$4,000 IN AWARDS. Enter New Millennium Writing Awards by July 31—Best Poetry: $1,000; Fiction: $1,000; Nonfiction: $1,000; Flash Fiction: $1,000. All winners are published in our anthology and online. “NMW’s words of encouragement have sent me digging through the archives of past work, and forward into the mystery of works that have yet to completely discover themselves.”—Andrea Turner, recent submitter. Visit www.newmillenniumwritings.org.
THE 2020 ORISON ANTHOLOGY AWARDS offer $500 and publication of a poem, a story, and an essay in The Orison Anthology. Judged by Joy Ladin (poetry), Blair Hurley (fiction), and E. J. Koh (nonfiction). Entry fee: $15. Submission period: May 1–August 1. To submit: www.orisonbooks.submittable.com.
THE 2020 ORISON CHAPBOOK PRIZE offers $300 and publication by Orison Books for a manuscript of 20–45 pages, in any genre (poetry, fiction, nonfiction, or hybrid). Entry fee: $12. Submission period: April 1–July 1. Judged by Orison Books founder and editor, Luke Hankins. To submit: www.orisonbooks.submittable.com.
2020 TALKING WRITING PRIZE for multiple genres: $500 plus publication. Topic: “Creativity on Fire.” Do you have too many ideas? Are you fired up to save the world—while writing three novels—or just overwhelmed? We want essays, poems, or hybrid work about ideaphoria. Guest judge: Lesley Wheeler. Entry fee: $15. Deadline: August 15. Website: http://talkingwriting.com/tw-contests.
2021 PRESS 53 AWARD FOR POETRY. $1,000 and 50 copies awarded to an unpublished 60- to 120-page collection of poems. Prizes awarded upon publication. Tom Lombardo, Press 53 Poetry Series Editor, will serve as judge. Deadline: Midnight, July 31. Winner and finalists announced before November 1. Reading fee: $30. Information at www.press53.com/award-for-poetry.
13TH ANNUAL LITTORAL PRESS POETRY PRIZE! First place: 50 letterpress-printed broadsides of the winning poem. Three honorable mentions receive earlier broadsides. Judge: Terry Lucas. $10 first poem; $5 each additional. Mail to 622 26th St., Richmond, CA 94804 by August 15. View complete guidelines and broadside examples at www.littoralpress.com.
17TH ANNUAL GIVAL PRESS SHORT STORY AWARD for best original previously unpublished literary stand-alone story in English, approximately 5,000 to 15,000 words. Prize: $1,000, publication on website. Reading fee: $25 per story submitted. Deadline: August 8. Details, visit website: www.givalpress.com or givalpress.submittable.com. Address: Gival Press, P.O. Box 3812, Arlington, VA 22203.
THE AMERICAN LITERARY REVIEW’S ANNUAL WRITING AWARDS are open for submissions through October 1. Send us your best work in creative nonfiction, fiction, and poetry. $1,000 will be awarded to each winner. You can find complete submission details at: www.americanliteraryreview.com.
ANNUAL RATTLE POETRY PRIZE offers $10,000 for a single poem, plus a $2,000 Readers’ Choice Award. Entry fee of $25 includes a 1-year subscription to the magazine. Deadline: July 15. Submit up to 4 unpublished poems per entry. For guidelines and to read past winners, visit our website: www.rattle.com/poetry/prize.
ANTHOLOGY PUBLICATION & CASH AWARDS for poems in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. While we hunker down in the face of the virus, we can allow ourselves to reflect and clean out some of the cobwebs that cling to us, and continue to be productive. Guidelines and submissions: publicpoetry.submittable.com.
ANTHOLOGY/CONTEST—TALLGRASS WRITERS GUILD/OUTRIDER PRESS. Poetry max: 32 lines w/ spaces; prose max: 2,500 words on: “Play”—kids, sports, gambling, music, theater, games. Revised deadline: October 31. Fees: 1–4 poems or each prose entry—$19. TWG members—$15 each. Prizes: $500 each category. No submission limit. Complete guidelines: tallgrassguild@sbcglobal.net.
