A Very Normal Prize in Fiction and Nonfiction

Fiction Prize: $1,000 & Publication
Nonfiction Prize: $1,000 & Publication

Deadline Feb 12, 2010

Final Judges

Margot Livesey: Fiction
David Shields: Nonfiction

GUIDELINES

1. All submissions must be no more than 10,087 words double-spaced, 12 pt. font, with numbered pages and NO IDENTIFYING INFORMATION ON MANUSCRIPT.
2. Entry fee: $20 per submission. Please make checks out to “The Normal School.”
3. All submissions must include 2 Cover Sheets:
   1. 1^st Cover Sheet must include: a) Title b) Genre c) Name of Author d) 50 word biographical statement e) mailing address f) email address
   2. 2^nd Cover Sheet must include: a) Title of Work b) Genre *NO OTHER IDENTIFYING INFORMATION CAN APPEAR ON THIS COVER SHEET.
4. All submissions must be previously unpublished in any form (print or electronic media).
5. Simultaneous submissions ARE allowed as long you notify editors of The Normal School should your piece be accepted elsewhere. Multiple submissions ARE allowed, but each submission must be accompanied by the entry fee.
6. Manuscripts will not be returned. Please do not send your only copy. If you want verification that we have received your manuscript, send a self-addressed, stamped postcard.
7. Please address all submissions to:

The Normal School

Normal Prize Contest – “Genre”
5245 N. Backer Ave.
M/S PB 98
California State University, Fresno
Fresno, CA 93740

All submissions must be postmarked between 12/1/2009 and 2/12/2010.
Please be sure to SPECIFY GENRE on envelope and cover sheet.
All entrants will receive a complimentary issue of The Normal School.

Winners will be announced before the Fall 2010 issue via email.
All entries will be considered for publication.

Three for One: A Contest and Two Articles

Three new items for a Sunday morning.  Click the highlighted headings for more information on each one:

A Contest

Announcing the 2009 New Delta Review Creative Nonfiction Contest, judged by Peggy Shinner. NDR seeks pieces that activate the compelling bits of “real” life. We welcome hybrid essays, ones that expose the insides of things to risk making language do new things. Personal essays are welcome, too. Use a slice of memoir, but use also a dose of self-awareness. Autobiographical moments which are digested and used to engage the reader, not prove something to the reader, delight us.  Prize: $150 and publication in New Delta Review. Finalists will be considered for publication.  $10 submission fee includes option to purchase discounted two-issue subscription to NDR for an additional $10.

An Interesting Article About Brief Content

The new brevity has many virtues … It may seem as if we have entered a nightmarish attention-deficit culture, but the situation is not nearly as gloomy as you have been told. Our culture of the short bit is making human minds more rather than less powerful.  The arrival of virtually every new cultural medium has been greeted with the charge that it truncates attention spans and represents the beginning of cultural collapse—the novel (in the 18th century), the comic book, rock ‘n’ roll, television, and now the Web. In fact, there has never been a golden age of all-wise, all-attentive readers. But that’s not to say that nothing has changed. The mass migration of intellectual activity from print to the Web has brought one important development: We have begun paying more attention to information.

An Article on Sherman Alexie, Contributor to Brevity 31

From The New York Times:

He likes to talk about his writing as a responsibility and admits that it can, at times, feel like a burden. He recalled that in 1992, when The New York Times Book Review assessed the state of American Indian literature and declared his debut, “The Business of Fancydancing,” “one of the major lyric voices of our times,” he promptly went into the bathroom and vomited.

“I’ll write whatever’s going well for a few months at a time and move around from poetry to stories to the novel to a movie script,” he said. “I’ll write 150 pages in three or four days, and maybe I’ll scrap it all because it’s terrible, or it’ll become four lines of a poem.”

The broad portfolio is another thing Mr. Alexie sees as part of his mission. “I can’t think of any younger Indian writers who are multi-genre like I am,” he said. “In fact, it seems like most of them are poets. And besides Louise Erdrich, I feel like the only one who’s not a college professor. Where are the Indian mystery writers and romance novelists?”

Social Justice and Equity Nonfiction Book Award

Benu Press is accepting completed manuscripts for the Social Justice and Equity Award in Creative Nonfiction.

“Benu Press is a small, independent press committed to publishing creative non-fiction, poetry and fiction. We believe in the transformative power of literature. To that end, we seek to publish inspiring and thought-provoking books about the practical dimensions of social justice and equity.”

Deadline in November, so act soon if interested:
http://www.benupress.com/submissions.html

Winning entry will be published by Benu Press and the author will be awarded $1,000 in addition to 17% royalties. The initial run will be 1,000 copies. The winner will also receive 20 copies of the book.

Another Outlet for Brief Nonfiction

Hot Metal Bridge, University of Pittsburgh

www.hotmetalbridge.org

For this issue (and this issue only) all creative nonfiction submissions must be brief: 1,000 words or less. If you think of creative nonfiction as organic material saturated with potential energy—ready fuel for reflection, insight, and action—then brevity is a diamond. Alternately, think of creative nonfiction as a magnifying glass held over some aspect of human experience; brevity focuses that lens until your writing ignites.

As in past issues, we’re still looking for nonfiction in all its guises: essay, travel writing, literary journalism, satire, memoir, etc. We want to hear about dirty kitchens, ill-mannered exchange students, and hydrogen bonding. We will read about decaying vineyards, heroic mall guards, disenchanted cartographers, and sweet potatoes. If it’s new and true—and under 1,000 words—send it our way as a Word or RTF attachment.

Nonfiction@hotmetalbridge.org

Nonfiction and Place: Call for Submissions

Center: A Journal of the Literary Arts invites submissions for a symposium on the importance of place in creative nonfiction, to appear in its next issue (spring 2010).

Center editors ask writers to “consider place from a variety of perspectives. What is its role in the essay? in memoir? in literary journalism? How do concerns about conveying a sense of place affect your own work? in what ways do you see issues of place animating the work of others?  How is place specific or general? Must place be physical or is it temporal as well? What role does craft play in the development of place?”

Submissions should be between 750 and 1000 words.  Email your submission, in a .doc format with “symposium” in the header line, to <cla(at)missouri.edu> (replace (at) with @)

Inquiries to <barberse(at)missouri.edu> (replace (at) with @).

The deadline for submissions is January 15, 2010.

Any Nonfiction Scholars Out There?

The College English Association invites papers and creative works-in-progress on the theme of voices in Creative Nonfiction Writing for the Annual Conference, San Antonio, Texas , March 25-27, 2010.

