The Masters Review | A platform for emerging writers

Summer Short Story Award

Open Through August 28th

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2022 Summer Short Story Award for New Writers Now OPEN for Submissions!

You heard correctly—the 2022 Summer Short Story Award for New Writers is now OPEN for your submissions through August 28th! We’re looking for the best of the best unpublished short story (up to 6,000 words) by emerging writers. We want…

2021 Novel Excerpt Contest Finalists

The long wait is over: We’re excited to share that Glenn Lester’s “Take Warning: The Ballad of Sammy Slug” has won our inaugural Novel Excerpt Contest! Lester’s excerpt was chosen by Dan Chaon from an overwhelming pool of quality submissions….

New Voices: “Hey, Stop Blaming Your Dead Father’s Fists” by Vincent Anioke

In this week’s New Voices, we present to you: “Hey, Stop Blaming Your Dead Father’s Fists,” by Vincent Anioke. This flash, written in the second-person, employs short sentences designed to create a staccato rhythm that reflects the narrator’s unease with…

From the blog | Jul. 05, 2022

Talk Isn’t Cheap: Two Simple Questions for Crafting Meaningful Dialogue by B.B. Garin

In Jerome Stern’s lexicon for writers, Making Shapely Fiction, he writes: “Good dialogue moves the plot forward.” In an earlier essay, Garin explored how to utilize plot arc to construct momentous scenes. Now, she focuses specifically on dialogue: How can dialogue move the plot effectively? You know the conversations. Talk on your date fizzles. A coworker corners you with an endless camera roll of cat photos. The phone call with your mother becomes a déjà vu filled episode of the…

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Fiction. Essays. Edits. Experts.

The 2022 Summer Short Story Award for New Writers is open for submissions through August 28th, judged this year by Chelsea Bieker, author of GODSHOT! The winning writer will earn a $3,000 prize, along with publication and agency review. Be sure to check out our calendar page, which highlights more upcoming projects, and remember, our New Voices submission category is free to submit and pays for stories. It's all part of our mission to offer a quality platform for emerging writers.

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The Masters Review Volume X With Stories Selected by Diane Cook

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About The Masters Review

At The Masters Review, our mission is to support emerging writers. We only accept submissions from writers who can benefit from a larger platform. Typically, writers without published novels or story collections or with low circulation. We publish fiction and nonfiction online year round and put out an annual anthology of the ten best emerging writers in the country, judged by an expert in the field. We publish articles and book reviews on the blog and hold workshops that connect emerging and established writers.