HURSTON / WRIGHT COLLEGE WRITERS AWARD
The Zora Neale Hurston / Richard Wright Foundation
INFO: The Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Foundation is proud to host the annual Hurston/Wright Award for College Writers, which is the only award of its kind that recognizes Black college writers. The award is the foundation’s first program. It was initiated to support emerging Black artists in fiction and poetry enrolled full-time in an undergraduate or graduate school program anywhere in the United States.
Black writers who are full-time students in undergraduate and graduate programs at any university in the United States are eligible to submit a work of fiction or poetry for consideration. They must be enrolled at the time of submission. Full-time student includes low-residency MFA programs. At this time, students in online-only courses of university programs are not considered eligible for the award.
Writers are ineligible if they have published books, including poetry chapbooks or fiction narratives, through any publishing platform.
All work submitted must be original and unpublished at the time of submission. Author name and contact details should be on a separate page. Only the title should appear on the work because judges will not know who submitted or what school the student attends.
Hurston/Wright does not accept work that is submitted simultaneously to multiple competitions. Therefore, we make every effort to notify writers by the end of April whether their submissions were accepted or not accepted.
Awards will be announced in May. Award winners and honorable mentions will be invited to attend the Legacy Award ceremony that is hosted in October in Washington, DC.
SUBMISSION FEE: $25
DEADLINE: February 1, 2017
hurstonwrightfoundation.submittable.com/submit/47974
NEW AMERICA FELLOWS PROGRAM
INFO: New America’s Fellows Program invests in thinkers — academics, journalists, independent scholars, and public policy analysts — who offer fresh and often unconventional perspectives on the major challenges facing our society.
Fellows advance big ideas through research, reporting, analysis, and/or storytelling. The big idea can be a sweeping reframing of a familiar subject through new research or a new combination of existing research; a masterful presentation of a case study that advances our understanding of a timeless American theme or stress fracture; an innovative new media or academic project to disseminate knowledge about a shared challenge; or a bold policy prescription for moving domestic and international issues forward.
The goal of the Fellows Program is to find bold, iconoclastic thinkers and to fund them for one to two years, long enough so that they can write a book, develop a series of articles, make a documentary, or work on another project that would be accessible to a broad audience and long enough to be able to build a real community among the fellows.
Fellows benefit from a financial stipend, engagement with each other and with New America’s various policy programs, and the expanded audience and exposure from New America and its media partners. Precise terms and stipend levels of fellowships vary widely, as some fellows work full-time at New America in pursuit of their research, while many others have other professional commitments during the term of their fellowship.
IMPORTANT DATES:
- Deadline: February 1, 2017
- Fellowship: September 2017 to August 2018
new-america.forms.fm/new-america-fellows-program-class-of-2018-application
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
Apogee
INFO: Apogee Journal’s reading period is now open. They are seeking fiction, nonfiction, and poetry for Issue 09, to be published Summer 2017.
Apogee is a journal of literature and art that engages with identity politics, including but not limited to: race, gender, sexuality, class, ability, and intersectional identities. They are a biannual print publication featuring fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and visual art. Their goals are twofold: to publish fresh work that interrogates the status quo, and to provide a platform for underrepresented voices, prioritizing artists and writers of color.
They look for work that centers the experience of marginalized perspectives. They want to foster work that addresses the politics of identity, such as migration, diaspora, multiculturalism, privilege, hierarchy, oppression, though these themes are not a requirement for publication. They believe the exploration of perspectives and voices that are mostly unheard and ignored is a political act itself.
DEADLINE: February 15, 2017
apogeejournal.submittable.com/submit
CDS DOCUMENTARY ESSAY PRIZE
Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University
INFO: The CDS Documentary Essay Prize honors the best in writing. The focus is on current or recently completed work (within the last two years) from a long-term project—fifteen to twenty pages of writing.
AWARD: $3,000 and a feature story in the Center for Documentary Studies’ digital publications. The winner’s work will also be placed in the Archive of Documentary Arts at the Rubenstein Library, Duke University.
