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We found over
three dozen excellent free poetry and prose contests with
deadlines between May 15-June 30. In this issue, please enjoy the first three pages
of “The Burial of the Dead" from "The Waste Land"
by T. S. Eliot, illustrated by Julian Peters. We also debut a new feature, "Annie in the
Middle",
featuring insights on writing and publishing from Annie Mydla, our
managing editor. Annie has evaluated thousands of contest entries of
all kinds and addressed the widest variety of questions from writers.
We are privileged to be able to share her knowledge with you. This month's
subject is, "Older
Writers and Finding Success".
Next Deadline
NORTH
STREET BOOK PRIZE
Deadline: July 1. 10th year. Cash awards totaling $20,400, including a
top award of $10,000. This year's categories: Mainstream/Literary
Fiction, Genre Fiction, Creative Nonfiction & Memoir, Poetry,
Children's Picture Book, Middle Grade, Graphic Novel & Memoir,
and Art Book. Accepting hybrid-published as well as self-published
books. Fee: $79 per entry. New this year: All entrants
who submit online via Submittable will receive a brief commentary from
one of the judges (5-10 sentences). See the
previous winners and enter here.
Also open now, our Tom
Howard/Margaret Reid Poetry Contest will award $10,000 in
prizes, including two top awards of $3,500 each. Submit 1-3 poems for
$22. Deadline: October 1.
View past newsletters in our archives.
Need assistance? Let us
help. Join our 135,000 followers on Twitter
and 53,000 followers on Facebook.
Advertise
with us, starting at $40.
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Deadline: June 2
Any topic or style is
acceptable. Even though this anthology will be called Matter,
all that is expected is that your poetry reflects emotions and thoughts
coming from the depths of you. You need not write about a particular
word. We just want you to know that your talent with words can matter
to others.
Submit 3-40 lines in any style,
on any topic • Entry fee $15
PRIZES
·
First Place – $400 and
publication
·
Second Place – $200 and
publication
·
Third Place – $100 and
publication
These top three winners will be
published with a headshot and biography in the Matter -
Award Winning Poetry XXIV anthology.
Finalists - All finalists'
poems chosen by our judges will be published in the Matter -
Award Winning Poetry XXIV anthology.
Click to
submit.
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Congratulations to Laurie
Klein (featured poem: "There
must be a way to listen"), Carlos
Andrés Gómez, Sean Nevin, Annie
Dawid, Wendy Adair, R.
Bremner, Tamara Kaye Sellman, Diana
Goetsch, CB Anderson, R.T.
Castleberry, Shobana Gomes,
and Patricia Olson.
Winning Writers contest judge Michal
'MJ' Jones was named a finalist for the 2024
Lambda Literary Awards in Transgender Poetry, for their collection Hood Vacations
(Black Lawrence Press, 2023). Winners will be announced in June.
Winning Writers Editor Jendi
Reiter's poem "Subtext" was published in Impossible
Archetype, Issue 15.2 (March 2024). Their poem "Suicide
Squad" was published in the Spring 2024 issue of Solstice
Lit Mag. Their poems "Fifty Ways to Leave Your
Mother" and "I'm a Laura Ashley Man, Myself" were
published in Beneath
the Soil: A Queer Survivors' E-Zine, Vol. III (2024). Their
poem "Father of Two" made it to the final round of the 2024 Plentitudes
Prize.
Learn
about our subscribers' achievements and see links to samples of their
work.
Have news? Please email it to jendi@winningwriters.com.
Do you use TikTok
or Instagram?
Send your news to the @winningwriters account so we can share it!
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You have something important to
say. At The Forge, we'll give you the creative writing tools &
training to say it, at a much lower cost than a traditional MFA
program.
If not now—when?
Why commit to a writing program
of such rigor? You already write. But many smart, dedicated creative
writers such as yourself are missing what we consider a critical piece
of the puzzle: the opportunity to engage with a writing community, the
kind that can listen and respond in helpful ways.
At The Forge, instructors Irene
Cooper, Mike Cooper, and Ellen Santasiero will give you the creative
writing tools and training to say what only you can say, at a fraction
of the cost of a traditional MFA program. In other words, we got our
MFAs so you don't have to. (Don't worry—we know! The prepositional
ender is a style choice!)
Shape your writing career at
The Forge. Apply now for
fall or email theforgewriting@gmail.com
to schedule a 15-minute chat about how we can help you show up for
yourself and your writing in 2024.
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2023 North
Street Book Prize: First Prize, Middle Grade
Emerson’s summer starts with a
clash of cultures, then takes a sharp turn after he discovers a
stolen bag of native jewelry and a gold Code Talker medal. A gang of
thieves badly wants these items back. Conflicted between returning the
loot to its rightful owners and selling it to buy electronics he
covets, Emerson's hesitation places himself, his dachshund, Lucky, and
his Grandpa Charlie, a Navajo elder, in danger as the thieves close in.
Awards
·
North Street Book Prize: First
Prize, Middle Grade
·
New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards
Finalist, Middle Grade Fiction
·
Eric Hoffer Award Honorable
Mention, Middle Grade Reader
·
New Mexico Press Women Zia
Award, First Place, Youth Books
North Street critique
by Jendi Reiter
"Glinski understands what appeals to this age group, especially
boys. The book has a strong moral framework, but is not preachy.
Emerson's journey of maturity arises naturally from the exciting perils
he faces along the way. The action was suspenseful but not too scary.
Lucky is an endearing character whose bravery and intelligence make up
for her small size. The animal-human bond is a great way to delve into
a tween's emotional life when relationships with peers and parents have
become complicated, awkward, and fast-changing...I learned a lot about
Navajo culture, and I think it's great for readers of all ages to see
traditional indigenous lifeways integrated into modern life. It would
be a good pick for school libraries and classroom book clubs."
Book review
by Maria A. Hughes, The US Review of Books
"Glinski weaves an exciting adventure interspersed with Navajo
history that will hook young readers from the first chapter. The author
has penned an action-packed tale, chock-full of important life lessons
and relatable characters. It is a must-read for those who are fans of
adventure, mystery, and Navajo culture."
5-star Amazon
customer review
"This is the third in Karen's series of adventures which take
young Emerson and his dog Lucky into mysteries full of intrigue, danger
and lessons. It lives up to the promise delivered by her first two
books."
Read an
excerpt from Badge of
Honor
(PDF)
Buy this
book on Amazon
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This month please welcome a new
editorial feature: monthly blog posts about writing and publishing by
our managing editor Annie Mydla. You'll find them on our Essays
on Writing resource page and we'll announce them here
in the newsletter.
Our first essay is "Older
Writers and Finding Success". Many older writers want us to tell
them if their work is good enough to continue with it. Annie writes,
I wonder if there are other
questions hidden underneath it: "Does anyone care about my
writing?" "Will I find commercial success?" "Does
anyone care about me?" "Am I worthwhile?" "Do my
thoughts matter?" "Am I creative, or just a fake?"
"Have I accomplished anything in life?"
Rather than give simplistic or
superficial answers, Annie has some suggestions to find success and
satisfaction:
1.
Try flash nonfiction
2.
Seek out publications that are
looking for older writers (we provide a list)
3.
Make writing social
4.
Get involved with anti-ageist
activism in the arts
Read the
essay.
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Final deadline: May 15
The Montreal International
Poetry Prize is committed to encouraging the creation of original works
of poetry, to building international readership, and to exploring the
world’s Englishes. A.E.
Stallings is this year's final judge.
One poet will win $20,000
CAD for a single unpublished poem of 40 or fewer lines.
A jury of internationally reputed poets and critics selects a shortlist
of approximately 60 poems, from which A.E. Stallings will choose one
winner. The shortlist is published in The Montreal Poetry Prize
Anthology.
The prize is run by the
Department of English at McGill University in Montreal, Canada.
It is a not-for-profit initiative to recognize the single poem as
a work of art.
Fee: $25 CAD for a first poem;
$17 CAD for every additional poem.
Learn more and
submit at the Montreal International Poetry Prize website.
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Deadline: May 31
Authors &
Artists Eligible
A solar flare is short-lived
but has a huge amount of energy. Sunspot Lit is looking for the
single short story, novel or novella excerpt, artwork, graphic novel,
or poem that provides a noteworthy flare of creative energy. Literary
or genre works accepted.
Runners-up and finalists are
offered publication. No restrictions on theme or category. Maximum of
500 words for short stories or nonfiction,
12 lines for poetry, and 8 pages for graphic
novels. No size requirements for painting,
photography, video stills or sculpture, although each
entry is limited to one image.
Entry fee: $10
Prize: $500 cash and
publication for the winner; publication offered to runners-up and
finalists.
All fees are
final and nonrefundable.
