We found nearly four dozen excellent free poetry and prose contests with deadlines between May 15-June 30. In this issue, please enjoy "Work", an excerpt from The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran.

Deadline Next Month
NORTH STREET BOOK PRIZE FOR SELF-PUBLISHED BOOKS
Deadline: June 30. 5th year. Co-sponsored by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of The Frugal Book Promoter, and BookBaby. Prizes increased to $10,500, including a top award of $3,000. This year's categories: Mainstream/Literary Fiction, Genre Fiction, Creative Nonfiction & Memoir, Poetry, Children's Picture Book, and Graphic Narrative (new). Fee: $60 per entry. Jendi Reiter and Ellen LaFleche will judge, assisted by Annie Keithline and Jim DuBois. See last year's winners and enter here.

Also open now, our Tom Howard/Margaret Reid Poetry Contest will award $5,000 in prizes, including two top awards of $2,000 each.

View past newsletters in our archives. Need assistance? Let us help. Join our 118,000 followers on Twitter at @WinningWriters. Interested in advertising? Learn more.

Don't miss these contests. All have cash prizes. At FanStory you can enter all these contests with upgraded membership ($9.95 per month or less). View the full listing.

Nonet Poetry Contest
A nonet has nine lines. The first line has nine syllables, the second line eight syllables, the third line seven syllables, etc...until line nine finishes with just one syllable. Cash prize to the winner.
Deadline: May 15 (tonight!)

Sonnet Poetry Contest
Write a sonnet in iambic pentameter. The rhyme scheme should be abab cdcd efef gg. This contest has a cash prize. Deadline: May 17 (two days!)

75 Words Flash Fiction
Write a story (on any topic) using exactly 75 words. Omit the title from the word count. Cash prize to the winner. Deadline: May 20

2-4-2 Poetry
Submit a poem where the first line has 2 syllables, the second line has 4 syllables and the last line has 2 syllables again. Cash prize for the winning entry. Deadline: May 25

Write a Script
Write a script of any size (can be a small script as shown in the example) for any medium on any topic. Cash prize to the winner. Deadline: May 28

These are just a few of our contests. View the listing.

Congratulations to Cyrée Jarelle Johnson, David R. Yale, Mike Tuohy, Sofia Kioroglou, Gary Beck, Ian M. Evans, Thea Biesheuvel, Fern G. Z. Carr, and R.T. Castleberry.

Winning Writers Editor Jendi Reiter's poem "Wolf Whistles", originally published in their chapbook Swallow (Amsterdam Press, 2009), was accepted for the anthology The Impossible Beast: Poems of Queer Eroticism, forthcoming in 2020 from Damaged Goods Press. The anthology is still open to submissions through December 31. 

Emily Bracale's graphic memoir Our Last Six Months was profiled in the Maine newspaper The Ellsworth American on April 19, in an Arts & Leisure feature titled "Graphic book captures caring for loved one in dying days". This book won the Grand Prize in the 2018 North Street Book Prize competition sponsored by Winning Writers.

Learn about our subscribers' achievements and see links to samples of their work.

Have news? Please email it to jendi@winningwriters.com.

NEW THIS YEAR: Guest Poets Maggie Smith & Traci Brimhall!

WHAT YOU NEED: Access to email and a desire to write new poems.

WHAT WE PROVIDE: Poem prompts, sample poems, a Two Sylvias Press publication, a PDF of PR for Poets: A Guidebook to Publicity & Marketing by Jeannine Hall Gailey (this book has been named #3 of the "Best New PR Books" by Book Authority, as featured on CNN, Forbes, and Inc.), as well as reflection questions/activities to guide and inspire. All prompts, writing exercises, and inspiration sent daily or weekly to your email (your choice!)

AND—at the end of the retreat, an award-winning poet will critique one of your poems and offer ideas on where to submit them! (Summer participants choose critiques from Maggie Smith, Traci Brimhall, January Gill O'Neil, Jennifer K. Sweeney, and Jennifer Jean! Or if you choose the October retreat, receive critiques from the editors of Two Sylvias Press!)

