DEADLINE: May 7, 2019
Enter Contest Here
$1,000 Fiction Prize
Judge: PAUL BEATTY
Paul Beatty is the author of the novels, The Sellout, Tuff, Slumberland, and The White Boy Shuffle, and the poetry collections Big Bank Take Little Bank and Joker, Joker, Deuce. He was the editor of Hokum: An Anthology of African-American Humor. In 2016, he became the first American to win the Man Booker Prize for his novel The Sellout. The Sellout was also awarded the National Book Critics Circle Awards in 2015. In 2017, he was the winner the American Academy of Arts and Letters Literature Award. He lives in New York City.
$500 Nonfiction Prize
Judge: ALEXANDRIA MARZANO-LESNEVICH
Alexandria (Alex) Marzano-Lesnevich is the author of THE FACT OF A BODY: A Murder and a Memoir, receipient of the 2018 Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Memoir, the 2018 Chautauqua Prize, and the Prix France Inter-JDD, an award for one book of any genre in the world. Named one of the best books of the year by Entertainment Weekly, Audible.com, Bustle, Book Riot, The Times of London, The Guardian, and The Sydney Press Herald, it was an Indie Next Pick and a Junior Library Guild selection, long-listed for the Gordon Burn Prize, short-listed for the CWA Gold Dagger, and a finalist for a New England Book Award, a Goodreads Choice Award, and the Grand Prix des lectrices ELLE, and has been translated into eight languages. The recipient of fellowships from The National Endowment for the Arts, MacDowell, and Yaddo, as well as a Rona Jaffe Award, Marzano-Lesnevich has essays published or forthcoming in The New York Times Sunday Magazine, Oxford American, and Harpers. They now live in Portland, Maine and are an Assistant Professor of English at Bowdoin College.
$500 Stephen Dunn Poetry Prize
Judge: REGINALD DWAYNE BETTS
Reginald Dwayne Betts is a husband and father of two sons. A poet and memoirist, he is the author of three books. The recently published Bastards of the Reagan Era, the 2010 NAACP Image Award winning memoir, A Question of Freedom, and, the poetry collection, Shahid Reads His Own Palm. Dwayne is currently enrolled in the PhD in Law Program at the Yale Law School. He has earned a J.D. from the Yale Law School, an M.F.A. from Warren Wilson College’s M.F.A. Program for Writers, and a B.A. from the University of Maryland.
WRITING CONTEST FICTION, NONFICTION, OR POETRY: $18.00/entry
GUIDELINES
1. Cover sheet required with name, address, telephone number and email. Email and/or phone MUST be included to be considered. Please include cover sheet in the same file as the actual submission. Do not put your name on the manuscript itself. Final judges will be choosing on the basis of the quality of your work. Please indicate the genre of your piece next to the title.
2. 12-point font. Microsoft Word attachment. Online submissions only.
3. Each entry: Fiction or Nonfiction: 23-page maximum, double-spaced; free-standing excerpts from books also accepted. Poetry: 3-poem maximum.
4. You may submit more than once but must pay a separate fee for each entry.
5. You may submit simultaneously elsewhere, but please email us immediately if accepted at another journal.
6. We will not accept previously published work. Solstice has first publication rights, but copyright reverts to you upon publication. We will publish the piece after the Summer Awards Issue in our Archives.
7. If you won last year’s contest, you must skip a year before resubmitting to the contest, but we encourage you to submit work to Solstice for general publication.
8. We will announce the winners online on our Home Page approximately 6-8 weeks after the contest deadline. We do not notify individual submitters by email. For results, please check the Home Page.
9. After announcing the winners, all contest submissions will be automatically considered for standard publication unless you indicate otherwise.
10. The $18.00 entry fee must be paid online.
Enter Contest Here
Read our Previous Winners:
2017:
Nonfiction: Suzanne Fernandez Gray, “Bridge of Cards”
Fiction: Tim Benjamin, “A Visitor”
Poetry: Tyler Erlendson, “Prayer For a New God”
2016:
Nonfiction: Melanie Brooks, “In Remembrance”
Fiction: Gregory Wolos, “Cat Calls”
Poetry: Lynne Thompson, “Politics”
2015:
Nonfiction: Michelle Blake – “A Fable for Our Times”
Fiction: Shanyn Fiske – “Calligraphy”
Poetry: Alysia Nicole Harris – “Omnipotence“
2014:
- Nonfiction: Mary Collins – “The Coverless Book”
- Fiction: Patricia Ann McNair – “My Mother’s Daughter”
- Poetry: Alysia Harris – Crow’s Sugar
2013:
- Nonfiction: Amy Nolan – “The Whirlpool”
- Fiction: Danielle Monroe – “Salsaholico”
- Poetry: Lynne Knight- “Smoke”
2012:
- Nonfiction: Dawn Haines – “Aleatorik”
- Fiction: Amy L. Clark – “Rheumatic Fever”
- Poetry: Mike Nelson’s – “Via Dolorosa”
2011:
- Nonfiction Finalist: Tracy Strauss- “The Wreck”
- Fiction: Thomas Benz – “Casual Imposter”
- Poetry: Andrew Nurkin – “I Have”
2010:
- Fiction/Nonfiction: Fred Setterberg – “Our Golden State”
- Poetry: Emily Van Duyne – “Self-Invention, or, Torch Song for a One-Night Stand”
