Deadline: September 30, 2022
About the competition
The Willie Morris Awards for Southern Writing celebrate works in three genres—fiction, nonfiction and poetry. A national panel of judges reviews hundreds of nominated books and poems looking for works that ask readers to engage with the complexities of the U.S. South.
Fiction and nonfiction winners receive a cash prize of $12,000. The winner of the poetry category receives $3,000. Winners also receive an expenses-paid trip to Oxford, Miss., where we celebrate the winning writers as part of the Oxford Conference for the Book. During their trip, winners have the chance to read from their work during the conference and meet and learn from other writers. They also enjoy an intimate celebration dinner with judges and other special guests at one of the town’s famed restaurants or a memorable location like Faulkner’s Rowan Oak, the University of Mississippi Museum or the Lyceum.
Competition guidelines
- Asks readers to engage with or reflect on the complexities of the American South.
- Brings awareness to an issue or suggests hope for a solution.
- Stands out for originality, quality of prose and structure, sense of period, place and people.
- Comes from the perspective of an author who is an original or under-recognized voice in conversations about the South.
- Register your submission by completing the form linked below, then mail a hard copy to:
Department of Writing & Rhetoric
The University of Mississippi
P.O. Box 1848
University, MS 38677
Books must be published during the submission year and cannot be self-published. Advanced reader copies or proofs for books that will be published in October, November or December of 2022 are eligible.
You can get a sense of the quality and content of winning books by reading the previous winners listed on our website.
