Cash prizes will be awarded in three separate categories: Grades 3-6 (1000 words), Grades 7-12 (1000 words), and Adult (2500 words). Winners in each age category will receive a $100 prize, a free PSB Writing Center W.O.W. Workshop, and will be announced at the PSB Writing Center’s Spring Writers Conference held on Saturday, April 14.

The contest requires the stories to be original and not previously published. Those interested in the contest can follow the submission directions found at www.pearlsbuck.org/events — short story rules and submission form. All short story submissions should be mailed with signed submission form to:

PSB Writing Center,

2012 Short Story Contest. Pearl S. Buck International

520 Dublin Rd., Perkasie, PA 18944.

For additional Short Story Registration information, send an e-mail to

write2b@comcast.net or call (267) 421-6203.

Sponsored by the Pearl S. Buck Volunteer Association, the Short Story Contest judges are local authors and PSB Volunteers.

Finding the parent:
Mauvik is a six year old child being raised by his father. Whenever he asks his father about his mother, he is simply told that she is no more now. However, things change when Mauvik grows up to be a teenager and once gets determined to know who his mother was and what actually happened to her. Now, taking this clue, fabricate your story on how Mauvik coaxes his father to tell him about his mother, whether mother is alive or not, why is Mauvik’s father hiding facts about his mother, what would be Mauvik’s next move and so on.

Paintings of a blind painter:
There was once a painter who was blind by birth. He had never seen this world. Yet he could make paintings of a world which is very different from ours, sketches of creatures which do not inhibit the earth, colorful sketches of a world that exists only in the mind of the painter. Using this idea, you could fabricate a story of how this painter meets a patron, how he meets success and fame, whether he is able to get the gift of sight or not and so on.

The journey of life:
Start with a journey up a mountain or to a remote village either in bus or a train or nay other mode of transport. There would be different passengers with different experiences, different problems and with different points of view for life. You could be one of them and judge each of them with your own point of view. The story would end with the end of the journey where each of them goes in a separate direction to continue their own journey of life.

The vanishing village:
Lucid lived in a remote village and was once out with her sheep. That day was particularly dark and gloomy. When Lucid returned back that day, she found that her village had vanished- no houses, no structures and no one around. Now design your story with answers to these questions- What happened to the village? What happened to Lucid? Where did everyone go? Or, was it Lucid who had reached some other world? What does Lucid do next?