Answers

The Time Is Now
5.3.22

In a recent installment of Ten Questions, poet Dana Levin recalls the earliest memory associated with her new book, Now Do You Know Where You Are (Copper Canyon Press, 2022): “Pacing around my sublet in Saint Louis, Fall 2015, saying out loud the words ‘No,’ ‘Yes,’ and ‘Stop’ over and over: to feel how they felt in my mouth, my throat, my chest.” Included in Levin’s collection are three poems—“No,” “Maybe,” and “Into the Next Eden”—that seek to answer the question posed by the book’s title. This week, consider a question to ask yourself and write three poems with different responses. Do your answers surprise you?

Upcoming Contest Deadlines

G&A: The Contest Blog
4.29.22

Bring in the new month by applying to contests with a deadline of May 15! These awards include opportunities for poets of Asian heritage; women, transgender, and gender-nonconforming writers whose work advances social change; and novelists writing debut books set in the American South. Plus, don’t miss the chance to win a residency in Miami Beach, Florida, or Naples, New York. All contests offer a cash prize of $1,000 or more and two are free of cost to submit.

Academy of American Poets James Laughlin Award: A prize of $5,000 is given annually for a second book of poetry by a living poet to be published in the coming calendar year. The winner also receives an all-expenses paid weeklong residency at the Betsy Hotel in Miami Beach, Florida. Copies of the winning book are distributed to members of the Academy of American Poets. Aracelis Girmay, Solmaz Sharif, and Mai Der Vang will judge. Entry fee: None.

Academy of American Poets Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize: A prize of $25,000 is given annually for a poetry collection by a living poet published in the United States during the previous year. The winner also receives an all-expenses paid 10-day residency at the Glen Hollow cottage in Naples, New York. Copies of the winning book are distributed to members of the Academy of American Poets. Entry fee: $75.

American Poetry Review Stanley Kunitz Memorial Prize: A prize of $1,000 and publication in American Poetry Review is given annually for a single poem by a poet under the age of 40. The editors will judge. Entry fee: $15 (which includes a copy of the prize issue).

Crook’s Corner Book Prize Foundation Book Prize: A prize of $5,000 is given annually for a debut novel set in the American South. The author may live anywhere, but eligible novels must be set primarily in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia, or Washington, D.C. Self-published books are eligible, but books available only as e-books are not. Ben Fountain will judge. Entry fee: $35.

Gaudy Boy Poetry Book Prize: A prize of $1,500 and publication by Gaudy Boy, an imprint of the New York City–based literary nonprofit Singapore Unbound, is given annually for a poetry collection by an Asian writer. Yeow Kai Chai will judge. Entry fee: $10.

Leeway Foundation Transformation Awards: Awards of $15,000 each are given annually to women, transgender, or otherwise gender-nonconforming poets, fiction writers, and creative nonfiction writers in the Philadelphia area who have been creating art for social change for five or more years. Writers who have lived for at least two years in Bucks, Camden, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, or Philadelphia counties, who are at least 18 years of age, and who are not full-time students in a degree-granting arts program are eligible. Entry fee: None.

Lost Horse Press Idaho Prize for Poetry: A prize of $1,000, publication by Lost Horse Press, and 20 author copies is given annually for a poetry collection by a U.S. poet. Dzvinia Orlowsky will judge. Entry fee: $28.

McGill University Montreal International Poetry Prize: A prize of $20,000 Canadian (approximately $15,728) and publication in the 2022 Montreal Poetry Prize Anthology is given biennially for a poem. Lorna Goodison will judge and Cameron Awkward-Rich, Heather Christle, Nabina Das, Liz Howard, Joanne Limburg, Conor O’Callaghan, Tanure Ojaide, Michael Prior, Medrie Purdham, Mark Tredinnick, and Rhian Williams will serve as jurors. Entry fee: $25 Canadian (approximately $20).

Pittsburg State University Cow Creek Chapbook Prize: A prize of $1,000, publication by Pittsburg State University, and 25 author copies is given annually for a poetry chapbook. Chen Chen will judge. Entry fee: $15.  

Ploughshares Emerging Writer’s Contest: Three prizes of $2,000 each and publication in Ploughshares are given annually for a poem or group of poems, a short story, and an essay. Each winner also receives a consultation with the literary agency Aevitas Creative Management. Writers who have not published a book or a chapbook with a print run over 300 are eligible. Chen Chen will judge in poetry, Amelia Gray will judge in fiction, and Danielle Geller will judge in nonfiction. Entry fee: $24 (which includes a subscription to Ploughshares). 

Visit the contest websites for complete guidelines, and check out the Grants & Awards database and Submission Calendar for more contests in poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction.

