A Single Object

The Time Is Now
4.11.23

“I love to take an object made all but invisible by its mundanity—an egg-shaped container of pantyhose, a lawn chair turned on its side—and break it open to expose the full dimensions of the human vulnerability it carries,” writes Danielle Blau in her Craft Capsule essay “Somewhere Somebody Is Doing Something Right Now,” in which she explores how she creates characters for her poems. Write a poem that attempts to expose the full dimensions of an object and how it offers a reflection of a person, whether yourself or another character. What is the significance of this object and how does it exemplify human vulnerability?

Submissions Open for the Pen Parentis Writing Fellowship for New Parents

G&A: The Contest Blog
4.7.23

Calling all parent-writers with young children! Submissions are still open for the Pen Parentis Writing Fellowship for New Parents. Given annually to a fiction writer who is the parent of a child under the age of 10, the winner will receive a $2,000 cash prize; a year of mentorship; publication both in print and online in Dreamers Creative Writing Magazine, a Canadian journal “dedicated to heartfelt writing;” and an invitation to give a virtual reading on November 14. The winner will be paired with three established authors who are also parents for their reading; previous participants have included Jennifer Egan, Mira Jacob, Marie Myung-Ok Lee, and Darin Strauss. Additionally, the winning story will be included in the annual Dreamers Creative Writing anthology.

Using the online submission system, submit a story of up to 531 words with a $20 entry fee by April 17. Visit the website for complete guidelines.

With the goal of “motivating all writers to continue to create new high-quality creative writing at the very busiest time of the parenting journey,” the word count for applications to the fellowship is kept intentionally low to gently nudge parents towards creating new work. The winner will be announced on the Pen Parentis website by September 1, and for one year after their win they will be encouraged to attend Pen Parentis Literary Salon events as well as a weekly accountability group to help introduce them to other authors and to aid them in networking with editors, agents, and readers.  

Find a Writing Contest

The Grants & Awards database includes details about every writing contest 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

What’s Your Name?

The Time Is Now
4.6.23

In a video featured in the Poets & Writers Theater, Hilton Als reads from his essay “Tristes Tropiques,” which appears in his book White Girls (McSweeney’s, 2014), recounting the story of how he was named after his mother’s best friend’s child who died at birth. “The minute I was born I was not just myself, but the memory of someone else,” reads Als. How did you get your name? Write an essay that tells the story behind your name. Examine the metaphorical and historical meanings of your name and allow your feelings to carry you through the essay’s unfolding.

Beethoven’s Hair

The Time Is Now
4.5.23

In a recent New York Times article, reporter Gina Kolata writes about a series of medical discoveries and family secrets surrounding eighteenth-century German composer Ludwig van Beethoven. An international group of researchers published a paper last month after DNA analysis of what were known to be strands of Beethoven’s hair. Their report debunks many long-held myths about the composer including his cause of death, how he lost his hearing, and his living descendants. Inspired by this scientific and historical drama, write a story in which a scientific discovery reveals intimate secrets about a famous person. With the steady rise of genetic research being conducted, consider the intersection between science and personal history.

Not That, But This

The Time Is Now
4.4.23

“What I adore is not horses, with their modern / domestic life span of 25 years. What I adore / is a bug that lives only one day,” writes Natalie Shapero in her poem “Not Horses,” published in the November 2013 issue of Poetry magazine. Shapero redirects the reader from horses to the short lifespan of a bug within the first few lines of the poem and in doing so creates a humorous tension between the title and the body of the poem that adds character to the unique speaker. This week write a poem that moves quickly from one subject to the next. Consider how your mind shifts from one thought to another and carry that tone forward into the poem.

Upcoming Contest Deadlines

G&A: The Contest Blog
3.31.23

Tomorrow may be April Fools’ Day, but these contests with deadlines of April 13, 14, and 15 are no joke! Prizes include five $25,800 fellowships from the Poetry Foundation; $1,500 and publication for a single poem or group of poems, a short story, or an essay; a weeklong residency at an Italian castle for a short fiction writer; and more. All contests offer an award of at least $1,000, and one has no entry fee. Good luck, writers!

Desperate Literature
Short Fiction Prize
A prize of €1,500 (approximately $1,581), a weeklong residency at the Civitella Ranieri Foundation’s castle in the Umbria region of Italy, and publication in Desperate Literature’s prize anthology is given annually for a work of short fiction. Winners will also receive a consultation with literary agent Charlotte Seymour (Johnson & Alcock Literary Agency), an editorial meeting with the Literary Consultancy, and the opportunity to give readings at Desperate Literature in Madrid and Burley Fisher Books in London. Mariana Enríquez, Ottessa Moshfegh, and Tiffany Tsao will judge. Deadline: April 15. Entry fee: €20 (approximately $21) for first entry, €10 (approximately $11) for each additional entry, with a maximum of five entries per person.

Florida Review
Editor’s Prizes
Three prizes of $1,000 each and publication in Florida Review are given annually for a poem or group of poems, a short story, and an essay. The editors will judge. All entries are considered for publication. Deadline: April 15. Entry fee: $25, which includes a subscription to Florida Review.