• Space is limited (and already filling fast!)
• All levels of poets are welcome (from beginning writer to published author)
• Register now for the July, August, or October Retreats

Praise for Two Sylvias Press Online Poetry Retreat
"I decided to take the Two Sylvias Press Online Poetry Retreat as a way to reignite my passion for writing poetry and reconnect with my 'poet's mind' after not writing poetry for several years. The format was perfect for me—it enabled me to work alone and at my own pace while still feeling connected through daily prompts and encouragement. The result: I wrote more poems in that four-week period than I had written in as many years and new poems are still coming. The feedback I received was insightful and improved the poems while still showing respect for the essence of the work."
     —Cathy J. (read other testimonials here)

Click here to learn more and register.

Deadline: May 30

ENTER NOW!
We're waiting for you!
Judged by poet & critic John Yau

First Place: $1,200 + publication in Mudfish 21
First & Second Honorable Mentions: publication in Mudfish 21
ALL POEMS CONSIDERED FOR PUBLICATION

Submit 3 poems for $20, $3 for each additional poem.
Please include author name and poem titles on cover page only.

Send submissions to:
Mudfish
184 Franklin Street Ground Floor
New York, NY 10013

New electronic submission option
Go to Mudfish and pay your entry fee via PayPal (accepts credit and debit cards also). Then, email your poems to mudfishmag@aol.com (include your PayPal transaction ID number).

Visit our contest page on the Mudfish website.

"Jill Hoffman, a painter and a poet and a fiction writer, edits a thick and handsome literary magazine called Mudfish."
—Donald Hall, A Carnival of Losses: Notes Nearing Ninety

Deadline: May 31

The Masters Review is accepting your previously unpublished stories of 1,000 words or fewer to be considered for the $3,000 Flash Fiction Prize guest judged by Kathy Fish. Second and third place will be awarded $300 and $200, respectively, and publication on The Masters Review. All three finalists earn a place in one of Kathy Fish's online Fast Flash© Workshops. We can't wait to read your work! Click to submit.

Kathy Fish has published five collections of short fiction, most recently Wild Life: Collected Works from 2003-2018, from Matter Press. Her award-winning short stories, prose poems, and flash fictions have been published in Denver Quarterly, Indiana Review, Electric Literature, Guernica, and elsewhere. Fish's "Collective Nouns for Humans in the Wild", which addresses the scourge of America's gun violence and mass shootings, will appear in an upcoming edition of The Norton Reader.

Deadline: June 10

Creative Nonfiction is looking for new work about power. For this issue, we are seeking true stories that explore the dynamics within groups and systems, however big or small—for example, family units, schools, sports, churches, and government.

We're interested in everything from the murky world of politics to the power games we all occasionally play. Share your stories about power lunches, power grabs, power suits, powerlifting, people power (and/or power to the people), or will power. Tell us about a time when you (or someone else) had power, or a time when you didn't, or tell us about your secret superpower.

Above all, we are seeking vivid narratives, sourced from true events, that demonstrate strong storytelling, voice, and grasp of detail.

Essays must be previously unpublished and no longer than 4,000 words. All essays must tell true stories and be factually accurate. Everything we publish goes through a rigorous fact-checking process, and editors may ask for sources and citations.

See our complete guidelines.

The MacGuffin's 24th Poet Hunt Contest runs from April 1 through June 15! One first place winner will receive $500 and publication in a future issue. This year, we're excited to bring in Richard Tillinghast to serve as guest judge.

There are two ways to enter: submit online by visiting our website and selecting "MacGuffin" from the SHOP tab where you can purchase an entry; or mail up to 5 poems, an index card with your name, poem titles, and contact info, and a $15 check/cash entry fee (make checks payable to Schoolcraft College) via post. For full info, see our contest rules.

Deadline: July 1

PRIZE

• One manuscript will be selected for print and e-book publication by Sheila-Na-Gig Editions
• $1,000 honorarium + royalties

• 25 copies of the published manuscript (and discounts on future orders)
• All participants will receive a copy of the winning volume upon publication. International participants will receive ebook copies.

