We found nearly three dozen excellent free poetry and prose contests with deadlines between June 15-July 31. In this issue, we bring you Julian Peters' illustrations of "Waiting", a romantic poem by Raymond Chandler. Annie Mydla explains how having a multi-book mindset can solve critical problems with your current manuscript. Subscriber Angela Paolantonio recommends an editor and a designer you can hire.

If you have a tip, recommendation, or warning, please email it to info@winningwriters.com.

Last Call!
NORTH STREET BOOK PRIZE
Deadline: July 1. 11th year. Cash awards totaling $22,000, including a top award of $10,000. This year's categories: Mainstream/Literary Fiction, Genre Fiction, Creative Nonfiction & Memoir, Poetry, Children's Picture Book, Middle Grade, Graphic Novel & Memoir, and Art Book. Accepting hybrid-published as well as self-published books. Fee: $85 per entry. All entrants who submit online via Submittable can choose to receive a brief commentary from one of the judges (5-10 sentences) at no extra charge (and these things are popular). See the previous winners and enter here.

Also open now, our Tom Howard/Margaret Reid Poetry Contest will award $12,000 in prizes, including two top awards of $3,500 each. Submit 1-3 poems for $25. Deadline: October 1.

Coming on June 30: We'll release the Live and Let DEI anthology with the best poems we received.

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Congratulations to Tong Ge, Carolyn Summer Quinn, Roberta Beary, E. Laura Golberg (featured poem: "Knees"), Noah Berlatsky, Angela Carole Brown, Jack Brown, Beth Ann Fennelly, Shobana Gomes, Annie Dawid, and Eva Tortora.

Winning Writers editor Jendi Reiter will be a featured reader in the second hour of Poetry PRIDE Parade, a Zoom event from 3-5pm EDT on Sunday, June 22, hosted by poet Sandra Yannone at Cultivating Voices LIVE Poetry. The first hour will showcase the anthologies When I Was Straight: A Tribute to Maureen Seaton with editor Dustin Brookshire and Lavender Review: A Taste, as well as Lesbian Poet Trading Cards from Headmistress Press. See the Facebook event page for more information. Jendi also performed in the Červená Barva Press Celebrates 20 Years online reading series, reading from their chapbook Barbie at 50. Watch the 50-minute video here.

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

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

Do you use TikTok or Instagram? Send your news to the @winningwriters account so we can share it!

Deadline: June 30, 2025

Nostalgia Press, going strong since 1986, will award $500 and publication in HEART 20 (Fall/Winter 2025). Honorable Mentions also published. Winners going back to our first contest in 1988 are recognized on our website.

This year's judge is Grey Held. Born in Richmond, Virginia, he attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he received a BS in Architecture and Design, then moved to Philadelphia for an MFA at the Tyler School of Art (Temple University). Grey is a recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Creative Writing and is the 2019 Future Cycle Poetry Book Prize Winner. Three books of his poetry have been published, Two-Star General (Brick Road Poetry Press, 2012), Spilled Milk (Word Press, 2013), and WORKaDAY (FutureCycle Press, 2019). Grey is also a literary activist who has received four Massachusetts Cultural Council LCC grants for public projects that connect contemporary poets with wider audiences. His most recent project is MakePoetryConcrete, which has stamped dozens of poems into the fresh concrete of sidewalks throughout village centers in Newton, Massachusetts. Grey now teaches a weekly Zoom-based poetry workshop (PoetryRoundTable).

• $10 entry fee covers 3 poems
• All contestants will receive a digital copy of the Fall/Winter 2025 issue of HEART
• Submit prose poems and modern free verse that are insightful, immersing, poignant, and reflective
• Submit unpublished work only
• On each page, please include your name, address, phone number, and email address (this information will be hidden so your work can be judged blind)
• Winners will be announced on the Nostalgia Press website
• Submissions will not be returned

Submit online or mail your entry to:
Nostalgia Press
Attn: HEART Poetry Award
115 Randazzo Drive
Elloree, SC 29047

Presented by Two Sylvias Press

• June 30-July 27 (July Session)
• August 4-August 31 (August Session)
• October 6-November 2 (October Session)

If you participated in last year's online retreat (summer or fall), you will find that this retreat has all-new prompts, exercises, and reflection questions. Same style as previous years' retreat, but with new material to inspire you!

