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We found over
three dozen excellent free poetry and prose contests with
deadlines between April 15-May 31. In this issue, please enjoy the fifth installment of
"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by T.S. Eliot,
illustrated by Julian Peters.
EDYTHE
RODRIGUEZ and QIN QIN
won the top awards of $3,000 each in our 19th annual Tom
Howard/Margaret Reid Poetry Contest. Contest co-sponsor Duotrope
awarded our winners two-year gift certificates (value $100) to access
Duotrope's extensive literary information services. Visit the winners'
pages to see the original artwork we commissioned for their
poems.
4,593 entries were received
from around the world. We awarded 10 Honorable Mentions to Taylor
Byas, Maurya Kerr, Athena Kildegaard, Fiona Lu, Tawanda Mulalu, Scudder
Parker, Remi Recchia, Laura Theis, Peaco Todd, and Laura Villareal.
Read today's press
release, and read the winning
entries selected by S. Mei
Sheng Frazier with assistance from Vernon Keeve III and
Lauren Singer. Our 20th contest opens today. Ms. Frazier returns to
judge, and will now be assisted by Michal
'MJ' Jones. We will again award $3,000 to each of the
top winners, and the entry fee is now $20 for 1-3 poems. Enter
here.
Last Call!
TOM
HOWARD/JOHN H. REID FICTION & ESSAY CONTEST
Deadline: April 30. 30th year. $8,000 in prizes, including two top
awards of $3,000 each. Fee: $20 per entry. Judge: Mina
Manchester. Both unpublished and previously published work
accepted. See last
year's winners and enter here.
View past newsletters in our archives.
Need assistance? Let us
help. Join our 135,000 followers on Twitter
and find us on Facebook.
Advertise
with us, starting at $40.
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Deadline: May 18
This exclusive contest is open
only to previously published authors with at least one writing/poetry
award. We will invite five poets to showcase up to 20 poems each in our
2022
Poetry Masters Anthology. Submit 5-20 of your best poems in
one MS Word document. Fee: $40.
Prizes: TROPHY, CASH, AND PUBLICATION
1st: $1,000
2nd: $500
3rd: $250
4th: $125
5th: $125
Visit OPRELLE
for details.
Oprelle
is a publishing company committed to providing a platform to otherwise
unknown or unheard-from creatives. Our mission is to share the works of
those who are growing and rising in the poetry, art, and written word
realms. Through ongoing contests, we provide resources and exposure for
poets, artists, and authors. We hope to inspire new talents to press
forward with their extraordinary gifts.
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Congratulations to Desmond
Kon Zhicheng-Mingdé, Barbara
Regenspan (featured poem: "Tinnitus"),
Harris Gardner (featured poem: "Comma"),
Lisa Dordal, Ndaba
Sibanda, Gemma Cooper-Novack, Annie
Dawid, Gail Thomas, Angela
Paolantonio, R.T. Castleberry, Victoria
Leigh Bennett, E Baker, Shobana
Gomes, and Andrew Mercado (featured
poem: "Ode
to the Forty Year Patient").
Winning Writers Editor Jendi
Reiter's book launch reading for their poetry
collection Bullies
in Love can now be viewed on Little Red Tree
Publishing's new YouTube
channel. Subscribe to be notified of video readings from
Jendi's new collection, Made Man,
and other forthcoming titles from this international literary
publisher.
Learn
about our subscribers' achievements and see links to samples of their
work.
Have news? Please email it to jendi@winningwriters.com.
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Atmosphere authors have sold
thousands of books across five continents, received starred or featured
reviews with Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, and Booklist,
and have even appeared on a giant billboard in Times Square. Atmosphere
has had books with 1,000+ first-month sales in four
different genres, and their Author Connect program unites their authors
with each other like no other press. And they're just getting started.
Atmosphere
Press currently seeks great manuscripts, and they'll be the
publisher you've always wanted: attentive, organized, on schedule, and
professional. They use a model in which the author funds the initial
publication of the book, but retains 100% rights, royalties, and
artistic autonomy. From an exceptional editorial team through book
design and into promotion, partnering with Atmosphere is the way to do
your book right.