THE JUDGE: Entries are read through a blind submission process by Hayley Mitchell Haugen, Founder & Editor, Sheila-Na-Gig online & Sheila-Na-Gig Editions

LENGTH: 60-100 pages, submitted online only via Submittable

READING FEE: $25

Click here for the complete guidelines.

Illustration: Venus in Heat by Charles Sherman

Deadline: July 4

Headmistress Press, a lesbian-identified publisher of books by lesbian/bi/trans poets, is proud to announce our fifth annual Charlotte Mew Chapbook Contest. Our judge for this year is Robin Becker. Our first-prize winner will receive $300 plus 20 copies of the winning book. All entries will be considered for publication. We will be accepting submissions through Submittable, and will announce a winner in the fall. Our reading fee is always on a sliding scale, with fee waived upon request. Click here for guidelines and submission.

When we say "lesbian-identified", we include both women who identify as lesbians and people who identify with lesbians. We recognize that lesbian communities have been and continue to be informed by bi women, trans women, Two Spirit, genderqueer, gender-nonconforming, and non-binary people, and that many of these labels are not mutually exclusive categories. In that spirit, we welcome submissions from all poets who feel an intimate connection with the term "lesbian".

Deadline: July 15

Submissions are now open for the Francine Ringold Awards for New Writers, which honor the work of writers at the beginning of their careers. The Francine Ringold Awards are open only to writers whose work has not appeared or is not scheduled to appear in more than 2 publications in the genre in which they are submitting. $500 prizes will be awarded in both the fiction and poetry categories, and the winning work will appear in the spring issue of Nimrod. Work by all finalists will also be published, and finalists will be paid at a rate of $10/page.

Established in 1956, Nimrod is dedicated to the discovery of new voices in literature, and the Francine Ringold Awards are a special way to recognize talented new poets and fiction writers.

• Poetry: Up to 5 pages of poetry (one long poem or several short poems)
• Fiction: 5,000 words maximum (one short story or a self-contained excerpt from a novel)
• Fee Per Entry: $12 payable to Nimrod, includes a copy of the spring issue
• No previously published works or works accepted for publication elsewhere.

Author’s name must not appear on the manuscript. Include a cover sheet containing major title(s), author's name, full address, phone, and email. Entries may be mailed to Nimrod or submitted online. Open internationally.

For complete rules, visit Nimrod's website.

Deadline: July 15

The annual Rattle Poetry Prize is once again offering $10,000 for a single poem to be published in the winter issue of the magazine. Ten finalists will also receive $200 each and publication, and be eligible for the $2,000 Readers' Choice Award, to be selected by subscriber and entrant vote.

With the winners judged in a blind review by the editors to ensure a fair and consistent selection, an entry fee that is simply a one-year subscription to the magazine—and a runner-up Readers' Choice Award to be chosen by the writers themselves—the Rattle Poetry Prize aims to be one of the most writer-friendly and popular poetry contests around.

We accept entries online and by mail. See Rattle's website for the complete guidelines and to read all of the past winners.

We are proud to present the very first Rattle Poetry Prize-winning poem, "Conspiracy" by Sophia Rivkin, from 2006:

CONSPIRACY

The husband calls from two hundred miles away
to say he cannot stand it, his wife is dying
in a rented hospital bed in their living room
and he must put her away, somewhere, anywhere,
in a nursing home and she is crying looking up at him
through the bars like a caged animal—
she is an animal with foul green breath
and buttocks burnt raw with urine—
he cannot lift her, he cannot change her often enough,
and she is crying for the children's pictures on the mantle,
she cannot leave the silver candlesticks,
the high school graduation pictures.
And I say, yes, it is time to put her away,
I am the friend and I say it,
the living conspiring with the living,
death standing like a Nazi general or a stormtrooper
with a huge cardboard chest covered with metals,
and he leans over her and pins a gold star
through her skin and it pricks us,
pricks us through the brain,
through our skin
but we do not bleed
when death is pushing her
out of her bed, marching her away,
while everyone stands white-faced
among the white-faced crowd,
blending in, blending in.