DEADLINE: February 15, 2017
documentarystudies.duke.edu/awards/documentary-essay-prize
EMERGING WRITERS FELLOWSHIP 2017
The Center for Fiction
INFO: The Center for Fiction will be selecting nine writers in 2017 for and a one-year fellowship. Applicants must be current residents of one of the five boroughs, and must maintain residency in New York City for the entire year of the fellowship. Students in degree-granting programs are not eligible to apply, even if the focus of study is not directly related to writing. This program supports emerging writers whose work shows promise of excellence. Applicants can be of any age, but must be in the early stages of their careers as fiction writers and will not have had the support needed to achieve major recognition for their work. We define “emerging writer” as someone who has not yet had a novel or short story collection published by either a major or independent publisher and who is also not currently under contract to a publisher for a work of fiction. Eligible applicants may have had stories or novel excerpts published in magazines, literary journals or online, but this is not a requirement.
AWARD:
- A grant of $5,000
- The option to engage in a mentorship with a selected freelance editor
- The opportunity to meet with agents who represent new writers
- A Center for Fiction membership that includes borrowing privileges for our collection of new fiction and fiction-related titles
- Free admission to all Center events for one year, including tickets to our First Novel Fete and benefit dinner as space allows
- 30% discount on tuition at select writing workshops at the Center
- Two public readings as part of our annual program of events and inclusion in an anthology distributed to industry professionals
- A professional headshot with a photographer for personal publicity use
DEADLINE: February 15, 2017, by 11pm
centerforfiction.org/forwriters/grants-and-awards/?mc_cid=4bfe73bd11&mc_eid=591acda9d1
SELF-PUBLISHING LITERARY AWARDS
Black Caucus of the American Library Association
INFO: The Black Caucus of ALA (BCALA) honors the best self-published ebooks by an African American author in the U.S. in the following genres: Fiction and Poetry.
Entries must have been written by an African American author born in the U.S. The competition is open to all English-language self-published ebooks for which the author is the copyright holder of the Work, and holds the rights to digital distribution. Entries will be evaluated on content, writing quality and overall quality of production and appearance; and must be an original work.
These awards acknowledge outstanding achievement in the presentation of the cultural, historical and sociopolitical aspects of the Black Diaspora. The purpose is to encourage the artistic expression of the African American experience via literature and scholarly research including biographical, historical and social history treatments by African Americans.
PRIZES:
- Two (2) $500.00 awards: one for adult fiction, one for adult poetry;
- Formal recognition at the Black Caucus of ALA Literary Awards;
- BCALA Literary Award Seal to use in marketing.
DEADLINE: February 17, 2017
RESTLESS BOOKS PRIZE FOR NEW IMMIGRANT WRITING
Restless Books
INFO: The Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing alternates yearly between accepting unpublished fiction and nonfiction submissions. Fiction submissions can take the form of a novel or a collection of short stories. Nonfiction submissions can take the form of a memoir, a collection of essays, or a book-length work of narrative nonfiction
Fiction manuscripts must be complete. Nonfiction submissions must consist of either a complete manuscript, or 100 sample pages plus a detailed proposal that includes a synopsis and an annotated table of contents. All submissions must be in English (translations welcome).
Candidates must be first-generation residents of the United States. “First-generation” can refer either to people born in another country who relocated to the U.S., or to American-born residents whose parents were born elsewhere.
Fiction candidates must not have previously published a work of fiction with a US publishing house. Nonfiction candidates must not have previously published a book of nonfiction with a US publishing house. They encourage applicants to look at the other books Restless has released and previous contest winners to get a sense of our aesthetic.
PRIZE: $10,000 and publication by Restless Books
DEADLINE: February 27, 2017
restlessbooks.com/prize-for-new-immigrant-writing/
GRACE PALEY PRIZE FOR SHORT FICTION
Association of Writers & Writing Programs
INFO: AWP’s Award Series is an annual competition for the publication of excellent new book-length works. The competition is open to all authors writing in English regardless of nationality or residence, and it is open to published and unpublished authors alike.
