Genre: Creative Nonfiction

As the end of the month approaches, consider submitting fiction, poetry, or nonfiction to one of the following contests. Each has a deadline of January 30 or January 31, and all but one offer a prize of $1,000 or more.

Austin Community College Balcones Prizes: Two prizes of $1,500 each are given annually for a poetry collection and a book of fiction published during the previous year. Deadline: January 31. Entry fee: $25 for poetry, $30 for fiction. 

Autumn House Press Rising Writer Contest: A prize of $1,000 and publication by Autumn House Press is given annually for a debut poetry collection by a writer age 33 or younger. Yona Harvey will judge. Deadline: January 31. Entry fee: $25.

Bauhan Publishing Monadnock Essay Collection Prize: A prize of $1,000, publication by Bauhan Publishing, and 50 author copies is given annually for an essay collection. Áine Greaney will judge. Deadline: January 31. Entry fee: $25.

Black Lawrence Press Big Moose Prize: A prize of $1,000, publication by Black Lawrence Press, and 10 author copies is given annually for a novel. The editors will judge. Deadline: January 31. Entry fee: $25.

Caine Prize for African Writing: A prize of £10,000 (approximately $12,600) is given annually for a previously published short story by an African writer. Shortlisted candidates will receive £500 (approximately $550). The winner and shortlisted writers will be invited to participate in workshops in Africa and London. Deadline: January 31. Entry fee: none.  

Chattahoochee Review Lamar York Prizes: Two prizes of $1,000 each and publication in Chattahoochee Review are given annually for a short story and an essay. Anthony Varallo will judge in fiction and Alice Bolin will judge in nonfiction. All entries are considered for publication. Deadline: January 31. Entry fee: $18.

Crazyhorse Literary Prizes: Three prizes of $2,000 each and publication in Crazyhorse are given annually for a poem, a short story, and an essay. Cyrus Cassells will judge in poetry, Jamel Brinkley will judge in fiction, and Sue William Silverman will judge in nonfiction. All entries are considered for publication. Deadline: January 31. Entry fee: $20 (subscription included). 

Fish Publishing Short Memoir Prize: A prize of €1,000 (approximately $1,100) and publication in the Fish Publishing anthology is given annually for a short memoir. David Shields will judge. Deadline: January 31. Entry fee: €17 (approximately $19) for online entries or €19 (approximately $21) for postal entries.

Iowa Review Iowa Review Awards: Three prizes of $1,500 each and publication in Iowa Review are given annually for works of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. Stephanie Burt will judge in poetry, Lan Samantha Chang will judge in fiction, and Leslie Jamison will judge in nonfiction. All entries are considered for publication. Deadline: January 31. Entry fee: $20.

Little Tokyo Historical Society Short Story Contest: A prize of $500 and publication in Rafu Shimpo and on the Discover Nikkei website is given annually for a short story that takes place in the Little Tokyo district of Los Angeles. Deadline: January 31. Entry fee: none. 

Masters Review Short Story Award for New Writers: A prize of $3,000 and publication in Masters Review is given twice yearly for a short story by an emerging writer. The winning story will also be reviewed by a select group of literary agents. Kimberly King Parsons will judge. Deadline: January 31. Entry fee: $20.

Money for Women/Barbara Deming Memorial Fund Individual Artist Grants for Women: Grants of up to $1,500 each are given in alternating years to feminist poets, fiction writers, and nonfiction writers who are citizens of the United States or Canada. The current round of grants will be awarded to fiction writers and mixed genre writers working in text and image. Deadline: January 31. Entry fee: $25.

New Millennium Writings New Millennium Awards: Four prizes of $1,000 each and publication in New Millennium Writings are given twice yearly for a poem, a short story, a work of flash fiction, and a work of creative nonfiction. Alexis Williams Carr and Don Williams will judge. Deadline: January 31. Entry fee: $20. 

North Carolina Writers’ Network (NCWN) Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize: A prize of $1,000 is given annually for a short story. The winning story will also be considered for publication in Thomas Wolfe Review. Randall Kenan will judge. Deadline: January 30. Entry fee: $25 ($15 for NCWN members).

Regal House Publishing Terry J. Cox Poetry Award: A prize of $1,000 and publication by Regal House Publishing will be given annually for a poetry collection. Peter Schmitt and the editors will judge. Deadline: January 31. Entry fee: $25.

Schaffner Press Nicholas Schaffner Award for Music in Literature: A prize of $1,000 and publication by Schaffner Press is given annually for a poetry collection, a novel, a short story collection, an essay collection, or a memoir that “deals in some way with the subject of music and its influence.” Deadline: January 31. Entry fee: $25.

Stanford Libraries William Saroyan International Prize for Writing: Two prizes of $5,000 each are given biennially for books of fiction and nonfiction. The awards, cosponsored by the Stanford Libraries and the William Saroyan Foundation, are “intended to encourage new or emerging writers and honor the Saroyan legacy of originality, vitality, and stylistic innovation.” Deadline: January 31. Entry fee: $50.

Winter Anthology Writing Contest: A prize of $1,000 and publication in Winter Anthology is given annually for a group of poems, a story, or an essay. All entries are considered for publication. Sarah Gridley will judge. Deadline: January 31. Entry fee: $10. 

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

Submissions are open for the inaugural Stockholm Writers Prize, which offers an emerging writer the “time, space, and inspiration to focus on social justice-themed creative writing.” Writers working in all genres and styles may apply, so long as their writing is “tied to a social justice issue.” The winner will receive a weeklong residency from May 21 to May 27 in Stockholm, Sweden, which includes accommodation, tuition to the Stockholm Writers Festival, a one-on-one meeting with an agent, and individual feedback from the contest judge. A $1,000 stipend is granted to help cover travel costs.

