Best First Sentence Contest

To enter the 2025 Best First sentence contest, please click on the form below to submit your entry. The contest opens on August 1, 2024, and closes at 23:59:59 Eastern Time on May 1, 2025.

Entry form (will open in a new tab)

Winners will receive a 10-page critique with one of the Best First Sentence judges, who are made up of Master Class teachers from 2025’s Master Class. Winners will be announced on Wednesday, June 18, 2025 at the CraftFest Luncheon and on social media. All winners will be notified shortly thereafter via email.

Rules:

– Entry must be from your own published or unpublished work.

– You may only submit one entry.

– To qualify for entry, you must be an ITW member and/or registered for ThrillerFest XX (2025).

– Entries received after May 1, 2025 will not be considered.

Thanks for your entry and good luck!

Scroll down to read the winners of the 2024 Best First Sentence contest.

The winners of the 2024 Best First Sentence Contest are below. Congratulations to all of them!

2024 BEST FIRST SENTENCE WINNERS

Allison Brennan:

It wasn’t every day that Charlotte Pearthree got to bury a husband, and she’d shown up early for a front row seat.

—Paula Keller

Robert Dugoni:

Mom always said don't talk about murder at the dinner table.

—Susana Kuehne

Alex Finlay:

Grief was a monster and it had taken up residence inside Jack the night he lost his family.

—K.A. Lugo

Steven James

The body was where he left it, only now the head was missing.

—Mark Onspaugh

Tosca Lee:

Phil Massey and Bertie Mann looked pretty good for a couple of dead guys.

—Joyce Woollcott

Donald Maass

It was the wrong kind of quiet.

—Rick Treon

Clare Mackintosh:

The glass front door to the club was tinted none-of-your-damn-business black.

—Christopher Bauer

Isabella Maldonado:

Halfway through the murder-suicide, Purcell abandoned his plan.

—Bob O'Brien

Hank Phillippi Ryan:

Someone is watering my plants.

—Donalee Moulton

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