So, send your
manuscript their way. Submissions are free and open to everyone and in
all genres.
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First Place Winner of the 2021 North
Street Book Prize for Genre Fiction
Russian troops pour across the border
Russian infiltrators sow sabotage and terror
Cities are bombed and shelled
… only it's 1929 Manchuria
and a dismembered body is found in the Japanese zone
Borya is at the bottom ranks of
Harbin's Special District police force. Fate takes him from chasing
pickpockets to pairing him with one of the force's premier detectives,
changing his life forever. Together they investigate the dismembered
body of one of Harbin's foreign businessmen.
The trail takes them from the
upscale boulevards of Harbin's New Town, to the seediest neighborhoods
of the lower city, and beyond to the frontiers of Manchuria. Slowly
they are drawn into a war with the Soviet Union that could tear apart
the whole balance of life as they know it…
Can Borya and Inspector Chinn
stay alive long enough to solve the crime?
Read an
excerpt and the Winning Writers critique
Buy the
book at Amazon
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Winner of the
Grand Prize in the 2021 North Street Book Prize competition
Three years of war.
Forty years of silence.
Thirty years of forgetting.
One day of remembering.
Inheriting Our Names portrays a family trauma inherited from the Spanish
Civil War, suppressed from memory, and passed through successive
generations and across continents until one woman returns to Seville to
reconstruct—and reclaim—her family's history. A richly layered and lush
exploration of transgenerational trauma, grief, and release.
"I love that this book is described
as 'an imagined true memoir' and, indeed, it is both searingly honest
and richly imagined. I was utterly engrossed by this lyrical, profound
story of secrets and revelations, trauma and transformation, and am so
glad to have discovered this writer."
—Abigail DeWitt, author of three novels: Lili
(WW Norton), Dogs (Lorimer Press), and News of
our Loved Ones
"An intensely rich and
beautiful book written with the poetic touch of a writer whose heart
unmistakably beats with Andalusian blood. This is a story of grief and
pain, but also of healing and identity, of three women separated by
time and war who weave together in a stunningly passionate examination
of hidden history and its effects on the past, present, and
future."
—SPR Publishing Review
Read an excerpt
from Inheriting Our Names (PDF)
Read the
Winning Writers critique
Buy now from Amazon
and other fine booksellers worldwide.
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Deadline: May 1
DECEMBER MAGAZINE seeks
submissions for our 2022 Curt Johnson Prose Awards in fiction and
creative nonfiction. Prizes each genre—$1,500 & publication
(winner); $500 & publication (honorable mention). All finalists
will be listed in the 2022 Fall/Winter awards issue. $20 entry fee
includes a copy of the awards issue. Submit one story or essay up to
8,000 words.
For complete
guidelines and judge information visit our
website.
december
magazine was founded in Iowa City in 1958 by a group of
poets, writers, and artists who declared, "We are humanists…far
more concerned with people than dogmatic critical or aesthetic
attitudes." december was a pioneer in the
"little" magazine and small press movement, publishing
cutting-edge fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and art. By 1962, the
founding editors had left Iowa City; one of them, Jeff Marks, took december
to Chicago and turned it over to Curt Johnson, an award-winning short
story writer and novelist. Johnson edited and published december
for the next 46 years until his death in 2008.
december's writers who published their first or very early
work in the journal include:
• 5 U.S. Poets Laureate
• 6 Pulitzer Prize winners
• 8 National Book Award winners
• 3 National Book Critics Circle Award winners
• 6 state poets laureate
• 9 Guggenheim fellows
• 10 NEA fellows
• 3 Poet's Prize winners
• 5 O. Henry Award winners (totaling 10 awards)
• 2 Pen/Faulkner Award winners
• 3 Pushcart Prize winners
• 5 selections in Best American Short Stories
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Submit
by the early-bird deadline of May 1 for a reduced entry fee.
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Begins
May 1—sign up now!
Because we've had so many
requests to create a way for poets to get weekly poetry prompts along
with information to help them publish poems and manuscripts, Two
Sylvias Press is thrilled to offer the Two
Sylvias' Weekly Muse to help with all your goals from
inspiration to publication!