This Year's GUEST POETS:

• Diane Seuss (Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry for frank: sonnets)
• Traci Brimhall (NEA fellow & Author of 4 Poetry Collections)
• Danusha Laméris (Recipient of a Pushcart Prize, the Autumn House Press Poetry Prize, and the Lucille Clifton Legacy Award)
• Jennifer K. Sweeney (Winner of the James Laughlin Award from the Academy of American Poets)

For the July and August Retreat Sessions, you can choose to have your poem critiqued by Diane Seuss, Danusha Laméris (August only), Traci Brimhall, or Jennifer K. Sweeney. The editors of Two Sylvias Press (Kelli Russell Agodon & Annette Spaulding-Convy) will critique poems for the October Session.

Note: Space is limited, so sign up early to make sure you receive your first choice of guest poet to respond to your poem.

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, ideas where to send your poems after the retreat ends 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!

• 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.

I put it to you that "I can write multiple books" is one of the most powerful ideas an author can have.

Why? Because it frees us to do what's right for this book.

I've critiqued over 600 full-length books and manuscripts, and their number-one problem is having too much stuff. Understandably so. Cutting things back can feel like a betrayal of our precious creations.

But what if we imagine writing more than one book? All of a sudden, the need to smush all our best ideas into one volume goes away. If we have favorite parts that are starting to compete with the book's bigger picture, we don't have to kill them. We can pluck them out and transplant them where they have the freedom to grow.

Read on.

Grand Prize, 2024 North Street Book Prize Competition

Linda Meyers was twenty-eight and the mother of three little boys when her mother, after a lifetime of threats, killed herself. Staggered by conflicting feelings of relief and remorse, Linda believed that the best way to give meaning to her mother's death was to make changes to her own life. Bolstered by the women’s movement of the seventies, she left her marriage, went to college, earned her doctorate, and established a fulfilling career. Written with irony and humor and sprinkled with Yiddish, The Tell, Grand Prize winner of the 2024 North Street Book Prize competition, is one woman's inspirational story of before and after, and ultimately of emancipation and purpose.

"The Tell is deeply satisfying because Meyers took charge of her healing in a way that many inheritors of intergenerational damage never do. She summarizes the family dynamics with clarity and empathy, but neither moralizes about forgiveness nor dwells in bitterness."
—Jendi Reiter, final judge of the North Street Book Prize (read the full critique)

"In this vivid and immensely enjoyable memoir, we encounter the lost world of Jewish Brooklyn, crazy parents, a crazy husband, and a protagonist/narrator who can't help being a good girl. Woody Allen and Ralph Lauren make appearances: somehow it all fits."
—Philip Lopate (essayist and film critic)

Read an excerpt from The Tell (PDF)

Buy this book on Amazon

Dr. Linda I. Meyers is a psychologist and psychoanalyst in NYC. She has published in Alligator Juniper, Post Road, and The Manifest Station. The Tell is her first book. Dividing her time between NYC and a country house in upstate New York, she is at work on a second memoir for which she is seeking representation. Working title: Walking to Zabars.

Deadline: July 1, 2025—Last Call!

Winning Writers will award a grand prize of $10,000 in the 11th annual North Street competition for self-published and hybrid-published books. We are proud to be a Partner Member of the Alliance of Independent Authors. Partner Members include "contests that have been vetted and align with ALLi's Code of Standards." These are ALLi's guiding principles in rating literary awards:

• The event exists to recognize talent, not to enrich the organizers
• The judging process is transparent and clear
• Entrants are not required to forfeit key rights to their work
• Receiving an award is an achievement
• Prizes are appropriate and commensurate with the entry fees collected
• There is no profiteering upsell

Choose from eight categories in our contest:

• Mainstream/Literary Fiction
• Genre Fiction
• Creative Nonfiction & Memoir
• Poetry
• Children's Picture Book
• Middle Grade
• Graphic Novel & Memoir
• Art Book

$22,000 will be awarded in all, and the top nine winners will receive additional benefits to help market their books. Books published on all self-publishing and hybrid-publishing platforms are eligible. Any year of publication is eligible. Entry fee: $85 per book, with free gifts for everyone who enters.

This contest is co-sponsored by Atmosphere Press, Book Award Pro, BookBaby, Carolyn Howard-Johnson, Gatekeeper Press, Laura Duffy Design, and Self-Publishing Made Simple.

All entrants who submit online via Submittable can choose to receive a brief commentary from one of the judges (5-10 sentences) at no extra charge.

