Deadline: August 25 (11:59 pm Pacific Time).
XPRIZE and ANA want you to submit your story for a chance to win a seat on Flight #008 and a $10,000 prize package, including a trip to Japan. Basically, write a 2,000-4,000 word first-person account of the passenger in Seat 14C, on ANA Flight #008.
Your protagonist discovers that he or she mysteriously has been transported 20 years into the future (2037). Your story should touch on how the world has changed, due to technology and innovation. Also, how does your character interact with this changed world?
To submit, upload your story as .doc, .docx, .pages, or PDF file at seat14C.com/future_ideas/new. Also, save the file as SEAT14C_TITLE. You must be 18 or older by August 25 to qualify. Only submit previously unpublished stories. Include your name, email, country of residence, and age at the time of submission.
The team allows only one entry per person and does not accept team submissions. However, you may submit under a pen name. XPRIZE and ANA will confirm your legal name if selected as a winner for prize purposes.
Note, do not include your name in the attachment as stories are judged anonymously. Also type, double space, and have your stories written in English. However, the team accepts works translated into English.
The team will upload the winning story to Seat 14C on the seat map. Also, the winner will receive a roundtrip economy airfare to Tokyo for two people, four nights’ accommodation in a 4-Star Hotel, and a check for $1,500. In addition, the winner will get a GoPro Hero5 Black 4K video camera, an ili handheld universal translator, and membership to the Science Fiction Advisory Council.
The team will announce the winner in September 2017. XPRIZE and ANA reserve the right to publicize the winner, including using the winner’s name and/or likeness, and all or part of the winning submission any way they wish. Finally, direct all inquiries to TheFuture@XPRIZE.org.
Seat 14C Story prompt
At 4:58 am on June 28, 2017, passengers on board ANA’s Flight 008 en route from Tokyo to San Francisco are cruising at an altitude of 37,000 feet, approximately 1,500 nautical miles off the West Coast of the United States. The passenger in 26A leans against the window with earbuds in, her mouth open, and shifts in her sleep. At the same time, the passenger in 8E gets halfway through the first episode of “Westworld” and is slightly confused. While the passenger in 19A coughs, almost a non-cough as if simply pretending to cough.
ANA Flight 008 then passes through a temporary wrinkle in the local region of space-time, experienced inside the cabin as a barely perceptible bout of turbulence. Beverage service continues, uninterrupted. The in-flight movie glitches and then resumes.
As the Boeing 777 descends through the clouds for its approach into SFO, only a few of the passengers (mostly in window seats) suspect they have arrived at the wrong destination. Which is incorrect, sort of. They have arrived at San Francisco International Airport on June 28, 2037. The wrinkle has transported them 20 years into the future.