$150 AND PUBLICATION in Novel Slices awarded to each of our 5 novel excerpt contest winners. Submit novel excerpts of approximately 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. Nancy Holzner to judge.
$1,000 AND PUBLICATION in Connecticut River Review will be awarded to the winner of the Experimental Poetry Prize, a cutting-edge contest sponsored by the Connecticut Poetry Society. Submit up to 3 poems in a single file through Submittable (https://connecticutriverreview .submittable.com/submit). Text, audio, or video files are accepted. No names or identifying information on the submitted file. No excessively long poems or those requiring unusual pagination. $15 reading fee. Submissions accepted June 15–July 31. Submissions may include poems composed using 1) an entirely new form; 2) an existing form that is considered experimental; or 3) a radical subversion of a traditional form. Your innovation should be apparent to a serious but non-academically trained reader and should be in the service of ingenuity and piercing the armor of expectations. Richard Deming, director of creative writing at Yale, will judge.
$1,000 AND PUBLICATION! Deadline: August 20. The Julia Darling Memorial Poetry Prize seeks a contemporary poem. Edward Vidaurre will judge. The Chester B. Himes Memorial Short Fiction Prize seeks a story up to 4,200 words. May Cobb will judge. $20 entry includes a copy of The Ocotillo Review. Find more information and guidelines at website: kallistogaiapress.org.
$1,000, PUBLICATION, AND 50 COPIES awarded to an unpublished collection of poems.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 website: www.press53.com/award-for-poetry.
$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 2021 DIODE Editions book and chapbook contests are open for submissions. For full guidelines please go to the website: diodeeditions.com/contests. Deadline: August 15.
THE 2021 ORISON Anthology Awards in Fiction, Nonfiction, & Poetry offer $500 and publication by Orison Books in The Orison Anthology for a single work in each genre. Judges: SJ Sindu (fiction), Molly McCully Brown (nonfiction), and Leila Chatti (poetry). Entry fee: $15. Submission Period: May 1–August 1. Complete details at www.duotrope.com/duosuma/submit/orison-anthology-awards-ldqfx.
THE 2021 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: $15. Submission period: April 1–July 1. Judged by Orison Books founder and editor, Luke Hankins. Website: www.duotrope.com/duosuma/submit/orison-chapbook-prize-6T0fK.
14TH ANNUAL Littoral Press Poetry Prize! First place: 50 letterpress-printed broadsides of the winning poem. Three honorable mentions receive earlier broadsides. Judge: Lawrence Tjernell. $10 first poem; $5 each additional. Mail to: 622 26th St., Richmond, CA 94804 by August 16. View complete guidelines and broadside examples at website: www.littoralpress.com.
18TH 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.
20TH ANNUAL GIVAL PRESS Poetry Award (given in odd years) for best collection in English at least 45+ pages. Prize: $1,000 and copies; publication in 2022. Reading fee: $20 per entry. Deadline: December 15. Details, visit website: www.givalpress.com or givalpress.submittable.com. Address: Gival Press, P.O. Box 3812, Arlington, VA 22203.
BAUHAN PUBLISHING’S May Sarton New Hampshire Poetry Prize is open for submissions. The prize is for a book-length collection, $1,000, and book publication with Spring 2022 titles. Entry fee: $30. Submission deadline: June 30. Judged by Meg Kearney. For submission guidelines: www.bauhanpublishing.com/may-sarton-prize. Or go to bauhanpublishing.submittable.com/submit.
BLACK SPRING PRESS Group of London announces the 2022 Sexton Prize: $2,000 award and publication for a poetry collection by an American poet. The winner is published in the U.K. and distributed worldwide. Judge: Dr. Alex Houen, Cambridge university poet and scholar. Guidelines to submit at website: https://eyewear publishing.submittable.com/submit.
CALL FOR SCRIPTS: Santa Cruz Actors’ Theatre’s 27th Annual Ten-Minute Play Festival “8 Tens @ 8.” Sixteen winners will be selected with performances in January–February 2023. All styles and genres considered including musicals. Deadline: October 1. For guidelines visit website: www.santacruzactorstheatre.org.
CALVINO PRIZE: Seventeenth Annual Calvino Prize spon-sored by the University of Louisville. For a short story or novel in the fabulist, experimental vein of Italo Calvino. The final judge for 2021 is Matt Bell, acclaimed writer of speculative fiction and other literary works. The first prize is $2,000 plus publication in Miracle Monocle, a journal celebrating over a decade of select works. The second prize is $300. Our first place winner is invited, expenses paid, to read the winning entry at the University of Louisville in the spring of 2022. Entry fee: $25. Deadline: October 15. Details: louisville.edu/english.
CONGRATULATIONS First Pages Prize 2021 Winners: first: Alan Sincic, “The Slap-jack”; second: Suzanne Bailey, “This Bright Court”; third: Mariam Bazeed, “The Boy Made of Air”; fourth: Phil Taylor, “The Absence of Color,”; fifth: Stephanie Mullings, “Walk Good.” Allison Ellis’ “Ready About” won the Sandra Carpenter Prize. 2022 prize details: www.firstpagesprize.com.
DZANC BOOKS seeks innovative literary fiction, nonfiction, and story collections for its annual contests. Contests include the annual Prize for Fiction, offering a $5,000 advance and publication, as well as the Short Story Collection Prize and the Nonfiction Prize. $25 reading fee per submission. Closes September 30. Details at website: dzancbooks.org.
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. Website: 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. Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer to judge. For more information visit website: www.graysonbooks.com.
