Jump to navigation Skip to content
“The backend / algorithm will be coded on keyboards / by the actual hands of mothers who, / in another life, called themselves writers,” reads Ryann Stevenson from “Decision Tree,” which appears in her collection, Human Resources (Milkweed Editions, 2022), winner of the 2021 Max Ritvo Poetry Prize, in this conversation with Richie Hofmann. Human Resources is featured in Page One in the July/August issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
It’s hot out there, folks! Stay cool—or cooler, anyway—indoors while applying to some contests with deadlines of August 8, 9, 15, and 20. Among the awards are a $3,000 prize for a poetry collection; a $1,500 prize for a poem and a short story; a $1,000 prize for a book of innovative poetry, fiction, nonfiction, or hybrid-genre work; and $1,000 prizes for individual poems, works of flash fiction or nonfiction, and short stories. All contests offer a cash prize of $1,000 or more. Good luck!
Futurepoem Other Futures Award: A prize of $1,000, publication by Futurepoem, and 25 author copies is given annually for a book of innovative poetry, fiction, nonfiction, or hybrid-genre work “that challenges conventions of genre and language, content, and form.” The editors will judge. Entry fee: $28.
Gival Press Short Story Award: A prize of $1,000 and publication on the Gival Press website is given annually for a short story. Entry fee: $25.
Grayson Books Poetry Prize: A prize of $1,000 and publication by Grayson Books is given annually for a poetry collection. John Sibley Williams will judge. Entry fee: $26.
Indiana Review’s 1/2 K Prize: A prize of $1,000 and publication in Indiana Review is given annually for a poem or a work of flash fiction or creative nonfiction. Geffrey Davis will judge. All finalists will be considered for publication. Entry fee: $20 (which includes a subscription to Indiana Review); no fee for Black and/or Indigenous writers.
Kallisto Gaia Press Poetry and Short Fiction Prizes: Two prizes of $1,500 each and publication in Ocotillo Review are given annually for a poem and a short story. Zoë Fay-Stindt will judge the Julia Darling Memorial Poetry Prize and Jen Knox will judge the Chester B. Himes Memorial Short Fiction Prize. Entry fee: $20.
Omnidawn Publishing Open Book Prize: A prize of $3,000, publication by Omnidawn Publishing, and 100 author copies is given annually for a poetry collection. Shane McCrae will judge. Entry fee: $27; for an additional $3, entrants will receive a book of their choice from the Omnidawn catalogue.
TulipTree Publishing Stories That Need To Be Told Contest: A prize of $1,000 is given annually for a poem, a short story, or an essay that “tells a story that needs to be told.” The winner will also receive a two-year subscription to the literary database Duotrope and publication in the annual Stories That Need to Be Told contest anthology. All entries are considered for publication. Entry fee: $20.
“My bones are happy / inside my skin; my fingers / are snapping.” Joyce Sutphen’s poem “Morning Walk” is featured in this Motionpoems short film directed by Zack Grant and starring Debra Magid.
“To pull the metal splinter from my palm / my father recited a poem in a low voice.” Tina Chang reads from Li-Young Lee’s poem “The Gift,” her choice for “The Poem I Wish I Had Read” video series produced by the Boutelle-Day Poetry Center at Smith College. For more from Chang, read this 2019 Q&A by Jerome Ellison Murphy in our Online Exclusive archive.
“Now the oil-fired heating boiler comes to life / Abruptly, drowsily, like the timed collapse / Of a sawn-down tree, I imagine them.” In this 2011 PBS NewsHour video, the late Seamus Heaney reads from and speaks about his final collection, Human Chain (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2010). The Nobel Prize–winning poet died at the age of seventy-four on August 30, 2013.
In Seamus Heaney’s poem “Oysters,” which appears in his 1979 collection, Field Work, the speaker faces an internal conflict in which he relishes in the “perfect memory” of eating oysters with friends while also dealing with the anger and “glut of privilege” that allows him such refined experiences. In the final sentence, as if avoiding the lingering guilt, Heaney writes: “I ate the day / Deliberately, that its tang / Might quicken me all into verb, pure verb.” Write a poem in which a moment of pleasure is met with guilt or shame. Bring both feelings into focus, digging into the complexity of the scene.
“I needed to live all of the change and movement and multiplicity that the book wound up being about in order to write it.” —Caylin Capra-Thomas, author of Iguana Iguana
The author of Took House explores what happens when poets permit themselves to write about the same subject multiple times.
There is still time to submit to the Granum Foundation Prizes! Awarded annually to a poet, fiction writer, or creative nonfiction writer to support the completion of a manuscript-in-progress, the Granum Foundation Prize offers $5,000; up to three finalists will receive $500 or more. A Translation Prize of $500 or more will also be awarded. There is no entry fee for either prize.
Using only the online submission system, submit a manuscript of approximately 12 poems or 25 pages of prose, along with a cover letter, project description, and a statement about how the grant will support your work, by August 2. Visit the website for the required entry form and complete guidelines.
The prizes are meant to provide practical support to writers who have demonstrated a “commitment to the literary arts” and can articulate the merits of their writing project, including their ability to complete it within a set timeframe. The money may be used to pay for tools of the trade—a computer, for example—or to defray the costs of writing residencies, editorial services, and more.
Welcoming applicants from all backgrounds, the Granum Foundation seeks to foster the growth of emerging writers. As the foundation’s website puts it: “We are placing bets on undiscovered writers from all walks of life who might never get the chance to complete their first books, or who change careers later in life to chase literary dreams, or who feel they have been excluded from traditional avenues of support.”
“What do you want, I asked, forgetting I had / no language,” reads Ocean Vuong from his poem “The Bull,” which appears in his second poetry collection, Time Is a Mother (Penguin Press, 2022), in this WSJ. Magazine video directed by Gioncarlo Valentine.
