G&A: The Contest Blog

Poets—as 2017 comes to a close, why not end the year with a bang and submit to a poetry contest? Below is a list of contests for single poems, chapbooks, and full-length collections with deadlines during the second half of December. Each contest offers a prize of at least $1,000 and publication. Happy Submitting!

Deadline: December 20

String Poet Poetry Competition: A prize of $1,000 and publication in String Poet is given annually for a poem. The winner also receives an original music composition by a professional composer inspired by the winning poem, which will be performed at the Awards Ceremony in Spring 2018. Micheal O’Siadhail will judge. Entry fee: $18

Deadline: December 22

Poetry Society of America Chapbook Fellowships: Four prizes of $1,000 each and publication by the Poetry Society of America are given annually for poetry chapbooks by poets who have not published a full-length collection. Two fellowships are given to poets ages 30 and under, and two fellowships are given to poets of any age. Entry fee: $12

Poetry Society of America Robert H. Winner Memorial Award: A prize of $2,500 and publication of a poem on the Poetry Society of America website is given annually to a poet over 40 who has published no more than one book. Entry fee: $15

Deadline: December 30

New Issues Poetry & Prose Poetry Prize: A prize of $1,000 and publication by New Issues Poetry & Prose is given annually for a first poetry collection. The winner will also receive an honorarium of $500 and travel expenses to give a reading at Western Michigan University in Spring 2018. Poets who have not published a poetry collection of more than 48 pages are eligible. Cathy Park Hong will judge. Entry fee: $25

Deadline: December 31

The Moth Poetry Prize: A prize of €10,000 (approximately $12,000) and publication in the Moth is given annually for a poem. Three runner-up prizes of €1,000 (approximately $1,200) each are also given. The winners will also be invited to read at an awards ceremony in Dublin in Spring 2018. Daljit Nagra will judge. Entry fee: $13

Tampa Review Prize for Poetry: A prize of $2,000 and publication by University of Tampa Press is given annually for a poetry collection. Entry fee: $25

Tupelo Press Dorset Prize: A prize of $3,000 and publication by Tupelo Press is given annually for a poetry collection. The winner also receives a weeklong residency at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. Entry fee: $30

Visit the contest websites for complete guidelines, and check out our Grants & Awards database and Submission Calendar for more upcoming contests in poetry, fiction, and nonfiction.

If you’re ready to submit right now, check out these contests with deadlines TODAY (12/15/17).

The deadline is approaching for the inaugural Hub City Press C. Michael Curtis Short Story Book Prize. An award of $10,000 and publication by Hub City Press will be given annually for a debut story collection by an author living in the Southern United States. Acclaimed short fiction writer Lee K. Abbott will judge. The winning collection will be published in Spring 2019.

Writers currently residing in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, or West Virginia who have not published a full-length book are eligible. Using the online submission system, submit a manuscript of 140 to 220 pages, including at least six stories, with a $25 entry fee by January 1, 2018. Stories should not exceed 15,000 words each. Visit the website for complete guidelines.

Of the new prize, Hub City Press founder and publisher Betsy Teter says, “We are thrilled to announce one of the most substantial short story prizes in North America and to honor C. Michael Curtis, who has been a great friend to Hub City Press over the years.” Established in 1995 in Spartanburg, South Carolina, Hub City Press is “committed to well-crafted and high-quality works by new and established authors from the American South.” C. Michael Curtis has been an editor of the Atlantic since 1963 and currently resides in Spartanburg.

Submissions are open for the Four Quartets Prize, sponsored by the T. S. Eliot Foundation and Poetry Society of America. Launched in November, the prize is given for a sequence of poems published in the United States in the past two years. The winner will receive $20,000.

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Established in honor of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the U.S. publication of T. S. Eliot’s Four Quartets, the prize will be judged by Linda Gregerson, Ishion Hutchinson, and Jana Prikryl. The prize is “first and foremost a celebration of the multi-part poem,” such as Eliot’s Four Quartets, Gwendolyn Brooks’s A Street in Bronzeville, and John Berryman’s 77 Dream Songs.

Submissions are open until December 22. Authors, publishers, and agents may submit four copies of at least fourteen pages of a poetic sequence published in a print or online journal, chapbook, or book in 2016 or 2017. Sequences published across multiple publications are eligible. There is no entry fee. Visit the website for the required entry form and complete guidelines.

The shortlist for the prize will be announced in New York City on April 12 at an event featuring actor Jeremy Irons at the 92nd Street Y. Three shortlisted finalists will each receive $1,000. The winner will be announced the following day.

The Poetry Society of America, based in New York City, is dedicated to promoting the place of poetry in American culture. The T. S. Eliot Foundation, based in London, is dedicated to celebrating poetry, literacy, and “all things Eliot.” The foundation also administers the annual £25,000 T. S. Eliot Prize, given for the best new poetry collection published in the United Kingdom or Ireland.