We quote from the CFP:

“Remember the Alamo!” cried Texans who’d joined arms with General Sam Houston after the Alamo fell. They were defending their home, but we ask now, Whose home was it? At the Alamo itself, voices called from opposing sides of the wall, representing two distinct cultures, ideologies, and ways of being. Truth is about territory. In the interest of hearing an array of voices, we call out for your creative nonfiction on voices. Under the many subgenres of creative nonfiction, a voice may take many forms. Here are a few:

The Personal Essay:
As soon as essayists utter the word voice, the voice is divided. “One person, of course, can have 20,000 different voices,” said Marie Howe. Rarely does the voice exist in a box or adhere to a consistent thread. Michel de Montaigne, considered the father of the essay, is known for chasing down the vicissitudes of his thoughts on life’s basics: “Of liars,” “Of sleep,” “Of the punishment of cowardice,” “Of the resemblance of children to their fathers,” to name a few. These essays are full of voices and personae that inform, sharpen, soften, exalt, and demote one another.

Literary or “New” Journalism:
A blend of journalism and personal slant, literary journalism does not purport to tell the objective truth, but accepts that how one shapes a well-researched story is influenced by personal sensibility. Two early examples from the 1960s are Joan Didion’s “Marrying Absurd” on the marriage industry in Las Vegas the night before one could lower his draft status and Tom Wolfe’s “There Goes (Varoom! Varoom!) That Kandy-Kolored (Thphhhhhh!) Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby (Rahghhh!)…” on hotrod culture in California. More recently, literary journalism has represented other counter cultures. Michael Pollan’s An Omnivore’s Dilemma, for example, in which the author researches the United States’ industrial food system and presents an alternative.

Oral histories and ethnographic essays as well as essays that experiment with form through double and polyphonous voices are also welcome. The aforementioned categories are not meant to be exhaustive or mutually exclusive. The theme of voices, like the not-so-easily-defined genre of creative nonfiction, is infinitely flexible. Submit individual proposals that fall under one of the categories above. If you would like to organize a panel under a different subject relating to passage, please follow the instructions for submitting a panel.

Electronic submissions opened August 21 and will close on November 1, 2009.

Hey, They Stole Our Concept?

But still, it is nice for those whose work doesn’t quite fit into Brevity to have more options, so we share with you:

Beginning September 10, 2009 until November 15, 2009 the Yalobusha Review will begin accepting works of literary non-fiction of lengths no more than 750 words. We are looking for stand alone topics that vividly capture exact moments that might otherwise go unnoticed. Though we are not looking for a particular aesthetic, writing that takes chances, pushes the boundaries of language and does not rely on either narrative or sympathy posseses the greatest chance of publication in the 2010 issue.   Include a cover letter with the title of your piece. Include SASE with submission for notification of results. We retain first North American rights.  Payment is a contributor’s copy.

Please send submissions to:

Yalobusha Review
Travis Morris, Non-fiction Editor
Department of English
University of Mississippi
P.O. Box 1848
University, MS 38677-1848

Essays, Peanuts and Cracker Jacks

The Southern Review is currently accepting submissions for a special feature about baseball to be published in the Spring 2010 issue. Please send your previously unpublished poems, stories, and essays by November 1:
The Southern Review Baseball Feature
Attn. Andrew Ervin
Old President’s House
Louisiana State University
Baton Rouge, LA 70803

http://www.lsu.edu/tsr/News_Baseball.html

2010 River Teeth Literary Nonfiction Prize

The 2010 River Teeth Literary nonfiction Prize contest deadline has been changed to December 31, 2009.

River Teeth’s editors and editorial board conduct a yearly national contest to identify the best book-length manuscript of literary nonfiction. The winner will be announced in March of the prize year. The winner will receive $1,000 and publication by the University of Nebraska Press.

General Guidelines:

1. Manuscripts must be between 150-400 pages long
2. Manuscripts must be double-spaced
3. Include a title page with title only
4. Include a cover page with title and contact information
5. Include a $25 contest fee
6. Postmark Deadline is December 31, 2009.
7. Mail entries to:

RIVER TEETH

Ashland University

401 College Ave.

Ashland, OH 44805

All Books Published by The University of Nebraska Press

Of Nonfiction Blogging: Calling All 21st Century Montaignes

Creative Nonfiction magazine has been republishing blog postings in the annual W. W. Norton Best Creative Nonfiction anthologies, and will soon do the same in the magazine itself.  Nominations (even self-nominations) cheerfully accepted.

Here’s some official language:  “Please note, blog nominations will be accepted only through our online submission manager and only during specific reading periods. We are currently accepting blog nominations until August 31, 2009. We’re looking for: Vibrant new voices with interesting, true stories to tell. Narrative, narrative, narrative. Posts that can stand alone, 2000 words max, from 2009.”

For more information, or to nominate a blog, click here.

The Contaminated Essay

From Dislocate, the journal:

Contaminate’s root is the Latin word tangere, “to touch,” and contamination usually refers to “touch that makes bad.” But there are ways that elements become stronger as a result of corruption: steel gets stronger when tempered in extreme heat, and chemotherapy purifies the body by nearly destroying it. In literature, stories are retold and recontextualized in an endless and productive series of contaminations. Perhaps, even, the limit toward which we speed is for every sphere of life to be contaminated by every other sphere. The question looms: How do people survive, and even thrive, within this contamination? You need not answer this question directly. But let the question contaminate your work.

Your essay may be contaminated in form…

What happens to the essay when we contaminate it with heterogeneous elements? You might add photographs or screenshots from a PowerPoint presentation. You might mix up formal conventions, and make the piece extremely short, or especially lyric. You might transcend generic boundaries and integrate elements of fiction or poetry.

You may contaminate your process…

Write under the influence of giardia, or in traffic jams, or in the presence of small, demanding children, and find ways to incorporate those impositions into your text.

Guidelines:

Length: Up to 3,000 words.

Deadline: December 1, 2009

Contest Fee: $15 (includes at 1-year subscription to dislocate)

1st Prize: $400, publication in dislocate #6, and 4 contributor copies

GO HERE FOR COMPLETE DETAILS

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Act Fast/Hard Times?

Hard Times Writing Contest

FIRST PRIZE: $300  / SECOND PRIZE: $200  / THIRD PRIZE: $100

Deadline: EXTENDED — postmarked by August 15, 2009. *

Write about a difficult experience in your life, how you overcame this obstacle, and how you were changed by it. Winning stories will be chosen for originality and creative writing style. Stories should be previously unpublished, and should not exceed 4,000 words (double-spaced, 12 point font).

More HERE

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Are We Getting Panked?

PANK Magazine is pleased to announce its first writing competition, 1,001 Awesome Words. And we think it suits the PANK ethos to leave it at that.

Not enough, you say? Need key words, you say? Explode. Excite. Intrigue. Surprise. Blow. Our. Pea. Sized. Brains. Any form or formlessness, 1,001 words or less. You know who you are. Now go to it.

Prizes and Fees

Yes! Prizes!

