$4,500 in awards for writers
THE NEW LETTERS LITERARY AWARDS
Now open for 2010. Deadline: May 18, 2010.
Submit your writing online or by mail. Details below.
See winners of the 2009 Literary Awards
Find out more about our preliminary and final judges.
The $1,500 New Letters Prize for Poetry
for the best 2010 group of three to six poems
The $1,500 Dorothy Churchill Cappon Prize for the Essay
for the 2010 best essay
The $1,500 Alexander Patterson Cappon Prize for Fiction
for the best 2010 short story
Click here to read a interview with Robert Stewart, editor of New Letters (conducted by Jendi Reiter for Poetry Contest Insider).
GUIDELINES
For a printable version of the 2010 guidelines, click here.
Submit by regular post or electronically. Simultaneous submissions of unpublished entries are accepted with proper notification upon acceptance elsewhere.UPLOAD YOUR WRITING ONLINE HERE. Please read guidelines carefully to insure best service.
Enclose with each entry:RULES AND NOTES
- $15 for first entry; $10 for every entry after. Entry fee includes the cost of a one-year subscription, renewal, or gift subscription to New Letters, shipped to any address within the United States. (Subscriptions mailed outside the U.S. require a $12 postal surcharge.) Make checks payable to New Letters.
- Two cover sheetsthe first with complete name, address, e-mail address, phone number, category, and title(s); and the second with category and title only. Your personal information should not appear anywhere else on the entry. For sample cover sheets, click here.
- A stamped, self-addressed postcard for notification of receipt and entry number.
- A stamped, self-addressed envelope for a list of winners. This is optional. Please send only one envelope if submitting more than one entry.
- All entries will be considered for publication in New Letters.
- Fiction and essay entries are not to exceed 8,000 words. A single poetry entry may contain up to six poems, and those poems need not be related.
- Multiple entries are accepted with appropriate fees. Please make cover sheets for each entry of fiction, essay, or group of poems.
- Manuscripts will not be returned.
- No substitutions after submissions. No refunds will be offered for withdrawn material.
Current students and employees of the University of Missouri-Kansas City, and current volunteer members of the New Letters and BkMk Press staffs, are not eligible.
Postmark by May 18, 2010.
MAIL ENTRIES TO: New Letters Awards for Writers UMKC, University House 5101 Rockhill Road Kansas City, MO 64110-2499
HISTORY OF THE AWARDS COMPETITIONNew Letters established its Awards for Writers in 1986 to discover and reward new writers and to encourage more established writers to try new genres or new work in competition. The contest is open to any writer. In order to assure fairness throughout the judging process, all judging is done anonymously and by writers outside the New Letters staff, with two rounds of judges making finalist and winner decisions.
For final judges from previous years, please see the list below.
Finalists are notified in mid August. Final judges select one winner and one runner-up in each category, which are announced the third week of September. First runners-up receive a courtesy copy of a recent book of poetry or fiction from our affiliate BkMk Press, a New Letters affiliate. Judges have the option to select work for second runner-up and honorable mentions. All finalists are listed in the New Letters issue in which the winners are published. These and all other entries will be considered for publication by the New Letters editor.
AWARDS
Alexander Patterson Cappon Fiction Prize: $1,500 for the best short story
New Letters Poetry Prize: $1,500 for the best group of three to six poems
Dorothy Churchill Cappon Essay Prize: $1,500 for the best essay