We’re in the dog days of summer, and motivation can be hard to find. To help you out, here’s a wonderfully ordered list of opportunities all coming up in the month of August. So escape from the summer heat for awhile and sit in the shade of a tree, or in the AC, and crank out those submissions!

FEATURED! Short Story Award for New Writers

Don’t miss your chance to submit to our biggest submission period of the year, which closes in a few short days.We’re looking for stellar stories by emerging writers. The winner receives $3000, publication, and agency review, and the first and second place authors also receive cash prizes, publication, and review. Submit here!
Entry Fee: $20 Deadline: July 31

2017 ½ K Prize

Indiana Review and judge Donika Kelly are looking for writers who are both creative and concise – could that be you? Stories must be less than 500 words, but multiple entries are allowed! Fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction are accepted, and first place receives $1000 and guaranteed publication in Indiana Review! Details here.
Entry Fee: $20 Deadline: August 1

PEN Emerging Voices Fellowship

Meant for new writers who are unfamiliar with the literary establishment, this prize provides financial support, professional mentoring, classes, and public readings to poets and writers of fiction and creative nonfiction! This 7-month fellowship awards a $1000 stipend, but participants must reside in LA for that period. Applicants need to provide a professional CV, two letters of recommendation, and a writing sample. Learn more here!
Entry Fee: $10 Deadline: August 1

Geometry Literary Journal Open Submissions

Here is a great opportunity for writers, as Geometry is accepting fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry! Fiction and creative nonfiction can be 8000 words, and poetry is 50 lines. They are looking for original, unpublished, literary work – Interested? Submit here!
Entry Fee: FREE Deadline: August 1

2017 Lab Fiction Prize

The University of New Orleans Press is looking to publish the best novel/short story collection written this year, and they are very upfront about their plan! The contest is open to all authors, and entries are allowed to be any length and on any subject. The winner receives $1000 and a publishing contract, along with promotion from The Publishing Laboratory at the University of New Orleans. Check it out!
Entry Fee: $18 Deadline: August 15

Blue Mesa Review Contest

There are actually three contests offered here, looking for fresh prose and powerful poetry! The judges are Safiya Sinclair for poetry, Rigoberto González for nonfiction, and co-judges Lori Ostlund and Anne Raeff for fiction. Submissions may be up to 6000 words, or up to 3 poems, and the winner of each contest receives $500 and publication. Make sure to select the correct contest for your submission! More details here.
Entry Fee: $12 Deadline: August 31

Gemini Magazine Flash Fiction Contest

Here is a great chance for writers of all stripes, as Gemini Magazine’s contest is open to any subject, style, or genre! Entries must be unpublished, and the maximum length is 1000 words. The winner receives $1000 and publication. More details here.
Entry Fee: $5 Deadline: August 31

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With the next MFA application season just around the corner, it’s time to start seriously thinking about programs. Writers—are you considering the low-residency option? For those of us anchored into a job, with family, or simply unable to relocate, low-res programs are proving to be a great opportunity to earn your degree.

It’s fair to say that a low-res program may prepare you more quickly for the true world of writing—one in which your writing time must be structured around your job, family, and other commitments. There is no bubble here. Although you’ll meet for residencies (usually held twice a year), for the most part, you’re working on your own.

That being said, one of the biggest benefits to a low-res program is close mentorship. The faculty to student ratio is 5:1 or less for most programs. Mentors create customized reading lists for each student and critique larger volumes of work monthly. So despite the lack of time in physical classrooms, you still receive an extensive amount of support.

Several low-res programs are also now offering a dual-genre degree option for students who want to explore more than one interest. And for those of you who love to travel—many programs provide residencies abroad. You can gather stamps on your passport while participating in intensive workshops in countries such as Spain, Italy, or Slovenia.

So you’re interested. How do you choose which program to go for? I’ve listed some programs below that caught my eye for at least one reason, if not more—whether it be affordability, faculty, or the opportunity for travel or dual-genre studies. Enjoy!

by Julia Mucha

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Rachel Attias’s powerful piece, “Road Trip,” received an honorable mention in our recent Flash Fiction Contest. This pithy little story goes deep. It chronicles the experience of a group of girls who set off on a cross-country road trip after college. Attias perfectly conveys both the freedom of youth and the ways in which young women can feel trapped by the gaze of others.

“We had stretched the length of the country; we had become humongous. We had forgotten that we are just girls.”

We drive across the country when college ends, just us girls. We keep the windows open and the music loud; our hair whips around our heads and our blood pumps to the bass beat. We are so young; this is our first real adventure, for some it’s our first time West of the Mississippi. We are so young. Just five short years from now we will be locked into jobs, relationships, homes. We will think we’re making mistakes all along the way, but we will mistake ourselves into careers, partners, very nice apartments or even houses. But now we live in a car.