BAUHAN PUBLISHING’S MAY SARTON NEW HAMPSHIRE POETRY PRIZE is open for submissions. The prize is for a book-length collection of poems with the winner receiving $1,000 and book publication with our Spring 2021 titles. Entry fee: $30. Postmark/submission deadline: June 30. Judged by Nils Michal. For submission guidelines: www.bauhanpublishing.com/may-sarton-prize.
BE PART OF A 150-YEAR LEGACY! California’s oldest literary journal is seeking original works of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and visual art for Reed Magazine. Each of our 4 contests awards $1,000 or more, and applicants receive a complimentary copy. Submissions June 1–November 1. Let your voice be heard. Website: www.reedmag.org/submit.
THE BIRDY POETRY PRIZE, by Meadowlark Books. $1,000 cash prize, publication, and 50 copies. Submit 1 full-length poetry book manuscript (55–150 pages). Entry fee: $25. Submissions open: September 1 to December 1. Learn more: www.birdypoetryprize.com.
CALVINO PRIZE: 16th Annual Calvino Prize sponsored by the University of Louisville. For short story or novel in the fabulist, experimental vein of Italo Calvino. Final judge for 2020: Joyce Carol Oates, famed fiction writer, national award winner. First prize: $2,000 plus publication in Miracle Monocle, a journal celebrating a decade of select works. Second prize: $300. First-place winner invited, expenses paid, to read winning entry at the Louisville Conference on Literature and Culture held in February at the University of Louisville. Fee: $25. Deadline: October 15. Details: louisville.edu/english.
COMSTOCK REVIEW presents their Comstock Writers Group Chapbook contest. Top prize: $1,000 and 50 author’s copies. Submit manuscript of 25–34 pages (see line limit per page) between August 1–October 31. Entry fee $30 includes copy of winning chapbook. Visit the website for complete guidelines, which must be followed. Online submission fee extra. Peggy Miller, Comstock Review editor, will judge. Address: CR Chapbook 2018, 4956 St. John Dr., Syracuse, NY 13215. Website: www.comstockreview.org. Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/comstock-review/186488898068352?ref=ts-219-.
DZANC BOOKS seeks innovative literary fiction, nonfiction, and story collections for its annual contests. Contests include the first annual Dzanc Diverse Voices Prize, open to writers from minority, underrepresented, or marginalized communities; and the annual Prize for Fiction, offering a $5,000 advance and publication. $25 reading fee per submission. Open April 14–September 30. Details at dzancbooks.org.
FISCHER PRIZE/CANTOR AWARD: $1,000 national prize, five $200 finalist prizes, and $500 for best CO entry, plus partial travel stipends to Talking Gourds Awards in Telluride (CO) October 9–11. Judge: CA performance poet Claire Blotter. August 30 deadline. Fees are $10 per poem ($25 for 3). Guidelines: www.tellurideinstitute.org/fischer-prize.
FIVE NOVEL EXCERPT AWARD winners will receive $150 each and publication in Novel Slices, a journal dedicated solely to novel excerpts. Submit 4,000 to 6,000 words with a $20 entry fee, which includes a digital copy of the award issue, by August 31. Visit the website for complete guidelines: www.novelslices.com/contest.
GOLD LINE PRESS 2020 CHAPBOOK CONTEST is open for poetry, fiction, and nonfiction chapbook-length manuscripts. Reading period: July 15–August 31. Winners will receive $500 and 50 author copies. This year's judges: Zinzi Clemmons (Fiction), Marcelo Hernandez Castillo (Nonfiction), Trace Peterson (Poetry). Guidelines: https://dornsife.usc.edu/goldlinepress/contest.
