Page One: Where New and Noteworthy Books Begin
The first lines of a dozen noteworthy books, including Orders of Service: A Fugue by Willie Lee Kinard III and I Would Meet You Anywhere by Susan Kiyo Ito.
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Genre: Translation
Upcoming Contest Deadlines
Don’t let August slip past you: Submit to one or more of a dozen writing contests with a deadline of August 30 or August 31. Prizes include $3,000 and publication for a book of poetry; $1,000 and publication for a debut collection of poems, short stories, or essays; $1,000 and publication for a book of poetry by a writer over the age of 60; and more than $1,000, publication, and accommodations to give a reading at the Cork International Poetry Festival in Ireland for a poetry chapbook. All contests offer an award of $1,000 or more, and one has no entry fee. We wish you luck!
Aesthetica
Creative Writing Award
Two prizes of £2,500 (approximately $3,121) each and publication in Aesthetica Creative Writing Annual are given annually for a poem and a short story. In addition, the winner in poetry receives a membership to the Poetry Society in London, a six-week writing course from Curtis Brown Creative (a writing school led by authors and literary agents), a course from the arts organization Poetry School, and a subscription to Poetry London. The winner in short fiction receives a six-week writing course from Curtis Brown Creative and a consultation with the literary agency Redhammer Management. Both winners receive subscriptions to literary magazines Granta and Mslexia, as well as a five-day course from the London-based creative writing nonprofit Arvon. Deadline: August 31. Entry fee: $15.
Anthology Magazine
Short Story Competition
A prize of €1,000 (approximately $1,099) and publication in, plus a subscription to, Anthology Magazine will be given annually for a short story. Deadline: August 31. Entry fee: $20.
Black Lawrence Press
St. Lawrence Book Award
A prize of $1,000 and publication by Black Lawrence Press is given annually for a debut collection of poems, short stories, or essays. The editors and a panel of previous St. Lawrence Book Award winners will judge. Deadline: August 31. Entry fee: $28.
Grid Books
Off the Grid Poetry Prize
A prize of $1,000 and publication in print and audio formats by Grid Books is given annually for a poetry collection by a writer over the age of 60. Marianne Boruch will judge. Deadline: August 31. Entry fee: $25.
Gemini Magazine
Flash Fiction Contest
A prize of $1,000 and publication in Gemini Magazine is given annually for a short short story. The editors will judge. Deadline: August 31. Entry fee: $7.
Gulf Coast
Barthelme Prize for Short Prose
A prize of $1,000 and publication in Gulf Coast is given annually for a short work of prose. Deadline: August 31. Entry fee: $26.
Gulf Coast
Prize in Translation
A prize of $1,000 and publication in Gulf Coast is given in alternating years for a group of poems or a prose excerpt translated from any language into English. The 2023 prize will be given for a work of prose. Deadline: August 31. Entry fee: $13.
Journal of Experimental Fiction
Kenneth Patchen Award
A prize of $1,000 and publication by Journal of Experimental Fiction and JEF Books is given annually for an innovative novel. Carla M. Wilson will judge. Deadline: August 31. Entry fee: $25.
Munster Literature Centre
Fool for Poetry International Chapbook Competition
A prize of €1,000 (approximately $1,099); publication by Southword Editions, Munster Literature Centre’s publishing imprint; and 25 author copies is given annually for a poetry chapbook. The winner will also receive accommodations to give a reading at the Cork International Poetry Festival in 2024. Deadline: August 31. Entry fee: $27.
Omnidawn Publishing
Open Book Poetry Contest
A prize of $3,000, publication by Omnidawn Publishing, and 20 author copies is given annually for a poetry collection. Maw Shein Win will judge. Deadline: August 31. Entry fee: $35.
Talking Gourds
Fischer Prize
A prize of $1,000 is given annually for a single poem. The winner will also be invited to be a featured reader for a Bardic Trails online reading in 2024 and will receive a $100 honorarium for participating. Deborah Kay Kelly will judge. Deadline: August 30. Entry fee: $10.
Utica University
Eugene Paul Nassar Poetry Prize
A prize of $2,000 is given annually for a poetry collection published during the current year by a resident of upstate New York. The winner will also give a reading and teach a master class at Utica University in April 2024. Deadline: August 31. Entry fee: None.
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.
The Anthologist: A Compendium of Uncommon Collections
A look at three new anthologies, including Leaning Toward Light: Poems for Gardens & the Hands That Tend Them and Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology.
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Small Press Points: Book*hug Press
Dedicated to finding the voices and stories audiences most need to hear, Book*hug Press reads beyond borders as a Canadian press with international influences, representationally and aesthetically.
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The International Library
A collaboration between three literary organizations, the International Library is a new initiative presenting live conversations about literature in translation while connecting transnational audiences.
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Page One: Where New and Noteworthy Books Begin
The first lines of a dozen noteworthy books, including Down Here We Come Up by Sara Johnson Allen and Good Women by Halle Hill.
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Surgeons of the Soul: An Interview With Georgi Gospodinov and Angela Rodel
The recipients of the 2023 International Booker Prize discuss the Bulgarian author’s obsession with memory, growing up in the former socialist state, and the intricacies of translating the award-winning novel, Time Shelter.
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Deadline Approaches for Gulf Coast Prize in Translation
The Gulf Coast Prize in Translation, whose submission cycle closes in just under three weeks, recognizes a prose excerpt translated into English from another language. Why not gather the required materials and share your rendering of someone else’s words for a chance to win a prize of $1,000 and publication?
Submit up to 10 pages of a story or essay in translation, a copy of the original text, a brief biography of the author, a synopsis of the work being translated, and proof that permission to translate the work has been granted with a $26 submission fee, which includes a subscription to Gulf Coast, or a $13 entry fee, which includes a half-year subscription, by August 31. Visit the website for complete guidelines.
Started in 1982 by Donald Barthelme and Phillip Lopate as a 64-page student-run publication, Gulf Coast today counts on a readership of over 3,000 as the nationally distributed journal housed within the University of Houston’s English Department. The press’s annual translation prize alternates genres each year, awarding a group of poems and a prose excerpt. Anam Zafar won the 2021 prize for her translation of Najat Albed Alsamad’s story “My Friend’s Basement” and has said of Alsamad’s work that it “exposes conflict as an individual experience in which entire countries simply cannot be viewed through a single, zoomed-out lens.” One of four of Gulf Coast’s contests, the translation prize represents the journal’s enduring commitment “to providing a balanced combination of literary approaches and voices.”
Anton Hur on Translating Literature
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“I’m not there to serve the author or serve the text, I’m there to interpret it.” In this video, writer and translator Anton Hur speaks about the role of the translator, Korean literature, and his work on the novel Counterweight (Pantheon, 2023) by the pseudonymous South Korean science fiction author Djuna.
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Ricardo Alberto Maldonado on Linguistic Diversity
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“What I’m hoping is, ten years from now, a young Puerto Rican poet on the island or somewhere else knows that this is a possibility, that living a life with and through poetry is an honorable way of engaging with the world.” Ricardo Alberto Maldonado, the first Latino executive director and president of the Academy of American Poets, reflects on why he began writing and the importance of expanding the linguistic diversity of poetry in this PBS NewsHour interview with Jeffrey Brown.
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