We leave the industry of the East behind, and suddenly we see what everyone else has been doing all this time. We drive through the rainforest of West Virginia, the St. Louis Arch. We slide through the corn and soybean fields that make up the heart, the backbone, the vital anatomical metaphor of this country. Flat green falls away and rises into rich hills, crosshatched with the black lines of charred trees, and then flattens out again.

The old measurements lose their relevance. The meaning of a mile is nothing to us. There are no more hours, only time when it is light enough to see and time when it isn’t. We are constantly moving, so that it begins to feel like we’re on a treadmill. We aren’t going anywhere, really. We’re not moving away from anything, either, and we don’t know yet that we want to be. Our phones buzz and beep; families, friends, lovers want to know where we are, what we see now. We don’t know how to say it. If we hold our breath we might be suspended in time and space, hurtling at eighty miles an hour in a large metal box.

Sometimes we want to yank each other’s hair. We want to fight. We see each other so closely that we miss things. When this is done we will love one another in the fashion that only young women can, a thing made infinite, as two mirrors facing each other. We will stare and stare, and love will give way to hate, will give way to self-loathing, and back to love again. Some of us will drift apart after this is done.

To read the rest of “Road Trip,” click here.

They’re here! We’re immensely proud to present the ten winning stories of our Anthology Prize, selected by Roxane Gay and which will appear in the sixth volume of The Masters Review. We couldn’t be happier to promote a collection that is filled with such promising talent. Stay tuned for updates on when the collection will be available. And lastly, congratulations to the ten writers selected!

The Masters Review Volume VI
with stories selected by Roxane Gay

“Gormley” by Chris Arp

“Steal Away” by Nicole Cuffy

“Confessions of a Lady-In-Waiting” by Rachel Engelman

“Migrations” by Michele Host

“Hope Gold” by Leslie Jones

“A Man Stands Tall” by Gabriel Moseley

“This is an Exercise in Detachment” by Amy Purcell

“Little Men” by Matthew Sullivan

“Speakers of Other Languages” by Maria Thomas

“Out of Our Suffering” by Kasey Thornton

Writers, there are only two more weeks to submit to our Short Story Award For New Writers, which awards $3000, publication, and agency review from four top agents to the winner. $200 and $100 are awarded to second and third place, respectively, as well as publication and agency review. All stories are considered for publication and all honorable mentions will also be sent to agents. It’s an awesome prize with some great visibility and it is only open to new and emerging authors. SUBMIT NOW! There are only two weeks left. Details here.

“Thanks for providing a place for emerging talents to thrive!”
— Amy Williams, The Williams Agency

||| SUBMIT NOW |||

$3000 + Publication + Agency Review

Full contest details and guidelines can be found here.

Today, we are pleased to bring you reviews of two recent novels to add to your summer reading list, pronto! First, Laura Spence-Ash reviews What We Lose by Zinzi Clemmons, a debut that just hit the shelves this week. In Spence-Ash’s words: “Clemmons has written a novel that doesn’t quite feel like a novel. She nicely plays with form to convey content; the book seems at times like a memoir and, at others, like a collection of minute essays. …The blurring of boundaries between genres does much to underscore this sense of never quite belonging to any one thing.”

Next, Kim Winternheimer reviews Gabe Habash’s debut novel Stephen Florida, which follows the mental workings of a college wrestler who is fiercely dedicated to his sport. Winternheimer writes: “Stephen grapples with his place in the world outside of wrestling and because we have so much access to his thoughts and feelings, what starts as the pursuit of a lofty sports goal is in equal measure a journey for sanity, for balance, and for a life filled with meaning.” Read on!

What We Lose by Zinzi Clemmons

Much of What We Lose, an innovative and engaging debut novel by Zinzi Clemmons, is about being stuck in the in-between. The protagonist, Thandi, is of mixed-race, with an American father and a South African mother. Although Thandi is brought up in Philadelphia, her mother’s ties to her home country are strong, and the family visits most summers. Over the course of the book, Thandi matures from a teenager to a young woman. And then Thandi’s mother dies from cancer, and she is a daughter without a mother before becoming a mother to a son. In all these instances, she interrogates each binary as well as the space in between as she tries to figure out who she is and how to move forward. Read more.

Stephen Florida by Gabe Habash

Gabe Habash’s confident debut, Stephen Florida, explores the single-minded intensity behind the pursuit of your goals. The result is a fast-paced novel about sacrifice and dedication, as it follows college senior and wrestling national championship hopeful Stephen Florida in his attempt to win the 133lb weight class.

