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Summer Short Story Award for New Writers: July 1 – September 7, 2025

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. Winners and honorable mentions receive agency review from five agencies as well as publication. The winning story earns $3,000, while the second and third place runners up receive $300 and $200, respectively.
January 14, 2022

 Submissions open July 1!

 

 

The Summer Short Story Award for New Writers returns! Since 2016, our Short Story Award has connected emerging writers with some of the industry’s top literary agents. Past winners include Nana Nkweti, Nick Fuller Googins, Sanjena Sathian, and more, several of whom earned representation from one of our partnered agents as a result of this contest.

We’re looking for spectacular stories—up to 6,000 words, fiction or creative nonfiction—that only you can tell. This year’s guest judge is Jennine Capó Crucet, a recipient of the 2025 Joyce Carol Oates Prize and author of Say Hello to My Little Friend and other works. Our contest runs from July 1 to September 7, 2025, and is open to any writer who has not published a novel or memoir with a major press. The first-place winner of this contest, selected by our guest judge, will receive a $3,000 grand prize, along with online publication. Second- and third-place finalists will receive $300 and $200 respectively, along with online publication. All finalists will receive agency review from our six partnered agencies. Participating agents include Nat Sobel from Sobel Weber, Victoria Cappello from The Bent Agency, Andrea Morrison from Writers House, Sarah Fuentes from United Talent Agency, Heather Schroder from Compass Talent, and Marin Takikawa from The Friedrich Agency.

Here’s what Jennine Capó Crucet is looking for:

I’m so excited to be judging this contest, and I think I’m looking for a story that’s charged with a similar excitement, one that asserts itself from the very first paragraph, doing so through a careful attention to language and to voice. And setting: I tend to fall in love with stories that have a strong sense of the world its characters inhabit. I also love stories that use humor to break my heart, though please don’t consider humor a requirement for that: I’m hoping to find a story that’ll stand the test of time and be just as heartbreaking a hundred years from now.

Submission Guidelines

  • The first-place winner receives $3,000, online publication, and agency review.
  • The second- and third-place finalists receive cash prizes ($300/$200), online publication, and agency review.
  • Submissions of fiction or nonfiction must be under 6,000 words.
  • Submitted work must be previously unpublished. This includes personal blogs, social media accounts, and other websites. Previously published work will be automatically disqualified.
  • The entry fee is $20.
  • Simultaneous and multiple submissions are allowed, though each submission requires a $20 entry fee.
  • Writers from historically marginalized or underrepresented groups are invited to submit for free until we reach fifty submissions in this category.
  • If your submission is accepted elsewhere, please withdraw your submission on Submittable, or contact us otherwise to let us know the piece is no longer available.
  • We do not require anonymous submissions for this contest, but the guest judge will read the shortlist anonymously.
  • This contest is for emerging writers only. Writers with single-author book-length work published or under contract with a major press are ineligible. We are interested in providing a platform to new writers; authors with books published by indie presses are welcome to submit unpublished work, as are self-published authors.
  • International submissions are allowed, provided the work is written primarily in English.
  • No translations, please.
  • All submissions must be double-spaced with one-inch page margins and use 12pt Times New Roman or Garamond font.
  • The contest’s deadline is 11:59pm PDT on September 7, 2025.
  • All entries are also considered for publication in New Voices.
  • Every submission will receive a response by the end of December 2025. The winners will be announced by the end of January 2026.
  • AI-generated submissions will be automatically disqualified.
  • Friends, family, and associates of the guest judge are not eligible for this award. Consider submitting to the winter contest instead!

About the Judge

Jennine Capó Crucet is a novelist, essayist, and screenwriter. A recipient of the 2025 Joyce Carol Oates Prize and a PEN/O. Henry Prize, she’s the author of four books: the novel Say Hello To My Little Friend, which won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction and was a finalist for the Kirkus Prize for Fiction; the novel Make Your Home Among Strangers, which won the International Latino Book Award; the multiple award-winning story collection How to Leave Hialeah; and the essay collection My Time Among the Whites: Notes from an Unfinished Education, long-listed for the PEN/Open Book Award. A former Contributing Opinion Writer for The New York Times, her writing has appeared on PBS NewsHour, National Public Radio, and in publications such as the Atlantic, Condé Nast Traveler, and others. Born and raised in Miami to Cuban parents, she lives in North Carolina with her family.

Editorial Letter Option

If you’re interested in getting feedback on your writing, utilize our editorial letter add-on option. Our response to your submission will be accompanied by a one- to two-page letter from an experienced guest editor, who will offer observations on the strengths of the piece as well as opportunities for revision. Your editor may also offer further submission and reading suggestions, or other comments on craft. A significant portion of the additional fee is paid directly to your feedback editor. See a sample editorial letter.

Recent News from Past Finalists

 

2024 Summer Short Story Award for New Writers finalists:
Winner: “Leaving Paradise” by Kimberly Blaeser
2nd place: “Coup de Grâce” by Blaire Baily
Honorable mention: “Remembering Forget” by Sean Macgillicuddy

Find the full shortlist here.

All previous contest winners can be found on our Past Awards page.

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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 craft essays, interviews and book reviews and hold workshops that connect emerging and established writers.



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