THE GRAYSON BOOKS POETRY PRIZE, open to all poets writing in English, is accepting submissions. Submit 50–90 pages, including title page and contents, by August 15. Electronic submissions only. Submit at https://graysonbooks.submittable.com/submit. No contact info on manuscript. Entry fee: $25. Winner will be awarded $1,000, publication, and 10 copies. Simultaneous submissions acceptable. Brian Clements to judge. Website: www.graysonbooks.com.
HEART POETRY AWARD: $500, publication in HEART 15. Honorable mentions published. $10 covers 3 unpublished poems, reserves copy of HEART 15. Visit website, view past issues, style preferred, guidelines and bio judge. Deadline: Postmark August 31. Submit online at www.nostalgiapress.com or mail to Nostalgia Press, 115 Randazzo Ct., Elloree, SC 29047.
NEW RIVERS PRESS MANY VOICES PROJECT AWARD. Two prizes of publication and $1,000 each for book-length manuscripts by emerging writers, 1 in poetry and 1 in prose. Submit full-length, unpublished manuscripts of fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry September 1–December 31, 2020, with $25 entry fee. Submit online at https://newriverspress.submittable.com/submit.
NILSEN PRIZE FOR A FIRST NOVEL. Winner receives $2,000, publication, and distribution. Authors must not have previously published a full-length fiction book. Deadline: November 1. $25 fee. Enter through our Submittable page. Full guidelines on our website at: www.semopress.com/events/nilsen-prize.
PATRICIA DOBLER POETRY AWARD: Open to women writers over the age of 40 living in the U.S. who haven’t published a full-length book of poetry, fiction, or nonfiction (chapbooks excluded). Winner receives $1,000, publication in Voices from the Attic, round-trip travel and lodging, a reading at Carlow University in Pittsburgh with final judge. Poems must be unpublished, up to 75 lines; up to 2 poems, any style, per submission ($20 fee). Postmark deadline: October 1. Phone: (412) 578-6346. E-mail: sewilliams412@carlow.edu. For complete rules, visit website: www.carlow.edu/dobler_poetry_award.aspx.
RED WHEELBARROW POETRY PRIZE 2020: Judged by Dorianne Laux and Joseph Millar. $1,000 for first place and a letterpress broadside, $500 for second, $250 for third. Top 5 published in Red Wheelbarrow. Submit up to 3 original unpublished poems. $15 entry fee. Deadline: August 15. For complete guidelines, see www.redwheelbarrow.submittable.com.
ROSEBUD MAGAZINE offers prize of $500 for best poem submitted in any style. Winners published. All entrants will receive a free 3-issue subscription to Rosebud. Judge is Lester Graves Lennon, poetry editor. Deadline: September 30. Fee: $20. For guidelines, go to www.rsbd.net. Questions? Call (608) 423-9780.
SARABANDE’S LINDA BRUCKHEIMER SERIES in KY Literature will be open for submissions July 1–31. Open to any KY-affiliated writer of English. Complete guidelines at www.sarabandebooks.org/bruckheimer.
TERRAIN.ORG, the World’s First Online Magazine of Place, 11th Annual Contest in Poetry, Nonfiction, and Fiction. Judges: poetry: Arthur Sze; nonfiction: Julian Hoffman; fiction: Joy Castro. All submissions considered for publication. $15/entry. $500 prize/genre, $100 for finalists. Deadline: September 6 (Labor Day). Full guidelines at www.terrain.org/contest.
TOM HOWARD/MARGARET REID POETRY CONTEST. 18th year. Top prize for a poem in any style: $3,000. Top prize for a poem that rhymes or has a traditional style: $3,000. Total prizes: $8,000. Co-sponsor: Duotrope. Winning entries published online. Fee: $15 per poem. Length limit: 250 lines. Both published and unpublished work accepted. Submit by September 30. Enter at winningwriters.com/tompoetry.
UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS PRESS is accepting submissions for the Miller Williams Poetry Prize, edited by Billy Collins. The winner receives $5,000 and publication. Up to 3 additional books also receive publication. Applications are accepted year-round. The deadline for the following year’s prize is September 30. Website: www.uapress.com.