Stephen Florida is a talented wrestler at an average college, but he is exceptional in his devotion to his sport. Willing to sacrifice beyond reasonable measure, Stephen makes his commitment to wrestling a credo. The novel reads like a manifesto, leading readers into the mind of a character filled with pain (“What will make my thoughts less ugly while I wait for my turn? I live in these little chambers of dissatisfaction like a frustrated prince. I’m constantly reminded that I’m not owed anything.”), humor (“I guess because sailboating and horse jumping, kite contests, golf, those aren’t sports. Anything that needs an object or water or an animal is not a sport. Wrestling is genuine and true and real.”), and extraordinary focus (“But I don’t need to be old to know that to look back and realize you didn’t push yourself for something you loved is the greatest regret you can have”). Read more.

// small. POWERFUL. //

Congratulations to the winners of our Flash Fiction Contest! We can’t wait for you to read these tiny + incredible stories. The winning writer will be awarded $2000 and publication on PEN America’s website and then later reprinted in The Masters Review for our archive. Second and third place will be awarded $200 and $100, respectively, as well as publication in The Masters Review. All stories listed will receive publication and all three winners will be recognized in a special issue of Poets & Writers magazine. Stay tuned for five incredible stories!.

Welcome to our summer review series! From June through September, Masters Review guest editor, Lauren Klepinger, will read and respond to six science fiction novels (some classic, some recent), and examine them from the perspective of a writer trying to improve her understanding of the genre. Today she explores the strange double cities in China Miéville’s, The City & The City.

 The City & The City by China Miéville

My review of Railhead compared the novel to China Miéville’s Railsea, a wild steampunk-Western packed with action and adventure. By contrast, Miéville’s The City & The City seems almost subdued, though not wanting for intrigue. This novel succeeds because of its subtlety, and because it never quite shows all of its cards.

The City & The City unites speculative fiction with the noir detective novel. The story revolves around the murder of postgraduate student Mahalia Geary, and it quickly becomes clear this is more than a crime of passion. Her body turns up in the decaying, vaguely Eastern European city of Beszel, but the murder occurred in its twin/neighbor/alter, Ul Qoma. Though these two cities somehow occupy the same geographical space, they are in fact worlds apart. The citizens of Beszel and Ul Qoma must not cross between them, interact with each other, or even acknowledge the presence of the opposing city: they must “unsee” it, or risk provoking the mysterious and nearly omnipotent forces of Breach. Only by formally and legally “crossing the border,” can they experience the other city safely.

Miéville’s prose almost entirely avoids exposition about Beszel and Ul Qoma, requiring the reader to slowly piece together their relationship from the brisk first-person narration of Inspector Tyador Borlú as he investigates Mahalia’s murder. Borlú himself doesn’t know all the answers to the questions these cities raise, such as how they came to be, what Breach is, and whether there might be some truth to the urban legend of Orciny, the fabled “city between the cities.”

These questions lead to the brilliant thing about this novel: how Miéville skirts the edges of the sci-fi genre, possibly making you unsure whether you’re reading sci-fi at all. Given that it has won or been nominated for several awards for sci-fi/fantasy genre fiction, including the Hugo Award, the BSFA Award, the Arthur C. Clarke Award, and the Nebula Award, it seems fair to shelf it in that genre. But by the end of Borlú’s investigation, it isn’t clear whether anything supernatural has gone on at all. (more…)

We are out of the office in observance of freedom, equal rights, and fireworks. Have a great Fourth of July! We’ll be back to our regularly scheduled programming on Wednesday. 

Today, we’re pleased to publish a story that takes full advantage of the epistolary form. “For Danny, Twelve Years Old” is addressed to a boy who has just lost his mother. It is a concise and powerful tale. Don’t miss this moving addition to our New Voices library.

“You will experience a cleaving, and the pre-event you and post-event you will assume radio silence, and you will not know where the first you has gone except that it is to somewhere you cannot follow.”

Dear Danny,

The news will be the liquid pop of a flashbulb in your brain; it will cause total erasure. You will dissociate from your body and see yourself from above. When two nurses in teal scrubs pass by the window, you will think:

They are having a normal day, and I am not.

You will think:

Who will take me to school tomorrow?

This question, posed seconds after, will be the first of many that are so logistical and quotidian you will feel guilt and selfishness for them.

Who will pack my lunch?

Who will walk the dogs?

Ten minutes after, the hospital counselor will leave you and your father in the room alone. Somehow your sister will arrive, though you won’t know who could have called her, or when.

Will I have to start using an alarm in the morning?

A half hour after, your sister will drive you and your father home in her convertible. The top will be down. Her hair will whip around as her hand rests on your father’s knee. In the backseat, in the wind, will be a chance to cry unnoticed, so use it. At home, when your father unlocks the front door, your two Rottweilers, Samson and Delilah, will greet you excitedly. Your sister will put on the kettle, and your father will shower.

Can Dad do laundry?

In the next few hours, many people you know and some you don’t—but who seem to know you—will come. You will try for hours to ease the houseguests with small talk as they look at you with wonder. It will be bewildering and exhausting. Your extended family will converge upon you from all corners of Texas, and the map of their travel will look like a crosshair with you at its center.

