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In this Green Apple Books event, Diana Khoi Nguyen, author of Root Fractures (Scribner, 2024), and Cindy Juyoung Ok, author of Ward Toward (Yale University Press, 2024), read from their poetry collections and join Aracelis Girmay for a conversation. Ok is featured in an installation of our Ten Questions series and Nguyen’s Root Fractures is featured in Page One in the January/February issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
The author of Yaguareté White considers the ethics of found poetry.
In this video from The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, Amanda Gorman reads her poem “What We Carry,” which appears in her debut collection, Call Us What We Carry (Viking, 2021), set to world-renowned cellist Jan Vogler’s performance of “Suite for Violoncello No. 1 in G Major, BWV 1007: I. Prélude” by Johann Sebastian Bach.
This year’s Arts & Letters Prizes mark a quarter century for the contest in which three decorated judges select a group of poems, a short story, and an essay. The deadline for the twenty-fifth annual contest is March 31. The prize awards $1,000 and publication in Arts & Letters, a journal that has attracted both emerging and established writers such as Donald Hall, Sonja Livingston, and Xu Xi.
Using only the online submission system, submit up to four poems of any length or up to 25 pages of prose with a $20 entry fee. All entries are considered for publication. Chelsea Rathburn will judge in poetry, Tiphanie Yanique will judge in fiction, and Beth Ann Fennelly will judge in nonfiction. Visit the website for more information.
Founded by Martin Lammon in 1999 and operating out of Georgia College & State University’s MFA program in creative writing ever since, Arts & Letters has for nearly a decade been headed by its second editor, Laura Newbern, who’s also an associate professor in English at GCSU and a recipient of the 2010 Writer’s Award from the Rona Jaffe Foundation. And for those wondering if this contest is the right fit, the editorial board welcomes both formal and experimental work—even writing that otherwise “defies classification”—so long as, in the board’s words, the submission “doesn’t try too hard to grab our attention, but rather guides it toward the human voice and its perpetual struggle into language.” If you’re still not sure, you might find inspiration in the judges’ latest book in their respective category; that is, Rathburn’s Still Life With Mother and Knife (LSU Press, 2019), Yanique’s How to Escape From a Leper Colony (Graywolf Press, 2010), and Fennelly’s Heating & Cooling: 52 Micro-Memoirs (Norton, 2017).
“I thought a book could be carved out of a block of poems, but instead it had to start from blank space.” —Cindy Juyoung Ok, author of Ward Toward
“Because curfews of / Because strip search at the checkpoint into / Because grandmother’s undergarments splayed on / Because two men with guns on the way to / Because grandmother saves plastic Coke liters to / Because the water could without notice be,” writes Jessica Abughattas in her poem “Litany for My Father” published by Split This Rock. The poem consists of twenty-two lines, which, all but the last line, begin with the word “because” and end abruptly, as if in mid-thought. The lines build into a powerful expression of loss and a sublimated sense of intense sorrow, how powerless one can feel in grief. Write a poem that makes use of omission or erasure in this way, taking into consideration how the format might influence your subject or theme. How does this repeated absence of words achieve emotive force?
The author of Yaguareté White contemplates how to approach writing in multiple languages.
In this 2013 video, Lyn Hejinian reads from her book The Book of a Thousand Eyes (Omnidawn, 2012) for the Lunch Poem reading series at the University of California in Berkeley, where she was Professor and John F. Hotchkis Chair Emerita. Hejinian died at the age of eighty-two on February 24, 2024.
What more fitting time than the arrival of spring to imagine growing an audience for your writing? Fortunately there are a number of writing contests with a March 15 deadline to consider. Prizes include $15,000 for a debut novel published during the current year (six finalists receive $1,000 each); $10,000 for a novel-in-progress by a debut author (a first and second runner-up receive $3,000 and $2,000, respectively); and five prizes of $10,000, plus publication by one of five participating trade, university, or small press publishers, for poetry collections by U.S. poets. Nine other awards offer publication and prizes ranging from $500 to $3,000 for work in various genres. Best of luck!
Bellingham Review
Literary Awards
Three prizes of $1,000 each and publication in Bellingham Review are given annually for works of poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. The 49th Parallel Award for Poetry is given for a poem or group of poems. The Tobias Wolff Award for Fiction is given for a short story or a work of flash fiction. The Annie Dillard Award for Creative Nonfiction is given for an essay or a work of flash nonfiction. All entries are considered for publication. English translations of works originally written in another language are accepted. Entry fee: $15.
Broadside Lotus Press
Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Award
A prize of $500 and publication by Broadside Lotus Press is given annually for a poetry collection by an African American poet. Entry fee: None.
The Center for Fiction
First Novel Prize
A prize of $15,000 is given annually for a debut novel by an American citizen published in the United States during the current year. Six finalists receive $1,000 each. Self-published works, books published exclusively in e-book editions, and novels previously published in other countries are not eligible. Small independent publishers may apply for a fee reduction. Entry fee: $100.
Fourth Genre
Steinberg Memorial Essay Prize
A prize of $1,000 and publication in Fourth Genre is given annually for an essay. Sarah Viren will judge. All entries are considered for publication. Entry fee: $20.
Indiana Review
Poetry and Creative Nonfiction Prizes
Two prizes of $1,000 each and publication in Indiana Review are given annually for a single poem and an essay. Entry fee: $20 (includes a subscription to Indiana Review).
James Jones Literary Society
First Novel Fellowship
A prize of $10,000 is given annually for a novel-in-progress by a U.S. writer who has not published a novel. The first runner-up receives $3,000 and the second runner-up receives $2,000. Entry fee: $33.
National Poetry Series
Open Competition
Five prizes of $10,000 each and publication by participating trade, university, or small press publishers are given annually for poetry collections by U.S. poets. Entry fee: $35.
Prairie Schooner
Raz-Shumaker Book Prizes
Two prizes of $3,000 each and publication by University of Nebraska Press are given annually for a poetry collection and a story collection. Kwame Dawes will judge. Entry fee: $25.
Robinson Jeffers Tor House Foundation
Poetry Prize
A prize of $1,000 is given annually for a single poem. Sun Yung Shin will judge. Entry fee: $10.
Trio House Press
Louise Bogan Award
A prize of $1,000, publication by Trio House Press, and 20 author copies is given annually for a poetry collection by a poet living in the United States. Oliver de la Paz will judge. Entry fee: $25.
Trio House Press
Trio Award for First or Second Book
A prize of $1,000, publication by Trio House Press, and 20 author copies is given annually for a first or second poetry collection by a poet living in the United States. Jessica Q. Stark will judge. Entry fee: $25.
Verse
Tomaž Šalamun Prize
A prize of $1,000 and publication by Factory Hollow Press is given annually for a poetry chapbook. The winner also receives a monthlong residency in a private apartment at the Tomaž Šalamun Centre for Poetry in Ljubljana, Slovenia, in summer 2025. Prose poetry, hybrid works, and translations of works of poetry by living writers from any language into English (with the relevant permission) are also eligible. Shane McCrae will judge. Entry fee: $17 ($13 for students).
The Word Works
Washington Prize
A prize of $1,500 and publication by the Word Works is given annually to a U.S. or Canadian poet for a poetry collection. Entry fee: $25.
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 this episode of Poured Over: The Barnes & Noble Podcast hosted by Miwa Messer, Phillip B. Williams talks about the makings of his debut novel, Ours (Viking, 2024), and how his characters led him to shape the story. For more from Williams, read his installment of our Ten Questions online series.
