The 2022 Novel Excerpt Contest is now open for submissions! The Masters Review is seeking excerpts that show off a sense of style, with a clear grasp on craft: narrative, character, and plot. Submissions are open until December 1st. In case you missed our announcement earlier this week, our judge for this year’s contest is none other than Charmaine Craig! Full details can be found below and on our contest page.
Submissions open through December 1st
The Masters Review hosts an annual Novel Excerpt Contest each fall! We’re looking for excerpts that show off a sense of style, with a clear grasp on craft: narrative, character, and plot. Choose wisely! Your excerpt can come from any point in your completed or in-progress novels, but a synopsis should not be required for understanding the excerpt. Excerpts must be from previously unpublished novels; if your novel has been self-published, it is ineligible for this contest. Excerpts from novels that are under contract for 2022 or 2023 may not be submitted, but work from a novel scheduled for a 2024 publication date or beyond may. As always, we have no limitations on genre, though we are primarily interested in literary fiction. This year’s judge is Charmaine Craig! She will select the finalists from a shortlist provided by The Masters Review’s editorial team. The winning excerpt will be awarded $3000 and online publication and an hour-long consultation with a literary agent. Second and third place excerpts will be awarded online publication and $300 and $200 respectively, in addition to feedback from a literary agent.
Guidelines:
- Winner receives $3000, publication and consultation with an agent
- Second and third place prizes ($300 / $200, publication and agent feedback)
- Excerpts under 6000 words
- Excerpts from unpublished novels only
- Simultaneous and multiple submissions allowed
- Emerging writers only; writers with book-length work published or under contract with a major press are ineligible. (We are interested in offering a larger platform to new writers. Authors with short story collections are free to submit unpublished work, as are writers with books published by indie presses.)
- International English submissions allowed. No translations.
- Excerpts from novels under contract for 2023 are ineligible, but novels under contract from 2024 and beyond are eligible.
- Double-spaced, 12 pt easy-to-read font (i.e., Times New Roman, Garamond, etc.) please!
- $20 entry fee
- Deadline: December 1st, 2022
- Please, no identifying information on your excerpt
- All excerpts are considered for publication
- A significant portion of the editorial letter fees go to our feedback editor, according to the rates established by the EFA
Charmaine Craig is the author of the novels My Nemesis, forthcoming from Grove Press in February 2023; Miss Burma, longlisted for the 2017 National Book Award for Fiction and the 2018 Women’s Prize for Fiction; and The Good Men, a national bestseller. Her writing has been published in a dozen languages and appeared in venues including The New York Times Magazine, Narrative Magazine, AFAR Magazine, and Dissent. Formerly an actor in film and television, she studied literature at Harvard College, received her MFA from the University of California at Irvine, and serves as a faculty member in the Department of Creative Writing at UC Riverside. She lives in Los Angeles.
