About a week remains before submissions are due for the Journal Non/Fiction Prize. The literary magazine of the Ohio State University MFA Program in Creative Writing, the Journal, will select one full-length collection of short prose to be published by Mad Creek Books, the trade imprint of Ohio State University Press, and offer a cash prize of $1,500. Emerging and established writers of fiction and creative nonfiction are eligible.

journal-logo.png

Using only the online submission system, submit a collection of short stories, essays, or novellas (or a combination thereof) of 150 to 350 pages with a $23 entry fee ($11.50 for BIPOC writers), which includes a subscription to the Journal, by March 11. Michelle Herman, cofounder of the MFA program at Ohio State University, will judge. Visit the website for complete guidelines.

Last year’s winner was Rebecca Bernard for her story collection, Our Sister Who Will Not Die. “If Mary Gaitskill’s Bad Behavior and Ottessa Moshfegh’s Homesick for Another World had a lovechild, it would be Our Sister Who Will Not Die,” Nick White, author of How to Survive a Summer, wrote of the book. “Wild and subversive in the very best ways, these stories had me by the throat.”

During the pandemic, a popular pastime has been rewatching favorite shows, from recent offerings to classics. According to an article published in Reader’s Digest, this trend can be traced to the concept of status quo bias: the idea of maintaining one’s current or previous decision. Psychologists also note that we tend to stick with what’s familiar to ease anxiety and avoid disappointment and stress. This week write an essay about rewatching your favorite shows. Do you encounter something new each time or find comfort in reliving the same emotions?

In a short essay for Literary Hub’s “Craft of Writing” newsletter, novelist Rebecca Makkai argues that setting is the most underutilized tool in fiction. Makkai explains that a setting should “give the reader enough ambience and context that they can extrapolate a world” as well as take an active part in offering characters something to react to and “trap characters together, destabilize them, provoke change, or provide refuge, urgency, or danger.” Keeping this definition in mind, draft a short story by starting with a clear and time-specific setting. Try to delineate the time period, the physical location, and the relationship this setting has to your protagonist so it can make an impact on your story.

In “When I See Stars in the Night Sky,” Joy Priest writes an ode to the late iconic singer Whitney Houston, tethering her memory to the stars in the sky. “It’s 1988           Her head /             Thrown back against a black backdrop     She is the only thing / glowing       So distant              from us in the universe,” writes Priest. The poem then moves into the personal connection the speaker has with the singer. “I love myself / because of her,” writes Priest. Inspired by this poem, write an ode to your favorite musician placing them, as Priest does, in a specific moment in time.