1st Place: $750* and publication in PANK 4.
2nd Place: $500* and publication in PANK 4.
3rd Place: $250* and publication in PANK 4.

Yes. An entry fee, too.

$15 for one entry; $25 for two entries. Each entrant will receive a copy of PANK No. 4, out in January 2010.

FURTHER PANKISH GUIDELINES HERE

Three Essay/CNF Contests Upcoming Soon

1.  Literal Latté is accepting entries for its Ames Essay Award until September 15

2. The Creative Nonfiction Prize from Hunger Mountain is open until September 10.  A one-thousand-dollar prize and publication of the winning work.

3. Real Simple magazine’s Life Lessons Essay Contest will award three thousand dollars and publication in the national magazine.  Deadline September 7.

Second Annual Donald Barthelme Prize for Short Prose

Named in honor of Gulf Coast’s founder, the Donald Barthelme Prize awards $500 and publication in the upcoming issue of Gulf Coast for one prose poem, micro-essay, or piece of flash fiction.

The 2009 prize-winning entry will be selected by Mary Robison, author of Why Did I Ever? and One D.O.A, One on the Way.

Postmark deadline: August 31, 2009.

Full Barthelme Contest Guidelines

Call for Submissions: End of Life Stories

Creative Nonfiction is seeking new essays that explore death, dying, and end of life care, for a collection to be published by Southern Methodist University Press. We’re looking for stories that transcend the “I” and find universal meaning in personal experiences. We hope to include stories representing a wide variety of perspectives—from physicians, nurses,hospice workers, social workers, counselors, clergy, funeral directors,family members, and others. We want narratives that capture, illustrate and/or explain the best way to approach the end of life, as well as stories that highlight current features, flaws, and advances in the healthcare system and their impact on professionals, patients, and families.

Essays must be vivid and dramatic; they should combine a strong and compelling narrative with a significant element of research or information. We’re looking for well-written prose, rich with detail and a distinctive voice.

Creative Nonfiction editors will award one $1500 prize for Best Essay, and two $500 prizes for runners-up.

Guidelines: Essays must be: unpublished, 5,000 words or less, postmarked by December 31, 2009, and clearly marked “End of Life” on both the essay and the outside of the envelope. There is a $20 reading fee (or send a reading fee of $25 to include a 4-issue CNF subscription); multiple entries are welcome ($20/essay) as are entries from outside the U.S. (though subscription shipping costs do apply).

Please send manuscript, accompanied by a cover letter with complete contact information, SASE and payment to:

Creative Nonfiction
Attn: End of Life Stories
5501 Walnut Street, Suite 202
Pittsburgh, PA 15232

More info at:
http://creativenonfiction.org/
information@creativenonfiction.org

More Jelly Needed for the Bucket

Jelly Bucket, the new literary journal for EKU’s MFA program would like to announce a special call for non-fiction submissions. The deadline has been extended to July 15th. All submissions should be sent to:

nonfiction(at)jellybucket(dot)org.

All contact information should be on your submission. The inaugural issue will be released this November. Payment will be two contributor’s copies.

We Aren’t So Grown Up Here at Brevity, But Perhaps You Are?

REAL SIMPLE’s annual Life Lessons Essay Contest

Submit  a very brief essay on the topic:

When did you first realize that you had become a grown-up?

The winning essay is scheduled to appear in the April 2010 issue of REAL SIMPLE magazine.  Winner will receive a $3,000 prize; rountrip tickets for two to New York City, hotel accommodations for two nights, and tickets to a Broadway play; and lunch with REAL SIMPLE editors.

Deadline:  Sept. 7, 2009.  For complete contest rules,

realsimple.com/lifelessonscontest.

Tweet Tweet Nonfiction

Many people are confused by Brevity’s relationship with Creative Nonfiction the print magazine.  Well, let us put it this way: we read submissions separately, have offices in different states, have separate production teams, and we are better looking.  CNF allows us to piggyback for free on their server space (thanks), and in return, they steal all of our good ideas, like the whole idea of brevity.  Thus, the new CNF twitter challenge:

Forget 6-word memoirs. Can you tell a true story in 130 characters or less? Prove it. Trend topic #cnftweet, and we’ll RT our fave everyday!

We don’t tweet here at Brevity, because you have to draw the line somewhere, but if you want to follow CNF on Twitter, here’s where you can go: http://twitter.com/cnfonline

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The Memoir (and) Prizes for Memoir in Prose and Poetry/ and for Graphic Memoir

The Memoir (and) Prize for Memoir in Prose and Poetry

The Memoir (and) Prize for Graphic Memoir

Four prizes awared up to $500.

Memoir (and) reading period for Spring+Summer 2010 (Issue 6): 5/1/09 – 8/15/09.

Accepting traditional and experimental prose, poetry, graphic memoir, narrative photography, lies, and more. All submissions eligible for contest entry. Submit online or mail to: Memoir (and), P.O. Box 1398, Sausalito, CA 94966.

Guidelines at www.memoirjournal.com.

“A blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be. “

The Georgia Review invites submissions for a planned special feature, a 21st-century update of Ambrose Bierce’s satirical Devil’s Dictionary, published about 100 years ago. “Taking Bierce as a model, all writers are invited to send one or two original dictionary entries – maximum length, 200 words each – for publication consideration.

All entries will be considered for publication in GR and/or on their Web site. All accepted authors will receive an honorarium and also will be eligible to receive ‘The Devil’s Due’ in the amount of $500 for first place, $150 for second, and $100 for third.” Check here for more information. Deadline: June 30, 2009.

Caregiving

Kaleidoscope, a journal that explores the experience of disability through literature and the fine arts, plans an issue themed on “Giving and Receiving Care: A Delicate Balance”

“There are many variations of caregiving relationships. We are looking for personal essays, creative nonfiction, fiction, and poetry which provide insights into this delicate subject from the perspective of caregivers and people who receive care.”

Submission deadline is March 1, 2009. Pays: $10-$125, plus two copies. Click here for more information.

Opium: 500 Words

Opium’s 500-Word Memoir Contest–judged by author and Oscar-nominee Tom Perrotta.

The rules? Write a memoir of 500 words or less. The winning memoir, along with a handful of finalists, will appear in Opium8 which will debut on May 1, 2009. For a shining example (and the rules)–a finalist from Opium5–check out Giancarlo DiTrapano’s heartaching memoir here: http://opiummagazine.com/contest.aspx

The Deadline: February 22, 2009
The Reward: $1,000, and publication in Opium8.
The Cost: $10 for a single entry; $17.50 for two (or you can now subscribe and enter for $25!)

How to Submit: Go to Opium’s new submissions system and enter!
The Judge: Tom Perrotta has written six novels, including Election, the New York Times best seller The Abstinence Teacher and Little Children. Election became an acclaimed movie directed by Alexander Payne, and Perrotta received an Oscar nomination for the screenplay of Little Children. Perrotta has taught at Yale and Harvard, and lives near Boston.