Jendi Reiter's debut novel Two Natures (Saddle Road Press) is the spiritual coming-of-age story of a NYC fashion photographer during the 1990s AIDS crisis. Two Natures won the Rainbow Award for Best Gay Contemporary Fiction and was a finalist for the Book Excellence Awards, the Lascaux Prize for Fiction, and the EPIC e-Books Awards.

British literary critic and fiction writer Jack Messenger says:

"Jendi Reiter's wise and ambitious novel Two Natures is the story of young gay man Julian Selkirk who, Crusoe-like, finds himself washed ashore in New York in 1991 and 'dependent on the kindness of strangers'. Julian is an aspiring fashion photographer whose career lows and highs quickly alternate, mirroring his personal exploration of the gay scene and his search for love. The spiritual and the carnal, the beautiful and the sordid, interweave in complex patterns, overshadowed by the gathering AIDS crisis, as the years to 1996 become increasingly hostile to difference. The intensely personal is the politically fraught, and Julian has to cope with the vagaries of love and ambition while mourning friends and lovers.

"Two Natures is an all-encompassing work that plunges us into New York's rent-controlled apartments, gay bars and nightclubs, and the overlapping world of fashion shoots and glamour magazines, in pursuit of the spirit of the times."

Read the full review.

Buy Two Natures for $4.99 on Kindle.

When independent single dad Aubrey reveals that he has stage 4 cancer, "normal life" goes out the window for his ex-wife and their thirteen-year-old son. They and others witness his brave efforts to heal himself in his final months of life as he struggles to come to terms with his mortality. The family learns on their feet as they encounter each new situation. The narrative shares an unsentimental description of the patient's experiences with hospitals and nursing care, the end-of-life decisions he encounters, the activities of his caregivers, the responsibilities of his health-care advocates, and the role of professional helpers such as Social Workers and Hospice.

"Emily Bracale of Bar Harbor, Maine won this year's Grand Prize across all genres for her graphic narrative, Our Last Six Months, a tender, homespun, and informative memoir of how her blended family came together to nurse her ex-husband through terminal cancer…Despite the heavy topic, the artwork has an intimate, humorous flavor, almost like The New Yorker's Roz Chast…We were so impressed with the potential of this format that we are adding a Graphic Narrative category for the 2019 prize."
—Jendi Reiter, awarding the Grand Prize to Our Last Six Months

"This is more than a memoir—it is an essential guidebook for others in similar difficult situations. The author gives us a direct and true account in an honest and openhearted way, never maudlin or sentimental. Illustrations help to tell this story with warmth and humor. This is a gem of a book."
—Jeanie Smith, Board President, The Whole Health Center

Learn more and buy Our Last Six Months.

From long-time poet Jim DuBois comes a volume called "relentlessly dramatic" by one reader and "perfectly put together" by another.

"A short poem doesn't leave room for error. You must condense everything down to one point, and economically yet dramatically aim for it. You either make it, or you miss it." —Jim DuBois
 

Sometimes
 all it takes
  is
 the cool air
  underneath
   the bridge
 

Buy 40 Short Poems now from Lulu.

"I shopped my novel The Day's Heat around for over 20 years. No takers, and yet it won a first prize in the Impress Books Contest put on by Exeter University in England and was published in 2018. So keep writing and sending out. Read other writers and see how they construct sentences and ideas. Let your characters lead you down paths of their own."
—Roberta George

From Clifford Browder's review on Goodreads

"...for this reviewer the central issue is adultery, and not just any adultery. It tells what happens when a mother with two young children and a third on the way, a mother who is a good observing Catholic as well, feels an attraction to her young, progressive parish priest, and he feels the same for her.

"...the reader cannot resist going with Lee on her danger-fraught journey of release and self-discovery. After a season of hope and frustration spiced with a tangle of lies, Lee's adventure ends quietly, sadly, yet wisely, as it must, but not without a glimmering of hope. A great read; serious readers shouldn't pass it up."

From Thomas Benz's review on Goodreads

"Lee has a good memory for song lyrics which speak to her plight. She's lovingly playful with her kids, but like any human being, possesses some inconvenient secrets. Foremost among them is that she is pregnant with her third child, and even though her husband Charles is likely the father, she cannot bring herself to tell him. They are already so financially stretched that she must take in sewing orders to barely make ends meet, and she knows he'll be appalled at the news. Amid the web of her constricted social world, a series of other secrets, and the subterfuges to hide them, unfold.

