For a fiction writer in the tricky position of attempting to place a piece of writing too long for a literary magazine and too short for a traditional book publisher, there are precious few options. Send it to One Story, Melville House Publishing, and maybe a handful of others, and hope online journal BlazeVOX in 2000, and four years later, the small press BlazeVOX Booksfor the best. But now there's a new home for the long story or novella: Madras Press. Founded last fall by Sumanth Prabhaker in Brookline, Massachusetts, the nonprofit press publishes individually bound stories and novellas in series of four 5 x 5–inch paperback originals. The inaugural series, published in December, includes Aimee Bender's The Third Elevator, Trinie Dalton's Sweet Tomb, Rebecca Lee's Bobcat, and Prabhaker's A Mere Pittance. In an effort to keep costs down (and the price of each book at six to eight dollars), Prabhaker didn't pursue commercial distribution; instead, he reached out to dozens of the largest independent booksellers about carrying the books, which are also available online. And proceeds from each title are given to a charity of the author's choice. The first list will benefit InsideOUT Writers, the Theodore Payne Foundation, River Keepers, and Helping Hands.
Find details about every creative writing competition—including poetry contests, short story competitions, essay contests, awards for novels, grants for translators, and more—that we’ve published in the Grants & Awards section of Poets & Writers Magazine during the past year. We carefully review the practices and policies of each contest before including it in the Writing Contests database, the most trusted resource for legitimate writing contests available anywhere.