Only a week remains in our annual Summer Short Story Award for New Writers! This year’s finalists will be chosen from a shortlist of fifteen submissions by author Chelsea Bieker, whose new collection Heartbroke was released earlier this year. We’re looking for the best short stories up to 6,000 words, awarding $3000 to the winner. Find all the details below!
Submissions open July 1st – August 28th
Summer is for Short Stories! The Masters Review’s Short Story Award for New Writers is a bi-annual contest that recognizes the best fiction from today’s emerging writers. Judging this year’s summer contest is Chelsea Bieker, author of GODSHOT and the new collection Heartbroke. The winner receives a $3,000 prize and agency review, and their story will be published online in late winter/early spring. Second and third place finalists will be awarded publication, agency review and $300/$200 prizes. Participating agents include: Nat Sobel from Sobel Weber, Victoria Cappello from The Bent Agency, Andrea Morrison from Writers House, Sarah Fuentes from Fletcher & Company, and Heather Schroder from Compass Talent. Our mission from day one has been to support emerging writers. We want you to succeed. We want your words to be read.
Guidelines:
-
Winner receives $3000, publication, and agency review
-
Second and third place prizes ($300 / $200, publication, and agency review)
-
Stories under 6000 words
-
Previously unpublished stories only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 Authors with short story collections are free to submit unpublished work, as are writers with books published by indie presses.)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
- Double-spaced, 12 pt easy-to-read font (i.e., Times New Roman, Garamond, etc.) please!
-
$20 entry fee
-
Deadline: August 28th, 2022
-
All stories are considered for publication
- All submissions will receive a response by the end of November
- Winners will be announced by the end of December
- Friends, family and associates of the final judge are not eligible for this award. Consider submitting to the Winter contest!
-
A significant portion of the editorial letter fees go to our feedback editor, according to the rates established by the EFA
We don’t have any preferences topically or in terms of style. We’re simply looking for the best. We don’t define, nor are we interested in, stories identified by their genre. We do, however, consider ourselves a publication that focuses on literary fiction. Dazzle us, take chances, and be bold.
Judging
Chelsea Bieker is the author of two books, the novel GODSHOT which was a finalist for both the Oregon and California Book Award, longlisted for The Center For Fiction’s First Novel Prize, and named a Barnes and Noble Pick of the Month, and the story collection, HEARTBROKE. Her writing has appeared in The Paris Review, Granta, The Cut, McSweeney’s, Lit Hub, Electric Literature, and others. She is the recipient of a Rona Jaffe Writers’ Award, as well as residencies from MacDowell and Tin House Books. Originally from California’s Central Valley, she lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband and two children where she is writing her third book.
