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In this 2013 video, Lyn Hejinian reads from her book The Book of a Thousand Eyes (Omnidawn, 2012) for the Lunch Poem reading series at the University of California in Berkeley, where she was Professor and John F. Hotchkis Chair Emerita. Hejinian died at the age of eighty-two on February 24, 2024.
What more fitting time than the arrival of spring to imagine growing an audience for your writing? Fortunately there are a number of writing contests with a March 15 deadline to consider. Prizes include $15,000 for a debut novel published during the current year (six finalists receive $1,000 each); $10,000 for a novel-in-progress by a debut author (a first and second runner-up receive $3,000 and $2,000, respectively); and five prizes of $10,000, plus publication by one of five participating trade, university, or small press publishers, for poetry collections by U.S. poets. Nine other awards offer publication and prizes ranging from $500 to $3,000 for work in various genres. Best of luck!
Bellingham Review
Literary Awards
Three prizes of $1,000 each and publication in Bellingham Review are given annually for works of poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. The 49th Parallel Award for Poetry is given for a poem or group of poems. The Tobias Wolff Award for Fiction is given for a short story or a work of flash fiction. The Annie Dillard Award for Creative Nonfiction is given for an essay or a work of flash nonfiction. All entries are considered for publication. English translations of works originally written in another language are accepted. Entry fee: $15.
Broadside Lotus Press
Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Award
A prize of $500 and publication by Broadside Lotus Press is given annually for a poetry collection by an African American poet. Entry fee: None.
The Center for Fiction
First Novel Prize
A prize of $15,000 is given annually for a debut novel by an American citizen published in the United States during the current year. Six finalists receive $1,000 each. Self-published works, books published exclusively in e-book editions, and novels previously published in other countries are not eligible. Small independent publishers may apply for a fee reduction. Entry fee: $100.
Fourth Genre
Steinberg Memorial Essay Prize
A prize of $1,000 and publication in Fourth Genre is given annually for an essay. Sarah Viren will judge. All entries are considered for publication. Entry fee: $20.
Indiana Review
Poetry and Creative Nonfiction Prizes
Two prizes of $1,000 each and publication in Indiana Review are given annually for a single poem and an essay. Entry fee: $20 (includes a subscription to Indiana Review).
James Jones Literary Society
First Novel Fellowship
A prize of $10,000 is given annually for a novel-in-progress by a U.S. writer who has not published a novel. The first runner-up receives $3,000 and the second runner-up receives $2,000. Entry fee: $33.
National Poetry Series
Open Competition
Five prizes of $10,000 each and publication by participating trade, university, or small press publishers are given annually for poetry collections by U.S. poets. Entry fee: $35.
Prairie Schooner
Raz-Shumaker Book Prizes
Two prizes of $3,000 each and publication by University of Nebraska Press are given annually for a poetry collection and a story collection. Kwame Dawes will judge. Entry fee: $25.
Robinson Jeffers Tor House Foundation
Poetry Prize
A prize of $1,000 is given annually for a single poem. Sun Yung Shin will judge. Entry fee: $10.
Trio House Press
Louise Bogan Award
A prize of $1,000, publication by Trio House Press, and 20 author copies is given annually for a poetry collection by a poet living in the United States. Oliver de la Paz will judge. Entry fee: $25.
Trio House Press
Trio Award for First or Second Book
A prize of $1,000, publication by Trio House Press, and 20 author copies is given annually for a first or second poetry collection by a poet living in the United States. Jessica Q. Stark will judge. Entry fee: $25.
Verse
Tomaž Šalamun Prize
A prize of $1,000 and publication by Factory Hollow Press is given annually for a poetry chapbook. The winner also receives a monthlong residency in a private apartment at the Tomaž Šalamun Centre for Poetry in Ljubljana, Slovenia, in summer 2025. Prose poetry, hybrid works, and translations of works of poetry by living writers from any language into English (with the relevant permission) are also eligible. Shane McCrae will judge. Entry fee: $17 ($13 for students).
The Word Works
Washington Prize
A prize of $1,500 and publication by the Word Works is given annually to a U.S. or Canadian poet for a poetry collection. Entry fee: $25.
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.
