We’ve culled the lists, we’ve pulled the links, and we’ve summarized our favorites below. Check out these 10 great contests and lit mags to submit to this month.
Narrative Magazine 30 Below Contest – Not all emerging writers are young, but if you happen to be under 30, Narrative has a place for your fiction, poems, and essays. Winners in each category take home $1500. Full guidelines and details can be found here. Entry Fee: $23 Deadline: Nov 15
Pushcart Press Editors’ Prize – Editors, this one’s for you. A prize of $1,000 is given for a fiction or nonfiction manuscript that has been submitted to but not accepted by a commercial publisher. The award recognizes “worthy manuscripts that have been overlooked by today’s high-pressure, bottom-line publishing conglomerates.” Submission guidelines, here. Entry Fee: None Deadline: Nov 15
Creative Nonfiction’s Essay Contest – Submit up to 4000 words on the topic of “Childhood” for a chance at $1000 and publication. Submission guidelines, here. Entry Fee: $20 (or $25 which includes subscription) Deadline: Nov 16
PRISM’s Creative Nonfiction Contest – This nonfiction contest allows up to 6000 words and awards the winner publication and a cash prize of $1500. The entry fee is a little steeper though, $40 to enter. You can find details on how to submit here. Entry Fee: $40 Deadline: Nov 20
Narrative Magazines Fall Story Contest – More from Narrative, this time with no age restrictions. Submit your short stories, essays, memoirs, photo essays, graphic stories, and all forms of literary nonfiction up to 15,000 words for a chance at $2500 and publication. Runners up also receive cash prizes. Details here. Entry Fee: $23 Deadline: Nov: 30
Fish Story Prize: €3,000 and publication in the annual Fish Publishing anthology is awarded for the winning short story. Guest judge Kevin Barry will select the best story up to 5,000 words. All entries are considered for publication, including international submissions. Full details can be found here. Entry Fee: €20 Deadline: Nov 30
Glimmer Train’s Short Story Award For New Writers: You have until Nov 30 to submit up to 12,000 to Glimmer Train’s Emerging Writers Contest. To qualify, writers cannot have work published in a literary magazine with a circulation over 5000. Prize money and publication in one of the best publications around. Full submission details, here. Entry Fee: $18 Deadline: Nov 30
Tethered by Letters’ Fall Literary Contest: Submissions in poetry, short stories, and flash fiction are accepted. Prizes of $500 to the winners in each category, plus prizes to the second and third runners up. All stories are considered for publication. For details on how to submit, click here. Entry Fee: $15 for stories, $7 for flash, $7 per poem (or $15 for set of three) Deadline: Dec 1
Hot Metal Bridge: This fall, Hot Metal Bridge is coming home. For their next issue, they’re looking for the best writing by a diverse range of authors and artists with ties to Pittsburgh and Western PA. Whether you were born and raised on the Allegheny, or spent a fleeting four college years here, or got trapped at a gas station in Canonsburg for one unforgettable night, they want your art – visual, literary, or otherwise. Stories up to 6000 words accepted. Submission guidelines, here. Entry Fee: None Deadline: Dec 1
Mslexia’s Monster Issue: Mslexia is looking to conjure pity and/or horror, stories that invite experimentation in both genre (fantasy, literary, crime, romance?) and point of view (from inside or outside the creature). Send them poems of up to 40 lines or stories of up to 2,200 words. Full submission guidelines, here. Entry Fee: None Deadline: Dec 7