contest invites you to write a story that balances beauty with ruin, glamour with grief.

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Set your story in a time and place of elegance — whether it’s the Roaring Twenties or a modern echo of it — and show us what’s bubbling under the surface. Love that feels performative. Success that tastes hollow. Parties that burn too bright. The best entries will feel lush on the outside and devastating on the inside — just like Gatsby’s world.

Write with style, but let that style unravel.

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• Let your sentences shimmer — and then shatter. Fitzgerald’s writing is luxurious, but it’s never empty. Use ornate language with purpose. Beauty should betray something deeper.

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• Paint your party like a portrait. What does the room sound like? Smell like? Who doesn’t belong there? What’s being hidden under laughter?

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• Don’t trust your narrator too much. Fitzgerald’s narrators often admire what they can’t have or don’t understand. Use selective perception. Let the truth bleed in from the edges.

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• Longing is your best currency. What does your character want but pretend not to? Who do they miss while drinking to forget? Let desire linger unresolved.

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• Use detail to contrast mood. A cracked champagne flute. A flower arrangement past its prime. A kiss that feels like a performance. These moments can show the rot beneath the rose.

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• End with a chill, not a cheer. Fitzgerald rarely ended with happiness. Consider ending with a small unraveling, a bitter taste, or a beautiful truth left unspoken.