June
$300 Hummingbird Flash Fiction Prize
Deadline: June 15, 2016
Got something short, sharp, and snappy to tell? Wow us with 1000 words of economical and brilliant storytelling. Final contest judge is flash fiction master, Bob Thurber. (Look him up! Seriously. You’ll thank me later.) Entry fee $15. Prize $300 and publication in Pulp Literature Issue 13. Limited to 300 entries. Critiques available. Details, details: pulpliterature.com/contests/the-hummingbird-flash-fiction-prize/
Swan Scythe Press Announces its 2016 Poetry Chapbook Contest
Deadline: June 15, 2016
Swan Scythe Press is now considering manuscripts for its 2016 Poetry Chapbook Contest. Submit a manuscript of 20-32 pages of poems that includes a title page with author’s name, address, phone number and email address and a second title page without personal identifiers, book title only. Submit to 1468 Mallard Way, Sunnyvale, CA 94087 or to swanscythepress.submittable.com/submit. Entry fee is $18.00 payable to Swan Scythe Press. Deadline is June 15th. Winner receives $200 and 25 perfect-bound chapbooks. For full guidelines and details, please visit www.swanscythe.com.
Slate Roof Press Chapbook Contest 2016 Elyse Wolf Prize $500
Extended Deadline: June 15, 2016
2016 Slate Roof Press Chapbook Contest/Elyse Wolf Prize. Slate Roof Press, an art-quality, member-run publisher, produces beautiful books with letterpress covers crafted by an award-winning printer. Send us 28 pages of your best, well-crafted poetry. The winner receives the $500 Elyse Wolf Prize, becomes an active member of the press, and gains valuable experience in many areas of publishing. Remote participation in Slate Roof Press through Skype/phone is possible. Slate Roof is a not-for-profit collaborative, publishing since 2004. Contest reading fee: $10. For additional information: www.slateroofpress.com
North Street Book Prize for Self-Published Books
Deadline: June 30, 2016
2nd year. Three authors will each win $1,500 plus additional benefits. Categories: Mainstream/Literary Fiction, Genre Fiction, and Creative Nonfiction/Memoir. $6,000 in total cash prizes. Fee: $50. Judges: Jendi Reiter and Ellen LaFleche. Submit online or by mail. Sponsored by Winning Writers, one of the “101 Best Websites for Writers” (Writer’s Digest) and one of the “100 Best Websites for Writers in 2016” (The Write Life). Guidelines: winningwriters.com/north.
The Conium Review Seeks Themed Submissions about “Dis/appearances”
Deadline: June 15, 2016
The Conium Review Online Compendium seeks flash fiction in response to the theme “Dis/appearances” from June 1st through June 15th. You may interpret the “Dis/appearances” theme broadly, but your story should include some variety of unexpected arrival or departure. This theme will be guest edited by Matt Tompkins, author of Studies in Hybrid Morphology and Souvenirs and Other Stories. If your piece is accepted, it will be published on our website, and you’ll receive a complimentary copy of Souvenirs. Send unpublished work under 1,000 words. No reading fee. Full guidelines here: coniumreview.com/themes/disappearances/
KYSO Flash Calls for Your Best Short-Shorts
Deadline: June 15, 2016
Online journal KYSO Flash (Knock-Your-Socks-Off Art and Literature) seeks to publish memorable literature and visual arts. Short forms (fiction, “faction,” poetry, and hybrids) up to 1,000 words each, including title. Please submit original, unpublished works only. Works accepted for publication will appear in Issue 6 online and may be considered for our annual print anthology. Payment: One complimentary copy per contributor. Reading Period: 15 April through 15 June 2016. Admin fee: $5 (USD) for up to five pieces. (No limit on total number of submissions, but each submission of 1-5 pieces must include an additional five-dollar payment.) Guidelines: www.kysoflash.com/Submissions.aspx
2016 Slapering Hol Chapbook Competition
Deadline: June 15, 2016
Writers who have not yet published a collection in book form are warmly invited to submit manuscripts to Slapering Hol Press’ annual poetry chapbook competition. Awards include $1000 cash, ten copies of the published chapbook, a reading at the Hudson Valley Writers’ Center in Sleepy Hollow, NY, and up to $500 in travel expenses. Reading fees: $17 online or $15 hard copy. More details at www.writerscenter.org/shp-sanger-stewart-chapbook-competition.
