Genre: Fiction

Firecracker Awards

Community of Literary Magazines & Presses
Entry Fee: 
$65
Deadline: 
November 14, 2025

Three prizes of $2,000 each are given annually for a book of poetry, a book of fiction, and a book of creative nonfiction published by an independent press in the current year ($1,000 for each author and $1,000 for their respective publisher). Works in translation and graphic novels are accepted. Using only the online submission system, publishers may submit books of poetry or prose published in 2025 with a $65 entry fee ($55 for CLMP members) for the first book and a $45 fee ($35 for CLMP members) for each additional entry by November 14. Visit the website for complete guidelines.

Jacobs/Jones African American Literary Prize

North Carolina Writers’ Network
Entry Fee: 
$20
Deadline: 
January 2, 2026

A prize of $1,000 is given annually for a short story or an essay that “seeks to convey the rich and varied existence of Black North Carolinians.” The winning entry is considered for publication in Carolina Quarterly. Black writers who live in North Carolina are eligible. Submit a story or essay of up to 3,000 words (a self-contained excerpt from a longer work is also accepted) with a $20 entry fee ($10 for NCWN members) by January 2, 2026. Include two copies if submitting by mail. Visit the website for complete guidelines.

Memoir Prize

Narratively
Entry Fee: 
$20
Deadline: 
December 7, 2025
A prize of $3,000 and publication on Narratively’s storytelling platform is given annually for a short work of memoir written in the first person. Two runners-up prizes of $1,000 each and publication will also be awarded. The winner and two runners-up will also be included in a special digital collection. Using only the online submission system, submit an essay of 2,000 to 5,000 words with a $20 entry fee by December 7. Visit the website for complete guidelines.

Writing Fellowships

Fine Arts Work Center
Entry Fee: 
$40
Deadline: 
November 15, 2025

Fellowships for a seven-month residency at the Fine Arts Work Center in Prov­ince­town, Massachusetts, are given annually to four poets and four fiction writers who have not published a full-length book in any genre. Each fellowship includes a private apartment, a monthly stipend of $1,250, and an exit stipend of $1,000. To apply for fellowships beginning in October 2026, submit up to 15 pages of poetry or 35 pages of fiction (include a synopsis if submitting a novel) and a curriculum vitae with a $40 entry fee before noon (EST) on November 15; submissions are also accepted from noon on November 15 to before noon on December 1 with a $55 entry fee, and from noon on December 1 to midnight on December 15 with a $65 entry fee. Visit the website for the required entry form and complete guidelines.

Award for Short Fiction

Press 53
Entry Fee: 
$30
Deadline: 
December 31, 2025

A prize of $1,000, publication by Press 53, and 53 author copies is given annually for a story collection. Kevin Morgan Watson will judge. Submit a manuscript of 100 to 250 pages with a $30 entry fee by December 31. Visit the website for complete guidelines.

California Book Awards

Commonwealth Club of California
Entry Fee: 
$0
Deadline: 
November 15, 2025
Five prizes of $2,500 each are given annually for a poetry collection, a book of fiction, a first book of fiction, a book of creative nonfiction, and a book dealing with a California-based issue, topic, or historical period. Books written by authors residing in California are eligible. Publishers may submit six copies of books published in 2025 by November 15. There is no entry fee. Visit the website for the required entry form and complete guidelines.

Hyde

Caption: 

Watch the trailer for the graphic novel series adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Developed by Ridley Scott and Mechanical Cake, the two-volume series will be released on Halloween and imagines a world where Hyde overtakes Dr. Jekyll. Written by Jesse Negron with Joe Matsumoto, and artists Gary Erskine and Chris Weston, Johnny Depp portrays the sinister character.

Genre: 
Fiction
Tags: 
Hyde
Robert Louis Stevenson
book trailer
graphic novel
Jesse Negron
Joe Matsumoto
2025

Percival Everett on The Trees

Caption: 

In this Service95 Book Club conversation hosted by Dua Lipa, Percival Everett revisits his award-winning 2021 novel, The Trees, and talks about how the murder and image of Emmett Till urged him to write the story, and how important the relationship between author and reader is to art. “People find their truth in art. It’s not complete until the reader comes to it. That’s when meaning gets made,” says Everett.

Genre: 
Fiction
Tags: 
Percival Everett
The Trees
Graywolf Press
Dua Lipa
Service95 Book Club
podcast
interview
2025

In Vaim

The Time Is Now
10.1.25

In Vaim (Transit Books, 2025) by Nobel Prize–winning author Jon Fosse, translated from the Norwegian by Damion Searls, one might search for certainty and stability in vain as the fishing village from which the novel gets its title is not a place in the real world, and perhaps not even a real place within the world of the book. Ania Szremski, senior editor of 4Columns, describes the novel as a “a book of amphibolous belief” with a protagonist who “wavers between ‘yes’ and ‘no.’” Write a short story that revolves around a character who inhabits a place that may or may not really exist. In Fosse’s book, the protagonist’s motorboat grounds the reader while the use of shifting points of view and lack of punctuation can be unsettling. How do you inject your own story with both stabilizing and destabilizing elements to create tension and momentum?

Ten Questions for Jade Chang

by
Evangeline Riddiford Graham
Ten Questions
9.30.25

“I think I’m a natural maximalist, and I still enjoy orchestrating a complex, layered scene or sentence, but I often found myself paring down versus building up.” —Jade Chang, author of What a Time to Be Alive

Tags: 
procrastination | inspiration

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