Long story short: the Toronto Star and Toronto Public Library are looking for people with a tale to tell.

The annual Toronto Star 2016 Short Story Contest launched Saturday, considered the largest such competition in Canada and one of North America’s most lucrative.

The writer of the best original story under 2,500 words will receive $5,000 plus tuition for the 30-week creative-writing correspondence program at the Humber School for Writers, valued at $5,000. First and second runners-up will receive $2,000 and $1,000.

In 2013, computer animator Fred Ni won for his relationship tale “A Profile of an Online Dating Site,” and the following year the contest was won by “Living Fossils” by Brendan Bowles, a University of Toronto sessional lecturer in the engineering communication program.

Last year, hairstylist-by-day Carmelinda Scian won for “A Dragonfly Dashed by My Face,” a semi-autobiographical tale of a young girl growing up in the sometimes-harsh environment of 1960s Portugal.

“We know there are thousands of stories waiting to be told, and we wish all this year’s entrants the best of luck,” said judge Vickery Bowles, city librarian at the Toronto Public Library, which co-presents the contest with the Star and the Humber School for Writers.

Created in 1978 and now in its 38th year, the contest draws approximately 2,000 entries annually from across Ontario.

Submissions are due by Feb. 29.

The short list will be determined by a Humber School for Writers panel, with the winner selected by a group of judges including award-winning author Pasha Malla, Toronto Star books editor Deborah Dundas, the Star’s former theatre critic Richard Ouzounian and Bowles.

To enter, visit thestar.com/shortstory . Winners will be announced in April. Their stories will be published in the Star.