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Sponsored by Winning Writers
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Happy
New Year! The 32nd annual Tom Howard/John H. Reid Fiction & Essay Contest
welcomes your entries through May 1, 2024. It's sponsored by
Winning Writers, co-sponsored by Duotrope,
and recommended by Reedsy.
Mina
Manchester returns as final judge of this contest. We are
increasing the total awards to $10,000. The top story and top essay
will each receive $3,500 plus a two-year gift certificate from
Duotrope (a $100 value). The 12 best entries will be published on
our website.
For this contest, a story
is any short work of fiction, and an essay is any short work of
nonfiction. We welcome both published and unpublished work. Each
entry may have up to 6,000 words. Fee: $22 per entry. Enter as many
times as you like. Most countries are eligible. Submit online via Submittable.
Please enjoy the winning entries from our previous contest
in the panels below.
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Winners of Our 2023
Contest: Fiction
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Illustration by Kimberly Edgar for
"Sylvia" by Billie Kelpin, fiction winner of our 2023
contest
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In
our 2023 contest, 2,407 entries were judged by Mina
Manchester with screening assistance from Sarah
Halper. Ms. Manchester shares her thoughts below:
This
year's winning stories and essays are breathtakingly fresh tonally,
structurally, and topically. The winner in fiction is a story with
an incredible twist—the surprise ending is a powerful punch to the
gut. Honorable mentions in the fiction category include stories
about a bad marriage and bad date, a bad Dad, bad choices, even a
Bad Art Friend.
In
nonfiction the winning essay is a beautiful meditation on grief and
guilt, discussing a difficult childhood in a Native American
community. Other essays tackle subjects ranging from intimacy in
non-monogamous relationships, to veterinary euthanasia, losing a
spouse to cancer, parenting a grown child with autism, and dancing
for sex workers, as well as a journalistic take on tracing missing
persons and the toll it takes on their loved ones.
The
talent of these storytellers and essayists is impressive and
immense. Spending time with these twelve winning tales may even
change you forever.
Billie
Kelpin's "Sylvia"
is the First Prize winner for Fiction. This story, ostensibly about
a teacher of deaf students, is about so much more. Pondering
questions about what we owe others, and what we are entitled to in
relationships, as well as what we can ask for and what we can't,
aren't so much answered as tongued.
Fiction
Honorable Mentions went to:
- G.H. Plaag, "Joy"—This
story, about meeting a significant other's parents for the
first time, ends with the most incredible and moving
revelation after a long, painful dinner with somewhat terrible
parents. (Wait for it!)
- Blake Rong, "Sunny
Sixteen"—This slippery story with a somewhat
unreliable narrator creates a whole world in a shared house in
Redondo Beach, California. It's impossible not to fall in love
with this assortment of characters as housemates. A story
about art, or a cautionary tale about love? You be the judge.
- Leslie Schwartz, "Gullfoss"—A
classic road trip story taking place in Iceland, this story
centers on a long-married couple teetering on the edge of
mid-life and questioning their choices. When a questionable
choice is made, other choices must follow. But no one knows
the outcome of their choices, this story seems to say. So how
can we ever know what to do?
- Mark Cecil Stevens, "Never
Fired a Shot"—A devastatingly sad story that is at
once a coming-of-age tale, a story about a son attempting to
understand his father's demons, and a tale of a young person
deciding who he is going to be, given where he comes from.
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Winners of our 2023
Contest: Nonfiction
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Illustration by Maria Sweeney for
"Reflections" by Jennifer Tubbs, nonfiction winner of our
2023 contest
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Jennifer
Tubbs's essay "Reflections"
is the First Prize winner for Nonfiction. This braided essay is
masterfully rendered, alternating between the past and present.
Childhood innocence and abuse, deprivation, and structural racism
and poverty are examined through the lens of perspective in this
introspective piece.
Nonfiction
Honorable Mentions went to:
- Jules Dubel, "It
Bleeds Without Stopping (The Heart)"—This is an
incredibly moving essay about the harsh realities of
veterinary end of life care and euthanasia. The piece reveals
a revelatory insight into the nature of love and how it can
transform not only a job, but one's own heart.
- Jen Knox, "Steady"—A
brutally honest piece about being eighteen, on the cusp of
adulthood, and trying to determine what your future is going
to be before you can truly see it. In this piece, which is
about the first jobs young adults have, and trying to climb
into a new life, domestic violence is examined through
personal experience, both as victim and witness.
- Janine Kovac, "Dancing
on the Blade"—The title of this story appropriately
captures the essence of what it entails, as a ballet dancer
prepares a healing performance ritual for sex workers in
Oakland, California, while exploring a personal connection to
sexual assault and trauma.
- D.T. Lumpkin, "Undetermined
Circumstances"—This journalistic investigation into a
long-disappeared missing young adult touches on the far more
personal story of the author's missing mother. This piece is a
courageous essay on the truths we seek, and the ones we try to
convince ourselves of.
- Munroe Shearer, "The
Five Pillars of Intimacy Direction"—A moving
meditation on intimacy in a fresh new context, one of
non-monogamous gay males exploring BDSM in their twenties.
- Sandi Sonnenfeld, "Pervert"—The
directness of this essay is jarring in the best way possible.
In unearthing dark truths, and honestly exploring the sides
most of us wish to keep hidden, the author shows the truth
about our own complicated desires.
Learn more about our current Tom Howard/John H. Reid Fiction
& Essay Contest open now.
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