Happy December! Poets, a new month means new opportunities to submit to the following contests with deadlines in the first half of December. Each contest offers a prize of at least $1,000 and publication.

Deadline: Saturday, December 3

Australian Book Review Peter Porter Poetry Prize: A prize of $5,000 Australian (approximately $3,810) is given annually for a poem. A second-place prize of $2,000 Australian (approximately $1,520) will also be given. The winners will be published in Australian Book Review. John Hawke, Bill Manhire, and Jen Webb will judge. Entry fee: $25 Australian (approximately $19)

Deadline: December 15

Willow Books Literature Award: A prize of $1,000 and publication by Willow Books is given annually for a poetry collection by a writer of color. Entry fee: $25

December Jeff Marks Memorial Poetry Prize: A prize of $1,500 and publication in December is given annually for a group of poems. Luis J. Rodriguez will judge. Entry fee: $20

Public Poetry Poetry Contest: A prize of $1,000, publication on the Public Poetry website, and an invitation to give a reading in Houston, Texas, is given annually for a poem on a theme. This year’s theme is “Power.” Cyrus Cassells, Tony Hoagland, Raina J. León, and Sasha West will judge. Entry fee: $15

Hidden River Arts Trilogy Award: A prize of $1,000 and publication in Hidden River Review will be given annually for a group of poems. Entry fee: $17

Visit the contest websites for complete guidelines, and check out our Grants & Awards database and Submission Calendar for more upcoming contests in poetry, fiction, and nonfiction.

Submissions are currently open for the J. F. Powers Prize for Short Fiction, an award of $500 and publication in Dappled Things given annually for a short story that deals with faith and the afterlife. The Dappled Things editors will judge.

The editors are looking for “carefully crafted short stories with vivid characters who encounter grace in everyday settings—we want to see who, in the age we live in, might have one foot in this world and one in the next.” Using the online submission system, submit an unpublished story of up to 8,000 words by November 30. There is no entry fee. The winner will be announced in March 2018.

Dappled Things is a literary journal dedicated to providing a platform for emerging writers to “engage the literary world from a Catholic perspective.” Its editors seek writing that “takes advantage of the religious, theological, philosophical, artistic, cultural, and literary heritage of the Catholic Church in order to inform and enrich contemporary literary culture.” Visit the website for complete guidelines and to read previous winners’ stories.

Prose writers, are you sitting on a short story, essay, or piece of flash fiction? With Thanksgiving nearly upon us, take some time before you fill up on turkey to fill out applications to the following contests with upcoming deadlines—each offering prizes from $1,000 to $20,000 and publication. Now that’s something to be thankful for!

Deadline: Tuesday, November 21

Literary Death Match 250-Word Bookmark Contest: A prize of $1,000 and publication will be given annually for a short short story of up to 250 words. The winning story will be published on Literary Death Match bookmarks and distributed to events around the world. The winner and finalists will also be invited to read at Literary Death Match events. Roxane Gay will judge. Entry fee: $15

Deadline: Thursday, November 23

Brooklyn Film & Arts Festival Brooklyn Nonfiction Prize: A prize of $500 and publication on the Brooklyn Film & Arts Festival website is given annually for a work of nonfiction that is set in Brooklyn, New York, and renders the borough's “rich soul and intangible qualities through the writer's actual experiences of Brooklyn.” There is no entry fee.

César Egido Serrano Foundation International Flash Fiction Competition: A prize of $20,000 and an all-expenses-paid trip to attend an award ceremony in Madrid will be given annually for a work of flash fiction written in English, Spanish, Hebrew, or Arabic. Three runner-up prizes of $1,000 each and an all-expenses-paid trip to attend the award ceremony will be given to stories in each of the remaining languages. The winning works will be published in a prize anthology. There is no entry fee.

Deadline: Thursday, November 30

Fish Publishing Fish Short Story Prize: A prize of €3,000 (approximately $3,400) and publication in the annual Fish Publishing anthology is given annually for a short story. The winner will also receive a five-day short story workshop at the West Cork Literary Festival in July 2018. Entry fee: $26

Lascaux Review Prize in Short Fiction: A prize of $1,000 and publication in Lascaux Review is given annually for a short story. The winner and finalists will also be published in the 2018 Lascaux Prize Anthology. Entry fee: $10

Quarter After Eight Robert J. DeMott Short Prose Contest: A prize of $1,008.15 and publication in Quarter After Eight is given annually for a prose poem, a short short story, or a micro-essay. Stuart Dybek will judge. Entry fee: $15

Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival Fiction Contest: A prize of $1,500 and publication in Louisiana Literature is given annually for a short story by a writer who has not published a full-length book of fiction. The winner also receives domestic airfare of up to $500, private lodging, and a VIP pass to the Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival in March 2018 to give a reading. Jennifer Haigh will judge. Entry fee: $25

Visit the contest websites for complete guidelines, and check out our Grants & Awards database and Submission Calendar for more upcoming contests in poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. Happy Thanksgiving, and happy writing!

