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"A great introduction to writing, since it never felt intimidating. A course that gives you a small collection of writing that you can expand after the course is over."

- Rebecca Mitsuse
Teacher

"By the last two classes you actually stand in front with a mic and the lights shining at you just like a club. You can do a routine in a real club with your other classmates (but only if you want to) and in my class everyone did it and enjoyed it."

- Larry DeCato
student

More Student Quotes Here

Congratulations to everyone who participated in the Hint Fiction 25-word Story Contest.

Some 2,230 entries were submitted. These were narrowed down to 25 semifinalists. From these, Robert Swartwood, editor of Hint Fiction: An Anthology of Stories in 25 Words or Fewer, selected the following winners:

First Place:

Cabin Fever
by Sean Johnston (Sachse, TX)

Cindy had agreed to the electric fence, the deadbolts, the new alarm system—true—but she had assumed his intentions were to keep people out.

Runners-up:

Inheritance Money,
by Tami Absi (Dayton, OH)

To fish his apartment key from his pocket, Gunther placed his pink slip, the Detroit Daily’s obituary section, and the flowers on the floor.

Cruciform
by Matt Mintz (Fontana, CA)

The pastor's daughter made me meet her in the church basement. There was no light but she told me where to duck.

Swimming Lessons
by Vicki Wilson (Clinton, NY)

Her husband told the coroner she'd only signed up for the damned class because some crazy fortuneteller told her she'd die from drowning.

The Mirror
by Colleen Leeman (Brooklyn, NY)

She held the old, straggly feather boa up against her business suit. She apologized to the picture of her with pigtails on the dusty table.

How Does Your Garden Grow
by Katheryn Yu (Dripping Springs, TX)

One morning Annie found a hand under a the rosebush where she had never left one before.

For more great stories, check out Hint Fiction.

More Contests
If you enjoy writing contests, we invite you to enter Gotham's 2011 What's the Buzz(word)? competition, the 2010 YA Discovery Novel Contest, or SmokeLong Quarterly's 30-Word Story Contest.