Submissions Open for Louise Meriwether First Book Prize

G&A: The Contest Blog
4.22.22

The Louise Meriwether First Book Prize, founded jointly by Feminist Press and TAYO Literary Magazine, is accepting fiction and narrative nonfiction submissions for their annual award for a first book by a woman of color or a nonbinary writer of color. The award celebrates work “in the tradition of Meriwether’s Daddy Was a Number Runner, one of the first contemporary American novels featuring a young Black girl as the protagonist.” The winner will receive $5,000 and publication with Feminist Press in spring 2024. The editors expect to offer close editorial guidance to the prize winner.

To submit, e-mail a prose manuscript of 30,000 to 80,000 words and a cover letter by May 8. Lupita Aquino, Bridgett M. Davis, Nancy Jooyoun Kim, Cassandra Lane, and Feminist Press executive director and publisher Margot Atwell will judge. There is no entry fee. Visit the website for complete guidelines. 

Established in 2016 to honor the legacy of Louise Meriwether—an author, essayist, journalist, and antiwar activist, and the first African American woman to work as a story editor in Hollywood—the prize is meant to further “telling much-needed stories that shift culture and act as a springboard for new writers joining the industry.” Finalists will be notified in October and the winner will be announced in March 2023. Previous winners are Cassandra Lane (We Are Bridges), Melissa Valentine (The Names of All the Flowers), Claudia D. Hernández (Knitting the Fog), and YZ Chin (Though I Get Home). Established in 2016 to honor the legacy of Louise Meriwether—an author, essayist, journalist, and antiwar activist, and the first African American woman to work as a story editor in Hollywood—the prize is meant to further “telling much-needed stories that shift culture and act as a springboard for new writers joining the industry.” Finalists will be notified in October and the winner will be announced in March 2023. Previous winners are Cassandra Lane (We Are Bridges), Melissa Valentine (The Names of All the Flowers), Claudia D. Hernández (Knitting the Fog), and YZ Chin (Though I Get Home). 

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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.

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Translating Yourself

The Time Is Now
4.21.22

Jhumpa Lahiri’s latest collection of essays, Translating Myself and Others, forthcoming in May by Princeton University Press, catalogues the Pulitzer Prize–winning author’s identity as a writer and translator of books in English and Italian. In the first essay, “Why Italian?” Lahiri explores her reason for beginning to write books in Italian. “Some people ask me, Why Italian instead of an Indian language, a closer language, more like you?” she writes. Inspired by the works of Italian authors such as Lalla Romano and Elena Ferrante, Lahiri continues to answer the question with three metaphors: the dual nature of a door, limited eyesight and blindness, and the multiple meanings of the word graft. Think back to a time when you first learned a skill or a new language, then choose a metaphor that captures the stages of that journey. Write an essay using the metaphor to flesh out the feelings and themes that arise from your exploration.

May Flowers

The Time Is Now
4.20.22

Crocuses, daffodils, irises, tulips, bloodroot: Spring is the time when blooming flowers arrive to symbolize, if only briefly, the rebirth of the natural world and the chance for new beginnings. The English bluebell, for example, blooms in April and May, flashing wild indigo before dying when the temperature rises. Crocuses are known for their sudden blooming, with no prior signal, sometimes peeking up through snow before lasting only about three weeks. Taking inspiration from the relatively brief life of flowers, write a story in which a protagonist finds a new direction for living, sparked by the presence of spring blooms. How will your protagonist grow out of the long winter? What can we learn about your character using the yearly persistence of blossoming flowers as a guiding metaphor?

How-To

The Time Is Now
4.19.22

“After killing your god, hotbox the gun smoke,” writes Kemi Alabi in “How to Fornicate,” the opening poem of their debut collection, Against Heaven, winner of the 2021 Academy of American Poets First Book Award, published by Graywolf Press in April. Alabi’s poem enumerates a set of instructions that lyrically lay out the relationship the speaker has with sex and sexuality, using imperatives to speak directly to the reader. These intimate instructions transform throughout the poem, ranging from clear actions to more unexpected uses of nouns that have been repurposed as verbs: “Choir everything. Tenor the roses. / Alto the mulch. Mezzo the flies.” Write a poem in which each sentence begins with an imperative. Try, as Alabi does in the poem, to use a range of words and lexicons to challenge traditional instructional language.

Upcoming Contest Deadlines

G&A: The Contest Blog
4.15.22

With the end of the month right around the corner, get a head start on submitting to contests with a deadline of April 30. These awards include opportunities for poets writing first or second books, or living in Inland Southern California, and for fiction writers interested in magical realism. All contests offer a cash prize of $1,000 or more with one including the extra perk of a weeklong stay in an Italian castle!

Beloit Poetry Journal Adrienne Rich Award for Poetry: A prize of $1,500 and publication in Beloit Poetry Journal is given annually for a single poem. Jane Hirshfield will judge. All entries are considered for publication. Entry fee: $15.

Desperate Literature Short Fiction Prize: A prize of €1,500 (approximately $1,694) and a weeklong residency at the Civitella Ranieri Foundation’s castle in the Umbria region of Italy will be given annually for a work of short fiction. Natasha Brown, Anton Hur, Ottessa Moshfegh, and Joanna Walsh will judge. Entry fee: €20 (approximately $23).