"...George's prose is always swift and sure, the observations about southern life trenchant and insightful. She adeptly stokes the flame of forbidden romance and the explosive tension it creates, without a hint of melodrama."

Buy The Day's Heat at Snake Nation Press or Amazon.

Some contests are best suited to writers at the early stages of their careers. Others are better for writers with numerous prizes and publications to their credit. Here is this month's selection of Spotlight Contests for your consideration:

Emerging Writers
Stony Brook Short Fiction Prize. College students in the US and Canada can win a $1,000 prize, a scholarship to the Stony Brook Southampton Writing Conference, and consideration for publication in The Southampton Review. Due June 1.

Intermediate Writers
PEN/Phyllis Naylor Working Writer Fellowship. A writer of children's or YA fiction in financial need can win a fellowship of $5,000. Candidates must have published at least one novel for children or young adults which has been warmly received by literary critics, but has not generated sufficient income to support the author. The writer's book(s) must have been published by a US publisher. Due June 1.

Advanced Writers
Stowe Prize. A $10,000 achievement award will be given to a US author whose prose work (fiction and nonfiction compete together) or body of work "makes a tangible impact on a social justice issue critical to contemporary society". Nominated work should have been published within the past 2 years, use diverse media, and center on an issue that is emerging/on the ascendancy. Due May 29.

See more Spotlight Contests for emerging, intermediate, and advanced writers within The Best Free Literary Contests database.

• Kweli (creative writing celebrating the community and cultural kinships of people of color - May 30)
• Apparition Lit (speculative poetry and short fiction on "Retribution" - May 31)
• Tint Journal (poetry, prose, artwork, comics by non-native English speakers - June 14)
• Saddle Road Press (poetry and literary prose collections - July 15)
• Mom Egg Review: "Home" Issue (creative writing on motherhood - August 1)

Poor and undereducated women are particularly marginalized as a group, and are at risk for poverty, domestic abuse, poor health, and gender inequality.

Of the 36 million adults in the US who have low literacy skills, 65% of them are women. We want to raise awareness of how literacy can empower women to find their voice, be strong, and get educated.

Learn more—take action!

This month, editor Jendi Reiter presents selected books that deserve your attention. There are many more in our Books resource section.

Leigh Bardugo
SIX OF CROWS
In this young adult fantasy novel, set in a cosmopolitan and mercenary city-state modeled on 19th-century Amsterdam, a crew of six thieves and underworld denizens must break into an impenetrable fortress to rescue the inventor of a magical weapon that could spark a devastating war. The world-building, social conscience, diversity of characters, and twist-filled plot are all outstanding. The story continues in the sequel Crooked Kingdom.

Mira Grant
INTO THE DROWNING DEEP
Masterful pacing and character development distinguish this cosmic horror novel about a scientific voyage to discover man-eating mermaids, set in a near-future where climate change and pollution are reshaping our relationship to the ocean. On a state-of-the-art ship commissioned by an American entertainment company, a diverse team of researchers fight to survive (and even study) a mysterious predator that overwhelms their defenses and challenges their belief in humanity's dominance of the ecosystem. Several crew members have disabilities, which turn out to give them unique knowledge that proves integral to saving their shipmates. A lesbian romance subplot lends a spark of hope to a terrifying situation.

Darnell L. Moore
NO ASHES IN THE FIRE
This passionate, eye-opening memoir chronicles the author's coming of age as a black gay man in Camden, NJ, his activism with the Movement for Black Lives, and his maturing understanding of his parents' troubled marriage. Moore places his personal story in the context of structural oppression in Camden's history, and shows the extraordinary resilience and devotion of black families under pressure.