In this episode of Poured Over: The Barnes & Noble Podcast hosted by Miwa Messer, Phillip B. Williams talks about the makings of his debut novel, Ours (Viking, 2024), and how his characters led him to shape the story. For more from Williams, read his installment of our Ten Questions online series.
In this 2022 virtual reading hosted by the Frostburg Center for Literary Arts in Maryland, Elizabeth Arnold reads a selection of poems from her books, including her most recent, Skeleton Coast (Flood Editions, 2017), and discusses dream poems and her writing career. Arnold died at the age of sixty-six on February 24, 2024.
“I wanted to think freely, let my mind wander, follow ideas (and phrases) wherever they might go,” said the late poet Lyn Hejinian in a 2020 interview for the Wheeler Column at the University of California in Berkeley, where she was a professor and John F. Hotchkis Chair Emerita. “For a while—but not for very long—I used poetry to express my adolescent angst and longings, but very soon I recognized the banality and the limits of that. It wasn’t self-expression I was seeking but loss of self.” Inspired by Hejinian, who died at the age of eighty-two on February 24, write a poem that avoids a preconceived intention of style or thematic experience, and instead allow these elements to emerge as you let your mind wander. How might language, in the abstract as the material of your thinking, lead to a new mode of expression or representation?
The author and translator discusses his process of translating Sappho, the lessons that ancient poetry holds for contemporary life, and the gifts of a life steeped in practicing poetry and translation.
Brent Ameneyro introduces this 2021 installment of transatlantic conversations between U.S. and U.K. Latinx poets featuring Francisco Aragón and Leo Boix for Curated Conversation(s): A Latinx Poetry Show, a collaboration between the Writer’s Center, Un Nuevo Sol, Poet Lore, and Letras Latinas. For more from Aragón, the director of Letras Latinas, read this Q&A from the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
Poets, fiction writers, and nonfiction writers with work that illustrates “the wild woman spirit”—the creative agency and power women display in shaping the world—may want to consider submitting to TulipTree Publishing’s Wild Women Story Contest by March 8. The annual prize awards $1,000 and publication in TulipTree Review for a single poem, a short story, or an essay “whose main characters embody” this “feminine spirit.”
Submit up to five pages of poetry or up to 10,000 words of prose with a $20 entry fee. All entries are considered for publication. Visit the website for complete guidelines.
With an application period closing on International Women’s Day, the Wild Women Story Contest recognizes work that honors the convictions of feminist historian Stephanie Camp, who believed that “[w]omen’s history does not merely add to what we know; it changes what we know and how we know it.” A selection of poems, stories, and essays submitted to the prize are gathered in TulipTree Review’s annual Spring/Summer Wild Women Issue, and both the grand prize winner and one honorable mention are nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Last year’s nominees were fiction writer Amy Soscia for “Life on the Ledge” and essayist Hannah Hindley for “Heat Map.”
“I write to ask questions and to inquire, not declare.” In this Virtual Craft Chat hosted by the Writer’s Center, poet Sarah Ghazal Ali reads from her debut collection, Theophanies (Alice James Books, 2024), and discusses her use of the ghazal form, the architecture of her book, and the inspirations she drew from the Qur’an in a conversation with Poet Lore editor Emily Holland.
Drawing on a wealth of botanical vocabulary, Canadian poet Sylvia Legris explores themes of nature in her new book, The Principle of Rapid Peering, forthcoming in April from New Directions. In the book, the title of which is derived from early-twentieth-century ornithologist Joseph Grinnell’s study on the behavior of birds around food, Legris categorizes birds as either “those who wait passively for food to approach them” or rapid-peering active-seekers “whose target[s] of desire [are] stationary.” She writes: “The rapid-peerer’s eyes turn / as the head changes position. // The eyes focus the beak, / the instrument of capture. // ... The head follows the feet, / quick moves, to, fro. // Feet with an intelligence of texture, / bark, branch, gravel, soil.” Browse through nature guides or encyclopedias in search of unique animal attributes, specifically looking for evocative terminology with potentially expansive interpretations. Then write a poem that both touches on the term’s original meaning and imagines a new interpretation connecting to a personal experience or memory.