Something New

The Time Is Now
4.28.22

“Can authors avoid the downward post-book spiral? Some depression may be inevitable. There’s an inevitable loss that comes with sending a book into the world,” writes Jessica Berger Gross, author of the memoir, Estranged: Leaving Family and Finding Home (Scribner, 2017), in “I Just Published a Book: Why Am I Depressed?” published on the Poets & Writers website in 2019. In the essay, Gross discusses the feeling of loss she experienced after publishing her memoir and speaks to other writers with “post-publication malaise.” This week, think back to a time when you finished a significant task, whether it was a manuscript, an essay, or moving out of an apartment, then write an essay about the spectrum of feelings you experienced throughout the process. Gross writes that the cure for post book depression is to “start writing something new.” What was your cure?

Interview

The Time Is Now
4.27.22

In an excerpt of Noor Naga’s new novel, If an Egyptian Cannot Speak English (Graywolf Press, 2022), published on Literary Hub, one of the main characters, an Egyptian American woman who moves to Cairo to teach English, discusses her relationship with her mother through a question and answer structure of vignettes. Rather than straightforward queries with direct replies, the questions are specific and personal—for example, “If you don’t have anything nice to say, should your mother be punished?” and “Is it arrogant to return to a place you’ve never been?”—setting up a tension that elevates the stakes for the character’s emotional arc. Taking inspiration from Naga’s novel, think of three questions that relate to your protagonist’s conflict, then answer these questions through first-person vignettes. How does this exercise help you understand your character, as well as challenge the traditional structure of a story?

Childlike

The Time Is Now
4.26.22

“I am five, / Wading out into deep / Sunny grass,” writes Yusef Komunyakaa in his poem “Venus’s-Flytraps.” The young speaker in this poem delivers a collage-like monologue that lays out the various characters, images, and places from his life along with a sense of wonder and danger carefully balanced in striking lines, creating a tapestry that portrays a very real and complex childhood. “I know things / I don’t supposed to know. / I could start walking / & never stop. / These yellow flowers / Go on forever,” writes Komunyakaa. Write a poem from the perspective of a curious child, which, like Komunyakaa’s poem, illustrates even the most devastating things with a sense of wonder.

Submissions Open for Louise Meriwether First Book Prize

G&A: The Contest Blog
4.22.22

The Louise Meriwether First Book Prize, founded jointly by Feminist Press and TAYO Literary Magazine, is accepting fiction and narrative nonfiction submissions for their annual award for a first book by a woman of color or a nonbinary writer of color. The award celebrates work “in the tradition of Meriwether’s Daddy Was a Number Runner, one of the first contemporary American novels featuring a young Black girl as the protagonist.” The winner will receive $5,000 and publication with Feminist Press in spring 2024. The editors expect to offer close editorial guidance to the prize winner.

To submit, e-mail a prose manuscript of 30,000 to 80,000 words and a cover letter by May 8. Lupita Aquino, Bridgett M. Davis, Nancy Jooyoun Kim, Cassandra Lane, and Feminist Press executive director and publisher Margot Atwell will judge. There is no entry fee. Visit the website for complete guidelines. 

Established in 2016 to honor the legacy of Louise Meriwether—an author, essayist, journalist, and antiwar activist, and the first African American woman to work as a story editor in Hollywood—the prize is meant to further “telling much-needed stories that shift culture and act as a springboard for new writers joining the industry.” Finalists will be notified in October and the winner will be announced in March 2023. Previous winners are Cassandra Lane (We Are Bridges), Melissa Valentine (The Names of All the Flowers), Claudia D. Hernández (Knitting the Fog), and YZ Chin (Though I Get Home). Established in 2016 to honor the legacy of Louise Meriwether—an author, essayist, journalist, and antiwar activist, and the first African American woman to work as a story editor in Hollywood—the prize is meant to further “telling much-needed stories that shift culture and act as a springboard for new writers joining the industry.” Finalists will be notified in October and the winner will be announced in March 2023. Previous winners are Cassandra Lane (We Are Bridges), Melissa Valentine (The Names of All the Flowers), Claudia D. Hernández (Knitting the Fog), and YZ Chin (Though I Get Home). 

Find a Writing Contest

The Grants & Awards database includes details about every writing contest we’ve published in Poets & Writers Magazine during the past year. We carefully review the practices and policies of each contest before including it, making the Grants & Awards database the most trusted resource for legitimate writing contests available anywhere.

Search the database

Translating Yourself

The Time Is Now
4.21.22

Jhumpa Lahiri’s latest collection of essays, Translating Myself and Others, forthcoming in May by Princeton University Press, catalogues the Pulitzer Prize–winning author’s identity as a writer and translator of books in English and Italian. In the first essay, “Why Italian?” Lahiri explores her reason for beginning to write books in Italian. “Some people ask me, Why Italian instead of an Indian language, a closer language, more like you?” she writes. Inspired by the works of Italian authors such as Lalla Romano and Elena Ferrante, Lahiri continues to answer the question with three metaphors: the dual nature of a door, limited eyesight and blindness, and the multiple meanings of the word graft. Think back to a time when you first learned a skill or a new language, then choose a metaphor that captures the stages of that journey. Write an essay using the metaphor to flesh out the feelings and themes that arise from your exploration.

