The Significant Objects Story Contest — in partnership with Slate!

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bbqjar-550

Go ahead -- make it Significant.

You requested an opportunity to write a story for SignificantObjects.com, so here it is: the Significant Objects Story Contest! Submit a 500-word story featuring the object pictured above (a barbecue sauce jar) by next Friday (Oct. 16) at 5 p.m., and you may be the lucky winner!

We’re excited to announce that our partner in this venture is Slate.com. All stories must be submitted to Slate (details below). A panel of judges consisting of Slate editors and SignificantObjects.com‘s Rob Walker and Josh Glenn will select the winning entry, which will be published on both websites — and, of course, on eBay, where it will serve as the item description for the BBQ Sauce Jar. Proceeds from the eBay auction will — as always — go to the story’s author.

Here’s your chance to join the likes of William Gibson, Curtis Sittenfeld, Nicholson Baker, Myla Goldberg, Colson Whitehead, and many other talents who’ve transformed an insignificant (or shall we say: pre-significant) object into a significant one.

Slate explains the contest parameters here:

You’ll write a short story (500 words or fewer) in which this object plays an important role. (Please do not make reference to the fact that the object is being sold on eBay, and do not mention the penny that appears in the photo for scale — the story’s plot should be independent of the project’s context.) The stories must be e-mailed to Slate (slatesignificantobjects@gmail.com) by Oct. 16 at 5 p.m. Please also tell us your full name and the city and state you’re writing from. All submissions may be quoted — and attributed to their author — in a follow-up article on Slate announcing the winning entry.

Click on over to Slate for all the details.

October 16 — that’s a week from today. Get cracking!

About

Rob Walker is the author of Buying In: The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy and Who We Are, and writes the Consumed column for The New York Times Magazine.

8 thoughts on “The Significant Objects Story Contest — in partnership with Slate!

  1. I’m not sure I follow — is there something in the Slate rules that says it’s for U.S. writers? I think you can be anywhere and submit a story, so far as I understand it. Let me know your concern and I’ll try to address. I’ll also take another look at the Slate guidelines but I don’t remember anything about what country the writer needs to be in.

  2. It was just the implication of “the State” you live in. Not to worry, just wanted to clarify.

  3. It states that you need to add “the city and state” which would imply the USA. It might be unintentional but it would be good to get a clarification.

    Jarred

  4. I see. Yeah, I think the point there is just to be able to say where the person is — it doesn’t matter if it’s in the U.S. or not, so that implication was not intended. Come one, come all.

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