Molly Knox Ostertag
THE WITCH BOY
This lovely middle-grade graphic novel features a youth whose magical skills transgress the gender roles of his community. All the girls in Aster's extended family are supposed to become witches, and the boys, animal shapeshifters who defend them from evil spirits. However, Aster's passion is for witchery. With the help of Charlie, a non-magical girl from the neighboring suburb, he uses his forbidden talent to fight a monster in a way that only he can. Charlie, who has two (off-page) dads, is uniquely sympathetic to Aster's dilemma because she's a female athlete struggling for equal opportunities at her school. Both children are people of color, and Aster's extended family includes a variety of ethnicities. The artwork, in cozy earth tones, is clear and expressive, and not too scary for younger readers.

Joolz Sparkes and Hilaire
LONDON UNDERCURRENTS
This collaborative collection by two British poets creates a people's history of London spanning five centuries, through persona poems in the voices of women from diverse backgrounds. Notable athletes, activists, and literary figures share these pages with imagined characters who represent factory workers, strikers, and working-class girls enjoying a hard-earned holiday. This book would be a good resource for junior high and high school history classrooms.

Nick White
HOW TO SURVIVE A SUMMER
In this contemporary Southern Gothic novel, a disaffected young man must confront his memories of an "ex-gay conversion" camp he was forced to attend as a teen, when another former camper makes a horror movie based on a death that occurred there. The book parallels the structure of traumatic memory recovery, converging on the pivotal time period with scenes set before and after the protagonist's fateful summer. His Christian family members are drawn with depth and compassion, and the surprising redemptive ending feels earned.

Then a ploughman said, Speak to us of Work.

And he answered, saying:

You work that you may keep pace with the earth and the soul of the earth.

For to be idle is to become a stranger unto the seasons, and to step out of life's procession, that marches in majesty and proud submission towards the infinite.

When you work you are a flute through whose heart the whispering of the hours turns to music.

Which of you would be a reed, dumb and silent, when all else sings together in unison?

Always you have been told that work is a curse and labour a misfortune.

But I say to you that when you work you fulfill a part of earth's furthest dream, assigned to you when that dream was born,

And in keeping yourself with labour you are in truth loving life,

And to love life through labour is to be intimate with life's inmost secret.

But if you in your pain call birth an affliction and the support of the flesh a curse written upon your brow, then I answer that naught but the sweat of your brow shall wash away that which is written.

You have been told also life is darkness, and in your weariness you echo what was said by the weary.

And I say that life is indeed darkness save when there is urge,

And all urge is blind save when there is knowledge,

And all knowledge is vain save when there is work,

And all work is empty save when there is love;

And when you work with love you bind yourself to yourself, and to one another, and to God.

And what is it to work with love?

It is to weave the cloth with threads drawn from your heart, even as if your beloved were to wear that cloth.

It is to build a house with affection, even as if your beloved were to dwell in that house.

It is to sow seeds with tenderness and reap the harvest with joy, even as if your beloved were to eat the fruit.

It is to charge all things you fashion with a breath of your own spirit,

And to know that all the blessed dead are standing about you and watching.

Often have I heard you say, as if speaking in sleep, "he who works in marble, and finds the shape of his own soul in the stone, is a nobler than he who ploughs the soil.

And he who seizes the rainbow to lay it on a cloth in the likeness of man, is more than he who makes the sandals for our feet."

But I say, not in sleep but in the over-wakefulness of noontide, that the wind speaks not more sweetly to the giant oaks than to the least of all the blades of grass;

And he alone is great who turns the voice of the wind into a song made sweeter by his own loving.

Work is love made visible.

And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.

For if you bake bread with indifference, you bake a bitter bread that feeds but half man's hunger.

And if you grudge the crushing of the grapes, your grudge distills a poison in the wine. And if you sing though as angels, and love not the singing, you muffle man's ears to the voices of the day and the voices of the night.

Read The Prophet on Wikisource

Happiness Comes in a Pill
One aspect of granola-mom culture that I could do without is the suspicion toward Western medicine, particularly mental-health drugs like antidepressants and ADHD treatments. I was raised to feel this way too, but since recognizing myself as transgender, I’ve noticed a loosening of my attachment to the given body as more natural or safe than the altered one.

[read more]

Jendi Reiter is the editor of Winning Writers.
Follow Jendi on Twitter at @JendiReiter.