Archive November 2018

Planning to get some writing done over the break? There are a number of contests for fiction and nonfiction writers with upcoming deadlines.

Narrative Fall 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 longer work of prose. A second-place prize of $1,000 and publication in Narrative is also awarded. The editors will judge. Entry fee: $26. Deadline: November 30.

Fish Short Story Prize: A prize of €3,000 (approximately $3,400) and publication in the annual Fish Publishing anthology is given annually for a short story. The winner will also be invited to attend a five-day short story workshop at the West Cork Literary Festival in July 2019. Mia Gallagher will judge. Entry fee: $24. Deadline: November 30.

Dappled Things J. F. Powers Prize for Short Fiction: A prize of $500 and publication in Dappled Things will be given annually for a short story. The editors will judge. Entry fee: None. Deadline: November 30.

Quarter After Eight Robert J. DeMott Short Prose Contest: A prize of $1,008.15 and publication in Quarter After Eight is given annually for a prose poem, a short short story, or a micro-essay. Entry fee: $15. Deadline: November 30.

American Library Association W. Y. Boyd Literary Award: A prize of $5,000 is given annually for a novel published in the previous year that is set in a period when the United States was at war. Entry fee: none. Deadline: December 1.

David J. Langum Sr. Prize in American Historical Fiction: A prize of $1,000 is given annually for a book of historical fiction published during the previous year. Entry fee: none. Deadline: December 1.

Stanford University Wallace Stegner Fellowships: Ten two-year fellowships, five in poetry and five in fiction, are given annually to allow emerging writers to develop their craft in workshops with senior faculty members at Stanford University. Entry fee: $85. Deadline: December 1.

Visit the contest websites for complete submission details, including eligibility guidelines and poem length requirements. For a look at more writing contests with upcoming deadlines, visit our Grants & Awards database and submission calendar.

As we move closer to the end of the year, deadlines approach for several poetry competitions. All contests listed below are accepting submissions throughout the coming week.

Nightboat Books Poetry Prize: A prize of $1,000 and publication by Nightboat Books is given annually for a poetry collection. Kazim Ali and Stephen Motika will judge. Entry fee: $28. Deadline: November 15.

Perugia Press Poetry Prize: A prize of $1,000 and publication by Perugia Press is given annually for a first or second poetry collection by a woman. Entry fee: $27. Deadline: November 15.

Jean Feldman Poetry Prize: A prize of $1,000, publication by Washington Writers Publishing House, and 50 author copies are given annually for a poetry collection. Entry fee: $25. Deadline: November 15.

Lena–Miles Wever Todd Poetry Prize: A prize of $2,000 and publication by Pleiades Press with distribution by Louisiana State University Press is given annually for a poetry collection by a U.S. poet. The winner also receives $1,000 for book tour expenses. Traci Brimhall will judge. Entry fee: $25. Deadline: November 15.

Yale Series of Younger Poets: An award of publication by Yale University Press is given annually for a poetry collection by an early-career poet who has not published a full-length book of poetry. Carl Phillips will judge. Entry fee: $25. Deadline: November 15.

Narrative 30 Below Contest: A prize of $1,500 and publication in Narrative is given annually for a poem. The editors will judge. Entry fee: 25. Deadline: November 18.

Visit the contest websites for complete submission details, including eligibility guidelines and poem length requirements. For a look at more writing contests with upcoming deadlines, visit our Grants & Awards database and submission calendar.

Applications are currently open for the Black Mountain Institute & the Believer fellowships, open to emerging and established poets, fiction writers, and creative nonfiction writers. Fellows will reside in Las Vegas for the 2019–2020 academic year, where they will join a thriving community of writers and scholars on the UNLV campus. Fellows will also receive a stipend and contribute to the Black Mountain Institute (BMI) and/or the Believer magazine.

The Shearing Fellowships for Emerging Writers, which offer an honorarium of $18,000 each, are open to writers who have published at least one book with a trade or literary press. The Shearing Fellowships for Distinguished Writers, which offer an honorarium of $25,000 each, are open to writers who have published at least three books.

The deadline for both fellowships is November 14 at 12:59 PM Pacific Standard Time. Using the online submission system, submit a writing sample of 10 to 20 pages, a cover letter, and a proposal (totaling no more than two pages) with suggested contributions to the Believer and/or BMI. Finalists will be asked to send copies of their books.

Applications will be reviewed by an advisory committee of UNLV graduate students, staff, and community stakeholders. Recipients will be notified in Spring 2019.

Based in Las Vegas, Nevada, the Beverly Rogers, Carol C. Harter Black Mountain Institute aims to bring “writers and the literary imagination into the heart of public life through events, fellowships, publications, and student engagement opportunities.” The Believer, a five-time National Magazine Award finalist, is a bimonthly literature, arts, and culture magazine based at the Black Mountain Institute. The 2018–2019 fellows include Hanif Abdurraqib, Lesley Nneka Arimah, Amanda Fortini, Derek Palacio, and Claire Vaye Watkins.

Author, journalist, and war correspondent Anna Badkhen has been awarded the second Barry Lopez Visiting Writer in Ethics and Community Fellowship. Badkhen will spend several weeks in residence in Hawaii, where she will also participate in outreach events and present a public talk on the social responsibility of contemporary writers.

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Sponsored by the Manoa Foundation of Honolulu, the Barry Lopez Visiting Writer in Ethics and Community Fellowship was established in 2015 by Frank Stewart and Debra Gwartney to honor the seventieth birthday of acclaimed writer and naturalist Barry Lopez, who is the author of fourteen books of fiction and nonfiction, most recently the short story collection Outside (Trinity University Press, 2014). The fellowship is given to a writer whose work, like Lopez’s, “contributes to an awareness of the civic and ethical obligation of artists; that helps us understand, through storytelling, that the survival of a human world depends upon a commitment to integrity, empathy, and compassionate reconciliation; and inspires us to take social responsibility for the perils, which we have created ourselves, to the human and non-human world.”

The fellowship provides several weeks of solitude and support in a quiet environment where writers can work on a project of their choosing. There is no application process. Fellows are nominated and chosen by a committee of editors and writers. In addition to Barry Lopez, this year’s selection committee included poet Jane Hirshfield, writer Pico Iyer, and Frank Stewart, editor of Manoa: A Pacific Journal of International Writing. The fellowship and the public presentation are sponsored in part by the Manoa Foundation of Honolulu. Additional support is provided by the Halekulani Hotel, Waikiki.

Born in the Soviet Union, Anna Badkhen moved to the United States in 2004. She is the author of six books of nonfiction, including most recently Fisherman’s Blues: A West African Community at Sea (Riverhead, 2018) and Walking With Abel: Journeys With the Nomads of the African Savannah (Riverhead, 2016). She has also written about wars in Asia, Africa, and Europe for Foreign Policy, the New Republic, the New York Times, the Common, the Boston Globe, and other newspapers and journals.

The winner of the first Barry Lopez Fellowship was novelist Ann Pancake.