Genre: Poetry

Two Weeks Left to Enter One of Six Contests Offering Cash Prizes and Publication

G&A: The Contest Blog
3.13.24

Seeking the recognition you deserve—as well as a little extra cash—for an unpublished poem, story, or essay? Hoping to circumvent the tedious process of finding a publisher for a book-length manuscript? Consider submitting to one of the following six contests that offer generous cash prizes on top of publication by a highly reputed journal, press, or competition website, all with a deadline of April 1. Remember to carefully read the guidelines before you enter—and good luck!

Gemini Magazine
Short Story Contest 
A prize of $1,000 and publication in Gemini Magazine is given annually for a short story. The editors will judge. Entry fee: $8. 

Nimrod International
Journal Nimrod Literary Awards 
Two prizes of $2,000 each and publication in Nimrod International Journal are given annually for a poem or a group of poems and a work of fiction. A runner-up in each category receives $1,000 and publication. The winners and runners-up will also participate in a virtual awards ceremony and conference in the fall. All entries are considered for publication. Entry fee: $20 (which includes a subscription to Nimrod International Journal). 

North American Review
Terry Tempest Williams Creative Nonfiction Prize 
A prize of $1,000 and publication in North American Review is given annually for an essay. Lyric essays, memoir-style essays, and literary journalism are eligible. All entries are considered for publication. Entry fee: $23 (which includes an issue of North American Review). 

Orison Books
Prizes in Poetry and Fiction 
Two prizes of $1,500 each and publication by Orison Books are given annually for a poetry collection and a book of fiction. Ellen Bass will judge in poetry and Kaveh Akbar will judge in fiction. Entry fee: $25. 

Saturnalia Books
Poetry Prize 
A prize of $1,500, publication by Saturnalia Books, and 20 author copies is given annually for a poetry collection. Carmen Giménez will judge. All entries are also considered for the Alma Book Awards, which offer two prizes of $1,000 each and publication. Entry fee: $30 entry. 

Winning Writers
Wergle Flomp Humor Poetry Contest 
A prize of $2,000, a gift certificate for a two-year membership to the literary database Duotrope, and publication on the Winning Writers website is given annually for a humorous poem. A second-place prize of $500 is also awarded. Jendi Reiter will judge. Unpublished and previously published works are eligible. Entry fee: None. 

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

The Thing With Feathers

The Time Is Now
3.12.24

For one year, fans of Flaco the Eurasian eagle-owl enjoyed watching him fly freely around New York City and become, for many city dwellers, a feathered symbol of liberation. Released from his cage at the Central Park Zoo by a vandal, zoo officials were initially concerned for his survival, but Flaco quickly learned to hunt prey and move about the city. His fans grew, and for them, Flaco began to represent resilience and the ability to embark on a new chapter of life, a gesture at the potential of rewilding. Sadly, Flaco died in February after apparently striking a building on the Upper West Side. This week, write a poem that incorporates a subject that signifies qualities of freedom and hope for you personally. Consider strengths and weaknesses, and address both in your poem.

Diana Khoi Nguyen and Cindy Juyoung Ok

Caption: 

In this Green Apple Books event, Diana Khoi Nguyen, author of Root Fractures (Scribner, 2024), and Cindy Juyoung Ok, author of Ward Toward (Yale University Press, 2024), read from their poetry collections and join Aracelis Girmay for a conversation. Ok is featured in an installation of our Ten Questions series and Nguyen’s Root Fractures is featured in Page One in the January/February issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.

Genre: 
Poetry
Tags: 
Diana Khoi Nguyen
Root Fractures
Scribner
Cindy Juyoung Ok
Ward Toward
Yale University Press
Aracelis Girmay
Green Apple Books
Ten Questions
Page One
January/February 2024

What We Carry by Amanda Gorman

Caption: 

In this video from The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, Amanda Gorman reads her poem “What We Carry,” which appears in her debut collection, Call Us What We Carry (Viking, 2021), set to world-renowned cellist Jan Vogler’s performance of “Suite for Violoncello No. 1 in G Major, BWV 1007: I. Prélude” by Johann Sebastian Bach.

Genre: 
Poetry
Spoken Word
Tags: 
Amanda Gorman
What We Carry
The Late Show With Stephen Colbert
Jan Vogler
music
performance
reading
2024

Arts & Letters Prizes in Poetry, Fiction, and Nonfiction Are Just Around the Corner

G&A: The Contest Blog
3.6.24

This year’s Arts & Letters Prizes mark a quarter century for the contest in which three decorated judges select a group of poems, a short story, and an essay. The deadline for the twenty-fifth annual contest is March 31. The prize awards $1,000 and publication in Arts & Letters, a journal that has attracted both emerging and established writers such as Donald Hall, Sonja Livingston, and Xu Xi. 

Using only the online submission system, submit up to four poems of any length or up to 25 pages of prose with a $20 entry fee. All entries are considered for publication. Chelsea Rathburn will judge in poetry, Tiphanie Yanique will judge in fiction, and Beth Ann Fennelly will judge in nonfiction. Visit the website for more information.

Founded by Martin Lammon in 1999 and operating out of Georgia College & State University’s MFA program in creative writing ever since, Arts & Letters has for nearly a decade been headed by its second editor, Laura Newbern, who’s also an associate professor in English at GCSU and a recipient of the 2010 Writer’s Award from the Rona Jaffe Foundation. And for those wondering if this contest is the right fit, the editorial board welcomes both formal and experimental work—even writing that otherwise “defies classification”—so long as, in the board’s words, the submission “doesn’t try too hard to grab our attention, but rather guides it toward the human voice and its perpetual struggle into language.” If you’re still not sure, you might find inspiration in the judges’ latest book in their respective category; that is, Rathburn’s Still Life With Mother and Knife (LSU Press, 2019), Yanique’s How to Escape From a Leper Colony (Graywolf Press, 2010), and Fennelly’s Heating & Cooling: 52 Micro-Memoirs (Norton, 2017).

Find a Writing Contest

The Grants & Awards database includes details about every writing contest that we’ve published in Poets & Writers Magazine during the past year. We carefully review the practices and policies of each contest before including it, making the Grants & Awards database the most trusted resource for legitimate writing contests available anywhere.

Search the database

Absence

The Time Is Now
3.5.24

“Because curfews of / Because strip search at the checkpoint into / Because grandmother’s undergarments splayed on / Because two men with guns on the way to / Because grandmother saves plastic Coke liters to / Because the water could without notice be,” writes Jessica Abughattas in her poem “Litany for My Father” published by Split This Rock. The poem consists of twenty-two lines, which, all but the last line, begin with the word “because” and end abruptly, as if in mid-thought. The lines build into a powerful expression of loss and a sublimated sense of intense sorrow, how powerless one can feel in grief. Write a poem that makes use of omission or erasure in this way, taking into consideration how the format might influence your subject or theme. How does this repeated absence of words achieve emotive force?

Pages

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