Poets & Patrons of Chicago is sponsoring two contests offering cash prizes this year:

Helen Schaible International Sonnet Contest (no fee, open to all)
Open now. Deadline: July 15
Two categories (Traditional and Modern). Prizes for both categories: First Prize: $50. Second Prize: $30. Third Prize: $20. Three Honorable Mentions per category, ranked.

The 69th Chicagoland Poetry Contest
Submission period: July 15-August 31
10 categories (includes free verse, formal verse, humorous, nature, and many more). Categories are open to all. $50, $30, $20, plus three Honorable Mentions in each category. Entry fee is $12 for members, $15 for non-members, and covers one poem per category. If you wish to enter more than one poem in any one category, the fee for those additional poems is $1 per poem for members, and $3 each for non-members. Maximum 3 poems per category for each poet.

Visit the Poets & Patrons website for all the details and guidelines for both contests. Electronic entries only.

Angela Paolantonio says, "I have recently enjoyed working with critique editor Diane Donovan of Donovan's Literary Services. She is also a Senior Reviewer for Midwest Book Review, which is how we first made contact. I also recommend my book and web designer Doug daSilva based in Atlanta. He has 30 years of graphic design and book development under his belt as Creative Director."

Writer and photographer Angela Paolantonio is the author of The Ghosts of Italy: A Memoir and Still Life with Saints: Italian Adventures of Magical Spirit. Visit her website to learn more.

Have a tip, recommendation, or warning? Please email it to us at info@winningwriters.com.

Deadline: July 15, 2025

The annual Rattle Poetry Prize celebrates its 20th year with a 1st prize of $15,000 for a single poem. Ten finalists will also receive $500 each and publication, and be eligible for the $5,000 Readers' Choice Award, to be selected by subscriber and entrant vote. All of these poems will be published in the winter issue of the magazine.

With the winners judged in an anonymized 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 large Readers' Choice Award to be chosen by the writers themselves—we've designed the Rattle Poetry Prize to be one of the most inspiring contests around.

Past winners have included a retired teacher, a lawyer, and several students. It's fair, it's friendly, and you win a print subscription to Rattle even if you don't win.

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

Please enjoy this finalist poem by Amy Hughes, published in Rattle #86, Winter 2024:

Safety Drill

The notice from my daughter's school about the next

safety drill arrives in my inbox the weekend

before her first hunting trip. The notice from my daughter's

school does not mention the words intruder or gunman, my daughter

does not know the meaning of mass shooting. The notice assures us,

teachers will present the information in age-appropriate terminology:

When I say go, we will play a game. She is at the table with her father,

learning how pheasants take cover in the chokecherry, safe

until forced to fly. We will pretend the man in the hall is hunting—

Yes, like hide and seek. The teacher practices cowering with the children,

keeps them quiet, remembers her training: gathers heavy books

to throw. My daughter remembers her father, tender,

teaching her how hunters flush bouquets of birds into the wind,

teaching her to anticipate his shot so she isn't afraid.

I remember her first lost tooth, her first snow

angels in the yard. The day they reported gunshots

at an elementary school in Texas, I drove to her school

in Ohio and sat in the parking lot, trembling as I watched

the first graders run on the playground and the radio reported

eye-witness accounts of parents in Texas pleading with officers,

parents sneaking inside, searching coveys of classrooms as the shots

rang in their teeth. The death toll will be nineteen

children, and when my own child bounds to the car, iridescent

with innocence, I do not tell her the reason for my tears. I tell her

feathers found caught in the cattails are lucky, I tell her falling

raindrops taste like lemon drops, and the villains in stories

are just stories, not real, I tell her to play a game

when she's afraid: to fold her wings and hide

like a pheasant in the field, I tell her to be so still the sky will tilt

to kiss her face. Just wait—we will always come and find you, of course,

we will always keep you safe and when it snows,

we'll make angels in the snow.

Submission Period: June 1–July 31, 2025

Prize: 100 Copies of a perfect-bound chapbook, distributed by Ingram

Reading Fee: $10

Final Judge: Thomas A. Thomas, author of My Heart Is Not Asleep (MoonPath Press, 2024)

Submission Eligibility: Any poet writing in English with a continental U.S. UPS deliverable address.

Submission Guidelines

• 24 to 36 pages of poetry
• Do not include any identifying information or acknowledgments in the manuscript
• All entries must be submitted online via Submittable.

For a copies of our previous publications, see our publications page.

Simultaneous and multiple submissions okay. If you need more info, visit the Concrete Wolf Press website or email ConcreteWolfPress@gmail.com.