New Ohio Review
Literary Prizes
Three prizes of $1,500 each and publication in New Ohio Review are given annually for a poem or group of poems, a short story, and an essay. All entries are considered for publication. Deadline: April 15. Entry fee: $22, which includes a subscription to New Ohio Review.

Omnidawn Publishing
Single Poem Contest
A prize of $1,000 is given annually for a single poem. The winner also receives 10 copies of a letterpress broadside of the winning poem. Nathalie Khankan will judge. Deadline: April 13. Entry fee: $25 ($15 for each additional poem).

Poetry Foundation
Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowships
Five fellowships of $25,800 each are given annually to U.S. poets between the ages of 21 and 31. Deadline: April 14. Entry fee: none.

Spoon River Poetry Review
Editors’ Prize
A prize of $1,000 and publication in Spoon River Poetry Review, prefaced by a judge’s introduction, is given annually for a single poem. Multilingual submissions accompanied by translations are eligible. Deadline: April 15. Entry fee: $20, which includes a subscription to Spoon River Poetry Review.

University of Arkansas Press
Etel Adnan Poetry Prize
A prize of $1,000 and publication by University of Arkansas Press is given annually for a first or second poetry collection by a writer of Arab heritage. Series editors Hayan Charara and Fady Joudah will judge. Deadline: April 15. 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.

Giving Thanks

The Time Is Now
3.30.23

In “Dedications and Acknowledgments: The Art of Giving Thanks,” published on the Poets & Writers website in 2019, author Sloane Tanen discusses ways to offer gratitude to the people who help writers make books. Although some acknowledgment pages take the form of demonstrating how well connected a writer is, the pages can also be a space for writers to look back on how writing a book is more than just a solitary act. As an exercise, try making a list of all the writers, teachers, friends, family members, and favorite foods that contribute to your betterment as a writer. Then, write an essay that gives thanks and digs into the details of how these specific people and things have helped you become the writer you are today.

Whiting Award Winners Announced

G&A: The Contest Blog
3.29.23

At a ceremony held this evening at the New-York Historical Society in New York City, the Whiting Foundation announced the ten winners of the 2023 Whiting Awards. The awards, now in their thirty-eighth year, celebrate exceptional emerging literary talent. Each winning writer receives a prize of $50,000 in support of their work.

This year’s winners are poets Tommye Blount and Ama Codjoe; poet and dramatist Emma Wippermann; fiction writers Marcia Douglas, Sidik Fofana, and Carribean Fragoza; nonfiction writers Linda Kinstler and Stephania Taladrid; dramatist Mia Chung; and graphic novelist R. Kikuo Johnson, who is the first graphic novelist to be recognized with the award.

The winners will read together at an event at the Center for Fiction in Brooklyn, New York, on Thursday, March 30 at 6:30PM. The event is free and open to the public and will also be livestreamed.

“Every year we look to the new Whiting Award winners, writing fearlessly at the edge of imagination, to reveal the pathways of our thought and our acts before we know them ourselves,” said the foundation’s director of literary programs Courtney Hodell in a press release. “The prize is meant to create a space of ease in which such transforming work can be made.”

Since its inception in 1985, the Whiting Awards have bestowed a total of $9.5 million on 370 celebrated writers. For many recipients, this financial support enables a “first chance to devote themselves to their own writing, or to take bold new risks in their work.” Previous winners include such luminaries as poets Don Mee Choi, Roger Reeves, and Ocean Vuong; fiction writers Denis Johnson, Ling Ma, Sigrid Nunez, and Colson Whitehead; nonfiction writers Elif Batuman and Jia Tolentino; and playwright Tony Kushner.

There is no application process for the Whiting Awards. Recipients are nominated by a rotating pool of writers, editors, professors, critics, and others working in the literary or dramatic arts. Final selections are made by a panel of “recognized writers, literary scholars, and editors.” The Whiting Foundation’s other initiatives include the Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grants, which support the development of researched nonfiction books and are open for applications through April 25.

A Changed City

The Time Is Now
3.29.23

In response to a series of pension reforms by French president Emmanuel Macron, municipal waste collectors began a strike earlier this month, leaving over 10,000 tons of trash to collect on the streets of Paris. Viral videos have documented the City of Light transformed into a strange landscape of black bags, abandoned toilets, strewn furniture, and cardboard boxes. This week, write a story in which a set of events triggers a city’s landscape to change dramatically. The setting can be based on real events or surrealistic, as with Donald Barthelme’s short story “The Balloon,” published in the New Yorker in 1966.

Lovable Oddities

The Time Is Now
3.28.23

In Ada Limón’s poem “Accident Report in the Tall, Tall Weeds,” which appears in her collection Bright Dead Things (Milkweed Editions, 2015), the speaker moves through the memories of exes and accidents, including how a friend is obsessed with plane crashes: “He memorizes the wrecked metal details, / the clear cool skies cut by black scars of smoke. / Once, while driving, he told me about all the crashes: / The one in blue Kentucky, in yellow Iowa. / How people go on, and how people don’t.” Write a poem about a specific detail or unexpected obsession of a loved one. How does this trait color the memories you have with that person?

Pages

Subscribe to RSS - blogs