Grace Notes Books 1st Annual Book/Memoir Contest “Discovering the Undiscovered”

Opens November 1st. Entry fee $25 (check website for rebates as we are trying to be as financially friendly as possible). Open to all genres. Manuscripts from 70,000-100,000 words. Winner receives $1000, publication, and 3 contributor copies. Feedback given on every entry, as well as the option to rework the manuscript and resubmit for half the entry fee. Check notesandgracenotes.com for more information. There is a second contest for Short Story/Essay Collections as well.

The 2009-10 Write it Down Writing Contest (high school)

The 2009-10 Write it Down Writing Contest is for high school students all over the world who want to compete along with their peers to win international fame! The Write it Down Writing Contest is run by the acclaimed Thassophobia Literary Club of Menomonee Falls High School, Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin. Rules for the contest:

* Poetry or prose.
* Submissions must be sent by mail to:

Write it Down Writing Contest
c/o Brian Jaeger
Menomonee Falls High School
W142 N8101 Merrimac Dr.
Menomonee Falls, WI 53051

* You must have your name, contact information, and year in school on your work (cover page)
* The deadline for all submissions is May 1st, 2010
* Limit one work of prose per person and five poems
* Winners will be announced by June 1st, 2010
* Prizes TBD based on availability of funds, but we are planning on a winner from each of the following: 9th and 10th grade poetry; 9th and 10th grade prose; 11th and 12th grade poetry; 11th and 12th grade prose
* Your submission represents consent to immortalize your work on this site (menofalls.com)

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS – PERMANENT VACATION: LIVING AND WORKING IN OUR NATIONAL PARKS

Bona Fide Books seeks literary essays for a collection about life and work in our national parks. Diverse park experiences desired. Although we enjoy tree-hugging epiphanies, we also want to read about day-to-day life, and the societal, environmental, and existential implications of living in the park. What happened there, and how did it influence your life? Writers will receive $100 for their essay and one copy of the collection. Deadline: January 5, 2010. See www.bonafidebooks.com for guidelines.

Poetry That Moves Contest – Highland Park Poetry

Highland Park Poetry is pleased to announce its first ever Poetry That Moves Contest. This is open only to people of all ages who live, work or study in Illinois. Judges are selecting up to 12 poems for a monthly display on north suburban PACE buses.

Selected poets will receive a copy of the printed placard at a 2010 reception in Highland Park, IL (date to be determined). Selected poems will also appear on website – www.highlandparkpoetry.org

Poems should be no more than 16 lines. There is no theme – it’s poet’s choice.

Submissions must be received no later than Saturday, November 14, 2009.

Forms may be downloaded from website at www.highlandparkpoetry.org.

Third Coast Poetry and Fiction Contest

Third Coast, a national literary journal, is currently accepting submissions for our 2010 Poetry and Fiction Contest, and we’re hoping you’d consider listing our contest on your website.

The Third Coast Poetry Contest is being judged by Pulitzer Prize finalist David Wojahn. The fiction contest will be judged by Anne Beattie. First prize is $1000 and publication in the journal.

Entrants should send three poems and a $15 reading fee to: Third Coast 2010 Poetry Contest, Department of English, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI 49008-5331. All entrants receive a one year subscription to Third Coast. The deadline for submissions is Dec. 1, 2009.

Complete guidelines available at thirdcoastmagazine.com/contests/.

One-Act Play Contest – Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival

The deadline for the One-Act Play Contest of the Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival is approaching.The postmark deadline for submissions is November 1, 2009.

Details of contest are as follows:
* Grand Prize – $1,500
* Staged reading at the 24th annual Festival: March 24-28, 2010
* Full production at the 25th annual Festival: March 23-27, 2011
* VIP All Access Pass to attend both the 2010 and the 2011 Festival ($1,000 value)
* Publication in the University of New Orleans’ literary magazine, Bayou
* Top ten finalists’ names and play titles will be published on http://www.tennesseewilliams.net/contest
* Postmark deadline November 1, 2009

We accept submissions online and by mail. Full contest guidelines and instructions on how to enter can be found at www.tennesseewilliams.net/contest

—
Celebrate with us at the 24th annual Festival in the French Quarter!
March 24 – 28, 2010
Sign up for Festival e-news:
www.tennesseewilliams.net

Tennessee Williams/New Orleans
Literary Festival
938 Lafayette Street, Suite 514
New Orleans, LA 70113
504-581-1144

The Festival’s mission is threefold: to serve the community through educational, theatrical, literary, and musical programs; to nurture, support, and showcase regional, national and international writers, actors, musicians, and other artists; to honor the creative genius of Tennessee Williams, who considered this city his spiritual home.

