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“Human beings are the only animals that experience denial.” In this Books Are Magic event, Sloane Crosley reads from her new book, Grief Is for People (MCD/FSG, 2024), and discusses her experience writing about loss in a conversation with Sigrid Nunez. A profile of Crosley by Kate Tuttle appears in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
“For every book, different literary angels perch on my shoulder.” —Tomás Q. Morín, author of Where Are You From: Letters to My Son
“Some people say fiction is all a lie. To me, fiction is one of the best ways we can learn truth.” In this Unban Coolies interview, Amy Tan talks about the importance of observation in her writing, identity and biodiversity, and how her interest in bird conversation inspired her new book, The Backyard Bird Chronicles (Knopf, 2024), which is featured in “The Written Image” in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
Poets, fiction writers, and nonfiction writers with work that illustrates “the wild woman spirit”—the creative agency and power women display in shaping the world—may want to consider submitting to TulipTree Publishing’s Wild Women Story Contest by March 8. The annual prize awards $1,000 and publication in TulipTree Review for a single poem, a short story, or an essay “whose main characters embody” this “feminine spirit.”
Submit up to five pages of poetry or up to 10,000 words of prose with a $20 entry fee. All entries are considered for publication. Visit the website for complete guidelines.
With an application period closing on International Women’s Day, the Wild Women Story Contest recognizes work that honors the convictions of feminist historian Stephanie Camp, who believed that “[w]omen’s history does not merely add to what we know; it changes what we know and how we know it.” A selection of poems, stories, and essays submitted to the prize are gathered in TulipTree Review’s annual Spring/Summer Wild Women Issue, and both the grand prize winner and one honorable mention are nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Last year’s nominees were fiction writer Amy Soscia for “Life on the Ledge” and essayist Hannah Hindley for “Heat Map.”
Doing laundry, washing dishes, grocery shopping, vacuuming, running out to the bank—do the chores ever end? Perhaps not, but there are small delights and incidental pleasures to be found in all the errands to be completed: a breath of fresh air, the feel of a tidy home, running into a friend, an interesting exchange with a stranger, or a long-forgotten memory that surfaces. This week write a personal essay that focuses on a single mundane task you regularly carry out and expand on the activity by looking at it from a variety of angles. Consider who taught you how to complete the chore, obscure observations, bodily movements, happenstance, and societal relevance. Can the chore become more?
In this interview for the Otherppl With Brad Listi podcast, Leslie Jamison discusses important relationships throughout her life and how she sought to capture them in her memoir, Splinters: Another Kind of Love Story (Little, Brown, 2024), which is featured in Page One in the March/April issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
Thanks to the extra fraction of a calendar day it takes Earth to orbit the sun each year, you have this leap year’s compensation day to apply to awards with deadlines on February 28 and February 29! Use that temps perdu to submit to contests offering prizes including $22,000 and publication for a nonfiction manuscript-in-progress that “emphasizes innovation in form and content”; $3,000, publication, and 20 author copies for a first or second poetry collection; and two prizes of $2,000 for a poetry e-book and a fiction e-book that depict “cultural, historical, and sociopolitical aspects of the Black Diaspora.” Best of luck!
Association of Writers & Writing Programs
Award Series
Three prizes of $5,500 each and publication by a participating press are given annually for a poetry collection, a short story collection, and a novel. A prize of $2,500 and publication by a participating press is also given annually for an essay collection or a memoir. Deadline: February 28. Entry fee: $30 ($20 for AWP members).
Austin Community College
Balcones Prizes
Two prizes of $1,500 each are given annually for a poetry collection and a book of fiction published during the previous year. English translations of works originally written in another language are accepted. Deadline: February 28. Entry fee: $25 for poetry and $30 for fiction.
Black Caucus of the American Library Association
Self-Publishing Literary Awards
Two prizes of $2,500 each are given annually for a poetry e-book and a fiction e-book self-published during the previous year by an African American writer. The awards honor books that depict “cultural, historical, and sociopolitical aspects of the Black Diaspora.” Deadline: February 28. Entry fee: None.
Graywolf Press
Nonfiction Prize
A prize of $22,000 (comprised of a $20,000 advance and a $2,000 research stipend) and publication by Graywolf Press will be given biennially for a nonfiction manuscript-in-progress that “emphasizes innovation in form and content” by a writer who is not yet established in the genre of nonfiction. The editors will judge. Deadline: February 28. Entry fee: None.
Little Tokyo Historical Society
Imagine Little Tokyo Short Story Contest
Two prizes of $500 each and publication in Rafu Shimpo and on the Discover Nikkei and Little Tokyo Historical Society websites are given annually for short stories that take place in the Little Tokyo district of Los Angeles and “capture the cultural spirit” of the neighborhood. One prize is given for a story written in English; the other is given for a story written in Japanese. Deadline: February 29. Entry fee: None.
Omnidawn Publishing
First/Second Poetry Book Contest
A prize of $3,000, publication by Omnidawn Publishing, and 20 author copies is given annually for a first or second poetry collection. Desirée Alvarez will judge. Deadline: February 29. Entry fee: $35.
Red Hen Press
Women’s Prose Prize
A prize of $1,000 and publication by Red Hen Press is given annually for a book of fiction or nonfiction by a writer who identifies as a woman. Laila Halaby will judge. Deadline: February 28. Entry fee: $25.
Tupelo Press
Snowbound Chapbook Award
A prize of $1,000, publication by Tupelo Press, and 25 author copies is given annually for a poetry chapbook. All entries are considered for publication. Deadline: February 28. Entry fee: $25.
Visit the contest websites for complete guidelines, and check out the Grants & Awards database and Submission Calendar for more contests in poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and translation.
To celebrate publishing our two-thousandth writing prompt, spend some time this week jotting down a list of the most significant milestones of your life so far. Reflect on both traditional milestones, such as school or education-related achievements and relationship or family developments, as well as other hard-won goals that might be related to creative pursuits or something considered unconventional. You might also choose to focus on an important event that occurred unexpectedly and set your life in a new, progressive direction. Write an essay that expands upon one or more of these milestones. In what ways has your outlook on life evolved over the years, from before the event, immediately after, and then many years later?