Revised entries can be made by withdrawing the original entry and
resubmitting, paying a new fee for the new submission.
Sunspot asks for first rights only; all rights revert to
the contributor after publication. Works, along with the creators’
bylines, are published in the next quarterly digital edition an average
of two months after contest completion, as well as in the annual print
edition.
Works should be unpublished
except on a personal blog or website. Artists offered publication may
display their pieces in galleries, festivals or shows throughout the
publication contract period.
Enter as many times as you
like, but only one piece per submission. Simultaneous submissions are
accepted. Please withdraw your piece if it is published elsewhere
before the winner is selected.
Enter through Submittable or Duosuma (Duotrope's
submission manager).
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$500 will be awarded to the
Grand Prize winner of The MacGuffin's POET HUNT 29.
This year's contest runs April 1 through June 15 with Michael
Meyerhofer serving as the contest's guest judge. Up to two Honorable
Mention poets may also be published along with the names of the
finalists and semifinalists. All entrants will receive a copy of the
issue that includes the judge's selections.
Send up to five poems per $15
entry fee, payable to Schoolcraft College. Include a
cover page that lists your contact info and poem titles. This should be
the only page containing personally identifiable information to
preserve the anonymous review process. On the following pages, include
your poems, beginning each poem on a new page.
Enter via Submittable,
by email at the Schoolcraft
College Bookstore, or mail your materials to: The MacGuffin
• Attn: Poet Hunt 29 • 18600 Haggerty Road • Livonia, MI 48152.
For the
complete rules, please visit our website.
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A climate
fiction contest with no entry fee and a $3,000 award? Yes, please!
Do you remember the intriguing
climate fiction writing contest we told you about sometime
back?
Its deadline is
next month! June 24th.
Grist's Imagine 2200 climate
fiction contest is inviting stories rooted in creative climate
solutions and community-centered resilience. And for that, it is
offering:
·
$3,000 to the winning writer
·
$2,000 and $1,000 to the
second- and third-place winners, respectively
·
$300 each to an additional nine
finalists
All winners and finalists will
also have their stories published in an immersive collection on Grist's
website.
Beyond the
impressive awards,
Grist has partnered with Oregon State University's Spring Creek Project
to offer the winning writer (first place) an unforgettable
Environmental Writing Fellowship and Residency.
You will not only be helping a
nonprofit news org dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions in
their battle against climate change, but you'll also try your hand at
an entirely new genre you wouldn't usually write in.
Either way, it's a win-win!
You can find
all the contest details here.
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Deadline: July 1
Winning Writers will award a
grand prize of $10,000 in the tenth annual North
Street competition for self-published and hybrid-published
books. Choose from eight categories:
·
Mainstream/Literary Fiction
·
Genre Fiction
·
Creative Nonfiction &
Memoir
·
Poetry
·
Children's Picture Book
·
Middle Grade
·
Graphic Novel & Memoir
·
Art Book
$20,400 will be awarded in all,
and the top nine winners will receive additional benefits to help
market their books. Books published on all self-publishing and
hybrid-publishing platforms are eligible. Any year of publication is
eligible. Entry fee: $79 per book, with free gifts for everyone who
enters.
New this year: All entrants who submit online via Submittable will
receive a brief commentary from one of the judges (5-10 sentences).
Submit online
via Submittable or by mail.
Please enjoy our judges'
remarks on the winners of the ninth contest:
Daniel Victor's The Evil
Inclination is a sensitive, tragic love story between a
modern-day Romeo and Juliet who transgress religious boundaries. It's a
brilliant novel that works on many levels—theological, personal,
cultural—with high stakes and sharply observed humorous moments that
make the characters achingly real.
[click to read
all the remarks]
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Deadline: July 15
The annual Rattle
Poetry Prize celebrates its 19th 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 Rattle
Poetry Prize winner by Ardon
Shorr, published in Rattle #82, Winter 2023:
TIME TRAVEL FOR
BEGINNERS
Every crumb of starlight
sails across the universe,
the journey of a million years
to end inside our eyes.
Except I was looking at you,
canvas coverall cinched at the waist,
as you undressed me with
photons,
wrapped me in stories,
painted with x-rays,
until everything glowed
with backstory—the names of
trees,
the name of an extinguished star,
still visible, ghost in the
sky,
climbing a staircase of optic nerve
into an afterlife of sight.