May Flowers

The Time Is Now
4.20.22

Crocuses, daffodils, irises, tulips, bloodroot: Spring is the time when blooming flowers arrive to symbolize, if only briefly, the rebirth of the natural world and the chance for new beginnings. The English bluebell, for example, blooms in April and May, flashing wild indigo before dying when the temperature rises. Crocuses are known for their sudden blooming, with no prior signal, sometimes peeking up through snow before lasting only about three weeks. Taking inspiration from the relatively brief life of flowers, write a story in which a protagonist finds a new direction for living, sparked by the presence of spring blooms. How will your protagonist grow out of the long winter? What can we learn about your character using the yearly persistence of blossoming flowers as a guiding metaphor?

How-To

The Time Is Now
4.19.22

“After killing your god, hotbox the gun smoke,” writes Kemi Alabi in “How to Fornicate,” the opening poem of their debut collection, Against Heaven, winner of the 2021 Academy of American Poets First Book Award, published by Graywolf Press in April. Alabi’s poem enumerates a set of instructions that lyrically lay out the relationship the speaker has with sex and sexuality, using imperatives to speak directly to the reader. These intimate instructions transform throughout the poem, ranging from clear actions to more unexpected uses of nouns that have been repurposed as verbs: “Choir everything. Tenor the roses. / Alto the mulch. Mezzo the flies.” Write a poem in which each sentence begins with an imperative. Try, as Alabi does in the poem, to use a range of words and lexicons to challenge traditional instructional language.

Upcoming Contest Deadlines

G&A: The Contest Blog
4.15.22

With the end of the month right around the corner, get a head start on submitting to contests with a deadline of April 30. These awards include opportunities for poets writing first or second books, or living in Inland Southern California, and for fiction writers interested in magical realism. All contests offer a cash prize of $1,000 or more with one including the extra perk of a weeklong stay in an Italian castle!

Beloit Poetry Journal Adrienne Rich Award for Poetry: A prize of $1,500 and publication in Beloit Poetry Journal is given annually for a single poem. Jane Hirshfield will judge. All entries are considered for publication. Entry fee: $15.

Desperate Literature Short Fiction Prize: A prize of €1,500 (approximately $1,694) and a weeklong residency at the Civitella Ranieri Foundation’s castle in the Umbria region of Italy will be given annually for a work of short fiction. Natasha Brown, Anton Hur, Ottessa Moshfegh, and Joanna Walsh will judge. Entry fee: €20 (approximately $23).

Ghost Story Supernatural Fiction Award: A prize of $1,500 and publication on the Ghost Story website is given twice yearly for a short story with a supernatural or magical realism theme. The winning work will also be published in volume 3 of the anthology 21st Century Ghost Stories. The editors will judge. Entry fee: $20.

Inlandia Institute Hillary Gravendyk Prizes: Two prizes of $1,000 each, publication by the Inlandia Institute, and 20 author copies are given annually for a poetry collection by a U.S. resident and a poetry collection by a poet residing in Inland Southern California, including Riverside and San Bernardino counties and any non-coastal area of Southern California, from Death Valley to Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. Stacey Callies, Megan Gravendyk-Estrella, and Charles Legere will judge. All entries are considered for publication. Entry fee: $20. 

Oversound Chapbook Prize: A prize of $1,000, publication by Oversound, and 25 author copies is given annually for a poetry chapbook. Sawako Nakayasu will judge. Entry fee: $18 (which includes a subscription to Oversound).

Poetry International Prize: A prize of $1,000 and publication in Poetry International is given annually for a single poem. Kevin Prufer will judge. All entries are considered for publication. Entry fee: $15.  

Trio House Press Award for First or Second Book: A prize of $1,000, publication by Trio House Press, and 20 author copies is given annually for a first or second poetry collection. Steve Healey will judge. Entry fee: $25.

Tupelo Press Berkshire Prize: A prize of $3,000, publication by Tupelo Press, and 20 author copies is given annually for a first or second poetry collection. All entries are considered for publication. Entry fee: $30.

University of Pittsburgh Press Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize: A prize of $5,000 and publication by University of Pittsburgh Press is given annually for a debut poetry collection. Entry fee: $25.  

Winning Writers Tom Howard/John H. Reid Fiction and Essay Contest: Two prizes of $3,000 each, two-year gift certificates for membership to the literary database Duotrope, and publication on the Winning Writers website are given annually for a short story and an essay. Mina Manchester will judge. Unpublished and previously published works are eligible. Entry fee: $20. 

Visit the contest websites for complete guidelines, and check out the Grants & Awards database and Submission Calendar for more contests in poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. 
 

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