Submissions are currently open for the inaugural Frontier Poetry Award, a new prize of $5,000 and publication in Frontier Poetry given annually for a single poem. Ten finalists will each receive $100 and publication. The editors will judge.

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Using the online submission system, submit up to four poems of any length with a $20 entry fee by Thursday, November 30. Multiple submissions are allowed. The winners will be announced in February 2018.

Established as an arm of the Masters Review, Frontier Poetry is now its own online publication that aims to provide a quality platform for emerging poets. Tyehimba Jess, winner of the 2017 Pulitzer Prize in poetry, recently judged Frontier's inaugural Award for New Poets. Visit the website for more information, including recent publications and what the editors look for in submissions.

Visit our Grants & Awards database and Submission Calendar for more upcoming contests in poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction.

The winners of the 2017 National Book Awards were announced this evening in New York City. Jesmyn Ward took home the award in fiction for her novel Sing, Unburied, Sing (Scribner), and Frank Bidart won the award in poetry for Half-light: Collected Poems 1965–2016 (Farrar, Straus and Giroux). Masha Gessen won in nonfiction for The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia (Riverhead Books), and Robin Benway won in young people’s literature for her novel Far From the Tree (HarperCollins). Each of the winners will receive $10,000.

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Actress Cynthia Nixon emceed the ceremony and opened the evening by emphasizing the importance of books. “Books are among the most powerful weapons we have against what has lately felt like a hostile world,” she said. “For some of us books provide a welcome escape or a valuable resource for arming us with indispensable knowledge of history. But it also offers something we so desperately need: broadened perspective…. They cultivate empathy, they inspire action, they make us feel less alone, and they expose us to an experience we couldn’t imagine on our own.”

The winners of the 2017 awards echoed this sentiment. “Writing the poems was how I survived,” said Bidart upon winning the poetry prize. “I hope that the journeys these poems go on will help others survive as well.” In her acceptance speech, Ward addressed the crowd and said, “You looked at me and the people I love and the people I write about…. and you saw your grief, your love, your losses, your regret, your joy, your hope. I am deeply grateful, and I hope to continue this conversation with all of you for all of our days.”

Earlier in the evening, Bill Clinton presented the Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community to Richard Robinson, the chairman, president, and CEO of Scholastic. “All over this country there are people who are forming new neural networks at the speed of light, stimulated by books that wouldn’t be here if not for [Robinson’s] day job at Scholastic and his commitment to this kind of philanthropic work,” said Clinton.

The foundation also honored Annie Proulx with the 2017 Medal for Distinguished Contribution  to American Letters. Actress Anne Hathaway, who starred in the 2005 film adaptation of Proulx’s story “Brokeback Mountain,” presented the award to the writer, who is the author of several story collections and novels, most recently Barkskins (Scribner, 2016). The annual $10,000 award is given for lifetime achievement, which Proulx wryly noted in her acceptance speech. “Although this is award is given for lifetime achievement,” she said, “I didn’t start writing until I was fifty-eight.”

Established in 1950, the National Book Awards are among the literary world’s most prestigious prizes. The 2016 winners included poet Daniel Borzutzky, fiction writer Colson Whitehead, and nonfiction writer Ibram X. Kendi.

Submissions are currently open for the PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers. Twelve prizes of $2,000 each and publication in PEN America Best Debut Short Stories 2018 (Catapult) are given annually for debut short stories published in the current year.

Using the online submissions manager, editors may submit up to four debut stories published in 2017 of up to 12,000 words each by Friday, November 10. There is no entry fee. Authors may not submit their own stories. Eligible publications include print magazines distributed in the United States, online magazines, and cultural websites.

The PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers aims to help launch the careers of emerging fiction writers. Visit the website for complete guidelines, or e-mail awards@pen.org.

Visit our Grants & Awards database and Submission Calendar for more upcoming contests in poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction.

Submissions are currently open for the 2018 Perugia Press Prize, an award of $1,000 and publication by Perugia Press given annually for a first or second poetry collection by a woman.

Women poets, including transgender women and female-identified individuals, who have published no more than one full-length poetry collection in English are eligible. Hybrid forms, including collaborations and manuscripts incorporating visuals, will also be considered. Using the online submission manager, submit a manuscript of 45 to 85 pages along with a $27 entry fee by November 15. Submissions are also accepted via postal mail, at Perugia Press Prize, P.O. Box 60364, Florence, MA 01062.

Established in 1997, Perugia Press seeks to support and promote women’s voices in print. Visit the website to learn more about the press, and for complete contest guidelines.

Visit our Grants & Awards database and Submission Calendar for more upcoming contests in poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction.