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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

 

NOW OPEN

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:

  • Submissions will be accepted until December 15, 2023. 

  • We accept simultaneous submissions, but please notify us immediately if the manuscript is accepted elsewhere and you wish to withdraw it from consideration.

  • There are no refunds if you withdraw a submission.

  • 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.

  • The minimum length of a manuscript is 30,000 words for prose or 70 pages for poetry.

  • Genres accepted include fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, and experimental/hybrid. 

Formatting:

  • Please include page numbers.

  • Please double-space and use a 12pt font.

  • 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. 

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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

J. Eric Smith

J. Eric Smith

Portrait by Coleman Camp, 2019

 

jericsmith.com

2022 Book Prize Winner

 

Now available. Order from us, B&N, Amazon, or direct.

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

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Magpie

by Bronwen Carson

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