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Using only the online submission system, submit a sample of creative writing in any genre of up to 1,5000 words and a personal statement of up to 1,000 words with a $25 entry fee by February 15. Writers who are currently unagented and who have not published a full-length work of creative writing are eligible. Visit the website for complete guidelines. 

The Stockholm Writers Prize is sponsored by the Stockholm Writers Festival, which was established as a nonprofit in 2017. The organization hosts an annual festival dedicated to “developing the skills and business knowhow essential to navigate the world of publishing, while fostering an ever-expanding community of international writers.”

Submissions are open for the 2020 Macaron Prize. Sponsored by the literary magazine Cagibi, the annual contest awards four prizes of $1,000 and publication in the magazine’s annual print issue. Nick Flynn, Andre Dubus III, Jill Bialosky, and Emily Flake will judge in the categories of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and cartoon respectively. 

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Using only the online submission system, submit up to three poems, a short story or an essay of up to 4,000 words, or a single-panel cartoon or a comic of up to 12 pages with a $20 entry fee by January 20. Visit the website for complete guidelines.

Cagibi was founded in 2017 by editors Sylvia Bertrand and Christopher X. Shade. Titled after a French word connoting a storeroom or cubby hole, the journal aims to offer a “shelter, no matter how tiny, that allows for big imaginings to take shape.” Cagibi publishes quarterly issues online, as well as a print annual that anthologizes those issues. It particularly seeks international literature, translation, and poetry and prose “in which character conflict, ultimately story, is tied to place.”

The first deadlines of the year for fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and translation contests have arrived. With a deadline of either January 14 or January 15, these awards include two residencies in rural Texas and financial support to pursue a creative project in a desert environment; all feature a prize of $1,000 or more.    

Asheville Poetry Review William Matthews Poetry Prize: A prize of $1,000 and publication in Asheville Poetry Review is given annually for a single poem. The winner is also invited to read at Malaprop’s Bookstore in Asheville, North Carolina. Ilya Kaminsky will judge. All entries are considered for publication. Deadline: January 15. Entry fee: $20. 

Australian Book Review Calibre Essay Prize: A prize of $5,000 AUD (approximately $3,392) is given annually for an essay. A second-place prize of $2,500 AUD (approximately $1,696) will also be given. The winners will be published in Australian Book Review. J. M. Coetzee, Lisa Gorton, and Peter Rose will judge. Deadline: January 15. Entry fee: $25 AUD (approximately $17).

BkMk Press Ciardi/Chandra Prizes: Two prizes of $1,000 each and publication by BkMk Press are given annually for a poetry collection and a short story collection. Deadline: January 15. Entry fee: $25 ($30 for electronic submissions).

Colorado Review Colorado Prize for Poetry: A prize of $2,000 and publication by the Center for Literary Publishing is given annually for a poetry collection. Kiki Petrosino will judge. Deadline: January 14. Entry fee: $25 ($28 for online submissions).

Ellen Meloy Fund Desert Writers Award: A prize of $5,000 is given annually to enable a creative nonfiction writer “whose work reflects the spirit and passions for the desert embodied in Ellen Meloy’s writing” to spend creative time in a desert environment. Deadline: January 15. Entry fee: $15.

French-American Foundation Translation Prizes: Two prizes of $10,000 each are given annually for translations from French into English of a book of fiction and a book of nonfiction (including creative nonfiction) published during the previous year. A jury of translators and literary professionals will judge. Deadline: January 14. Entry fee: none. 

Literal Latté Fiction Award: A prize of $1,000 and publication in Literal Latté is given annually for a short story. All entries are considered for publication. Deadline: January 15. Entry fee: $10. 

National Endowment for the Arts Translation Fellowships: Grants of $12,500 and $25,000 each are given annually to translators of poetry and prose from any language into English. Deadline: January 15. Entry fee: none. 

New American Press Poetry Prize: A prize of $1,200 and publication by New American Press is given annually for a book of poetry. Corey Van Landingham will judge. Deadline: January 15. Entry fee: $20.

Nowhere Magazine Travel Writing Contest: A prize of $1,000 and publication in Nowhere Magazine is given twice yearly for a poem, a short story, or an essay that “possesses a powerful sense of place.” Porter Fox will judge. All entries are considered for publication. Deadline: January 14. Entry fee: $25.

Public Poetry Contest: A prize of $1,000, publication in an anthology, and an invitation to give a reading in Houston is given annually for a single poem on a theme. This year’s theme is “Wicked Wit.” Deadline: January 15. Entry fee: $15 to submit up two poems ($25 to submit three).

University of Notre Dame Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize: A prize of $1,000 and publication by University of Notre Dame Press is given biennially for a debut poetry collection by a Latinx poet residing in the United States. John Murillo will judge. Deadline: January 15. Entry fee: none. 

University of Texas in Austin Dobie Paisano Fellowships: Two residencies, cosponsored by the Texas Institute of Letters, at a rural retreat west of Austin are given annually to writers who are native Texans, who have lived in Texas for at least three years, or who have published significant work with a Texas subject. The six-month Jesse H. Jones Writing Fellowship is given to a writer in any stage of his or her career and includes a grant of $18,000. The four-month Ralph A. Johnston Memorial Fellowship is given to a writer who has demonstrated “publishing and critical success” and includes a grant of $24,000. Deadline: January 15. Entry fee: $20 ($30 to enter both competitions).

WOMR/WFMR Community Radio Joe Gouveia Outermost Poetry Contest: A prize of $1,000 is given annually for a single poem. Marge Piercy will judge. Deadline: January 14. Entry fee: $15.

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