Subscribe
to Two Sylvias' Weekly Muse for $18.99/month (less with
an annual subscription) and each week you will receive:
·
Poetry Exercises / Prompts: You will
receive one longer writing exercise and one shorter prompt each week to
help you write two poems a week (or more!)
·
Ask the Editors: Our weekly
feature where our editors answer YOUR questions on poetry, writing,
publishing, submitting, or whatever is on your mind.
·
A Creativity Reflection
Question: You can use these questions when journaling or
simply reflect on them as you go about your day.
·
Exclusive Interviews with
Well-Known Poets: We ask our favorite poets
questions focused on writing, time management, titles, manuscripts,
poetic forms, inspiration, submitting, rejections, and advice to help
you on your poetic journey.
·
Where to Submit Your Work: Each week we
share with you places to submit your work—literary journals,
anthologies, and other opportunities.
·
Occasional Surprises: From time to
time, we will be giving away FREE Two Sylvias Press publications,
discounts on reading fees, and giveaways including FREE Online Poetry
Retreats.
·
An Optional Facebook Group: A space for
you to create community, share poems, and meet new poets on similar
paths.
SUBSCRIBE
HERE
We look forward to answering
your questions, sending you inspiration, and helping you get your poems
out into the world.
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$8,700 IN PRIZES AND
PUBLICATION
Deadline:
May 5 | No entry fee
Submissions are now being
accepted for Imagine 2200:
Climate Fiction for Future Ancestors, the annual
climate fiction contest from Fix, Grist's solutions lab.
Imagine 2200 seeks original
short stories of 3,000 to 5,000 words that envision the
next 180 years of clean, green, and just futures. Judges include Grace L. Dillon,
Arkady Martine,
and Sheree Renée
Thomas.
The top three winners will be
awarded $3,000, $2,000, and $1,000
respectively, and nine finalists will receive a $300
honorarium. Those 12 authors will be published in an immersive digital
collection this fall. Conjure your wildest dreams for society—all the
justice, resilience, and abundance you can imagine—and put those dreams
on paper.
There's no fee
to enter, so if you're ready to get
writing, you can find our submissions
portal here. If you'd like to get in touch, you can
reach us at imaginefiction@grist.org.
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Deadline: May 31
In 2022 The de Groot Foundation will award a minimum
of seven unrestricted grants of $7,000 each to writers.
Applications are now open for
the COURAGE to
WRITE grants sponsored by The de Groot Foundation.
This new grant program encourages and supports emerging voices of all
ages (18 and older) and backgrounds. Writing takes focus, courage, and
time. The goal of these grants of $7,000 each is to provide a monetary
respite that offers writers the freedom to focus on their creative
process, enhance their craft, or complete a project.
Applications are open to
English-language adult writers regardless of race, ethnicity, gender
orientation, education, economic situation, geographic origin, or
location.
Application fee: $22. Grant
awardees will be notified in July 2022. To review application
guidelines and apply, click here.
We look forward to learning about you and your project.
The de
Groot Foundation is a 501(c)(3) foundation located in the
United States. The foundation was created in 2010 by the de Groot
family to support high-impact, sustainable innovation, education, and
cultural projects. The foundation's current cultural focus is to
encourage and discover emerging voices in the literary arts.
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 "The receipt of the North
Street Book Prize for Literary Fiction has been an
uplifting and mind-altering experience for me. The call from contest administrator Adam
Cohen came at a low point, as it was one year after losing my
husband of forty-eight years, a writer himself, my muse and chief
cheerleader. Poor Adam had to talk me through the receipt of the award,
reminding me of my submission, which was a blur coming so soon after my
husband's passing. Then I received the award a couple of weeks later,
and it was so beautifully presented. Then I had a conference with
Carolyn Howard-Johnson, who was wonderful in the information she gave
me on marketing, and refocusing me on my prior writing accomplishments.
"This past week, I took
the time to read the credentials of the judges, and was so honored to
be chosen as First Prize winner by such an illustrious panel, who took
time from their own writing and academic pursuits to judge all of the
submissions. I want to thank you all for the time and energy you
put into this endeavor. The entire process reminded me of my husband's
encouragement to finish Wildflowers and to continue
writing—and gave me a much-needed shift in my thinking to my joy in
writing."