2009 New Delta Review Creative Nonfiction Contest

Judge: Peggy Shinner

“Nonfiction writers do not make things up; they make ideas and information that already exist more interesting and, often, more accessible.” –Lee Gutkind

We agree. 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 delight us.

Prize: $150 and publication in The New Delta Review. Winners receive two contributors’ copies. Finalists will also be considered for publication.

Deadline: November 30th (postmark date)

Submit:
• previously unpublished nonfiction piece (up to 4,000 words)
• completed entry form/title page with all contact information
• $10 entry fee postmarked by November 30th

to:
Nonfiction Editor/2009 Nonfiction Contest
New Delta Review
Department of English
15 Allen Hall
Louisiana State University
Baton Rouge, LA 70803-5001

Unlimited submissions are welcome; each submission must be accompanied by $10 fee.
Simultaneous submissions with notification are welcome.

Our website: www.lsu.edu/newdeltareview/New_Delta_Review/
Friend us on Facebook, where you can post questions!

About the judge: Peggy Shinner’s stories and essays have appeared in The Southern Review, Daedalus, The Gettysburg Review, Fourth Genre, TriQuarterly, Alaska Quarterly Review, Western Humanities Review, Another Chicago Magazine, Bloom, River Styx, and others. One of her stories, “Jack’s Things, ” was selected as one of the 100 Distinguished Stories in the Best American Short Stories 2007. She’s been awarded two Illinois Arts Council Fellowships, several Pushcart Prize Special Mentions, and residencies at the Ucross and Ragdale Foundations. Her work has been anthologized in Chick-Lit: On the Edge: New Women’s Fiction Anthology and Her Face in the Mirror. Currently, she’s working on a book of essays about the body.

Narrative Magazine Fall Story Contest

Narrative Magazine Fall Story Contest is open to all fiction and nonfiction writers. We’re looking for short shorts, short stories, essays, memoirs, photo essays, graphic stories, all forms of literary nonfiction, and excerpts from longer works of both fiction and nonfiction. Entries must be previously unpublished, no longer than 15,000 words, and must not have been previously chosen as a winner, finalist, or honorable mention in another contest.

As always, we are looking for works with a strong narrative drive, with characters we can respond to as human beings, and with effects of language, situation, and insight that are intense and total. We look for works that have the ambition of enlarging our view of ourselves and the world.

Submission URL — http://www.narrativemagazine.com/node/67099

Narrative 30 Below Story Contest

Narrative is calling on writers, visual artists, photographers, performers, and filmmakers, between eighteen and thirty years old, to tell us a story. We are interested in narrative in the many forms it takes: the word and the image, the traditional and the innovative, the true and the imaginary.

Awards: First Prize is $1,500, Second Prize is $750, and Third Prize is $300, and ten finalists will receive $100 each. The prize winners and finalists will be announced in Narrative.

All N30B entries are eligible for the $5,000 Narrative Prize for 2010 and for acceptance as a Story of the Week.

Submission URL — http://www.narrativemagazine.com/node/915

Summer Literary Seminars Poetry & Fiction Contests

SLS is pleased to announce its 2010 unified (SLS-Montreal, SLS-Lithuania, and SLS-Kenya) literary contest, held this year again in affiliation with Fence.

We are excited this year to have Mary Gaitskill judging the contest fiction, and Mary Jo Bang judging the poetry.

Contest winners in the categories of fiction and poetry will have their work published in Fence, as well as the participating literary journals in Canada, Lithuania and Kenya. Additionally, they will have the choice of attending (airfare, tuition, and housing included) any of the SLS-2010 programs – in Montreal, Quebec (June 13 – 27); Vilnius, Lithuania (August 1 – 14); or Nairobi-Lamu, Kenya (December).

Second-place winners will receive a full tuition waiver for the program of their choice, and third-place winners will receive a 50% tuition discount.

A number of select contest participants, based on the overall strength of their work, will be offered tuition scholarships, as well, applicable to the SLS-2010 programs.