Baffled, We Are

Can’t really understand why Gulf Coast’s Donald Barthelme Prize for Short Prose includes short fiction, the prose poem, but not brief nonfiction!  Baffled, we are.

But we are fans of Gulf Coast, and of Mr. Barthelme, and of Beckian Fritz Goldberg, so we happily pass along the details:

The Donald Barthelme Prize for Short Prose This year’s judge: Beckian Fritz Goldberg Guidelines: Submit up to 3 previously unpublished prose poems or short stories, each no more than 500 words in length. Your name and address should appear on the cover letter only. All entries will be eligible for publication, though only one will receive our $500 prize. Manuscripts will not be returned. Include an SASE for results. Your $15 reading fee, payable to “Gulf Coast,” will include a one-year subscription. Send Entries to: Barthelme Prize, Gulf Coast English Dept, Univ. of Houston Houston, TX 77204-3013 Deadline: December 20, 2008 Gulf Coast: A Journal of Literature and Fine Arts

Third Coast Looking For Your Finest CNF

Third Coast — a consistently high quality literary magazine, nationally distributed and edited entirely by graduate students at Western Michigan University — is looking for submissions, particularly nonfiction.

Third Coast publishes excellent (often award-winning) fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction and drama. In the past year, two stories and one poem published in Third Coast were chosen to appear in the O Henry Award Series, the Pushcart Prize Series, and Best of the West: New Stories from the Wide Side of the Missouri.

The editors tell us, “We are especially interested in seeing more submissions in creative nonfiction at the moment.”

Submissions are accepted electonically through a submissions manager.

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Searching Through the Blog Fog

Creative Nonfiction is seeking narrative blog posts to reprint in The Best Creative Nonfiction, Volume 3, edited by Lee Gutkind, forthcoming in August 2009 from W. W. Norton.

We’re looking for: Vibrant new voices with interesting, true stories to tell. Narrative, narrative, narrative. Posts that can stand alone, 2000 words max, from 2008. Something from your own blog, from a friend’s blog, from a stranger’s blog.

The small print: We will contact individual bloggers before publication; we pay a flat $50 fee for one-time reprint rights. Deadline: October 31, 2008.

Click Here: To Nominate a Blog

Imaginary Nonfictions: Almost an Oxymoron

Daniel Nester is a friend to Brevity, one helluva Queen fan, a nice guy, and Assistant Web Editor for Sestinas at McSweeney’s, so we wanted to pass this along.  First though, we had to ask him “Dude, what’s an imaginary nonfiction?”

Daniel answered, “speculation, ruminations — you know, imaginary.”

Okay. We have no problem with nonfiction writers telling us what they’ve imagined, as long as they tell us it is imagined.

So, here’s the pitch:

The-Out-of Bounds Essay: Bloomsbury Review’s New Bi-Monthly Imaginary Nonfictions Feature
Editors: Reamy Jansen and Daniel Nester

We’re both looking for fresh, off-beat, non-fiction prose. No more than 300 words.
Send two copies of your entry to Reamy Jansen, 16 Homestead Ave., Highland Falls, NY 10928. Include SASE, brief bio, e-mail address, and phone number.

Best Creative Nonfiction: Redux

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: BEST CNF VOL. 3

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For publication in the Best Creative Nonfiction, Vol. 3: Editors of

any publication, print or online, are invited to nominate up to 3

essays or articles from their 2007/2008 issues. Send one hard copy of

each piece to:

–

The Best Creative Nonfiction c/o Creative Nonfiction

5501 Walnut Street, suite 202

Pittsburgh, PA 15232

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Or by email (pdf or Word attachments only):

bestcreativenonfiction@gmail.com

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To be considered, work must be slated for publication before the end

of 2008. In the case of work not published by the nomination

deadline, please send page proofs or a Word manuscript.

–

Deadline for submissions is July 15, 2008.

Be Forewarned

Brevity has already filled the Summer 2008 and Fall 2008 issues, and we are reading for January 2009. We will close off submissions for the summer early this year, on April 15th to be exact.

So now you have two reasons to rue the day.

What’s Up, Doc?

Call for Submissions: Becoming a Doctor

For a collection to be published by W. W. Norton, Creative Nonfiction is seeking new essays written by physicians and therapists. The essays should depict experiences of “becoming a doctor” and could explore periods of growth and enlightenment, moments of transition, or realizations that one’s maturation as a doctor had been achieved. Essays might also explore periods of doubt and struggle for clarity, or incidents of deep disappointment and disillusionment.

The objective is to capture the frustrations and triumphs of the healing art by encouraging doctors to recall and recreate the most salient and significant moments of their professional lives.

Essays must be vivid and dramatic; they should combine a strong and compelling narrative with a significant element of research or information. We’re looking for well-written prose, rich with detail and a distinctive voice.

Submissions should be approximately 3,000 – 4,000 words. Please send submissions, accompanied by a cover letter with complete contact information, to:

Creative Nonfiction
Attn: Becoming a Doctor
5501 Walnut Street, Suite 202
Pittsburgh, PA 15232

Postmark deadline May 31, 2008.

Please email questions to information@creativenonfiction.org

Sweet!

There’s a new kid on the block, full of gooey goodness, or at least sugary promises:

SWEET: A Literary Confection
From the about page:

In 2002 Katherine Riegel and Ira Sukrungruang got married in Chiang Mai, Thailand, at one of the oldest temples in the country. (You should have seen them; they were beautiful). The marriage of Katie and Ira was also a marriage of cultures, a marriage of landscapes, a marriage of genres: poetry and creative nonfiction. So began an ongoing conservation about the two genres, where they intersect, diverge, and mix to create a frothy blend. We, at Sweet, want to include others in this conversation.

We like poetry like we like chocolate. We like creative nonfiction like we like marshmallows and graham crackers. Both are great separately and together. Sweet wants to cater to the chocolate aficionados and those who like their s’mores good and gooey.

Brevity Joins Video Contest with Strange Broccoli and Farm Animal Logo

You are invited to create a “tasty” video based on any written piece published in Brevity (and many other journals — see here).

The Mad Hatter’s Review is sponsoring the contest, calling for a “video inspired by a poem, fiction, literary non-fiction, or experimental form, a written work that stimulates you to create a video in response. You may decide to creatively and dramatically interpret and thereby ‘collaborate’ with the author of the work in terms of mood, energy, theme, related imagery, words, ‘plot,”’ music, and/or sounds.

Fire up the cameras, all.

Here Comes the Sun, Little Darlin’

The Sun Increases Payments for Writing and Photography

The Sun is pleased to announce an increase in our payments for writing and photography. We now pay up to $3,000 for essays and interviews, up to $2,000 for fiction, up to $500 for poetry, and up to $500 for photographs.

