2023 winner
Now Available
for Pre-order
2022 winner
National Book Award Nominee
now available
Book Prize
PRIZE: $1,000 &
OPTION TO PUBLISH WITH UNLEASH PRESS
Submit here.
FINAL JUDGE: TBA
Details:
$1,000 advance and standard contract from Unleash Press for one winning manuscript. Novels, poetry collections, short story collections, and creative nonfiction manuscripts are accepted.
Full-length, completed manuscripts only.
Guidelines:
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Submissions will be accepted until December 15, 2023.
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We accept simultaneous submissions, but please notify us immediately if the manuscript is accepted elsewhere and you wish to withdraw it from consideration.
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There are no refunds if you withdraw a submission.
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Please include a cover letter with a summary. Your name and contact information may appear in the cover letter area. Please leave all identifying information off of the manuscript as the first round of reading is blind.
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The minimum length of a manuscript is 30,000 words for prose or 70 pages for poetry.
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Genres accepted include fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, and experimental/hybrid.
Formatting:
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Please include page numbers.
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Please double-space and use a 12pt font.
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Submit as a .doc, .docx, .rtf, or PDF file format
Fee:
There is a $35 to submit. This fee allows us to pay fees associated with running the contest, and it also enables us to offer a prize. We understand that financial hardship can be a deterrent, so please email info@unleashcreatives.com if you have questions.
2023 Book Prize Winner
Ubulembu and Other Stories
by
J. Eric Smith
J. Eric Smith’s Ubulembu is a remarkable mix of settings, characters, and time periods that flow effortlessly between ages past and the fraught future. Regardless of the epoch in which readers find themselves, Smith swiftly makes us at home; we become participants in his stories, not mere observers. The collection of sixteen stories is unified by an irreverent freshness delivered in consistently delicious language. Each story was my favorite until I read the next one. Smith has given readers an adventure in the truest sense: there is surprise and reward at every turn. Ubulembu is a distinctive addition to American literature.
-Richard C. McPherson, Final Judge and Author of Man Wanted in Cheyenne
Congrats to our 2023 finalists
Shortlist
Joan Wilking, After the Fire
Ruyan Meng, The Morgue Keeper
Antonio Elefano, Lolita Rising
Emily Hyland, Divorced Business Partners
J. Eric Smith, Ubulembu and Other Stories
Longlist
Paul Hackley, Old Rag
Michelle Ephraim, GREEN WORLD: A Tragicomic Memoir of Love & Shakespeare
Antonio Elefano, Lolita Rising
Hannah Kennedy, The Little Book of Modern Farce
Khanh Ha, An Artist's Legacy
J. Eric Smith, Ubulembu and Other Stories
Ruyan Meng, The Morgue Keeper
Joan Wilking, After the Fire
Lena Zycinsky, Bela
Suzanne Heagy, The Five Time Wife
S. K. Stringer, The Big Belt of Happiness
JoeAnn Hart, Arroyo Circle
R. Simon, Bird, Bone, Blood
Josh Rivera Jiménez, Dinner Party from Hell
Morgan Christie, Oceans Full of Water
Robyn Carter, Impossible Object
Alex Stanley, The Other Night
Ryan Ridge, The Weird Years
Emily Hyland, Divorced Business Partners
2022 Book Prize Winner
Congrats to our 2022 finalists
Shortlist
Julie Benesh, Flyover Girls: Stories
Mickey Revenaugh, The Airport Series
Kim Magowan and Michelle Ross, Inadequate Methods of Self-Preservation
Longlist
Julie Benesh, Flyover Girls: Stories
Joshua Bernstein, Lives of the Mind
Efrosini Camatsos, The Duct-Tape Diary
Will Clattenburg, Flood the Garden
John Loonam, Music the World Makes
Kim Magowan and Michelle Ross, Inadequate Methods of Self-Preservation
Ruyan Meng, Scent of the City
Rafael Moscatel, The Bastard of Beverly Hills
Midge Raymond, Rogue Valley: Stories
Brandy Reinke, Great Deaths of the Con
Mickey Revenaugh, The Airport Series
Joe Taylor, Don't Be Lonely, Lone Ranger
Magpie
by Bronwen Carson