Contest Deadline: February 28, 2010.

Please visit the SLS website, at http://www.sumlitsem.org/slscontest.html, for detailed information on how to enter.

Good luck, much success with your work — and we hope to see some of you at one (or more) of our programs in the future!

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS – Sugar Creek Review

The Sugar Creek Review is a publication of creative writing and art for students in grades 10 through 12.

Students may submit work in one more of the following categories: poetry, fiction, personal narrative, multi-genre, and photographs or photographs of artwork. Only one entry per category per author will be considered. Teachers should submit work from no more than two students. Top submissions in each category will be published in The Sugar Creek Review. No work will be returned.

Submission must be done through a teacher from your school by email or mail (see below). Your teacher should attach a brief note certifying originality and suitability for publication. Please submit only finished work.

Length limits: Written prose submissions are to be no longer than 1250 words in length and no more than 5 pages for poetry.

Formatting: Entries must be double-spaced using your choice of 12 point font. Single-spaced prose will not be read. Please give your submission a title.

Each work should be accompanied by a cover page including the following information:

Your Name and Address
Grade
Teacher’s Name
School Name and Address

Electronic submission is preferred. Your teacher should send your work to: sugarcreekreview@truman.edu no later than November 6, 2009. Mailed submissions must be postmarked no later than November 6, 2009.

Our mailing address is:
Truman State University
School of Arts and Letters
Ophelia Parrish 1101
100 E. Normal Street
Kirksville, MO 63501
ATTN: Sugar Creek Review

For more information, please visit http://sal.truman.edu/sugarcreekreview.asp or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/SugarCreekReview

Cash prizes will be awarded to the strongest submissions in each category.

Moon Taxi

Moon Taxi is an academic project collecting original short fiction with the following properties:

1) Start with “Take me to the moon”
2) The narrative is being told by one or more passengers in a taxi to the moon
3) In some way, involve why the passenger(s) are going to the moon

The best submissions will be included in an upcoming video game. Audio performances of stories are desired but not required. No entry fee. Creative-commons licensing.

Details and contact here: moontaxi.org

Abbey Hill Quick Lit Challenge

Abbey Hill Literary invites entries for its 4th Quarter 2009 Quick Lit Challenge. Visit www.ahliterary.com for details, review the writing challenges posted there, and write a story incorporating those challenges. Prize List ($US): 1st-$250, 2nd-$100, 3rd-$50, and Evolving Talent-$25. Electronic entries preferred, current deadline November 30, 2009. Entry fee: $10 OR $20 for entry fee PLUS critique to be returned within 45 days of contest close. Most genres accepted. Contest open to both published and unpublished authors. Winners notified late December; winning entries will be posted for up to 180 days beginning first week of January 2010. Questions? Contact Editor@ahliterary.com.

TARA L. MASIH INTERCULTURAL ESSAY PRIZE

1st prize — $100
2nd prize — $50
3rd prize — $25

Looking for essays dealing with matters of culture, race, and/or a sense of place, either within the smaller microcosm of self-identity or within the larger environment of family, society, and world interactions. Essays in the traditional form, the definition being the conscious shaping of nonfiction prose around a central idea or subject. Winners and finalists are invited but not required to read at the annual televised Soul-Making Literary Prize Award Readings at the Koret Auditorium in San Francisco in March 2010. This contest, open to both men and women, is sponsored by the San Francisco branch of The National League of American Pen Women. It was created to encourage, support, and validate a diversity of creative expressions and honor all others who do the same.

Deadline: November 30, 2009 (Postmarked) All prose works must be typed, double-spaced, page-numbered, and paper-clipped. Please indicate word count on title page (not to exceed 6,000 words; bibliography or works cited not included in word count).

Do not put your names on your manuscripts, instead, enclose one 3×5 card typed, affixed with a printed label or carefully printed with your name, address, phone, fax, email, and title(s) of work(s) and particular category entered.

Category must be indicated on 3×5 card as well as on manuscript. You may enter as many categories and as many times as you wish but you may not enter the same work in more than one category.

