Happy Monday, everyone! The countdown begins: only 23 days until the official end of the quarter.
This Friday, March 7, two calls for submissions will be closing: applications to the Mississippi Department of Archives and History’s 2025 Eudora Welty Research Fellowship and submissions to the 2025 Stella Kupferberg Memorial Short Story Prize. Click here for more details on the two-week summer research fellowship for grad students, and click here for more details on the contest (whose winning work will be performed and recorded live by an actor at Symphony Space and published on Electric Literature).
We also have two newly-listed calls for submissions: the Prairie Schooner Raz-Shumaker Book Prize and the Ninth Letter Literary Awards (which is different from the Ninth Letter call for submissions that closed last Friday). Scroll down for more details!
(The information below has been copied from each journal’s website.)
1. Prairie Schooner Raz-Shumaker Book Prize
Deadline: March 15, 2025
About:
Winners of this contest will receive $3000 and publication through the University of Nebraska Press.
The Prairie Schooner Raz-Shumaker Book Prize Series welcomes manuscripts from all living writers, including non-US citizens, writing in English. Both unpublished and published writers are welcome to submit manuscripts. We will not consider manuscripts that have previously been published, which includes self-publication. Manuscripts may contain stories or poems that have been published in journals or in chapbook form; however, if the full-length manuscript includes work from a previously published chapbook, the majority of the manuscript must be additional work not appearing in the chapbook. Writers may enter both contests. Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but we ask that you notify us immediately if your manuscript is accepted for publication somewhere else. No past or present paid employee of Prairie Schooner or the University of Nebraska Press or current faculty or student at the University of Nebraska will be eligible for the prizes.
A $25.00 reading fee must accompany each submission. Submittable supports multiple currency options. Multiple submissions are welcome, with separate fees.
Guidelines:
- FICTION submissions:
- Assembling Your Manuscript:
- The fiction prize is for a short story collection, and manuscripts should be at least 150 pages long. Novels are not considered; one novella along with short stories will be considered as a collection, but single novellas or a collection of novellas are not eligible.
- While we encourage the inclusion of individual pieces published in journals or anthologies, we cannot allow pieces that have appeared in previously published collections just as we cannot re-publish previously published collections as a whole, including self-published books.
- Formatting Your Manuscript:
- Use a fairly standard serif font such as Times New Roman, Cambria, or Garamond, sized at 12 pt, with one inch margins. This not only ensures readability but prevents many file compatibility issues.
- If you’d like to include an acknowledgements page citing previous publication details for included work, you may place it just after the title page or at the very end of the manuscript.
- Please do not list your name or contact information anywhere in your manuscript. This includes the file name as well as page headers and footers.
- Tips for Uploading:
- Double-check you’re submitting a fiction manuscript! If you’re looking to submit a poetry manuscript, you can do that here.
- If you experience problems uploading, please try again with another browser. We find Google Chrome usually works well for this.
- If you have other questions, you may direct them to Nicole Lachat at PSBookPrize@unl.edu.
- Assembling Your Manuscript:
- POETRY submissions:
- Assembling Your Manuscript:
- The poetry prize is for a collection of poems, and manuscripts should be at least 50 pages long.
- While we encourage the inclusion of individual pieces published in journals or anthologies, we cannot allow pieces that have appeared in previously published collections just as we cannot re-publish previously published collections as a whole, including self-published books.
- Formatting Your Manuscript:
- Use a fairly standard serif font such as Times New Roman, Cambria, or Garamond, sized at 12 pt, with one inch margins. This not only ensures readability but prevents many file compatibility issues.
- If you’d like to include an acknowledgements page citing previous publication details for included work, you may place it just after the title page or at the very end of the manuscript.
- Please do not list your name or contact information anywhere in your manuscript. This includes the file name as well as page headers and footers.
- Tips for Uploading:
- Double-check you’re submitting a poetry manuscript! If you’re looking to submit a fiction manuscript, you can do that here.
- If you experience problems uploading, please try again with another browser. We find Google Chrome usually works well for this.
- If you have other questions, you may direct them to Nicole Lachat at PSBookPrize@unl.edu.
- Assembling Your Manuscript:
Submission page: https://prairieschoonerbookprizeseries.submittable.com/submit
2. Ninth Letter Literary Awards
Deadline: April 30, 2025
About:
First prize for this contest is $1,000 for each genre (poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction), print and web publication, and bragging rights! Every U.S. entrant receives a free, one-year print subscription per submission. International entrants will receive a complimentary copy of the fall/winter issue.
The winner in each genre (poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction) will receive $1,000, publication in the Fall/Winter print issue and online, two contributor’s copies of the print issue, and bragging rights. Ninth Letter acquires First North American Serial Rights (FNASR) only; all other rights are retained by the author. All submissions are considered for publication in our general issue and/or online.
Submissions are read anonymously, so neither the author’s name nor any identifying information should appear on the manuscript itself. If the author’s name appears in the poem, story, or essay, please replace with [Author’s Name] to maintain anonymity. Acceptable file formats are .pdf, .doc, .docx.
There is an $20 submission fee for each entry. All U.S. entrants will receive a one-year print subscription to Ninth Letter. All international entrants will receive a copy of the fall/winter print issue. Payments are accepted via Submittable.
You are welcome to send multiple submissions in multiple categories provided a fee is paid for each entry. Should you submit more than once, your print subscription will be cumulative. For example, if you submit one manuscript to each poetry, fiction, and CNF, you will receive a three-year subscription.
You may also choose to gift any or all of your print subscriptions to another literary magazine fans of your choosing. If you’d like to gift any of your submissions, please fill out this Google Form after submitting, and our contest coordinator will manage the subscriptions. The Google Form is anonymous and will not collect your email.
Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but please withdraw your submission immediately upon acceptance elsewhere. For poetry and flash, please send a message via Submittable if withdrawing select pieces but not the entire manuscript. Due to logistical and labor considerations, neither refunds nor replacement submissions will be offered for withdrawn manuscripts. You will still receive the complimentary one-year subscription even if you have to withdraw your submission.
Guidelines:
- POETRY submissions:
- Please submit up to 5 poems in a single file of no more than 8 pages.
- PROSE submissions (fiction or creative nonfiction):
- Please submit one piece of no more than 8,000 words. You may also submit up to three pieces of flash-fiction or flash-nonfiction as long as the total word count of the submission is no more than 4,000 words.
Submission page: https://ninthletteronline.submittable.com/submit