The Masters Review Winter Short Story Award

Judged by Kimberly King Parsons!

$3000 + Publication + Agency Review

Dec 1 – Feb 2

Submit today!

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The Winter Short Story Award judged by Kimberly King Parsons is NOW OPEN for submissions. Submissions will close on January 31st. The winning story will be awarded $3000 and publication online. Second and third place stories will be awarded publication and $300 and $200 respectively. All winners and honorable mentions will receive agency review by: 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. We want you to succeed, and we want your writing to be read. It’s been our mission to support emerging writers since day one.

• 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• Previously unpublished stories only
• Translations allowed, providing the story has not been published in another language
• Simultaneous and multiple submissions allowed
• Emerging writers only (We are interested in offering a larger platform to new writers. Self-published writers and writers with story collections and novels with a small circulation are welcome to submit. Writers with novels published with a circulation of fewer than 5000 copies can also submit.)
• International submissions allowed
• $20 entry fee
• Deadline: February 2, 2020
• Please no identifying information on your story
• All stories are considered for publication
• If requesting an editorial letter, please indicate on your cover letter if the submissions is fiction or creative nonfiction
• To view a list of our most commonly asked questions regarding submitting to The Masters Review, please see our FAQ page.

Kimberly King Parsons is the author of the short story collection Black Light (Vintage), long listed for the 2019 National Book Award, and the novel The Boiling River, forthcoming from Knopf. A recipient of fellowships from Columbia University and the Sustainable Arts Foundation, her fiction has been published in The Paris Review, Best Small Fictions 2017, Black Warrior Review, No Tokens, Kenyon Review, and elsewhere. She lives with her partner and sons in Portland, OR, where she is completing a novel about Texas, motherhood, and LSD.

Winner update: Joe Bond earned representation from Sarah Fuentes of Fletcher & Company, and Caitlin O’Neil earned representation from Victoria Marini and our 2016 Fall Fiction winner, Ruth Joffre, selected by Kelly Link sold her story collection to Grove Atlantic with our winning piece as the title story. Awesome.

Submit today!

// PAST AWARD WINNERS //

Winter Award Winners 2018:

Judged by Aimee Bender.

First Place Story:
“Damico” by Joe Bond

Second Place Story:
“Caretaker Needed” by Meghan Daniels

Third Place Story:
“Narada’s Ears” by Sanjena Sathian

Honorable Mention:
“At This Late Hour” by Rebecca Turkewitz

Summer Award Winners 2018:

First Place Story:
“Confirmation“ by Alina Grabowski

Second Place Story:
“Portrait of a Virgin“ by Rachel Cochran

Third Place Story:
“A Country Where I Am Beautiful“ by Patricia Smith

Honorable Mentions:

“Headshot” by Charles Ullmann
“We Are The Horizon” by Laura Fletcher

Winter Award Winners 2017:

First Place Story:
“Drop Zone Summer” by Nick Fuller Googins

Second Place Story:
“A History That Brings Me To You” by Katie M. Flynn

Third Place Story:
“Birth Stories” by Sarah Harris Wallman

Winter Short Story Award Winners 2016:

First Place Story:
“Operation” by Scott Gloden

Second Place Story:
“White Out” by Caitlin O’Neil

Third Place Story:
“Malheur Refuge” by Rick Attig

Summer Short Story Award 2016:

First Place Story:
“Red” by Katie Knoll

Second Place Story:
“Ledgers” by Claire Boyles

Third Place Story:
“The First Location” by Molly Reid