Ghost Story Supernatural Fiction Award: A prize of $1,500 and publication on the Ghost Story website is given twice yearly for a short story with a supernatural or magical realism theme. The winning work will also be published in volume 3 of the anthology 21st Century Ghost Stories. The editors will judge. Entry fee: $20.

Inlandia Institute Hillary Gravendyk Prizes: Two prizes of $1,000 each, publication by the Inlandia Institute, and 20 author copies are given annually for a poetry collection by a U.S. resident and a poetry collection by a poet residing in Inland Southern California, including Riverside and San Bernardino counties and any non-coastal area of Southern California, from Death Valley to Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. Stacey Callies, Megan Gravendyk-Estrella, and Charles Legere will judge. All entries are considered for publication. Entry fee: $20. 

Oversound Chapbook Prize: A prize of $1,000, publication by Oversound, and 25 author copies is given annually for a poetry chapbook. Sawako Nakayasu will judge. Entry fee: $18 (which includes a subscription to Oversound).

Poetry International Prize: A prize of $1,000 and publication in Poetry International is given annually for a single poem. Kevin Prufer will judge. All entries are considered for publication. Entry fee: $15.  

Trio House Press 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. Steve Healey will judge. Entry fee: $25.

Tupelo Press Berkshire Prize: A prize of $3,000, publication by Tupelo Press, and 20 author copies is given annually for a first or second poetry collection. All entries are considered for publication. Entry fee: $30.

University of Pittsburgh Press Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize: A prize of $5,000 and publication by University of Pittsburgh Press is given annually for a debut poetry collection. Entry fee: $25.  

Winning Writers Tom Howard/John H. Reid Fiction and Essay Contest: Two prizes of $3,000 each, two-year gift certificates for membership to the literary database Duotrope, and publication on the Winning Writers website are given annually for a short story and an essay. Mina Manchester will judge. Unpublished and previously published works are eligible. Entry fee: $20. 

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. 
 

On a Sentence

The Time Is Now
4.14.22

“I’m interested in [Leilani’s] sentences for their expressive, controlled looseness and flexibility; for the way that syntax blurs into scene; for the sense, always, that their shapes are responsive to the psychology of her narrator,” writes Garth Greenwell in “On a Sentence by Raven Leilani,” an essay diving into the particulars of the novelist’s sentences, which was published in the Spring 2022 issue of the Sewanee Review. “As I pour my attention into them, they seem to deepen and expand, inexhaustible.” Whose sentences do you admire most? Inspired by Greenwell’s thorough and passionate analysis, write an essay about your favorite writer’s sentences. Try to break down the root of your fascination by quoting specific sections from your favorite works.

Drafting

The Time Is Now
4.13.22

“What is revealed by the early manuscripts of classic novels?” asks Hephzibah Anderson in an article published on BBC Culture, in which first drafts of famous novelists like Virginia Woolf, Marcel Proust, and F. Scott Fitzgerald are examined. Woolf’s manuscripts reveal a writer radically rethinking the end of her iconic novel, Mrs. Dalloway, while Proust’s drafts show liberally crossed-out and annotated sections as well as a key rethinking of a central image: the madeleine, which originally began as a slice of toast and a cup of tea. This week try a different strategy for a first draft and write a story out of order. Jot down three crucial scenes from a story you’ve been wanting to begin. Then, at random, pick one and write a draft of that scene. How does this help relieve the pressure of drafting a whole new story from beginning to end?

Shifting Subjectivities

The Time Is Now
4.12.22

In a profile of Tracy K. Smith by Renée H. Shea, published in the March/April 2015 issue of Poets & Writers Magazine, the Pulitzer Prize–winning poet discusses the “shifting subjectivities” she discovered while writing her memoir, Ordinary Light (Knopf, 2015), in which she includes stories from her childhood. “Tracy the citizen was allowed to engage with these private stories, just as Tracy the mother was allowed in at times,” says Smith. Consider two identities that you hold, then write a poem from one of these perspectives. What is left out, and what is let in?

Deadline Nears for New Ohio Review Literary Prizes 

G&A: The Contest Blog
4.8.22

Submissions are currently open through for the New Ohio Review Literary Prizes. Given annually by New Ohio Review, the three awards honor a poem or group of poems, a short story, and an essay. Kim Addonizio will judge in poetry, Madeline ffitch will judge in fiction, and Melissa Febos will judge in nonfiction. The winning writers will each receive $1,500 and publication in the journal. 

Submit a poem or group of poems of up to six pages or a story or essay of up to 20 pages with a $22 entry fee, which includes a subscription to New Ohio Review, by April 15. All entries are considered for publication. Visit the website for complete guidelines.

New Ohio Review is published twice yearly by the creative writing program of Ohio University and is based in Athens, Ohio. Previous contest winners include poet Emily Lee Luan, fiction writer Nicole VanderLinden, and nonfiction writer Tania De Rozario. 

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

The Sound of Music

The Time Is Now
4.7.22

“My problem isn’t writer’s block—it’s writer’s doubt,” writes Diana Marie Delgado in an installment of Writers Recommend in which she explains how a hypnotic and emotionally swelling piece of music helps inspire her writing. “If I feel overwhelmed, I listen to William Basinski’s ‘dlp 1.1’ from The Disintegration Loops,” she writes. This week, write about a piece of music that helps you enter the headspace for writing. What’s the story behind the music, and what about it, specifically, helps you write?

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