See our submission guidelines for details.

Modern Love, Walks Beside Me

From the hippie culture to the AIDS epidemic to the Internet revolution, love has gone from “free” to fraught to Facebook. What is love now, in this age of 24/7 communication, blurred gender roles and new attitudes about sex and dating?

The NYT invites college students nationwide to submit a personal essay of between 1,500 and 2,000 words that illustrates the current state of love and relationships. The winning author will receive $1,000 and his or her essay will be published in a special “Modern Love” column on May 4, 2008 and on nytimes.com.

Submit to the Fish: The Malahat Review

The Malahat Review, starting with its Summer 2008 issue,will publish at least one work of creative non-fiction in every issue. Submit previously unpublished works of creative nonfiction for the consideration of the Creative Nonfiction Board. No restrictions as to subject matter or approach apply; a submission may be personal essay, memoir, cultural criticism, nature writing, or literary journalism. Seeking highly original submissions that range in length from between 1,000 to 3,500 words.

Anyone Up for an AWP Quickie?

Emerson College’s Redivider journal will be hosting an “AWP Quickie” contest for short-short fiction,  poetry, and yes Virginia, also for short-short nonfiction.  In order to participate, conference attendees just need to stop by Redivider’s table, grab a quickie card, then write a story, poem, or essay on the back and return the card by the end of the bookfair. First prize winners will receive $50.00 and publication in the fall 2008 issue of Redivider. The judges are Brock Clarke for fiction, Ravi Shankar for poetry, and Lee Martin for nonfiction.

The River Teeth Literary Nonfiction Prize Series

This prize series has published a few of my favorite recent books. Become one of them?

River Teeth’s editors and editorial board conduct a yearly national contest to identify the best book-length manuscript of literary nonfiction. The winner will receive $1,000 and publication by The University of Nebraska Press. Deadline March 1, 2008

Call for Love

StoryQuarterly

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Announces the SQ Love Story Contest; open to fiction and nonfiction entries focused on love of all sorts; offering a First Prize of $2,500, a Second Prize of $1,500, a Third Prize of $750, and ten Finalists each will receive $100.

Deadline for entries: March 31, 2008. Guidelines here.

Abigail Thomas judges the 2008 Iowa Review Award in Nonfiction

If you don’t know the work of Abigail Thomas, for instance, Three Dog Life, you really should. And after reading the book, you should definitely enter the 2008 Iowa Review Nonfiction contest:

$1000 to the winner / $500 to first runner-up plus publication in The Iowa Review’s December 2008 issue

Submit during January 2008

The rules are posted here: RULES

Bottle Caps, Cat’s Eyes, and Literature

The Normal School / A New Literary Magazine / Cal State Fresno

Now Accepting:
Creative Nonfiction. Story. Poem. Critique. Experiential Recipes. Quirky. Boundary-challenging. Energetic. Innovative in both form and focus. We’re the equivalent of the kid who always has bottle caps, cat’s eye marbles, dead animal skulls and other treasures in his pockets. Contributing Editors include Steve Almond, Tom Bissell, Beth Ann Fennelly, Jacqueline Lyons, Duncan Murrell, Laura Pritchett, Steve Yarbrough, and more.

www.thenormalschool.com

Send us your work:

The Normal School
5245 N. Backer Ave.
M/S PB 98
California State University, Fresno
Fresno, CA 93740-8001

OR as an attachment in .doc or .rtf format only to

submissions@thenormalschool.com

Barrelhouse Invitational, Pop Culture Essay Edition

Barrelhouse is looking for great nonfiction with a pop culture slant (again). The winner will receive $150 and publication in Barrelhouse print issue 6. One runner-up will be published in the online edition. $7 per entry.

http://www.barrelhousemag.com/

Response: DOES BREVITY ONLY PUBLISH PUBLISHED WRITERS?

A thoughtful response to last week’s post

That was an interesting email you posted at the Brevity site from the reader who wanted to know if only published writers get published. While I agree with your assertion that there’s a reason we keep seeing certain writers published again and again in literary journals (they’re darn good writers), I also believe their success sometimes feeds on itself.

The problem with that is writers–even famous and the famously published ones– are a lot like songwriters: not everything they write is a great song. Yet, I’ve seen some good writers with name recognition get certain essays and stories published that were whiffs and misses (in my humble opinion). We recently studied an essay by a very well-known and established writer in one of my comp classes where I thought “if a student handed this in I’d suggest it needs some revision.” The essay, I felt, went off-topic in the middle, delayed the “what the hell is this about?” far too long, and hastily tied things up in an abrupt conclusion. Not only was this an essay that had been published once, but it got in that magical wheelhouse of the Society of Academic Gatekeepers where it had been printed and reprinted many times.

The bottomline is that I have far less precious time in front of an editor’s face with my piece than do writers whose reputations precede them. Whereas an editor might read through pages 4,5, and 6 to find the payoff from an established writer, I better sure as hell hook that editor in the first couple of paragraphs–and even then only if the story isn’t of the kind or sort the editor has a personal pet peeve about (re: “I don’t do coming-of-age stories. Next”).

And the famous writer isn’t going to have his/her submission crumpled and tossed in the recycle bin because he or she didn’t include an SASE or forgot to put the story title in bottom-left corner of every page.

That said, it would be unfair to paint all publications and all editing staffs with the same brush (as those good and sincere souls reading this who are feeling indignant because they know what I’m saying doesn’t apply to them or their publications). I’ve certainly received rejection letters that were fairly earned once I saw the issue come out saw all the strong writing in it (Brevity comes to mind). And I’ve certainly been surprised on occasion by a nice handwritten note from an editor. But I’ve more times than not in the submission game been made to feel like an unimportant number, someone burdening an already burdened staff who has been jaded and burnt out by the heavy load of submissions. I’ve certainly read more than my share of editorials and editor interviews in journals and magzines of the “if you want me to sniff your submission, you sure as hell better jump through these hoops correctly–because you wouldn’t believe the crap I have to put up with on a daily basis.”

Understood–and right back at you.

As a wise colleague of mine once said: “if you can’t handle the work load, don’t cash the check.” I realize many of these publications aren’t money-making enterprises, but I believe that if you can’t treat those who submit like human beings and remember EACH one of those submissions contains a naked part of the author’s soul, well, you should consider shutting the operation down and go do something you can handle with quality customer service–whether that be selling beads at a flea market or cutting meat at the local deli.

But the real question is why writers keep putting up with the abuse: a submission done right costs about $1 or more to send out. That adds up in a hurry–especially when the payoff is “two copies and a pat on the back” if that writer does miraculously get a bite. And especially when the rejection notes are more often than not robotic form letters stuffed in your SASE by college students or interns.

