Shrouds and Shadows: Story Submission

The Mobile Library seeks submissions of short ghost stories to be read at a ghost story reading event. Please use this page to review submission guidelines and to include your story.  Happy writing! 

Calling all writers! The Mobile Library seeks submissions of short ghost stories to be read at the Shadow and Shrouds: An Evening of Ghost Stories reading event that will take place on October 19. Please use this page to review the story submission guidelines and to include your story.  Happy writing! 

Story Submission Details

What to Submit: 

• While we love a good scary tale starring any creepy creature, we are specifically looking for ghost stories in any style or format, whether that be a short story, a poem, or even a short play!  
• We’re looking for ghost stories that are not ghost-written.  In other words, please only submit your own work.
• For the purposes of length, stories should not exceed a 1000 word count. We will try to fit as many stories as we can into the reading event, so keeping stories short will help. 

When to Submit: 

Submissions will be accepted between September 1 and October 12, 2023 (one week before the event). 

How to Submit:

• Best way: Please fill out the Google Form linked here.  In the form, you will be asked to provide your name, contact information, age group, and your story. We will use the information to inform you if we’ve selected your story to read, and to ask any questions if we have them.
• Acceptable way: You may also email stories to mobilelibrary@ccplonline. Please include the entirety of your story in the body of your email. In other words, please do not include an attachment, as these get filtered to spam more easily. Please include your full name, contact information, and age range.
• Also acceptable: drop off your story before October 12th at one of our Mobile Library stops, and we’ll take down your information in person. A list of our stops can be found under the CCPL Events Page. 

What we will do with your story: 

First, we’ll read it ourselves! We will then decide which stories to read during our event, as time is limited and we will try to include as many stories as we can.  
We may highlight parts of stories in social media and other promotional materials to generate interest in the event.

Don’t Forget to Register to Attend the October 19 Reading Event! 

Please contact mobilelibrary@ccplonline.org or call us at 301-456-4333 with any questions!

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