Happy 2009, folks. This has to be my favorite way to ring in the new year: my short short story The Other James Buchanan won a first prize in Geist Magazine’s first annual short long-distance fiction contest. It will also be in print in the next issue of Geist. It’s my first publication, so I’m psyched.
Enjoy!
It’s actually two prizes, C$50,000 each. One prize is for the best collection of Canadian poetry published in the previous year, and the other is for the best international collection.
Poets: was your book published in 2008? Does it have forty-eight pages or more? And an ISBN?
Check out the details and enter, fast!
Last year Amazon and the Penguin Group (USA) unveiled an interesting new contest, the Breakthrough Novel Award. They accepted 10,000 manuscripts, largely from unpublished authors, and over a period of several months whittled down this list to a group of 2,000. Amazon Vine users were encouraged to vote on excerpts from this batch, narrowing it down to a group of 500 novels.
The 500 were evaluated by Publishers Weekly editors, and Penguin’s editors used those evaluations to pick a group of 100 semi-finalists, which were voted on by the hoi polloi to choose three finalists. A panel of guest editors picked the winner, the mystery novel Fresh Kills, by Bill Loehfelm. Last year TWS alumna Gurjinder Basran made it to the semi-finals.
Amazon just announced that they’re doing it again. The prize is a publishing contract with Penguin and a $25,000 advance. The submission deadline in February 2009. Here’s what you need to enter:
Entrants must provide a full Manuscript (Between 50,000 and 150,000 words), an Excerpt from the beginning of your novel (Between 3,000 and 5,000 words), a novel Pitch of up to 300 words and accompanying contest and biographic information such as title, genre, book description, and contact information. (as well as an optional author photo).
So polish that novel that’s been wedged between Fallout 3 and that folder of Facebook messages to your ex- that you write but never send because she won’t accept your friend requests.
And then check out how to enter for more information. Be warned that submissions are rolling and they only accept the first 10,000, so the earlier the better.
Meridian, a semi-annual literary publication from the University of Virginia, is holding a pair of simultaneous contests:
The Editors’ Prize Contest is now accepting entries, with $1,000 awarded in each genre. The entry fee is $16, which includes a reading of your work, a subscription to Meridian, and a chance at the $1,000 prize.
Poets can upload four poems per entry. Fiction writers may submit one story of 10,000 words or fewer per entry.
And…
We’re also excited to announce our second Prose Poem Postcard Prize Contest. Entry fee: $3.50. Entries should be 1-2 prose poems, each of which must be able to fit onto a standard-size postcard.
The prize for the second contest is publication. Submission is electronic and the eligibility requirements are either that you’re an alumni of U of VA, or a subscriber to the magazine (US$16). Gory details here.
Ack! I just stumbled across Narrative Magazine’s Fall Fiction contest, deadline November 30. If you’ve got something ready to rock, why not send it in? Submissions are electronic, you’re already sitting at your computer… I’m just saying.
As always, we look for works that have a strong narrative drive, with characters we can respond to as human beings—works in which the effects of language, situation, and insight are intense and total, and whose authors have the ambition of enlarging our view of ourselves and the world.
Cash moves everything around me, is what you’re thinking. And you wouldn’t be wrong. The prizes:
First Prize is $3,000, Second Prize is $1,500, and Third Prize is $750. The prize winners will be announced in Narrative and will be eligible for publication. Additionally, ten finalists will receive $100 each. We’ll announce finalists in the magazine as well. All entries will be considered for publication.
See the contest page for submission details. Entry fee is $20. Dolla-dolla bill y’all.
Hey folks! Geoff Cole, one of my friends and fellow alumnus of TWS, just placed second in Apex Magazine’s annual horror short story contest. This year’s theme was “election horror”. Here is Shaded Streams Run Clearest, by Geoffrey W Cole. Enjoy.
If you like what you see, why not check out Geoff’s blog over here.
First off, if you haven’t heard, forgot or it just slipped your mind, the Vancouver International Writers Festival is October 21-26th. In addition to a metric pantload of talks, readings and other interesting stuff, they’ve got a contest for fiction and poetry. The gory details:
Rock!
Apex Book Company, a sf/horror publisher that puts out a monthly digest of fiction and articles, has an annual Hallowe’en contest that’s on right now. The gory (get it?!) details:
Halloween is just around the corner, so you should know what that means–the annual Apex Halloween short fiction contest!
Guidelines:
Your story must incorporate the theme of ELECTION HORROR.
Word count maximum is 1,000.
Your story must have first rights available.
Submit your story to halloween@apexdigest.com.
Submissions are open NOW.
Deadline is 11:59 PM, October 15th, EST.This year’s celebrity judge is noted SF author Jay Lake!
First prize is $100 & publication. Second prize is $50 & publication. Third and fourth prizes are free books. Not too shabby!
(Thx, Merry Old Soul)
Long time no see, litfarmers. Blogs, man. They don’t update themselves, do they? Err. Anyway.
The Federation of BC Writers is having a competition for short fiction: Literary Writes 2008. Deadline is right around the corner, July 1, 2008, and the entry fee is $20 ($15 if you’re a member). Any genre is acceptable, and prizes are $500, $300, $150, plus publication in WordWorks and an opportunity to read at Word on the Street, Vancouver’s annual downtown literary fest.
Good luck, and let me know if you enter.
Just in from the TWS mailing list: BC Federation of Writers is having a contest for short fiction. Any genre is acceptable, deadline is July 1, 2008, entry fee is $20, and prizes are from $150-500, plus publication in WordWorks and the chance to read at Word on the Street in September.