— Delores
Lowe Friedman, 2021 North Street winner for
Mainstream/Literary Fiction
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Deadline: July 1
Bellevue Literary Review's
annual prizes recognize exceptional writing about health, healing,
illness, the body, and the mind.
• Goldenberg Prize for
Fiction
Judged by Toni Jensen
• Felice Buckvar Prize for
Nonfiction
Judged by Rana Awdish
• John and Eileen Allman
Prize for Poetry
Judged by Phillip B. Williams
Each category offers a $1,000
First Prize and $250 Honorable Mention. Winners and honorable mentions
will be published in the Spring 2023 issue of BLR.
Poetry: 3 poems per submission
Fiction and Nonfiction: 5,000 words maximum
Only previously unpublished work will be considered.
Entry fee $20.
Visit BLR's
website for complete guidelines.
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Deadline: July 15 (11:59pm
Pacific Time for online entries)
The annual Rattle
Poetry Prize celebrates its 17th year with a 1st prize of
$15,000 for a single poem. Ten finalists will also receive $500 each
and publication, and be eligible for the $5,000 Readers' Choice Award,
to be selected by subscriber and entrant vote. All of these poems will
be published in the winter issue of the magazine.
With the winners judged in a
masked review by the editors to ensure a fair and consistent selection,
an entry fee that is simply a one-year subscription to the magazine—and
a runner-up Readers' Choice Award to be chosen by the writers
themselves—the Rattle Poetry Prize aims to be one of the most
writer-friendly and popular poetry contests around.
We accept entries online and by
mail. See Rattle's
website for the complete guidelines and to read all of the
past winners.
Please enjoy last year's
Readers' Choice Award winner by Erin
Murphy, published in Rattle #74, Winter 2021:
THE INTERNET
OF THINGS
(n.):
the networking capability that allows information
to
be sent and received by objects and devices
The low tide riverbed silt
of things. The cloud-swept
distant hill of things.
The open bedroom window
in spring of things.
The moonlit cricket
symphony of things.
The pitter-patter
tin roof rain of things.
The fifty-year marriage
loose skin of things.
The clipped winter light
of things. The stippled lymph
node of things. The grief.
Oh—the grief. The brief
ecstatic flight of things.
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Some contests are best suited
to writers at the early stages of their careers. Others are better for
writers with numerous prizes and publications to their credit. Here is
this month's selection of Spotlight Contests for your consideration:
Emerging Writers
Parsec
SF/Fantasy/Horror Short Story Contest.
Parsec gives prizes up to $200 for fantasy, sci-fi, and horror stories,
with the winners published in the program book for Confluence, Parsec's
annual convention. Send 1-2 stories, maximum 3,500 words each, on this
year's theme ("Hearth, Song, and Table"). The contest is open
to non-professional writers. Due May 1.
Intermediate Writers
James
Laughlin Award. The Academy of American
Poets will award $5,000 and a weeklong residency in Miami Beach, FL for
a US poet's second book of 48-100 pages in length, under contract to a
US publisher and forthcoming in 2023. The Academy will also buy 1,000
copies of the winning book for distribution to its members. Publisher
should submit entry form online and upload PDF of manuscript with
author's name removed. Due May 15.
Advanced Writers
Atwood Gibson
Writers' Trust Fiction Prize. The Writers'
Trust of Canada awards C$60,000 for novels or short story collections
published in Canada. Books published between March 1 and May 2 of this
year must be received by May 3. Publisher should send 5 hard copies of
the book (or 3 bound galleys, to be followed by at least 2 copies of
the book) and submit entry form, PDF of the book, press kit, and list
of titles published by that publisher, to establish eligibility.
See more
Spotlight Contests for emerging,
intermediate,
and advanced
writers within The Best Free Literary Contests database.
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Winning Writers finds open
submission calls and free contests in a variety of sources, including Erika
Dreifus' Practicing Writer newsletter, FundsforWriters,
Trish
Hopkinson's blog, Erica
Verrillo's blog, Authors
Publish, Lit Mag
News Roundup, Poets
& Writers, The
Writer, Duotrope,
Submittable,
and literary journals' own newsletters and announcements.
