DEADLINE: May 20th, 2020

Winners as well as finalists will be published in our Summer Awards Issue due out in August. All winners and finalists will be cited in future advertisements and announcements.

Previous judges have included Afaa Weaver, Robert Lopez, Meredith Hall, Celeste Ng, Richard Blanco, Michael Steinberg, Martha Collins, Kim McLarin, Randall Kenan, Jennifer Haigh, Jerald Walker, David Huddle, A. Van Jordan, Andres Dubus III, and Terrance Hayes.

WRITING CONTEST FEE FOR FICTION, NONFICTION, OR POETRY: $18.00/entry

GUIDELINES

1. Cover sheet required with name, address, telephone number and email. Email and/or phone MUST be included to be considered. Please include cover sheet in the same file as the actual submission. Do not put your name on the manuscript itself. Final judges will be choosing on the basis of the quality of your work. Please indicate the genre of your piece next to the title.

2. 12-point font. Microsoft Word attachment. Online submissions only.

3. Each entry: Fiction or Nonfiction: 23-page maximum, double-spaced; free-standing excerpts from books also accepted. Poetry: 3-poem maximum.

4. You may submit more than once but must pay a separate fee for each entry.

5. You may submit simultaneously elsewhere, but please email us immediately if accepted at another journal.

6. We will not accept previously published work. Solstice has first publication rights, but copyright reverts to you upon publication. We will publish the piece after the Summer Awards Issue in our Archives.

7. If you won last year’s contest, you must skip a year before resubmitting to the contest, but we encourage you to submit work to Solstice for general publication.

8. We will announce the winners online on our Home Page approximately 6-8 weeks after the contest deadline.

9. After announcing the winners, all contest submissions will be automatically considered for standard publication unless you indicate otherwise.

10. The $18.00 entry fee must be paid online.

Read our Previous Winners:

2017:

Nonfiction: Suzanne Fernandez Gray, “Bridge of Cards”

Fiction: Tim Benjamin, “A Visitor”

Poetry: Tyler Erlendson, “Prayer For a New God”

2016:

Nonfiction: Melanie Brooks, “In Remembrance”

Fiction: Gregory Wolos, “Cat Calls”

Poetry: Lynne Thompson, “Politics”

2015:

Nonfiction: Michelle Blake – “A Fable for Our Times”

Fiction: Shanyn Fiske – “Calligraphy”

Poetry: Alysia Nicole Harris – “Omnipotence“

2014:

2013:

2012:

2011:

2010: