Fiction writers, polish up your short stories! The following contests each offer a prize of at least $1,000 and publication.

Sixfold Short Story Award: A prize of $1,000 and publication in Sixfold is given quarterly for a short story. Entry fee: $5. Deadline: July 24.

Munster Literature Centre Seán Ó Faoláin Short Story Competition: A prize of €2,000 (approximately $2,400) and publication in Southword, an online literary journal published in Cork, Ireland, is given annually for a short story. The winner also receives a weeklong residency at the Anam Cara Writer’s Retreat on the Beara Peninsula in West Cork. Entry fee: $18. Deadline: July 31.

Narrative Spring Story Contest: A prize of $2,500 and publication in Narrative is given annually for a short story, a short short story, an essay, or an excerpt from a work of fiction or creative nonfiction. A second-place prize of $1,000 is also awarded. The editors will judge. Entry fee: $26. Deadline: July 31.

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 a writer who has not published a novel (writers who have published story collections are eligible). The winning story will also be sent to agents Laura Biagi of Jean V. Naggar Literary Agency, Victoria Marini of Gelfman Schneider/ICM Partners, and Amy Williams of the Williams Agency. The editors will judge. Entry fee: $20. Deadline: July 31.

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.

The Sewanee Review is currently accepting submissions to its inaugural Fiction & Poetry Contest, given for a short story and a group of poems. The winners will receive $1,000 and publication in the Winter 2019 issue. Dan Chiasson will judge in poetry, and Danielle Evans will judge in fiction.

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Using the online submissions system, submit one to three poems or a story of up to 10,000 words with a $30 entry fee, which includes a one-year subscription to Sewanee Review, by is July 31. Visit the website for complete guidelines.

Poetry judge Dan Chiasson is the poetry critic at the New Yorker and the author of four poetry collections, most recently Bicentennial (Knopf, 2014). Fiction judge Danielle Evans is the author of the story collection Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self (Riverhead Books, 2010).

Established in 1892, the Sewanee Review is one of the oldest literary quarterlies in the country. The review, which publishes poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, has recently published work by poets Erin Adair-Hodges and Heather McHugh and fiction writers Andrea Lee and Justin Taylor.

Read more about the journal’s editorial focus and redesign under editor Adam Ross in the Poets & Writers online exclusive “The Sewanee Review at 125.”

What do you do to put off important tasks? The social media hashtag #procrastibaking pulls up thousands of posts of goods baked while more pressing matters may have been at hand. Some procrastibakers claim that it’s part of the creative process and can help overcome writer’s block, that the sensory experience and rhythms of following a recipe’s steps can be conducive to warming up to a creative task. Write a personal essay about your own go-to procrastination method. How does your procrastination activity help or hinder your work? Does it do more than satisfy a desire to feel good and enjoy the present while postponing something else?

Octopuses have unusual characteristics and intellectual abilities that might just be from out of this world. Earlier this year, a group of international scientists published research in the journal Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology asserting the possibility that octopuses may have their origins in outer space. Write a short story that makes use of a character who seems bafflingly odd or otherworldly. What sort of behaviors can be pointed out as unusual? What theories do the other characters have about the reasons for this strangeness, and what do these judgments and justifications reveal of the characters making them?

Do digital assistants like Siri and Alexa really understand what you’re saying? Last month, a Portland, Oregon couple’s Amazon Alexa device misinterpreted a series of sentences it overheard as instructions to record a private conversation and send it to an unsuspecting person in their contact list. Write a poem that centers on a misheard conversation between two people. Experiment with different homonyms or homophones, or other ways the sounds of different words or phrases can be misheard. How might the misinterpretation of words create unexpectedly fresh ideas or images?

Submissions are now open for the Academy for Teachers: Stories Out of School Flash Fiction Contest. An award of $1,000 and publication on the Tin House website will be given annually for a flash fiction story that features a protagonist or narrator who is a K–12 teacher. A second-place prize of $500 and publication will also be given. Best-selling author Cheryl Strayed will judge.

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Submit a story of six to 749 words via e-mail by September 16. There is no entry fee. The winners will be announced in January 2019. Visit the website for complete submission guidelines.

A joint venture of the Academy for Teachers and Tin House, the Stories Out of School Flash-Fiction Contest was created to “inspire honest, unsentimental stories about teachers and the rich and complex world of schools.” 

(Photo: Cheryl Strayed; Credit: Joni Kabana)

Scientists published a study in Science magazine earlier this month observing that animals have been sleeping more during the day and increasing nocturnal habits in order to avoid interacting with humans who have steadily encroached upon their habitats and territories. Write a personal essay about a time when you felt the need to change a longstanding routine or habit. Was there a pivotal moment that motivated you to make the change or was it more gradual? How has your own flexibility or adaptability changed over the years? 

Thirii Myo Kyaw Myint has won the 2018 Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize for her manuscript, Zat Lun. She will receive $12,000 and publication by Graywolf Press.

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Of Zat Lun, Graywolf Press editor Steve Woodward said, “Myint’s hybrid approach and incorporation of myth and oral traditions overturn expectations around immigrant narratives, and add layers to her parallel investigations of both her family history and that of Myanmar. The whole team at Graywolf is delighted to see this truly original and bold manuscript join the ranks of the Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize winners.”

Myint is the author of the lyric novel, The End of Peril, the End of Enmity, the End of Strive, A Haven (Noemi Press, 2018). She is completing a PhD in creative writing at the University of Denver.

The Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize is given biennially for a manuscript-in-progress by a writer not yet established in the genre. Esmé Weijun Wang won the 2016 award for her essay collection, The Collected Schizophrenias, which will be published in February 2019. Other previous winners include Leslie Jamison, Eula Biss, and Kevin Young. Visit the website for more information.

(Photo: Thirii Myo Kyaw Myint; Credit: Dennis Shyu)

This past spring, the Bairui Plaza shopping mall in Xi’an, China unveiled different colored pathways outside the mall designated specifically for pedestrians with their eyes glued to their cell phones. They have been given a nickname in Chinese roughly translating to “heads-down tribe.” The lanes are intended as a safety measure and relay messages urging walkers to look up and pay attention, including the message: “Please don’t look down for the rest of your life.” Write a short story that involves two characters who are constantly on their cell phones while walking. What happens when they collide on a sidewalk?