On the long path of writing, submitting short pieces—whether poems, essays, or short stories—can be a significant milepost, offering encouragement along the way. While general submissions come with relatively low cost and longer submission periods, contests can provide a special jolt of energy to our writing lives. They remind us how fully editors look forward to the finely polished gems we’ve been working on, going to great lengths to secure guest judges and prize money to celebrate the impact of short-form fiction, poetry, and nonfiction, even within a literary culture whose main currency is often books.
Do you have a braided essay that’s almost ready, but you need a push to get to that last 10 percent of revisions? Use a contest as an opportunity to polish it and send it out, with an eye to the specific contest judge as an eventual reader. Are you navigating a sprawling set of poems you’ve written, trying to figure out how they hang together? Assemble a packet of those poems that you envision standing out from a crowd of contest entries, and you might just get a new insight into how to revise and order your larger collection of poems.
May you win every contest you enter! But even if you don’t, remember that editors often consider all entries for publication, so submitting is a bit like encouraged double-dipping—your work is read both for the contest and for standard appearance in the journal’s pages. You may also be named a finalist or honorable mention in a contest, which means the fruits of submitting are not limited to the winner. And, of course, there’s the prize money: Much higher than the honoraria for non–contest publications, contest prizes are the rare writing payment that can truly reflect the amount of hard work you have put into your writing.
Many contests open during the spring and summer, when readers and judges are champing at the bit to read your stories, essays, and poems. One elegant, established venue is the Georgia Review, which features both a prose and poetry prize at different times of the year. The Loraine Williams Poetry Prize, open until May 15, provides an opportunity to get your poems in front of not only the editors of the magazine, but also the annual contest judge—an additional benefit of submitting to contests. The Georgia Review publishes one winner (who receives $1,500) and three finalists (who receive $200 each).
American Short Fiction is another bucket-list venue for many fiction writers. The noted journal offers the Halifax Ranch Fiction Prize, which rewards the winner with a stately $2,500 and an all-expenses-paid writing retreat at the Tasajillo Residency outside of Austin, Texas. Submissions should be between two thousand and sixty-five hundred words; if you write shorter, keep an eye out for the American Short(er) Fiction Prize early next year, which accepts stories of fifteen hundred words or fewer.
Writers whose prose falls on the shorter side can also look to the Los Angeles Review Literary Awards, which accept fiction and nonfiction from one thousand to four thousand words, the regular packet of three to five poems, and even a special category for flash fiction under a thousand words. In addition to appearing on the Los Angeles Review website, award winners are included in the journal’s yearly best-of print edition.
If your writing is longer, consider submitting to the New Letters Literary Awards, which accept prose up to eight thousand words and six poems with a page limit of thirty pages (hello, long poems!). Finalists are notified in August after a May 18 deadline, which is another advantage of submitting to contests: You’ll often hear back much sooner than when you submit to the general submission queue.
Additionally, many poets rely on contests for recognition before they share their first collection with the world. Responding to this need, Boulevard’s Poetry Contest for Emerging Poets accepts submissions only from writers who have not yet published a full-length book. A set of three poems is awarded the prize, meaning your poems will receive recognition not just individually but as a group, bound by your voice. This year’s deadline is June 1. The Short Fiction Contest for Emerging Writers also opens at Boulevard in September.
Nonfiction writers looking for a contest during the spring months can submit their essays to Michigan Quarterly Review, the long-standing journal associated with the University of Michigan’s prestigious creative writing program. The James A. Winn Prize, which is open in April and May, awards $1,500 for a piece of nonfiction; prizes for fiction and poetry open in the fall.
Poets on the lookout for a contest sponsored by a poetry-specific magazine might consider submitting to Southern Poetry Review’s Guy Owen Prize, which selects a single poem from a packet of three to five poems submitted by each poet. Although the journal’s name emerges from its roots in Florida, North Carolina, and Georgia, Southern Poetry Review publishes writing from around the United States as well as abroad. Winners are featured both in the print issue and on the Southern Poetry Review website.
The Bellevue Literary Review Prizes are an essential venue for writing that focuses on illness, health, and the complications of having a body. Associated with Bellevue Hospital in New York City, Bellevue Literary Review intertwines literary writing with the ever-renewing question of healing. Winners of the review’s prizes (who receive $1,000) aren’t the only ones to get paid; honorable mentions receive $300 as well. This year’s deadline is July 1.
As you expand your reach as a writer, it’s helpful to consider a further benefit of contests: Many entry fees include a yearlong subscription to the magazine. The Cincinnati Review includes a yearlong subscription to its biannual print journal with the $25 contest entry fee, which allows you to gain familiarity with the journal while also putting your writing into the mix. The Cincinnati Review accepts submissions for the Robert and Adele Schiff Awards in poetry, fiction, and nonfiction during June and July; the fiction contest is notable for accepting pieces up to ten thousand words.
Finally, while most contest winners are chosen by an outside judge, the Missouri Review’s Jeffrey E. Smith Editors’ Prizes award prizes in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry on the basis of judgments by the Missouri Review editors. Not only that, but the awards are $5,000 for each genre—one of the highest payments out there for a literary magazine contest. The early fall deadline gives you plenty of time: Submit your writing by October 1.
It’s worthwhile to keep in mind a few pointers as you shape up your writing to submit to contests. For one, make sure to remove your name from your document. While regular submissions include a cover letter with the writer’s name visible, contests are usually judged anonymously. Similarly, if you know the contest judge personally (meaning you have an ongoing relationship with that person, not just that you met them once), sit out that contest. You don’t want to put a literary magazine in the position of navigating a conflict of interest.
When it comes to the writing itself, the implication of contests is clear: Send your best. So take this as an opportunity to consider what your “best” means: Is it your most colorful, attention-grabbing writing? Is it your most vulnerable work? Is it a piece that feels on the edge of your body of work because it represents your recent growth as a writer? Or maybe your best bet is your bread and butter, the tried-and-true style you’ve become most comfortable with and that reflects something essential about why you write. The one thing you can count on as you submit is that contest readers and judges will be carefully attuned as they read; the tight deadlines and higher stakes of contests ensure everyone is paying close attention to the process. The key is to let that positive energy feed into your writing, helping you bring forth the message that means the most to you.
Dennis James Sweeney is the author of How to Submit: Getting Your Writing Published With Literary Magazines and Small Presses (New World Library, 2025), the novella The Rolodex Happenings (Stillhouse Press, 2024), the lyric nonfiction collection You’re the Woods Too (Essay Press, 2023), and In the Antarctic Circle (Autumn House Press, 2021), which won the Autumn House Rising Writer Prize in Poetry. They live in Amherst, Massachusetts.
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