Previously published works okay; however, those winning awards in prior Soul-Making competitions may not be resubmitted. No tear-sheets or photocopies of book pages. No colored paper, hard to read fancy fonts, illustrations or graphics, please. No mss will be returned; no substitutions or revisions of work will be accepted after initial submission. Judge: Tara L. Masih

Please enclose $5 per entry
payable to NLAPW, Nob Hill Branch.US $ only.
International entrants please send Travelers Check
drawn on a USA bank

Send entries to:
The Webhallow House
1544 Sweetwood Drive, Daly City/Colma, CA 94015-2029
No e-mail entries or those mailed special delivery, certified or registered will be accepted. Do enclose SASE in your entry package if you wish to receive contest results. More info at www.soulmakingcontest.us.

The Tricks Writing Contest

Life—and love—can turn on a dime.

Gotham Writers’ Workshop has teamed up with Ellen Hopkins and Simon & Schuster publishing, for a truly unique poetry writing competition – The Tricks Writing Contest. Writing in verse, Ellen Hopkins deals with tough subjects—addiction, abuse—in her books and her latest, Tricks, is no different.

Now it is your turn to write about a tough subject or trying life experience—real or imagined—spun into four to eight stanzas of verse.

You can enter online at WritingClasses.com/Tricks. There is no entry fee or purchase required.

Ellen Hopkins will read the entries and the author of her favorite entry will win a free six-week online writing class from Gotham Writers’ Workshop. Ellen will also post the winning entry on her website, EllenHopkins.com. The winner and ten runners-up will also receive a personalized copy of Tricks signed by the author. There is no entry fee and no purchase is necessary. Only online entries will be accepted.

If you need to get some of your creative juices flowing, you can check out some poems from Tricks here.

Dark Idol Contest 2009-2010

Submissions are now open for the Dark Idol 2009-2010 contest.

Dark Idol is an elimination contest where ONE winner will walk away with the grand prize – an EDITOR to provide them with a personal critique and full edit of one manuscript of their choosing.

Entrants can submit their original work of 500 words or less on a theme of their choice. All entries must be submitted to
darkidolcontest@gmail.com 12:00 a.m. EST Friday october 23rd, 2009. Our panel of judges will appraise each submission, and narrow them down to a final eight contestants. The finalists will be announced here on october 31st, 2009. The elimination rounds begin at that time, and will run until all but one writer is eliminated.*

For more information please visit the website at blacklighthorror.ca/darkidol/

Prickly Pear Short Story Contest (High School)

There is no entry fee; there are prizes for first place ($100), second place ($30), and third place ($15). Our purpose is to encourage and reward young authors in a creative pursuit often overlooked in high school academic settings. Our rules and guidelines can be found on our website at www.pricklypearcontest.com and we can be contacted with any questions at pricklypearcontest@gmail.com. The deadline for submissions is November 1.

The International Fish Short Story Prize 2009

The International Fish Short Story Prize 2009 is now open with Ronan Bennett as the judge. The ten best stories will be published in the annual Fish Anthology 2010. The prize was started in 1994 to get new writers published in book format. So far we have published over 300 writers from all over the world. Overall winners have come from the USA more than any other country, and include Molly McCloskey, Marc Phillips, Kathy Hughes, Karl Iagnemma, Gina Oschner, Julia van Middlesworth, Catherine L. Dowd, and Maureen E. O’Neill.

The 1st prize is 2,000 Euro ($3,000), with an additional 1,000 Euro to travel to the book launch in West Cork, Ireland, in July 2010. Entry online is 20 Euro ($30) www.fishpublishing.com. The second prize includes a week’s residence in Anam Cara Writers Retreat in West Cork, and 300 Euro. The closing date is 30 Nov, and there is a 5,000 word limit. There is no restriction on theme or style.

Hon Patrons: Roddy Doyle and Dermot Healy.

Fish also runs a One Page Prize, 1,000 Euro, 300 word limit, closing date 20 March ’10, and a Poetry Prize, 1,000 Euro, judge Matthew Sweeney, closing 30 March ’10. The winners of both competitions are published alongside the Short Story winners in the Fish Anthology. Entry is 12 Euro for both of these competitions. Full details and on-line entry on www.fishpublishing.com. Any queries info@fishpublishing.com. Postal entries must not have name and address on the text, but on a separate sheet.

Call for Submissions: Borealis – Place

The idea for Borealis – Northern Notes sprung out of an abiding love affair with Nordic/Northern literature, and a passionate interest in creative translation. Although a large portion of the journal will be dedicated to the promotion of new and exciting translations from the Nordic languages into English, we also seek to encourage creative writing connected to or touched by the Northern realms.

For our inaugural issue we invite creative submissions on the theme of Place. In this issue we are concerned with mapping the peculiar traits of the Northern regions. Texts where the locale, flora and fauna, mythology or environmental issues are at the forefront, or are important components of the fabric of your piece.

Prose, poetry, essay or creative non-fiction: all are equally welcome.

See our guidelines at: www.egj.name/borealis/

Call for submissions: Crash

www.cra.sh

Crash is an online literary journal celebrating the spontaneous, amorphous, and surreal. Embracing spontaneity, we consider a variety of genres from across the literary spectrum. Honoring amorphism, we support liberation of literature from boundaries imposed by traditional forms. Finally, Crash brings a diversity of enjoyable styles together, creating a surrealistic effect unique to each issue.

Crash Issue #1 reading period: September 15 – December 15, 2009.

Each submission may include 1-10 works, but the total word count of the works included must not exceed 3,000 words. For example, you could send one short story that is within 3,000 words, or three flash fiction stories that are within 1,000 words each. You could also send up to ten poems or prose pieces if their combined total falls within the 3,000 word range.

Website: www.cra.sh

Email: crasheditors@gmail.com

2009 Wick CHAPBOOK COMPETITIONS FOR OHIO POETS

dept.kent.edu/wick/Competitions/Chapbook.html

POETS CURRENTLY RESIDING IN OHIO may enter the Open Competition. Poets currently enrolled in Ohio institutions of higher education may enter the Student Competition. In spring 2010, two to four manuscripts will be selected for publication in the Wick Chapbook Series, and the honor also includes a reading at Kent State University. Maggie Anderson is the general editor of the series.

Entry Requirements

Poets may enter only one of the competitions. There is a $15 reading fee for each manuscript sent to the Open Competition. A check or money order for this amount should be made payable to the Wick Poetry Center. There is no reading fee for the Student Competition. Manuscripts must include no fewer than 15 and no more than 25 pages of poetry, typed on one side only, with no more than one poem included on a page. Only clean, legible copies are acceptable.

Two title pages should be included. The first must list the poet’s name, address, email, and phone number as well as the title of the manuscript and the name of the contest to which the manuscript is being submitted (either Open Competition or Student Competition). Poets entering the Student Competition should indicate the name of the school in which they are enrolled. The second title page should include the title of the manuscript only. The poet’s name must not appear anywhere on the manuscript itself.

The manuscript as a whole must not have been published previously, but it may contain poems that have been published individually; these should be listed, with publisher, on a separate acknowledgments page. If the manuscript is accepted, the poet must obtain permission from previous publishers.

The manuscript may be submitted simultaneously to other publishers, but poets must notify the Wick Poetry Center immediately if the manuscript is accepted for publication elsewhere.

All manuscripts will be recycled after judging. For notice that the manuscript has been received, poets should enclose a self-addressed, stamped postcard; for notice of the final winning selections, poets should enclose a self-addressed, stamped envelope. Winners will be announced in Spring 2010.

Manuscripts must be postmarked between August 31 and October 31, 2009. No late entries will be considered.

All submissions should be sent to:
Wick Poetry Chapbook Competitions, 301 Satterfield Hall, Kent State University, Kent, Ohio 44242-0001.

Persona Poems Anthology Call for Submissions

The editors are pleased to announce a call for submissions for A Face to Meet the Faces: An Anthology of Contemporary Persona Poetry.

We are seeking poems that work within the literary tradition of persona poetry: poems written as dramatic monologues, whose speakers employ masks, or whose character and voice are different from the poet’s own.

Please submit up to 5 unpublished poems. We will also consider poems whose rights have reverted back to the author.

All submissions will be accepted electronically. Please send an email to the editors at facesanthology@gmail.com with the poet’s name and “Submission for Persona Anthology” as the subject line, with the poems as an attachment.

Submissions will be accepted October 1, 2009 through January 1, 2010.

UWeEmp/UPIU National Student Journalism Contest

UPIu and uwemp.com are seeking submissions for articles from 400-800 words from Student Writers on a broad range of topics that effect them on campuses. The contest will run through 15-Nov, 2009, and there is no entrance fee. The winner will receive $500, a trip to Washington DC, and publication w/ byline on UPI.com. For more info and to submit, visit www.uwemp.com/contest