Call for Submissions: Duality and Doppelgangers
Deadline: June 20, 2016
Split it, reflect it, flip it, multiply it—Cicada YA lit/comics magazine is looking for poetry, fiction, comics, and humor dealing in doubles, division, dyads, and dichotomies. Send us your terrible twosomes: distorted mirrors, shape-shifters, uncanny similarities, life-stealing doppelgangers. What might you find in a reflection? A perfect copy? Sometimes you might only understand a thing by looking at what it is not. Duality might mean pitting two opposite but equal forces against one another—and not just good/evil or light/dark! cricketmag.submittable.com/submit/17820
2016 New American Fiction Prize
Deadline: June 24, 2016
$1,000 award and book publication. All full-length fiction manuscripts welcome, including novels, collections of stories and/or novellas, novels in verse, linked collections, collections of flash fiction, and others. Minimum 100pp, no maximum length. Final judge is Gina Frangello, author of the novels Every Kind of Wanting (Counterpoint, September 2016) and A Life in Men (Algonquin, 2014), as well as the story collections Slut Lullabies (Emergency Press, 2010) and My Sister’s Continent (Chiasmus, 2006). Reading fee: $22.50. Online submissions only, please. Visit website for more information newamericanpress.submittable.com/submit/
2016 May Sarton New Hampshire Poetry Prize
Deadline: June 30, 2016
Bauhan Publishing is pleased to announce our sixth annual May Sarton New Hampshire Poetry Prize is now accepting submissions. The award goes to a previously unpublished book-length collection of poetry (50-80 pages). The winning poet will receive $1,000, publication of their collection, and 100 copies of the published book along with distribution through the University Press of New England (UPNE). The cost for submission is $25 per manuscript. Entrants may submit multiple manuscripts. Poet Betsy Sholl is our 2016 judge. Visit our site for complete guidelines: www.bauhanpublishing.com/may-sarton-prize/.
Milk Journal, Summer 2016
Deadline: June 30, 2016
Milk Journal is seeking poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, for its second issue, set to be released in the Summer of 2016. We’re looking for work which illuminates underrepresented perspectives, makes us swoon, and pulls us in to a fevered relationship with your words. We will now also be welcoming submissions of artwork. For more information, please view our submission guidelines and our mission statement at: www.milkjournal.net.
July
2016 NANO Prize
Deadline: July 1, 2016
The 2016 NANO Prize, awarding publication and $1,000 to a previously unpublished work of fiction 300 words or fewer, will be judged this year by Kellie Wells! To celebrate NANO Fiction’s tenth birthday, the entry fee will only be $10 for up to three shorts, and all entrants will receive issue 10.1. Winners will be announced in mid-August nanofiction.org
2016 Seattle Review Poetry Chapbook Contest
Deadline: July 15, 2016
Judged by Claudia Rankine. Grand Prize: $1000 and 20 copies of the chapbook, printed by Paper Hammer. Top 2 finalists receive $100 each and publication in the Seattle Review. Length: 20-30 pages of poetry. Simultaneous submissions permitted. Entry fee: $20. All submissions considered for publication in SR. For full guidelines and to submit: www.theseattlereview.org/new-page/
Portable Story Series 2nd Contest
Deadline: July 29, 2016
Every four months, Portable Story Series holds a contest. Our current theme is “Time Travel”. Details can be found on our website. The winning story is recorded with a narrator at CDM Studios in Manhattan and is posted to portablestoryseries.com as a free download. Performance, recording, and mixing is valued at $5500 and the winning author receives a cash prize of $250 or 75% of the submission fees—whichever is greater. With each contest, we feature three charitable or non-profit organizations. When downloading the winning story, we encourage listeners to contribute to one of the featured organizations.
2017 Press 53 Award for Poetry
Deadline: July 31, 2016
A $1,000 advance plus a 1/4-page color ad in Poets & Writers magazine will be awarded to an outstanding, unpublished collection of poems. Tom Lombardo, Press 53 Poetry Series Editor, will serve as judge. Press 53 will publish the winning manuscript as a Tom Lombardo Poetry Selection under a standard publishing contract; all prizes will be awarded upon publication. Finalists will also be considered for publication. Deadline: Midnight Eastern Standard time, July 31, 2016. Winner and finalists announced on or before November 1. Reading fee: $30. Complete information at www.press53.com/Award_for_Poetry.html.