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. Stony Brook Southampton will award $1,000, a scholarship to the Stony Brook Southampton Writing Conference, and consideration for publication in The Southampton Review. College students in the US and Canada are invited to submit one story up to 7,500 words. Must be received by July 14.

Intermediate Writers
Drue Heinz Literature Prize. The University of Pittsburgh Press will award $15,000, publication, and book promotion support. Submit an unpublished book-length collection of short fiction (150-300 double-spaced pages). Open to writers who have published a novel, a book-length collection of fiction, or at least three short stories or novellas in commercial magazines or journals; online and self-publication does not count. Must be received by June 30.

Advanced Writers
Eugene C. Pulliam Fellowship for Public Services Journalism. The Society of Professional Journalists will award one fellowship of up to $100,000 to an outstanding editorial writer, columnist, or reporter to have time away from daily responsibilities for study and research by taking courses, pursuing independent study, traveling, and participating in other endeavors that enrich their knowledge of a public interest issue. Candidate must currently be an editorial writer, columnist, or reporter at a US news publication and have worked in this capacity for three years minimum. Freelancers are also eligible. Application must be received by June 19.

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

Winning Writers finds open submission calls and free contests in a variety of sources, including Erika Dreifus' Practicing Writer newsletter, FundsforWriters, Erica Verrillo's blog, Authors Publish, Lit Mag News Roundup, Poets & Writers, The Writer, Duotrope, and literary journals' own newsletters and announcements.

• Off Topic Publishing: Trans and Genderqueer Voices Anthology
(poetry, fiction, essays, hybrid-genre work - June 30)

• IHRAM Press: "America's Slide Toward Authoritarianism" Anthology
(poetry, fiction, essays, artwork about creative resistance - July 1)

• Gaudy Boy: Novel Submission Period
(original and translated novels by authors of Asian heritage - July 31)

• Sontag Mag
(original poetry and English translations - July 31)

• Brink Books
(manuscripts of hybrid-genre, multimedia, and experimental writing - September 1)

• Contiguous Lyt
(creative writing on history and memory - September 1)

This month, editor Jendi Reiter presents some of the best self-published books that have come through our North Street Book Prize competition. Click the links for our critiques and samples from the books. More winners are featured in our Contest Archives.

KUNDA
Rachel A.Z. Mutabingwa
First Prize, Genre Fiction, 2020
This magical-realist novel from Uganda is set on a fictitious tropical island where a time-traveling young woman helps her descendants survive a civil war.

A CHINA STORY: GROWING UP IN MAO'S CULTURAL REVOLUTION
Ying Qian
Honorable Mention, Creative Nonfiction & Memoir, 2020
This unforgettable memoir is a first-hand account of a childhood marked by educational censorship, surveillance, and state violence, against the backdrop of the beautiful land she loves.

BITTER FRUIT
Peggy Ann Barnett
Honorable Mention, Genre Fiction, 2022
A colorful cast of characters and a tragic cross-cultural romance enliven this well-researched historical novel about recently Christianized Vikings from Norway who try to sell a fake relic in the South of France to fund their pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

PEREGRINATION
Ned Gannon
Honorable Mention, Graphic Novel & Memoir, 2023
This pensive graphic novel with stunning painted illustrations intertwines the stories of a sensitive, bullied teenager and the wandering monk in the medieval fantasy comic that the youth is creating.

Julian Peters published this adaptation on Valentine's Day, 2021:

"In honour of Valentine's Day, here is my comics adaptation of the final portion of a very romantic poem by Raymond Carver, 'Waiting'. The poem seems particularly appropriate on this Valentine's Day, when we all find ourselves waiting, in one way or the other, for the return of so many of the things that give meaning to our existence–including the quest for those things."

"This comic was done as a commission for someone in Italy, and the text featured on the actual physical pages is a translation of the poem into Italian (the language of love, mais oui!)" View the Italian version.

June Links Roundup: Ungovernable Pride
I read a lot of graphic narratives, both for pleasure and for the Winning Writers self-published book contest...Something I've noticed is that text and image can wind up battling for dominance. Especially in nonfiction, the words may take over the page, reducing the visual element to static illustrations that leave me wondering why the memoir or exposition was put into a comics format at all. Conversely, an image-heavy story may lack verbal connective tissue to explain plot and setting.

[read more]

 

Jendi Reiter is the editor of Winning Writers. Visit their website.