Editors sometimes think writers need to hear the hard truth about their writing. The truth is a lot of stuff that comes across their desks isn’t that good. Understood. But I also think editors need to hear the hard truth–like this–right back at them at times.

Best regards, Bill Milligan

–

Bill Milligan teaches composition, journalism, and creative nonfiction at Bay College in Escanaba, Michigan. As he has tenure and his dean doesn’t care if he ever publishes or not, he feels secure in sharing his feelings openly about the writing business. He can be reached at milligab39@yahoo.com Please feel free to use profanity when contacting him if it helps. He understands the therapeutic value of venting.

Mailbag: DOES BREVITY ONLY PUBLISH ‘PUBLISHED’ WRITERS?

BREVITY received an interesting e-mail recently, and it got me to thinking about our purpose and our history. We’re about to launch Issue 25: the Silver Anniversary, so that’s as good a time as any to take stock.

Here’s an excerpt from the e-mail:

“I have enjoyed reading your journal (but) … honesty would go as far in your submission guidelines as it does in the essays themselves. Be honest upfront and say that every essay accepted is written by a published writer … Not everyone who reads your journal is a published writer. And not everyone who submits an essay is a published writer. But only those that are get published. Honesty is the best policy in all things … — Karen”

Keep reading here:

http://www.creativenonfiction.org/brevity/ednote.htm

Hunger Mountain Nonfiction Prize

Hunger Mountain, The Vermont College Journal of Arts & Letters, is pleased to announce the establishment of this new literary prize, judged by Sue William Silverman, author of Love Sick: One Woman’s Journey Through Sexual Addiction. Deadline: September 10. One $1,000 prize winner receives publication in the Spring 2008 Issue; two honorable mentions receive $100.00 each. $15 entry fee

Visit http://www.tui.edu/hungermtn/nonfiction.asp for complete guidelines.

Latte Time

A prize of $1,000 & publication is given annually for a personal essay. Submit a manuscript of up to 8,000 words with a $10 entry fee by September 15. Send an SASE or visit the Web site for complete guidelines. Materials to: Literal Latte, Ames Essay Award, 200 East 10th St., Suite 240, New York, NY 10003. (212) 260-5532. http://www.literal-latte.com

SUB-LIT NEEDS DISSIDENT CREATIVE NONFICTION — !

The editors at SUB-LIT — “Sex. Literature, and Rock & Roll” — have let it be known that they are “in desperate need of creative nonfiction submissions. Tell your friends! Please repost!”

Check out the dissidence at www.sublit.com

Graywolf Deadline Upcoming

Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize
An advance of $12,000 and publication by Graywolf Press is given annually for a book-length work of creative nonfiction by a writer who has published no more than two books in that genre. Robert Polito will judge. Submit a manuscript of 175 to 400 pages by September 30.

www.graywolfpress.org

Short Short Flume Fiction

This doesn’t concern nonfiction, but we love the short form in all genres. So if you write brief, yet can’t stop yourself from making stuff up, you should have a look at the Flume Press chapbook competition. The guidelines call for “A single story and/or a collection of short shorts…” Previous winners include short short fictioneer Sherrie Flick, co-curator of the Gist Street reading series (highly recommended — her book and her reading series).

More here:
http://www.csuchico.edu/engl/flumepress/

http://www.csuchico.edu/engl/flumepress/chapbook_19.html

Short Form Warhol

Arts Writers Grant Program
Creative Capital/Andy Warhol Foundation

http://www.artswriters.org

Deadline: September 12, 2007

This pilot program is “designed to support writers whose work addresses contemporary visual art through project-based grants issued directly to individual authors … This round, the program “introduces a new grant category for short-form writing (texts of 1,000 words of less). In addition, the program seeks an increased engagement in the coming grant round with article-based projects and with art of the current moment.”

The program will support approximately 15-20 projects,
and grant amounts will range from $3,000-$50,000.

monochrom #26-34: Call For Everything

File this under “odd opportunities.” Monochrom, a Viennese net-artist collective, has sent out this intriguing call for submissions:

Monochrom is looking for articles, essays, graphics, cartoons, cut-up stuff for the next multi-issue of our non-commercial yearbook series “monochrom”. There is no maximum or minimum length for articles or essays. There is no general topic whatsoever. You write about things you find interesting. Or boring. Your text could be about radical constructivism. Or fish and chips. Or hacking your toilet. Or blowing up Mercury. Or HTML. Or Mormon theology and Battlestar Galactica. You’ll find your topic!

A big section of the publication will be dedicated to reviews. And we review everyhing. Want to review a certain medieval war? Or arctic sea protozoans? Laws of nature? Climate zones? Ways to die? Lava streams? Spam headers? Demonstrations? Sumerian gods? Neon feelings? A crisis? The different types of snow in Stephen King novels? Book shelves in porn movies? Kosher hot dogs? Axiology? Sperm? Johann Sebastian Bach? German officers in American movies who shout “Schweinerei”? Russian oil pumps? Calvinistic prayers? Trash cans in Kansas and/or Lithuania? Anal sex? The Northwest as an ontological entity? Perfect! Go on!

Submission details can be found here.

Three More (3) (More) Nonfiction Venues

Have we mentiioned that creative nonfiction, the genre, is gaining steam, still?

Hunger Mountain Creative Nonfiction Prize  ($1,000)

http://www.tui.edu/hungermtn/nonfiction.asp
Judge: Sue William Silverman

—————————————————

Richard Hugo House Summer Creative Nonfiction Contest

http://www.hugohouse.org/events/wartime

“With this competition we’re asking for creative nonfiction–a personal essay–on your experience with ‘iving with war.” Open to those resident in the states of Washington, Oregon, Montana, or Idaho.

—————————————————
Malahat Review Creative Non-Fiction Prize  ($500 plus)

http://www..malahatreview.ca/creative_non-fiction.htm

If You Surfed at Your Wedding, You’ve Got a Perfect Pitch

Casa Grande Press is seeking nonfiction submissions:

Seeking Surfing, Fishing, & Golfing Misadventure Stories
Casagrande Press is seeking golfing, fishing, and surfing stories for three upcoming anthologies. (Golf’s Greatest Misadventures, Fishing’s Greatest Misadventures, and Surfing’s Greatest Misadventures Vol. 2) The press is looking for nonfiction, first-person misadventure stories such as those involving bad judgment calls, pranks, comical/ironic episodes, disaster, animal attacks, misfortune, injury, loss of wit, panic, temper flare-ups, rough weather, critical conditions, trip or game meltdowns, everyday fears, bizarre injuries, etc. The editors are looking for well-written stories that tell a good tale, reflect a culture, and develop character depth while maintaining a tight narrative tension. Open to writers, fishermen, golfers, and surfers of any level. There is no fee to submit a story. Writers paid upon publication. Submit online at www.casagrandepress.com. Deadlines vary.