Only book-length manuscripts are eligible. The Award Series defines “book-length” as: 150–300 manuscript pages.
Stories previously published in periodicals are eligible for inclusion in submissions, but manuscripts previously published in their entirety, including self-published manuscripts, are not eligible. As the series is judged anonymously, no list of acknowledgements should accompany your manuscript.
The AWP Award Series is open to all authors writing original works in English for adult readers.
AWARD: $5,500
SUBMISSION FEE: $30 for nonmembers; $20 for members
DEADLINE: February 28, 2017
awpwriter.org/contests/awp_award_series_overview
AWP PRIZE FOR THE NOVEL
Association of Writers & Writing Programs
INFO: AWP’s Award Series is an annual competition for the publication of excellent new book-length works. The competition is open to all authors writing in English regardless of nationality or residence, and it is open to published and unpublished authors alike.
Only book-length manuscripts are eligible. The Award Series defines “book-length” as: 60,000 words.
Stories previously published in periodicals are eligible for inclusion in submissions, but manuscripts previously published in their entirety, including self-published manuscripts, are not eligible. As the series is judged anonymously, no list of acknowledgements should accompany your manuscript.
The AWP Award Series is open to all authors writing original works in English for adult readers.
AWARD: $2,500
SUBMISSION FEE: $30 for nonmembers; $20 for members
DEADLINE: February 28, 2017
awpwriter.org/contests/awp_award_series_overview
AWP PRIZE FOR CREATIVE NONFICTION
Association of Writers & Writing Programs
INFO: AWP’s Award Series is an annual competition for the publication of excellent new book-length works. The competition is open to all authors writing in English regardless of nationality or residence, and it is open to published and unpublished authors alike.
Only book-length manuscripts are eligible. The Award Series defines “book-length” as: 150–300 manuscript pages.
Stories previously published in periodicals are eligible for inclusion in submissions, but manuscripts previously published in their entirety, including self-published manuscripts, are not eligible. As the series is judged anonymously, no list of acknowledgements should accompany your manuscript.
The AWP Award Series is open to all authors writing original works in English for adult readers.
AWARD: $2,500
SUBMISSION FEE: $30 for nonmembers; $20 for members
DEADLINE: February 28, 2017
awpwriter.org/contests/awp_award_series_overview
EMERGING WRITERS FELLOWSHIP
Grub Street
INFO: The Emerging Writer Fellowship aims to develop new, exciting voices by providing one writer per year tuition-free access to GrubStreet’s classes and Muse conference. Over the course of one year, the Emerging Writer Fellow will attend a combination of seminars and multi-week courses of their choosing, bookended by attendance at both the 2017 and the 2018 Muse and the Marketplace conference, in order to enhance their understanding of craft and the publishing industry.
The Emerging Writer Fellowship will be awarded to a person who demonstrates a passion for writing, a commitment to developing their writing abilities, and financial need. Any person 18 and older who demonstrates ability and passion for writing is eligible.
The Emerging Writer Fellowship will provide one writer access to the following:
- 4 multi-week courses
- 4 one-day (6hr) classes
- 4 three-hour seminars
- 2 three-day passes to the Muse and the Marketplace conference
The fellowship year begins at the 2017 Muse and the Marketplace conference and culminates in attendance at the 2018 Muse and the Marketplace.
The Emerging Writer Fellowship was conceived on the principle that talent and passion shouldn't come second to a student's ability to pay. The program is designed for someone with a love for writing but without the financial ability to deepen their understanding of the craft through the many classes and seminars GrubStreet offers.
This fellowship is open to anyone 18 and older with a passion for writing. The fellowship specifically aims to assist writers in need of financial assistance in reaching their writing goals. We particularly encourage people of color, ethnic minorities, those who identify as LGBTQ, people with disabilities, and other members of communities historically underrepresented by the literary community to apply.
DEADLINE: March 1, 2017
grubstreet.org/programs/emerging-writer-fellowship/