Submissions open through August 30!
Summer has always been for short stories. For over ten years, our Short Story Award has connected emerging writers with some of the industry’s top literary agents. We’re looking for standout stories—fiction or narrative nonfiction, up to 6,000 words—in a voice that is unmistakably yours. This year’s guest judge is Whiting Award winner Weike Wang, author of Chemistry, the forthcoming Iris, and more.
Our contest runs from July 1 to August 30, 2026, 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. Past winners include Nick Fuller Googins, Sanjena Sathian, Nana Nkweti, Reena Shah, and more, several of whom earned representation from one of our partnered agents as a result of this contest.
Additionally, every submitter will receive a free three-month trial from our partners at Literistic. Literistic helps writers find, filter, and track submission opportunities without getting overwhelmed by endless lists of deadlines. Each month, the Literistic team curates a focused list of worthwhile contests, publications, residencies, fellowships, and other opportunities, while the new Literistic portal will let you search and personalize results based on your genre and goals. Write more, search less.
What I am looking for: Clean and clear sentences. Surprising storytelling alongside a hard to forget voice. Humor never hurts. Substance over style but style also doesn’t hurt. Ask first if it is true then ask if it is beautiful. Write to your smartest friend!
—Weike Wang, Guest Judge
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 creative 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- Submitted work must be previously unpublished.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. No additional fee waivers will be granted.
- 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 August 30, 2026.
- All entries are also considered for publication in New Voices.
- Every submission will receive a response by the end of December 2026. The winners will be announced by the end of January 2027.
- AI-generated or -assisted submissions will be automatically disqualified. This includes using LLMs (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or similar) to translate your work.
- Friends, family, and close associates of the guest judge are not eligible for this award. Consider submitting to the summer contest instead!
About the Judge
Weike Wang is the author of four novels, the most forthcoming Iris (Riverhead 2027). She is the recipient of a PEN/Hemingway, a Whiting Award, and is a National Book Foundation 5 under 35 honoree. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Harper’s Magazine, Best American Short Stories and has won two O. Henry Prizes. She earned her MFA from Boston University and her other degrees from Harvard. She currently lives in New York City and teaches at the University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University, Barnard College, and Boston University. Weike is not on social media.
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 Winter First Place Angie Ellis’s first novel, A Snake and a Feathered Bird, was published in 2025 by Thistledown Press. Her prize-winning story, “The Sisters,” was selected for Best of the Net 2026!
- 2023 Summer Third Place Catherine Julia Carberry was awarded the 2023 James Jones First Novel Fellowship!
- 2022 Summer Honorable Mention Lyndsie Manusos’s debut novella from Psychopomp was released September 2024!
- 2021 Winter Second Place Reena Shah’s debut novel was published in 2026 by Bloomsbury!
- 2021 Summer Honorable Mention Jennifer Galvão’s debut novel is forthcoming from Random House in 2027!
- 2019 Winter Honorable Mention Chloe Chun Seim’s debut novel-in-stories came out in November 2023!
- 2019 Summer Second Place Karisa Tell’s debut novel Hello, World! is forthcoming from Putnam!
- 2018 Winter First Place Joe Bond’s first novel, Hope House, developed from his winning story, was published in 2026 by Hub City Press!
- 2018 Winter Third Place Sanjena Sathian’s second novel, Goddess Complex, released in 2025 through Penguin Press!
- 2018 Summer First Place Alina Grabowski is the 2025-2026 James C. McCreight Fiction Fellow at the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing!
- 2018 Summer Second Place Rachel Cochran’s debut novel The Gulf was published by Harper in 2023!
- 2017 Winter First Place Nick Fuller Googins’s second novel, The Frequency of Living Things, was published in 2025 by Atria Books!
- 2017 Summer Third Place Sheldon Costa’s debut novel was published by Quirk Books in fall 2025!
- 2017 Winter Second Place Katie M. Flynn released a new short story collection, Island Rule, in 2024!
- 2016 Winter First Place Scott Gloden’s The Great American Everything was published by Hub City Press in 2023!
- 2016 Summer 2nd Place Claire Boyles’s debut novel is forthcoming from W.W. Norton in 2026!
- 2016 Summer 3rd Place Molly Reid published a short story collection, including her TMR prize-winning story, with BOA Editions in 2019. Her collection was longlisted for the Story Prize!
- 2015 Summer First Place Tom Howard’s first collection, Fierce Pretty Things, won the 2018 Blue Lights Book Prize, and his second collection, Invilibilia, was published in 2026!
2025 Summer Short Story Award for New Writers finalists:
Winner: “Ahmet Usta” by Hardy Griffin
2nd place “The Corpse Flowers” by Thomas Heise
3rd place: “Will the Real Kim Novak Please Stand Up” by Rachel Vogel
Honorable mentions: “UNDELIVERANCES” by Charlie M. Case & “The Hurt I Am Rendering” by Nathan Kimball
Find the full shortlist here.
All previous contest winners can be found on our Past Awards page.