Seeking Wedding Misadventure Stories
Casagrande Press is seeking wedding day misadventure stories for publication in its forthcoming anthology, Wedding’s Greatest Misadventures. The press is looking for nonfiction, first-person stories about wedding meltdowns, bad judgment calls, Ex-boy/girlfriend crashing the event, cheating during the ceremony, fights, pranks, comical/ironic episodes, animal attacks, bizarre injuries, regretful toasts, temper flare-ups, insane in-laws, natural disaster, misfortune, loss of wit, or day of episodes that surround the wedding event. The editors are looking for stories that tell a good tale, develop the depth of the characters involved, and that have a tight narrative tension. There is no fee to submit a story. Writers paid upon publication. Submit online at www.casagrandepress.com. Deadline not yet set.

_______

Graywolf = Outstanding Small Press

Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize

Judge: Robert Polito

Open to any writer resident in the United States who has published no more than two books of literary nonfiction. Award confers a $12,000 advance and publication by Graywolf Press.
http://www.graywolfpress.org

“The Maternal Is Political”

Seal Press is seeking literary essays for an anthology titled “The Maternal Is Political” from women “who are striving to make the world a better place for children and families: both their own and other women’s domestically and globally.”

Deadline: June 1, 2007.

More details at: http://sealpress.com/submissions/index.html

Is 750 Words Way Too Many?

Our friends at 400 Words think so.  This is a highly interesting new magazine (both print and web) looking for true stories on a rotating theme.  Right now the theme is work.

There is a word limit.  You can probably guess?

See more on the submission process at 400 Words Submissions.

Money, Time, Space, Democracy — We Need Those!

But not so much some of these other topics. Nonetheless, this seems like an interesting project:

The Laboratory of Art and Ideas at Belmar, an experimental art center, seeks proposals for short essays for a series of slim volumes we call LAB MANUALS, users guides for American life.

We invite proposals for essays on:

*MONEY
*TIME
*SPACE
*WASTE
*TRAFFIC
*ARGUMENT
*DEMOCRACY

We are interested in developing for each of these topics a slim anthology of short essays (5000 words or less) that offer vastly different viewpoints onthe experience and the meaning of each of these elements. We would like to see, for example, work that considers the experience of handling money in a bank or retail setting as well as work that considers the experiences of money unique to the blind, the young, the rich, the poor, the homeless, the lottery winners and the gamblers.

Please send proposals of no more than 500 words by e-mail (attachments OK in

MS Word or RTF) to Jake Adam York, Affiliate Curator for Education, at

Jake.York(at)cudenver.edu (replace (at) with @).
For more information on The Laboratory of Art and Ideas, visit the website

at http://www.belmarlab.org

Iowa NonfictioNow 2007 Deadline Extended

If you attended the first NonfictioNow Conference in Fall 2005, you know how enjoyable and stimulating an event the fine folks in Iowa City put on. The most common response was along the lines of, “This is like the AWP, but small enough to feel as if I can talk to people.”

Robin and his merry gang are planning another event, in November 2007, and the panel deadline (just recently extended) is March 31^st. So put something together?

http://english.uiowa.edu/nonfiction/nonfictionow07/index.html

500 Words or Less / Get Paid

The 2nd Robert J. DeMott Short Prose Prize

Submit your prose-poem, short-short fiction, essay in-brief, etc. of 500 words or fewer. The only criterion (besides length) is that all submissions present an innovative address to the prose form.

Include a title page with your name, address, phone number, and the title of your submission(s). Your name must not appear on the manuscript(s). The reading fee is $15 for three pieces and includes a copy of Vol. 14 (spring 2008). Please make checks payable to Quarter After Eight.

Previously published material is not eligible. Manuscripts will not be returned. The contest deadline is June 15, 2007. Include a SASE for notification of contest winners. Prize money will be awarded upon publication.

first prize:
$200 and publication in volume 14 of QAE
second and third prize:
$50 and possible publication in volume 14 of QAE

Send manuscripts to:

Prose Contest
Quarter After Eight
Ellis Hall
Ohio University
Athens, OH 45701

The First ANP Non-Fiction Chapbook Contest

1st Prize $1000 / Deadline: May 1, 2007

*Manuscripts should not exceed 50 pages, either as a group of essays or one long piece.

*Please include two cover sheets, one with your contact information, one with just the title

*Winner will receive $1000 and 30 copies along with standard ANP contract

Send your manuscript plus a check for $20 for each manuscript made out to
All Nations Press to

All Nations Press
Non-Chap
PO Box 689
White Marsh, VA 23183

Must be post marked by May 1, 2007, though early submission is encouraged.

Gulf Coast Prize for Nonfiction (And Some Lesser Genres)

I am a big fan of Eula Biss’ dense, clever, experimental essays, so I was pleased to see her listed as a judge here. Be sure to click through for the full guidelines if you are interested:

CONTEST GUIDELINES: Gulf Coast

http://www.gulfcoastmag.org/GCContest/gccontest2007.html

2007 Poetry, Short Story, & Nonfiction Prizes

Judges:

Terrance Hayes – Poetry
Sigrid Nunez – Fiction
Eula Biss – Nonfiction

Guidelines: Prize is $1,000 in each genre [Poetry, Fiction, and Nonfiction] and publication in Gulf Coast.

So, You Like Small Stuff?

This is not nonfiction related, but it does celebrate brevity, so here goes:

Flashquake’s new contest, Less Is More: A Celebration of Micro-Flash.

We’re looking for your best micro-flash fiction (100 words or less), mini-poems called “Fibs,” and “micro” photographs taken with your cell phone or PDA camera. There is no entry fee, and we’re giving out cash prizes. But hurry — the contest opens at 12:01 on January 1, 2007 and closes at 12:00 on January 31.

See the contest guidelines at

http://www.flashquake.org/editorial/contest.html

Memoir (and) … Whatever

The journal is called Memoir (and)

(and) what?

I’m not sure, but the Memoir (and) Prize for Nonfiction offers $500 and publication.

Details here: http://memoirjournal.squarespace.com/contest/

New Year’s Resolution: Send to Weekend America

Weekend America, the public radio show, is looking for stories:

Each week until Christmas we’re asking our listeners questions that relate to the New Year, whether it’s memories of last year, memories of past New Year’s celebrations, predictions and resolutions for the future, or just the weirdest plans for the New Year’s Eve. We want to hear all your best tales–good, bad, ugly, funny or just plain tragic and we’ll build a show based entirely on your stories about the New Year. We’re looking for stories about people’s most memorable New Year’s ever and also for their stories about 2006. Our producers and reporters will follow-up and help turn the stories into radio.

Here is a link to the page with the details: http://weekendamerica.publicradio.org/programs/newyears07/

Cinderella’s Stepmom Writes Memoir

Literary Mama seeks top-notch writing for a special March 2007 issue: Stepparenting.