Hand on my hand you pointed to the past:
the sun, an 8-minute time
machine,
the moon, one second old,
and the incredible now,
unfolding like a cone,
megaphone of memory stretched
to the sky
and balanced on the tip was us,
a luminous shout
of life at the speed of light.
In a blink, this moment reaches
the moon.
When we pack up the hammock, it floats
in the acid clouds of Venus.
Which means that somewhere, there is a spot,
past the gaps in Saturn’s
rings,
beyond the storms of Jupiter,
outside the curved embrace of
the Milky Way,
at least one place in the universe,
where you could turn around and
see us,
back when we were still in love.
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Poet William Huhn (Bachelor
Holiday, BlazeVOX) gave Made Man,
Jendi Reiter's third full-length poetry collection, a 5-star Amazon review:
"Each of its broad array
of subjects—from a Tarantella or New Jersey's Vince Lombardi rest stop
to the 'Word of the Year'—is entered 'slant', at a surprising angle,
and the freshness is maintained to the end, like a tightrope walker's
balance. The skill of word on display here ratchets up the stakes
around every turn, as the poet continually shape-shifts from form to
form, so you never quite know where you're going, yet it's the right
place. You can just feel it.
"Poetry lovers will relish
this mysterious outpouring of rebellion—yet of respect for the very
things rebelled against. It's like doubt dipped in a deep well of
optimism."
Enjoy this sample poem from Made Man:
Broken Family
Couch
I miss the neighbors who used
to jump shirtless on the trampoline
in the bramble woods they didn't own.
October, early, the sun is
mooning through the fog,
translucent disk, surprise of perfect geometry.
Her boyish hair and rippling
brown ribs,
his black beard and plié legs an Edward Gorey sketch.
Pre-dawn wires smoked, sparked
— emptied of renters,
the house burst out its curbside trash of wicker and mirrors.
A mother, a husband, her
children, their father, a baby.
Their rose-colored couch sinks into the unweeded lawn.
Everyone pretends someone else
will take the decision
off their hands, till the first mold-fertilizing rain.
I miss the neighbors who
cleaned roadkill birds for stew,
child in high-heeled Disney Princess slippers hunting with arrows.
Where stinkhorns once raised
hooded shafts from spring mulch,
a blue couch appears, one September overnight, beside the pink.
My actual father, I'm sure,
never lived anywhere furniture sprouted without a landlord.
Rain after rain blighted the
summer tomatoes,
the new normal, says the pocket computer.
Round equinox, the blue couch
is gone,
and a rolled-up mattress tilts swaddled on the pink one's arm.
Another storm soaks their
vigil.
When the summer evening was pearly and clear
a red-tailed hawk perched on
our front yard wires
and he and the neighbors and I looked at each other for hours.
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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
Dan
Veach Prize for Younger Poets. The Atlanta
Review will award $100 and publication for poems by college-age
students, aged 18-23, on any subject or style. The sponsor is
particularly interested in "poems with an international
focus". Enter up to 2 English-language poems, 40 lines maximum for
each poem, via sponsor's online submissions portal. Be sure to include
500-word author's statement and 500-word letter of recommendation with
your entry. Must be received by June 1.
Intermediate Writers
bpNichol
Poetry Chapbook Award. Meet the Presses will
award C$4,000 to the Canadian author and C$500 to the publisher of the
best English-language poetry chapbook, 10-48 pages long, published in
Canada in the preceding year. Author or publisher should submit 3
copies of book plus author's curriculum vitae and completed submission
form by Canada Post or courier. Contest named for the late poet,
novelist, and indie publisher bpNichol and formerly administered by
Phoenix Community Works Foundation. Must be received by May 31.
Advanced Writers
Griffin
Poetry Prize. The Griffin Trust will award
C$130,000 for English-language poetry books published in the current
calendar year (by an author in any country), as well as C$10,000 for
shortlisted entries and a debut Canadian author. Translations are
eligible, with the prize split between author and translator. Publisher
should send 4 copies of book plus entry form and a press packet. This
is one of the most lucrative poetry prizes, as well as one of the most
prestigious. Prize is awarded once a year, but there are ordinarily two
deadlines depending on when the book was published. For the
"2025" award, books published between January 1-June 30, 2024
must be received by June 21, 2024.
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,
Erica
Verrillo's blog, Authors
Publish, Lit Mag
News Roundup, Poets
& Writers, The
Writer, Duotrope,
Submittable,
and literary journals' own newsletters and announcements.
