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All work submitted must be original and unpublished at the time of submission.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
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
DONALD HALL PRIZE FOR POETRY
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.
48 pages minimum text
Poems 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
DEADLINE: February 28, 2017
awpwriter.org/contests/awp_award_series_overview
NAOMI LONG MADGETT POETRY AWARD
Broadside Lotus Press
INFO: This competition is open to African American poets only. Serious African American poets, whether previously published or not, may submit a book-length manuscript for consideration. Do not include essays, short fiction, or other material that is not poetry.
AWARD: $500 in cash and publication by Broadside Lotus Press within the first three months of 2018 as well as free copies and discounts.
DEADLINE: March 1, 2017
broadsidelotuspress.org/2016/01/3490.html