HEART POETRY Award $500, publication HEART 16. Honorable mentions published. $10 covers 3 unpublished poems, and a reserved copy of HEART 16. Visit the website, view past issues, style preferred, guidelines, and bio judge. Deadline: postmark August 31. Submit, pay online: www.nostalgiapress.com or mail: Nostalgia Press, 115 Randazzo Dr., Elloree, SC 29047.
HELP FUND OUR rural Colorado poetry community in the Southern Rockies. Support Talking Gourds national and state poetry award contests: the Fischer/Cantor Prizes. Our judge: poet Donald Levering of Santa Fe, NM. Cash prizes of $1,000, $500, and 5 prizes of $200. Fee: $10 a poem, 3 for $25. Deadline: August 31. Art Goodtimes. tellurideinstitute.org/talking-gourds.
THE INTERNATIONAL Lawerence Durrell Society announces the 2021 White Mice Poetry Contest. Submit 1–3 poems focusing on “History Revisited.” No entry fee. Prizes: Online & print publication. Deadline: October 1. For further information, go to the website: www.lawrencedurrell.org and click on “Poetry Contest.”
LITMAG’S VIRGINIA Woolf Award for Short Fiction: First prize: $2,500, publica-tion & agency review. Deadline: December 31. Entry fee: $20. // LitMag’s Anton Chekhov Award for Flash Fiction: First prize: $1,250, publication, & agency review. Deadline: November 15. Entry fee: $16. All entries will be consid-ered for publication. Find guidelines at our website: www.litmag.com.
LONGLEAF PRESS Book Award. Beautifully designed publica-tion by Longleaf Press, a $1,000 prize, and 25 author copies awarded for a poetry collection in English. Roger Weingarten will be the 2021 judge. Submit at least 50 pages and a $27 entry fee by December 15 via Submittable. See the website for complete guidelines: www.longleafpress.org.
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 2021: 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, lodging, and reading at Carlow University in Pittsburgh with final judge Lee Ann Roripaugh. Primary judge: Jan Beatty. Poems must be unpublished, up to 75 lines; up to 2 poems, any style, per submission ($20 fee). September 30 receipt deadline. Phone: (412) 578-6346; e-mail: sewilliams412@carlow.edu; or website: www.carlow.edu for complete rules.
PUERTO DEL SOL will be accepting entries to our annual contest in poetry and prose between May 1 and September 1. Judges are Eileen Pollack in prose and Todd Dillard in poetry. Winners receive $500 and publication. $9 entry fee includes a 1-year subscription. All manuscripts entered will be considered for publication. See website for complete guidelines at: puertodelsol.org.
RED WHEELBARROW Poetry Prize 2021: Judged by Mark Doty. $1,000 for first place and a letterpress broadside, $500 for second, $250 for third. Top 5 published in Red Wheelbarrow Literary Magazine. Submit up to 3 original unpublished poems. $15 entry fee. Deadline: July 31. For complete guidelines, see www.redwheelbarrow.submittable.com.
RHINO 2022 Founders’ Prize Contest with Luisa A. Igloria. We are open August 1–September 15 for submissions for RHINO’s annual Founders’ Prize Contest. Guest judge Luisa A. Iglora is author of Maps for Migrants and Ghosts (co-winner, 2019 Crab Orchard Open Poetry Prize) and 13 other books; in 2020, she was appointed Poet Laureate of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Entry fee of $15 per submission of up to 5 poems; first prize of $500 and 2 runners-up prizes of $100 each. All submissions considered for publication in our 2022 issue and for our $500 Editors’ Prize. For 40+ years, RHINO’s award-winning annual print journal has featured stunning, eclectic work— “Powerful poetry from beginning to end” (New Pages, 2018). Find our complete submission guidelines at website: rhinopoetry.org.
RIVER STYX’S International Poetry Competition is open. Judged by Adrian Matejka, the competition features a grand prize of $1,000 and publication in River Styx. Runners-up will also be published at our standard rate. For more information and to submit, visit website: www.riverstyx.org/submit/poetry-contest/.
SENECA REVIEW BOOKS accepts submissions for the Deborah Tall Lyric Essay Book Prize. $2,000 prize, book publication, HWS reading. Judge: Kazim Ali. Lyric essay includes cross-genre and hybrid work. A group of related pieces or a single work. 48–120 pages. Submissions: June 1 to August 1. www.hws.edu/senecareview/bookprize.
TERRAIN.ORG, the award-winning online literary journal of place, 12th annual contest in Poetry, Nonfiction, and Fiction. Judges: Poetry: Ellen Bass, Nonfiction: Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Fiction: Maurice Carlos Ruffin. All submissions considered for publication. $20/entry. $1,000 prize/genre, $100 for finalists. Deadline: September 6 (Labor Day). Full guidelines at website: www.terrain.org/contest.
TOM HOWARD/MARGARET REID Poetry Contest. 19th 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 submission of 1–2 poems. Length limit: 250 lines per poem. Both published and unpublished work accepted. Submit by September 30. Enter at website: winningwriters.com/tompoetry.
TWO POETRY CONTESTS with cash prizes: 1) Free sonnet contest, 2 categories, deadline: July 15, or 2) Multi-themed poetry contest, 13 categories, deadline: August 31. Categories include free verse, formal verse, humorous, nature, Chicago-themed, and more. Go to the website: www.poetsandpatrons.net for details. We accept e-mail submissions only.
WILLOW SPRING BOOKS is now accepting submissions for the Spokane Prize for Short Fiction: $2,000 prize for a previously unpublished book-length manuscript (minimum 98 pages, 3 short stories). Reading fee: $27.50. Deadline: June 14. Previous winners include: Nickalus Rupert, Dariel Suarez, Jaclyn Watterson, and Molly Giles. Full guidelines at wse.submittable.com.