More info here: http://www.literarymama.com/interact/blog/

Deadline: December 31, 2006

Our guidelines vary by department. Before submitting, review individual guidelines at: http://www.literarymama.com/submissions/

On Sledding with Citizen Kane

The 4th Biennial X.J. Kennedy award for creative nonfiction. DEADLINE DECEMBER 31, 2006.
GUIDELINES
The author submitting the best piece of original, unpublished nonfiction will be awarded $1,000, publication of the work in Rosebud, and three copies of the contest issue.

Ideal length is 3500 words or less, although longer pieces will be considered.

Entries may be any kind of nonfiction, including essays of all kinds, nature and travel writing, and memoir.

There is a $10 entry fee per piece submitted.

If you send a $15 fee for at least one piece we will mail the prize-winning issue to you as well.

Details here:
http://www.rsbd.net/x__j__kennedy_award.htm

The Journal // Annual William Allen Creative Nonfiction Prize

This annual competition honors the work of William Allen, the founding editorof The Journal. The William Allen Creative Nonfiction Prize offers $500 and publication of the winning essay in the upcoming issue of The Journal.

The Journal will be accepting entries for the 2007 competition beginning in September, 2006. All styles, subject matter, and forms are welcome. Deadline for postmark of manuscripts is January 15, 2007.

A reading fee of $10 should accompany each manuscript (make checks payable to: The Journal).

Send submission along with reading fee to:
Nonfiction Prize
The Journal
Department of English
The Ohio State University
164 West 17th Avenue
Columbus, Ohio 43210

Faculty and students of The Ohio State University are ineligible

Sex and the Single Runner

Here’s a unique writing contest. Just thinking about it has me all out of breath:

RUNNING AND SEX : Personal essay, 750 to 2000 words.
First prize $1000, second prize $500, third prize $250.
The top 40 essays will be published in a book.

“Running is a great sensual act, honing body, mind, and soul — so how does it affect your love life? The nearly divine feelings of a good run are not so different from the mind-altering bliss of sex. Any stories of romance, eroticism, or sexuality (combined with some good running) are welcome. R-rated is fine, maybe even NC-17, but please no XXX.”

Deadline February 14, 2007 / http://www.breakawaybooks.com/

Become Dislocated, Win Big Prizes

Dislocate, the blog-like literary journal of the Creative Writing Department at the University of Minnesota, http://dislocatemagazine.blogspot.com/ is accepting submissions for the Dislocate prize in outstanding nonfiction.

Entry fee: $10 Prize: $500, publication, and copies

Deadline: December 15, 2006 Send us your lyrical essay, your treatise on nature, a whimsical account, a group of nonfiction shorts, a travel memoir, a part of your MFA thesis, or anything else you think we’d like to read. The only guidelines are excellence and up to 5000 words. Your name should not appear anywhere on the manuscript. Send two cover pages: one with your name and contact information, and one with just the title of your manuscript.

Details 

FOURTH GENRE Essay/Memoir Prize $1000

The fine folks at Fourth Genre are running their Fourth Annual Editors’ Prize. The First Prize winner will receive $1,000 and publication in an upcoming issue of Fourth Genre. The Runner-Up essay will be considered for publication.  Peruse the guidelines here:

http://msupress.msu.edu/journals/fg/index.php?Page=prize

VANITY FAIR: Big Money, Nice Pen

You don’t see many writing contests offering the following as a prize:$15,000, a trip to Donnini, Italy, including economy-class airfare and six nights of accommodation at the Santa Maddalena writers’ colony, and a Montblanc Meisterstück 149 fountain pen.

But that’s Conde Nast for you.

Essays must address the topic: What is reality to Americans today? And did we ever have a grasp of it? All entries must be received by midnight E.D.T. on September 30, 2006.

More info availabe here:

http://www.vanityfair.com/magazine/pressroom2

Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize

Graywolf Press has announced the third annual Graywolf PressNonfiction Prize. A $12,000 advance and publication by Graywolf in 2008 will be awarded to the best previously unpublished, full-length work of literary nonfiction by a writer not yet established in the genre. Robert Polito will serve as the judge.

Eligibility: Any writer who has not published more than two books of literary nonfiction (this excludes academic work and books in other genres) and resides in the United States is eligible.

More details here:
www.graywolfpress.org

CNF TO PUBLISH BEST CREATIVE NONFICTION ANTHOLOGY

Creative Nonfiction and W.W. Norton & Company will publish and distribute a new anthology, titled The Best Creative Nonfiction. Lee Gutkind, editor of the journal, will also edit the anthology, which will be published annually in late spring beginning in 2007. Nominations for publication in The Best Creative Nonfiction will be accepted throughout the year from editors of all publications, including alternative newspapers and literary journals published in hard copy or online.

More info here

The Writer Short Memoir Contest

If you like contests:

Prizes: $1,000, first place; $300, second place; $200, third place. The first-place entry, along with the finalist judge's comments, published in The Writer magazine. All three winning entries will be posted on The Writer Web site.

Finalist judge: Peter M. Leschak, author of nine books, including Ghosts of the Fireground and The Bear Guardian, winner of a Minnesota Book Award.
FEE: $10 per entry, payable to The Writer. Deadline/ Postmarked by June 30, 2006.
Complete details at : www.writermag.com

2006 PILGRIMAGE Essay Award – $1000

The theme for this writing contest is restoration. Restoration involves repair, rehabilitation, maybe even rebirth. Restoration is the recovery of something that has been lost. We’re interested in restoration as it applies to soul and spirit, but the winning essay will also transcend the personal. It might involve a community or an ecosystem. It might involve an act of conflict resolution or peacemaking. It might have to do with the restoration of justice. As always we’re looking for a piece of writing that is at once experiential and reflective. And we’re looking for previously unpublished creative non-fiction up to 2500 words in length. 

more here:  http://pilgrimagepress.org/award.html

Too Long for Brevity, But Still Brief?

Try here:

The Writer Short Memoir Contest

Prizes: $1,000, first place; $300, second place; $200, third place.

Deadline

Postmarked by June 30, 2006.
Entries should not exceed 1,200 words.
Details Here: http://www.writermag.com/wrt/default.aspx?c=a&id=2825

The Southern Review: Writing in the South

The nice folks at The Southern Review are NO LONGER requesting submissions on the theme of Writing in the South.   The issue is full.

Updated October 4, 2006

“Works of Witness”

Hayden's Ferry Review, a literary journal based at Arizona State University, is looking for essays (as well as poetry, ficton, and visual art) "that explore social and political injustice on any scale, give a voice to the voiceless, raise a call for awareness and act as a catalyst for change."

Payment is $25/page (maximum of $100), plus two copies of the magazine and a one-year gift subscription. Submission deadline for this special section: July 30, 2006. Full guidelines at the Hayden's Ferry site.