Literary Contests & Prizes

Journal of Experimental Fiction : Kenneth Patchen Award For the Innovative Novel

The information comes from the Journal of Experimental Fiction Website.

In the 1990s, The Kenneth Patchen Prize for Literature was a much-coveted prize administered by Pig Iron Press of Youngstown, Ohio, in honor of famous experimental fiction author, proletarian poet, and Ohio native Kenneth Patchen. Beginning in 2011, the Award will be reinstituted as the Kenneth Patchen Award for the Innovative Novel, and will honor the most innovative novel submitted during the previous calendar year.

• Manuscripts must be submitted via email as Microsoft Word documents or as PDF files.
• The $25.00 reading fee is payable via Paypal to egerdes@experimentalfiction.com.
• Send documents without identification of author anywhere in the file.
• The name “Patchen Submission” should be followed by a four-digit number of your choice as the file name (i.e. “Patchen Submission 1234”).
• Attach a second file that states author’s name, your four digit number and actual title).
• Do not mention the name of the work anywhere in the body of your email.
• Preliminary selection of manuscripts will be done by Journal of Experimental Fiction (JEF) and Civil Coping Mechanisms (CCM) editors, who will select the ten finalists, which will then be sent on for selection by the judge, famous novelist Yuriy Tarnawsky, himself an admirer of Patchen’s fiction.
• The winner receives $1000 and publication by JEF/CCM as well as 20 complimentary copies of the book.
• Deadline for entry: All submissions must be postmarked between January 1 and July 31, 2011.
• Winner will be announced in September.


The 8th Annual Gival Press Short Story Award

All information comes from the Gival Press Web site

Deadline:
August 8, 2011 (postmarked)
Our dates never change, if the date falls on a Sunday, then Monday becomes the default postmarked date.

Guidelines:
Submissions of a previously unpublished original (not a translation) short story in English must be approximately 5,000 to 15,000 words of high literary quality, typed, double-spaced on one side of the paper only, with word count in the upper left hand side of the first page, along with the title. The author's name should not appear on the numbered pages of the ms which should be clipped together. Author should keep a copy of the submission as it will not be returned.

Author Identification:
Submit name, address, telephone number, email address on a separate page, along with the title of the short story submitted.

A short bio should also be included.

If the short story wins, the author must make the manuscript available to Gival Press on an IBM-compatible disk or CD in Rich Text Format (RTF)—this refers to how one saves the document on one's computer disk.

Reading fee:
$25.00 (USD) by check or money order drawn on an American bank for each short story submitted. Payable to: Gival Press, LLC.

International entrants must send a check drawn on a USA bank routed through a USA address, such as Bank of America; no international money orders are acceptable.

Please note that Gival Press can also accept the entry free by major credit card; however, we only take credit card information by phone (703.351.0079).

Mail to:
Robert L. Giron, Editor
Gival Press Short Story Award
Gival Press, LLC
PO Box 3812
Arlington, VA 22203.

Notification of the Winner:
Include a self-addressed, stamped envelope (SASE) for notification of the winner or visit our website (http://www.givalpress.com), where the winner and finalists will be announced.

We try our best to announce the winner in the fall of the same year. Unfortunately it takes time to read and judge the entries and to contact the individuals involved.

Prize:
Author will receive $1,000.00 and the winning story will be published on the Gival Press website and in a future anthology of short stories.

Judging:
Short stories will be judged anonymously and the decision of the judge will be final. The winner for the previous award will be the judge for the follow.

The Manchester Fiction Prize

The information is from the Manchester Metropolitan University Web site.

Under the direction of Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy, the Manchester Writing School at MMU is launching the second Manchester Fiction Prize – a major international literary competition celebrating excellence in creative writing.

The Manchester Fiction Prize is open internationally and will award a cash prize of £10,000 (approximately $16,200) to the writer of the best short story submitted. The competition is open internationally to entrants aged 16 or over; there is no upper age limit.

All entrants are asked to submit a complete short story of up to 3,000 words in length. The story can be on any subject, and written in any style, but must be fiction and new work, not previously published, or submitted for consideration elsewhere during this competition. The deadline is August 12, 2011.

The Manchester Fiction Prize celebrates the substantial cultural and literary achievements of Manchester, building on the work of the Manchester Writing School at MMU and enhancing the city's reputation as one of Europe's most adventurous and creative spaces. The prizes will be awarded at a gala ceremony hosted as part of the 2011 Manchester Literature Festival.

To enter the competition, click online entry.

To download a printable entry form for postal submission, click here. If you would a printed entry pack to be sent out to you by post, or if you have any queries, please contact:
James Draper, Project Manager
The Manchester Writing School
Department of English
Manchester Metropolitan University
Telephone: +44 (0) 161 247 1787
E-mail: j.draper@mmu.ac.uk


Common Ground Review

All information comes from the Common Ground Review Web site

We publish two reviews a year: Fall/Winter and Spring/Summer. Deadlines are August 31 and March 1. You may submit up to three poems. We will also showcase a short work of creative non-fiction in the Fall/Winter issue and a short story in the Spring/Summer issue. Submit only one per issue.

We look for well-crafted poems under 61 lines. Poems should be single-spaced indicating stanza breaks. If other than single spacing is integral to the poem, please indicate where breaks occur.

Creative non-fiction and short stories must be no more than 12 pages, double-spaced.
Manuscripts must bear the author’s name, address, email address and phone number. A brief biography and SASE must also be included.

We will accept simultaneous submissions, but not previously published work. If you intend to submit work simultaneously, tell us so in your cover letter. Once we have notified you of an acceptance, it will be published as a first time publication. All rights revert back to the author after publication.

We do not accept responsibility for incorrect guidelines obtained from other websites or outdated sources. For full details, see our website: http://cgreview.org.

Questions? Mail to editors@cgreview.org/
Send all work to Janet Bowdan, Editor, E-5309
Western New England University
1215 Wilbraham Road, Springfield, MA 01119


Good luck!