Everyone is being triggered these days. Trump’s tweets, bathroom laws, hoop earrings on white girls — it seems like people are looking for any excuse to grab their pearls, gasp in horror, and go running for the Safe Space.
But meanwhile, people have lost sight of what is really shocking in life. From Poe to Lovecraft, from Hitchcock to King, many have mastered the art of finding the fears that lie just below our subconscious and using them to drive powerful narrative and visceral audience reactions. But the art is dying out.
Can you recapture that sense of shock and wonder at the events that are both disturbing and unexpected?
Prompt: write a short story in any genre featuring ideas or content that will inspire a visceral reaction. The winner goes to the story that is not just shock for shock’s sake, but that utilizes the disturbing content in service of a meaningful idea or engaging narrative.
Length: 1500-6000 words.
Prizes: One Grand Prize winner will be awarded $125 to be used — we encourage — toward the purchase of something as shocking and surprising as the winning story. Runner-up will receive a gift basket of Liberty Island’s latest novels.
Deadline: May 15, 2017

Winners to be revealed and published: May-June 2017
Send your contest entries to LI Managing editor David Swindle: [email protected] Please include "Spring Writing Contest Entry:" and the title of your story in the subject.
Everyone is also invited to submit non-contest short stories, poetry, essays, novels, comics, art, and non-fiction work to: [email protected]