Contests

Still: The Journal 2019 Annual Literary Contests

in Fiction, Poetry, and Creative Nonfiction

The editors of Still: The Journal announce the 2019 Literary Contests for fiction, poetry and creative nonfiction. Contest entries should be in keeping with our publishing mission which states: “Our emphasis is on the literature of the Appalachian region, and we are committed to publishing excellent writing that does not rely on clichés and stereotypes. We want to feature writing that exemplifies the many layers and complexities of the region or that is written by an author with a connection to the region.”

Contest Prizes:

$275 each for first-place winners of fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction, and publication in Still: The Journal, 31: Fall 2019. All other contest entries will be considered for possible publication. Previous first-prize contest winners are ineligible to enter 2019 contests in the same genre but may submit to other genres.

Contest Judges:

Fiction ~ Michael Croley

Michael Croley was born in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains in southeastern Kentucky. The recipient of an NEA Fellowship in Literature in 2016, his work has appeared in a number of publications. His debut collection of stories, Any Other Place, was published by Blair in 2019. Michael teaches creative writing at Denison University.

Poetry ~ Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon

Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon is the author of Open Interval, a 2009 National Book Award finalist, and Black Swan, winner of the 2001 Cave Canem Poetry Prize, as well as Poems in Conversation and a Conversation, a chapbook collaboration with Elizabeth Alexander. She was one of ten celebrated poets commissioned to write poems inspired by Jacob Lawrence’s Migration Series for MoMA. Lyrae teaches creative writing at Cornell University.

Creative Nonfiction ~ Gail Galloway Adams

Gail Galloway Adams is the author of The Purchase of Order which won the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction. She is professor emeritus at West Virginia University, where she taught creative writing for over twenty years. Adams served as fiction editor for Arts and Letters: A Literary Journal and for the Potomac Review. She has recently taught at Kenyon College, West Virginia Wesleyan College, and the Wild Acres Writers Workshop.

Contest Rules:

Submitted contest entries must be unpublished and should not have previously appeared in print or online in any form, temporarily or permanently, including blogs, social media, and websites.

Simultaneous entries are accepted. Please let us know if your submissions will be published elsewhere before the contest ends.

We accept only electronic submissions and fee payment through Submittable. The contest reading fee is $15 per entry, payable through Still’s Submittable account.

An entry is defined as: one short story, or one creative nonfiction piece, or up to three poems.

Multiple submissions in multiple genres are acceptable as long as you pay a separate entry fee for each submission. Contest entry fees cannot be refunded under any circumstances.

Manuscripts should be formatted in a standard 12-point font and should have numbered pages. Prose must be double spaced. Poetry should be single spaced. Prose entries should not exceed 6,500 words. Poetry entries should not exceed 80 lines per poem. Poetry entries can include 1-3 poems in one file.

All contest entries are processed and read on a “blind” basis; therefore, your name or any other identifying information must not appear anywhere on the manuscript(s).

Students/colleagues/relations of a judge are not permitted to enter submissions to that judge's genre.

Deadline is 11:59 p.m., September 14, 2019.

Winners will be notified after October 15, 2019. Winning entries and finalists will be announced publicly in Still: The Journal, Issue 31: Fall 2019.

Failure to follow any of these guidelines will result in disqualification. No entry fees can be returned.

Inquiries or questions should be directed to contest@stilljournal.net

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