• Marrow
Magazine
(poetry, prose, artwork, multimedia - rolling deadline)
• Africa
Migration Report: An Anthology of Poems
(international anthology about refugees and immigrants - May 25)
• Moving
Words
(poems and flash prose suitable for adaptation into short videos - May
31)
• Poet
Lore
(original poems and translations - May 31)
• Princeton
Series of Contemporary Poets
(full-length poetry manuscripts - May 31)
• Diamond
Gazette
(poetry and prose by authors aged 10-22 - June 1)
• Let's
Say Gay: A Queer Youth Literary Journal
(creative writing and art by LGBTQ authors aged 13-18 - June 1)
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This month, editor Jendi Reiter
presents selected books that deserve your attention. There are many
more in our Books
resource section.
Stephen Dobyns
THE
WRESTLER'S CRUEL STUDY
Poet and noir mystery novelist Dobyns branches out into philosophical
farce in this ensemble-cast comedy set in early 1990s New York City,
where wrestling matches re-enact early Christian disputes about the
nature of evil, and anyone's life might unwittingly mimic a Grimm's
fairy tale. What holds this capacious story together is the idea that
truth is only manifested through artifical personae and constructed
narratives—what wrestlers call their Gimmicks—and if there is free
will, it consists of noticing your Gimmick and maybe choosing a
different one.
Sanya Whittaker Gragg
MOMMA,
DID YOU HEAR THE NEWS?
This sensitive picture book features a Black family giving their two
young sons "the Talk" about how to avoid being shot by the
police. The book manages children's fears about current events in an
age-appropriate way, and also conveys a nuanced message that many
police officers are good people doing a dangerous job.
Robert Jones Jr.
THE
PROPHETS
Set on a Mississippi plantation, this devastating yet life-affirming
novel centers on the forbidden love of two young Black enslaved men.
Multiple perspectives reveal how sexual violation and erotic
entanglement give the lie to the brutally maintained separation of
Black and white, as well as the complex uses of Christianity to comfort
the oppressed while muting their rebellion. Interspersed with the
deadly despair of the plantation scenes are hopeful visions of
pre-colonizer African cultures that respected queer identities, a
legacy that finds expression in the main characters' pure bond.
Vikram Kolmannskog
RHYHEIM
Subtitled "A porn poem", this lyrical and erotic chapbook is
a meditation on scenes from Black gay adult performer Rhyheim Shabazz's
videos. Slow-motion, stream-of-consciousness descriptions of sexual
encounters transform into moments of spiritual oneness with concepts
from Hindu mysticism. As a queer man of color in predominantly white
Norway, Kolmannskog finds inspiration and self-acceptance in Rhyheim's
multi-racial intimate couplings. Publisher Broken Sleep Books is a
small press in Wales with a working-class orientation and an interest
in social justice.
Charlie J. Stephens
A
WOUNDED DEER LEAPS HIGHEST
This exquisite coming-of-age story depicts a queer youth struggling to
survive in the rural Oregon of the 1980s. In the human world, the
narrator's life is defined by poverty, instability, and abuse from
their mother's boyfriends. But to Smokey, a nonbinary child with a
shamanic connection to animals, the human world is not the only or most
important one. The adults are tossed around by delusion and impulse,
even Smokey's mother, who is genuinely devoted but succumbs to her
addiction to dangerous men. The child's view of reality is clear,
compassionate, and attuned to beauty. This makes the book hopeful in a
strange way, despite the tragedies that pile up.
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Mr. Peters writes,
"Ever since completing my comics adaptation of T. S. Eliot's 'The
Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock', I have wanted to do something similar
with Eliot's most famous and celebrated poem, 'The Waste Land'. But
besides being extremely complex and often difficult to interpret, 'The
Waste Land' (first published in 1922) is very long, and this always
deterred me from getting started. But in recent times, with a
historical situation that in many ways mirrors that in which Eliot was
writing, with a society emerging from a vast global collective
trauma—made up of innumerable individual personal traumas—and a
disquieting future looming on the horizon, this latent desire
pressingly reasserted itself.
"Finally it occurred to me
that I could after all begin to tackle the project by breaking it down
into smaller, more manageable units. Near the end of last year I
resolved to adapt, for the time being, only the first section of the
five sections into which the poem is subdivided, 'The Burial of the
Dead'."
We will reproduce the full
16-page comic of "The Burial of the Dead" in segments in our
upcoming spring and summer newsletters.
Continues next month
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