• Dashboard
Horus
(poetry, prose, artwork about travel that may be real or imaginary -
rolling deadline)
• 20.35
Africa Anthology V
(unpublished poems by African and diaspora poets aged 20-35 - April 24)
• Rough
Cut Press: "Dust" Issue
(poetry, flash prose, artwork by LGBTQ creators on this theme - April
27)
• Qwyre
African Speculative Fiction Contest
(web monetization site for literary content seeks stories in this genre
- April 30)
• Re-side
Zine: "Hunger" Issue
(poetry, prose, artwork on this theme - April 30)
• Renaissance
Review
(youth-led lit mag seeks poetry, prose, artwork "that spins
together passion in multiple fields" - April 30)
• Rewired:
An Anthology of Neurodiverse Horror
(short horror stories inspired by differences in perception and
communication - April 30)
• In the
Tempered Dark: Contemporary Poets Transcending Elegy
(grief poetry anthology from Black Lawrence Press - May 31)
• RHINO
Poetry
(poetry, flash fiction, translations - June 30)
• Lethe
Press: "Brute" Anthology
(dark and speculative short stories that address gay sexuality, desire,
masculinity, rough trade - August 1)
• Green
Linden Press: "Essential Queer Voices" Anthology
(published or unpublished poetry by "people who live outside
mainstream sexual and gender norms" - October 1)
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This month's ProLiteracy
Member Spotlight is on the Ozark
Literacy Council (OLC) and its effort to spread literacy
across Northwest Arkansas while raising money for its program.
The OLC, in collaboration with
the Northwest Arkansas American Institute of Architects and the Fay
Jones School of Architects, recently launched its Little
Free Library: Building Literacy. Building Community.
project in an effort to bring Little Free Libraries to Northwest
Arkansas. Proceeds from this project will support OLC's educational and
outreach programs.
Little
Free Library is a nonprofit organization and a worldwide
movement aimed at promoting reading, building communities, and
launching creativity by fostering neighborhood book exchanges in small
containers where users can utilize the "take a book—return a
book" approach. Since 2009, the nonprofit organization's
grassroots movement has led to about 25,000 libraries around the world
[including one in front of Winning Writers' headquarters in Northampton
-eds.]
The OLC recently held a
competition in which students had the opportunity to submit Little Free
Library design plans to be available for future sites. Communities throughout
Northwest Arkansas will benefit from the project, including homeless
shelters, senior homes, hospitals and clinics, and neighborhoods.
Sponsorships range from $3,000 to $6,000. A portion of the sponsorship
goes toward the official design, supplies, and construction of the
Little Free Library.
Learn
more at ProLiteracy.
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You can expect your critique to
be 1,500-3,000 words long. It will include the following sections as
relevant:
·
Critique summary
·
Technical execution (layout,
spelling and grammar, technical consistency, technical quality of any
illustrations, font, accessibility)
·
Structure and content
(character, plot, theme, setting, internal consistency, structure,
pacing)
·
Use of language (register,
tone, tonal consistency, literary devices, artistic style, imagery,
sense of mastery, relation to themes)
·
Recommendations and conclusion
·
Exercises to unlock creativity
You may also submit up to 3
specific questions to be answered within your critique. We guarantee
your satisfaction. Learn
more and order your critique for $180.
We also offer critiques of poems,
stories, and essays and children's
picture books for just $90.
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 And the
Real (Estate) Monster Was...
I've just finished reading Robert Marasco's 1973 haunted house novel, Burnt Offerings,
reissued by Valancourt Books. This book is like what would happen if a
"Better Homes and Gardens" magazine became sentient and
started eating your brain. Our protagonists flee the grime and noise
pollution of low-income apartment life in New York (something I know
well!) only to be seduced by the luxuries of an upstate mansion that
consumes tenants' life force in order to repair itself. Unlike typical
haunted houses, this one is delightful to live in. The horror arises
from watching the lengths to which people will go to delude themselves
because they want a room with a view.
Read
more
Jendi
Reiter is the editor of Winning Writers.
Follow
Jendi on Twitter at @JendiReiter.
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