To read the rest of “For Danny, Twelve Years Old” click here.

The temperature keeps rising as we move into July, but it only takes a little ingenuity to avoid the doldrums. Our idea? Beat the summer heat by drinking lemonade, visiting the pool, and fanning yourself with a pile of submissions!

FEATURED! Short Story Award For New Writers

This is our biggest submission period of the year! The Masters Review is looking for stories under 7000 words, written by emerging writers who have a way with words and a passion for prose. The winner receives $3000, publication, and agency review, and the first and second place authors also receive cash prizes, publication, and review. Don’t let this opportunity slip by! Details here.
Entry Fee: $20 Deadline: July 31

Bellevue Literary Review Prizes

All three of the Bellevue Literary Review’s contests are ending soon, so enter now if you want to receive one of the three $1000 and publication first-place prizes! All entries should be related to themes of health, healing, illness, the mind, and the body. Geraldine Brooks is judging fiction, Rachel Hadas is judging poetry, and Rivka Galchen is judging nonfiction. Honorable mention winners also earn $250 and publication! Guidelines here.
Entry Fee: $20 Deadline: July 1

Richard J. Margolis Award

Inspired by journalist and essayist Richard J. Margolis, this prize provides financial and other support to a promising journalist whose work combines warmth, humor, and wisdom with social justice. This prize recognizes one writer with $5000, and a one-month residency at the Blue Mountain Center in Blue Mountain Lake, NY. Applicants need to provide a biographical note, a project description, and two writing samples. Submission guidelines here.
Entry Fee: FREE Deadline: July 1

Francine Ringold Awards for New Writers

These awards, presented by Nimrod International Journal through the University of Tulsa, honor the work of writers at the beginning of their careers in either fiction or poetry. Contestants can enter up to five pages of poetry, and up to 5000 words of prose. The winner of each category will receive $500 and their manuscript will be published in the spring issue of Nimrod! Details here.
Entry Fee: $12 Deadline: July 15

 Rattle Poetry Prize

Rattle is looking for an outstanding piece of poetry, and they are definitely willing to compensate you handsomely for it! This annual competition awards $10,000 for a single poem to be published in the winter issue of their magazine. Ten finalists also receive $200, and additional poems from the entries are frequently published. Four poems are allowed per entry, and there is no line limit. What are you waiting for? Enter here!
Entry Fee: $20 Deadline: July 15

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Welcome to our summer review series! From June through September, Masters Review guest editor, Lauren Klepinger, will read and respond to six science fiction novels (some classic, some recent), and examine them from the perspective of a writer trying to improve her understanding of the genre. The six novels reviewed are listed below. Read along, enjoy, and let us know what you think about how each writer occupies his or her own space in science fiction.

Railhead by Philip Reeve, 2015

The City & The City by China Miéville, 2009

Foundation by Isaac Asimov, 1951

The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett, 2012

Patternmaster by Octavia Butler, 1976

The Chimes by Anna Smaill, 2015

Railhead by Philip Reeve

In the distant future, humanity has terraformed and colonized dozens of planets across the galaxy. We grow bio-architecture from genetically engineered plants, fight humanoid robots for employment, access the Datasea with the blink of an eye, and are policed by obedient drones. Perhaps the most significant transformation of daily life is the Great Network, where sentient trains shuttle humans from planet to planet on rails laid by the Guardians, artificial intelligences far surpassing humans in breadth and depth of knowledge.

Philip Reeve builds a world for Railhead that riffs on plenty of old sci-fi conventions, but still feels fresh enough to capture and surprise the imagination. His cast of characters keeps things lively: the raggedy young thief and “railhead” Zen, the almost-human-but-not-quite Motorik Nova, the mysterious and morally dubious Raven, the proper and power-hungry Noon corporate family. Woven into their tales are themes of how technology rules human society: the Guardians have become gods, and their Great Network has utterly transformed daily life.

In some ways, Railhead feels like the sci-fi cousin of Railsea, China Miéville’s 2012 steampunk interpretation of Moby Dick. Both present daring adventures and tense politics playing out on a web of tracks with mysterious origins, and the trains offer them a wealth of technologies and motifs to play with. But the genre distinctions are what give these novels their independent identities: where Railsea stretches the boundaries of the growing steampunk canon (which is arguably a sci-fi sub-genre itself), Railhead belongs to more traditional sci-fi.

As Reeve builds the story of how Raven uses Zen and Nova for his own subversive schemes, he raises a number of fascinating questions about his sci-fi world: where did the technology for the rails of the Network come from, since humans didn’t build them? Why did the Guardians stop expanding the Network? What are the “Station Angels,” mysterious light forms appearing in stations?

Unfortunately, Reeve only gives cursory answers to most of these questions, if he answers them at all. (more…)