$1,000 Editor's Choice Award

Deadline: October 16, 2023

We will begin accepting entries for the 2023 contest on July 1, 2023. 

Guidelines

We’re looking for work that experiments, that crosses the traditional boundaries of genre and form. Enter your hybrid work—your lyric essays, prose poems, short-shorts, collages, micro-memoirs . . . whatever you’re doing that’s experimental, that defies easy categorization. 

  • Max word count is 8,000.
  • The entry must be previously unpublished.
  • Entries must cross the traditional boundaries of genre and form.

Rules, Tips & Notes

  • $20 entry fee for each manuscript submitted. A one-year subscription to New Letters, shipped to any address within the United States, is included in the price of the first entry.  (Subscriptions mailed outside the U.S. require a $20 postal surcharge.)
  • No substitutions or revisions may be made after a manuscript has been submitted. Edits can be considered prior to publication, if the manuscript wins the award.
  • Simultaneous submissions of unpublished entries are accepted with proper notification upon acceptance elsewhere.
  • Multiple entries are welcome with appropriate fees. 
  • The winner will be announced in early March 2023.
  • The winner will be published in New Letters and receive a $1,000 cash prize.
  • Online entries via Submittable only. Entries received through the postal mail will not be accepted and will be recycled upon receipt.
  • Current students and employees at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, and current volunteer members of the New Letters and BkMk Press staffs are not eligible.
Enter the contest by clicking "Submittable" above.