August
The Orison Anthology Awards
Deadline: August 1, 2016
The Orison Anthology Awards in Fiction, Nonfiction, and Poetry offer $500 and publication by Orison Books in The Orison Anthology for a single work in each genre. Judges: Ravi Howard (fiction), Catherine Reid (nonfiction), and Philip Metres (poetry). Entry fee: $15. Deadline: August 1. Complete details at www.orisonbooks.com/submission-guidelines.
Profane Nonfiction Prize ($1000) Judged by Dinty W. Moore
Deadline: August 1 , 2016
The Profane Nonfiction Prize ($1,000), judged by author and Brevity editor Dinty W. Moore, is open for submissions through July. $10 to enter 2 pieces for consideration. There is no theme. Send us your best flash, essays, journalism, or narratives that will spoon out some space in our guts. www.profanejournal.com
The Geist Can’t Lit Without It CanLit Short Story Contest
Deadline: August 1, 2016
Shake up the CanLit canon! Generate a CanLit premise at canlitgenerator.com, use the premise as the basis for a story (the weirder the better!) and enter to win literary fame and fortune. 500 words or less, any genre. $1000 in prizes to be won. Winning entries published in Geist and at geist.com. Get details and submit at geist.com/canlit-contest.
September
Call for Submissions: Poetry, Fction, Nonfiction, Visual Art, Swamp
Deadline: September 1, 2016
Swamp Ape Review is the new beast in South Florida’s growing body of literature. We are a national online journal (produced by the MFA in Creative Writing at Florida Atlantic University) looking for original work in 5 areas: poetry, fiction, nonfiction, visual art (graphics/photography, multimedia, or video), and swamp—our fifth category for works that defy genre. Submissions will be accepted until September 1st for publication in winter. For more info and the “why” behind our name and nature, visit www.swampapereview.com.
Submissions Open for Black Warrior Review’s Twelfth Annual Contest
Deadline: September 1, 2016
Black Warrior Review’s 2016 Contest in poetry, fiction, and nonfiction awards $1,000 and publication to winners in all three genres. Runners-up receive $100 and will be considered for publication. This year we are honored to have Hoa Nguyen (P), Sofia Samatar (F), and T Clutch Fleischmann (NF) as our guest judges. The cost to enter is $20 and includes a one-year subscription: bwr.ua.edu
Conium Press 2016 Book & Chapbook Contest: $1,000 prize
Deadline: September 1, 2016
The Conium Press 2016 Book & Chapbook Contest is open for fiction and hybrid submissions. Winner receives $1,000, publication of the winning manuscript, ten author copies, and a copy of the judge’s latest book. This year’s judge is Matt Bell, author of Scrapper, In the House Upon the Dirt Between the Lake and the Woods, Cataclysm Baby, How They Were Found, and the forthcoming collection A Tree or a Person or a Wall. September 1st deadline. $25 entry fee. Flexible word count. Full guidelines at coniumreview.com/contests.
First Edition Children’s Book Writing Contest
Deadline: September 30, 2016
Have you dreamed of having your children’s book published? The second annual First Edition Children’s Book Writing Contest is seeking manuscripts of 600 words or less for children birth to five years old. The winning author will have their manuscript edited, illustrated, printed, and promoted. The book will be sold online and in brick and mortar retail stores. The author will receive a $1,000 advance and 8% royalties. Submission fee of $50 which increases by $25 on August 15 and September 15. Manuscripts accepted beginning May 10, 2016. For more information and to submit your manuscript go to: www.firsteditionproject.com.
$5,000 Miller Williams Poetry Prize
Annual deadline: September 30
Every year, the University of Arkansas Press accepts submissions for the Miller Williams Poetry Series and from the books selected awards the $5,000 Miller Williams Poetry Prize in the following summer. Applications are accepted year-round. The deadline for the following year’s prize is September 30th. The series and prize are named for and operated to honor the cofounder and longtime director of the press, Miller Williams. The series is edited by Billy Collins. For more information visit www.uapress.com.
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