Deadline: July 15, 2022
Entry fee: $30
About the competition
This year’s contest judge is Deesha Philyaw!
Deesha Philyaw’s debut short story collection, The Secret Lives of Church Ladies, won the 2021 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, the 2020/2021 Story Prize, and the 2020 LA Times Book Prize: The Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction and was a finalist for the 2020 National Book Award for Fiction. The Secret Lives of Church Ladies focuses on Black women, sex, and the Black church, and is being adapted for television by HBO Max with Tessa Thompson executive producing. Deesha is also a Kimbilio Fiction Fellow and will be the 2022-2023 John and Renée Grisham Writer-in-Residence at the University of Mississippi.
Learn more here: deeshaphilyaw.com
Competition guidelines
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The grand prize will be $1500. Two runner ups will be selected, each receiving $500.
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The entry fee is $30.
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We are seeking fiction and creative nonfiction of every genre. We have global distribution and publish authors from all around the world.
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Simultaneous submissions are accepted. Unpublished work, self-published work, and work from small or micro-presses that has not received marketing support will be eligible.
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Due to COVID restrictions and shipping concerns, we are asking that all entries be submitted electronically. If you are unable to use Submittable, then please contact us for assistance.
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Full guidelines are available on our Submittable page.
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We are offering an optional “pay it forward” program on the entry form. 100% of these funds will be used for authors who demonstrate that they cannot afford the entry fee and will be raffled off monthly in the form of refunds and free entries to randomly selected applicants.
- Submit your work here.
