Now that summer has officially begun, the heat is on: Get your entries ready for contests with a deadline of June 30! Prizes include $130,000 Canadian (approximately $96,732) for a published poetry collection, $15,000 and publication for a story collection, €3,000 (approximately $3,217) for a short story, and other generous awards. All contests have a cash prize of $1,000 or more, and two have no entry fee. Why not throw your hat in the ring?

Anthology Magazine
Poetry Competition
A prize of €1,000 (approximately $1,072) and publication in, plus a subscription to, Anthology Magazine will be given annually for a single poem. Rachael Hegarty will judge. Entry fee: €12 (approximately $13) by June 30, or €18 (approximately $19) thereafter, until October 31. 

Barrow Street Press
Book Prize
A prize of $1,500 and publication by Barrow Street Press is given annually for a poetry collection. Nathalie Handal will judge. Entry fee: $25 ($28 for electronic submissions).

Bauhan Publishing
May Sarton New Hampshire Poetry Prize
A prize of $1,000, publication by Bauhan Publishing, and 50 author copies is given annually for a poetry collection. Brad Crenshaw will judge. Entry fee: $30. 

Cider Press Review
Editors’ Prize Book Award
A prize of $1,000, publication by Cider Press Review, and 25 author copies is given annually for a poetry collection. Entry fee: $26.

Griffin Trust for Excellence in Poetry
Griffin Poetry Prize
A prize of $130,000 Canadian (approximately $96,732) is given annually for a poetry collection written or translated into English by a living poet or translator from anywhere in the world and published during the previous year. Finalists receive $10,000 Canadian (approximately $7,441) each for their participation in the shortlisted authors event to be held in Toronto in June. Publishers may submit four copies of a book published between January 1 and June 30 by June 30. Entry fee: None.

Lascaux Review
Prize in Flash Fiction
A prize of $1,000 and publication in Lascaux Review online and in print is given annually for a work of flash fiction. Previously published stories are eligible. Entry fee: $15.

Los Angeles Review
Literary Awards
Four prizes of $1,000 each and publication in Los Angeles Review are given annually for a poem, a short story, a short short story, and an essay. M. Soledad Caballero will judge in poetry, Carlos Allende will judge in fiction, John Weir will judge in flash fiction, and Chelsey Clammer will judge in creative nonfiction. Entry fee: $20.

Omnidawn Publishing
Chapbook Contest
A prize of $1,000, publication by Omnidawn Publishing, and 20 author copies is given annually for a poetry chapbook. Brody Parrish Craig will judge. Entry fee: $30.

Poetry London
Poetry London Prize
A first-place prize of £5,000 (approximately $6,044), a second-place prize of £2,000 (approximately $2,417), and a third-place prize of £1,000 (approximately $1,209) are given annually for a single poem. The winners will also receive publication in the Autumn Issue of Poetry London and an invitation to read at the issue’s launch, held at the Southbank Centre in London. Rachel Long will judge. Entry fee: $12. 

The Moth
International Short Story Prize
A prize of €3,000 (approximately $3,217) is given annually for a short story. A prize of a weeklong retreat at Circle of Misse in Missé, France, with an open-ended travel stipend, and a prize of €1,000 (approximately $1,072) are also given. The winners will be published in the Irish Times. Ottessa Moshfegh will judge. Entry fee: €15 (approximately $16).

University of Pittsburgh Press
Drue Heinz Literature Prize
A prize of $15,000 and publication by University of Pittsburgh Press is given annually for a collection of short fiction. Writers who have published at least one previous book of fiction or a minimum of three short stories or novellas in nationally distributed magazines or literary journals are eligible. Entry fee: None.

University of North Texas Press
Katherine Anne Porter Prize
A prize of $1,000 and publication by University of North Texas Press is given annually for a collection of short fiction. Entry fee: $25.

Winning Writers
North Street Book Prize
A grand prize of $10,000 and eight additional prizes of $1,000 each are given annually for self-published and hybrid-published books (works published by presses that coordinate all aspects of book publication in exchange for a fee) of poetry, fiction, genre fiction, creative nonfiction, children’s literature, middle grade books, graphic narrative, and art books. Each of the winners will also receive publication of an excerpt on the Winning Writers website; a marketing consultation with author and publishing consultant Carolyn Howard-Johnson; $300 in credit at BookBaby, a distributor for self-published authors; three months of Plus service from Book Award Pro (plus $500 in account credit for the grand prize winner), a literary award database and submission platform; and free advertising in the Winning Writers e-mail newsletter. Ellen LaFleche and Jendi Reiter will judge. Entry fee: $75.

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.

In the foreword to Once a City Said: A Louisville Poets Anthology, published by Sarabande Books this week, editor Joy Priest recounts driving from Provincetown, Massachusetts, to Houston at the height of the pandemic in the summer of 2020. At one point she stops in Richmond, Virginia, and drives down Monument Avenue with “its parade of Confederate statues lining the street’s median,” and later, in Louisville, Kentucky, notes how “the streets were filled with smoke, flash-bangs, and tear gas, not just over the murder of George Floyd but also over the murder of one of our own by Louisville police: Breonna Taylor.” Write an essay structured around a road trip in which the places you visit are central to the essay’s subject. Consider the history of the places you have visited as well as the encounters you have had there.

Sandy and Danny’s summer nights in Grease, Tony and Maria on a fire escape in West Side Story, Joe and Princess Anne’s single day together in Roman Holiday—the summer romance is a common trope in film and literature for good reason. In an article for the online therapy company Talkspace, therapist Cynthia V. Catchings notes that summer is a time “to escape from routine and open up to new people and experiences.” A welcome uptick in the production of serotonin due to the increase in sunlight, the relaxed school and work schedules, and the ubiquity of breezy summer clothing all account for feeling good and at ease. Inspired by fun summer flings, write a short story in which two characters experience a whirlwind affair. Play with the conventions of this trope and try upending the expectations associated with a romantic story.

“If you haven’t taken the Amtrak in Florida, you haven’t lived,” writes Megan Fernandes in her poem “Letter to a Young Poet,” which appears in her third collection, I Do Everything I’m Told, published by Tin House this week. The poem’s title borrows from Rainer Maria Rilke’s renowned collection of letters to a young poet seeking his guidance, published in 1929. Fernandes’s poem addresses a nameless “you” while simultaneously revealing details about the speaker, producing a sense of intimacy that presents two sides of a correspondence, its lines swerving associatively, as the pieces of advice turn increasingly lyrical. “It’s better to be illegible, sometimes. Then they can’t govern you,” writes Fernandes. “Sleep upward in a forest so the animal sees your gaze.” Taking inspiration from the lyrical techniques evident in this poem, write a poem of your own that offers advice to a younger version of yourself. Instead of simply giving your younger self practical advice, how can you propose a new way to see?

In her installment of our Ten Questions series, Emma Cline talks about the imagery that first inspired her latest novel, The Guest (Random House, 2023). “The first time I saw an East Coast beach, I was so struck by the mildness of the landscape, a long stretch of dunes and the warm water and mint grasses. It looked surreal to my California eye, and I knew I wanted to write about that landscape,” says Cline. Can you recall visiting a landscape that felt entirely new to you? Write an essay that offers details of this place and your experience with it. Try to identify the feelings it conjured in you and what made it feel new.