2011 Contest Update!First, SER went online for regular submissions, and now we are proud to offer an online submission option for our contests as well! We can't wait to see what you've been working on, so please consider submitting your contest entry online by clicking HERE!
(Note: The submission fee for online entries is $16 to help offset the cost of the service. We will continue to accept mailed submissions sent by March 15th, 2011.)
World’s Best Short Short Story Contest
Send up to three short-short stories per submission, accompanied by a $15 reading fee for mailed submissions ($16 online). Each short-short story should be no more than 500 words. Include your name, contact information (email address preferred), and the title of each of your short-short stories in a very brief cover letter. Do not include personal identification information on the short-shorts themselves. Robert Olen Butler will judge. One winner will be chosen and awarded $500. The winner and nine finalists will be published in spring/summer 2012. For mailed submissions, label envelope: WBSSSC.
The Southeast Review Poetry Contest
Send up to three poems, no more than 10 pages total, accompanied by a $15 reading fee for mailed submissions ($16 online). Include no more than one poem per page. Include your name, contact information (email address preferred), and the title of each of your poems in a very brief cover letter. Do not include personal identification information on the poems themselves. David Kirby will judge. One winner will be chosen and awarded $500. The winning poem and nine finalists will be published in spring/summer 2012. For mailed submissions label envelope: SER Poetry Contest.
The Southeast Review Narrative Nonfiction Contest
Send one piece of nonfiction, no more than 6,000 words total, accompanied by a $15 reading fee for mailed submissions ($16 online). Include your name, contact information (email address preferred), and the title of your submission in a very brief cover letter. Do not include personal identification information on the submission itself. Mark Winegardner will judge. One winner will be chosen and awarded $500. The winning essay and two finalists will be published in spring/summer 2012. For mailed submissions, label envelope: SER Nonfiction Contest.
General Contest Guidelines
2011 UPDATE: Now there are TWO WAYS to submit! You may either send your typed entry via snail mail to the address listed below, OR take advantage of our brand-new online contest submission option by clicking HERE (please note, in order to offset the cost of the electronic submission service, online entries have a fee of $16). For mailed submissions, make checks or money orders out to: The Southeast Review. Electronic and postmark deadline: March 15th, 2011.
Friends and current or former students of the judge and those who have been affiliated with Florida State University within the last five years are ineligible.
For mailed submissions, please do not send an SASE. Winners will be announced on the website in June. All contestants will receive the issue in which the winning submissions appear.
Send all submissions to:
The Southeast Review
Department of English
Florida State University
Tallahassee, FL 32306
About Our Judges
Robert Olen Butler has published eleven novels and five volumes of short fiction, including two collections of short short stories. His newest book, as well, will be a volume of short shorts, Weegee Stories, forthcoming this fall from Narrative Library. In 1993 he won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. He is the Francis Eppes Distinguished Professor holding the Michael Shaara Chair in Creative Writing at Florida State University.
David Kirby is the author or co-author of twenty-nine books, including the poetry collections The House on Boulevard St.: New and Selected Poems, The Ha-Ha, The House of Blue Light, and The Travelling Library, in addition to the essay collection Ultra-Talk: Johnny Cash, The Mafia, Shakespeare, Drum Music, St. Teresa Of Avila, and 17 Other Colossal Topics Of Conversation. His many awards include the Guy Owen Prize, the James Dickey Prize, the Brittingham Prize, and fellowships from the National Endowment of the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation. Kirby'’s latest book, Little Richard: The Birth of Rock 'n' Roll (Continuum, 2009), has been hailed by the Times Literary Supplement of London as a "hymn of praise to the emancipatory power of nonsense.” Kirby is the Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor of English at Florida State University, where he has taught since 1969.
Mark Winegardner’s books include the novels Crooked River Burning, The Godfather Returns, and The Godfather’s Revenge; the short story collection That’s True of Everybody; and the nonfiction books Prophet of the Sandlots and Elvis Presley Boulevard. His work has appeared in such magazines as Details, GQ, Playboy, and The New York Times Magazine, and he is a senior writer for The Oxford American. He is the Burroway Chair and Distinguished Research Professor at Florida State University.