BOOK CONTESTS
Some writers, debut or farther along in their careers, publish their manuscripts with independent and university presses that sponsor book prizes or else have contracted with a literary organization such as AWP to publish the titles chosen by the judges of their annual book prizes.
Many writers will submit a manuscript to multiple contests over a period of several years before they receive a phone call or email sharing the news their book has won. National Book Award finalists Charles Baxter and Bonnie Jo Campbell, for example, both published their first books after winning AWP’s short story collection prize (the Grace Paley Prize), and other writers including Lori Ostlund, Karin Lin-Greenberg, Melinda Moustakis, and Colette Sartor also got their starts after their manuscripts were selected for the University of Georgia Press’s Flannery O’Connor Award.
Admittedly, contests can be expensive. Most of them have submission fees ranging from $10-$30 (at the very least, if you keep an e-receipt in your files, these fees can be claimed on your tax return).
The following contests are only a few of the many out there. Poets & Writers magazine’s “Deadlines” section in the back of every issue lists contests with upcoming deadlines, and of course, there’s always Google.
POETRY COLLECTION PRIZES
These contests generally include a cash award and publication of your manuscript. They sometimes also include a public reading and will cover some or all travel expenses for a reading they’re hosting.
1. The Academy of American Poets First Book Award - July 1 - September 1 is generally its annual submission period.
2. University of Wisconsin’s Creative Writing Institutes’ Brittingham & Felix Pollak Prizes - submissions open each year from July 15 - September 15
3. Alice James Books award – submissions open March 1 - October 16, 2023
4. National Poetry Series contest – annual deadline is usually February 15 (with the submission portal opening on January 1):
5. Yale Younger Poets competition – annual submission period is October 1 – November 15.
6. Prairie Schooner Book Prize (two prizes and two genres: short story collection & poetry collection) – annual submission period is usually January 15 – March 15.
7. New American Press Poetry Prize - annual submission period is September 15 - January 15.
8. AWP’s Donald Hall Poetry Prize – annual submission period is January 1 – February 28/29.
NOVEL AND SHORT STORY COLLECTION CONTESTS
1. AWP’s Grace Paley Prize in Short Fiction (short story collection) and the AWP Prize for the novel – annual submission period is January 1 – February 28/29.
2. Drue Heinz Prize (short story collection) – annual submission period is May 1 – June 30.
3. Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction (short story collection) – annual submission period is April 1 - May 31.
4. Mary McCarthy Fiction Prize (short story collection), Sarabande Books – annual submission period is January 1 – February 15.
5. Prairie Schooner Book Prize (two genres & two prizes: short story collection & poetry collection) – annual submission period is January 15 – March 15
6. Autumn House Press Fiction Prize (novellas, short stories, novels - approx 150-300 pp) - annual submission period is January 1 - May 31.
7 New American Press Fiction Prize (novellas, short stories, novels - approx 150-300 pp) - annual submission period is February 15 - June 15.
NONFICTION BOOK CONTESTS
1. AWP Prize for Creative Nonfiction – annual submission period is January 1 – February 28/29.
2. Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize – usually every other year. Presently it appears contest submissions are closed until February 2024. Other prizes are offered on occasion, however, including the Graywolf Press Africa Fiction Prize.
3. The Journal at Ohio State University Non/Fiction Prize, submissions open February 1 - March 11.
4. Ohio State University Press 21st Century Essays series (not a contest per se, but they are open to manuscript submissions March 1 - April 15).