Submissions open through June 30!
For two weeks this June, The Masters Review is open for submissions of your previously published work! The 2026 Reprint Prize—now in its fourth year—will be open for submissions of previously published prose (under 6,000 words) from June 15 to June 30, 2026. Any fiction or creative nonfiction published prior to June 1, 2025, is eligible. We want to celebrate (or re-celebrate) stories and essays that are no longer available online or in print, or that are looking for an opportunity to find a new audience. As always, we set no limitations on style or topic, but our primary interest is in literary prose. The winner of this prize, selected by The Masters Review’s editorial staff, will receive a $500 prize and online publication.
Guidelines:
- The winner will receive $500 and online publication.
- Submissions of fiction or nonfiction must be under 6,000 words.
- Submitted work must be previously published. Unpublished work will be disqualified. In your cover letter, please indicate when and where your submission has been published.
- Work must be published prior to June 1, 2025.
- Work published in a single-author collection is not eligible for this prize, but work collected in a multiauthor anthology may be submitted. (Note: If the work is included in a collection under contract for 2027 or later with an indie press, it is eligible, provided it meets our other requirements.)
- The submission fee is $10.
- Simultaneous and multiple submissions are allowed, though each submission requires a $10 submission fee.
- 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 previously published work, as are self-published authors.
- Former TMR contributors are welcome to submit work published elsewhere. Work previously published by TMR, including in New Voices, the Anthology, or for one of our other contests, is not eligible for this prize.
- 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 June 30, 2026.
- All entries are considered for general publication.
- We do not require blind submissions for this contest. The winner will be selected by The Masters Review’s editorial staff.
- All submissions will receive a response by the end of September, and the winner will be announced by the end of October. If we are unable to meet this timeline, we will notify all submitters of the extension.
- 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 associates of The Masters Review’s editorial staff are not eligible to submit.
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.
Congratulations to Read Cook, author of “Bristol Palin is a Realtor,” the winner of the 2025 Reprint Prize
Runners-up: “The Doctor Said” by Judith Hannah Weiss & “Mrs. Pomeroy’s Table” by Charlie Watts
The 2025 shortlist can be found here.
All previous contest winners can be found on our Past Awards page.