Still: The Journal 2011 Literary Contest
Contest Guidelines
Contest entries should be in keeping with our submission philosophy which states: “Our emphasis is on the literature of the Southern Appalachian region, and we are committed to publishing excellent writing that does not rely on clichés and stereotypes. We want to feature writing that exemplifies the Mountain South or that is written by an author with an established connection to the region.”
Rules:
Submitted entries must be unpublished.
Simultaneous entries are accepted as long as you let us know if your submissions will be published elsewhere before the contest ends.
The contest reading fee is $8 PER ENTRY, payable to Still’s PayPal account, which can be accessed below.
An entry is defined as:
one short story,
or one nonfiction piece,
or one poem.
You may submit multiple submissions in multiple genres, as long as you pay a separate entry fee for each submission. Contest entry fees cannot be refunded under any circumstances.
Manuscripts should be typed in a standard 12-point font (Times New Roman is preferred) and should have numbered pages. Prose must be double spaced. Poetry can be single spaced. Prose entries must not exceed 6,500 words. Poetry entries should not exceed 60 lines.
Make sure that your name or any other identifying information does not appear anywhere on the manuscript(s). All contest entries are processed and read on a “blind” basis.
Deadline for email postmark is 31 August 2011 at 11:59 P.M. Any entry that is not sent on or before that date/time will not be processed and entry fees will not be returned.
Winners will be notified by 30 September 2011. Winning entries will be announced publicly in Still: The Journal 7: Fall 2011.
Prizes:
$150 each for winners of fiction, poetry and nonfiction, and publication in Still: The Journal 7: Fall 2011. All other contest entries will be considered for possible publication.
Judges:
Fiction: Connie May Fowler
Poetry: Marilyn Kallet
Nonfiction: Karen Salyer McElmurray
Submissions:
We prefer electronic submissions and fee payment.
Submissions should be saved as a word document, rich text file or plain text file only (doc, docx, rtf, or txt ONLY) and attached to an email. Multiple submissions must be sent separately; in other words, if you are submitting a short story, an essay, and three poems, for instance, you would have five different electronic submissions and five different entry fees. The subject line for each entry should include “Still Contest” and the category; for example: Still Contest Fiction, Still Contest Poetry, or Still Contest Nonfiction. Include with each entry a title page which contains this information:
Title of entry
Category listed in parentheses next to title
Name
Mailing address
Telephone number
Email address
All entries must be sent to contest@stilljournal.net. Entries will not be processed until the $8 entry fee is also paid.
Mail submissions can be accepted, although electronic submissions are preferred. Follow the above guidelines for manuscript and title page preparations, include an $8 fee per entry and mail checks payable to Still to:
Still
P.O. Box 1121
Berea, KY 40403
Mailed entries must be postmarked by 31 August 2011.
Failure to follow any of the above guidelines will result in disqualification. No entry fees can be returned.
Inquiries or questions should be directed to contest@stilljournal.net
Paypal
Judges
Fiction
Connie May Fowler is an award-winning novelist, memoirist and screenwriter. Her most recent novel, How Clarissa Burden Learned to Fly, was published in 2010 to wide acclaim. Her other novels include Sugar Cage, River of Hidden Dreams, The Problem with Murmur Lee, Remembering Blue and Before Women Had Wings, which she adapted into an Emmy-winning film starring Oprah Winfrey and Ellen Barkin. She serves on the faculty of The Afghan Women’s Writing and is currently a visiting faculty member in the Vermont College of Fine creative writing MFA program. She is a Florida native.
Poetry
Marilyn Kallet is the author of fifteen books, including Packing Light: New and Selected Poems and Circe After Hours, and translations of Paul Eluard's Last Love Poems and of Benjamin Péret's The Big Game (2011). Dr. Kallet directs the creative writing program at the University of Tennessee, where she is Professor of English. She also teaches poetry workshops for the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts at their site in Auvillar, France. Kallet was named Woman of Achievement in the Arts by the Knoxville YWCA, and was inducted into the East Tennessee Literary Hall of Fame in poetry in 2005.
Nonfiction
Karen Salyer McElmurray grew up in a family with roots in Eastern Kentucky that date back to the 1700s. She now teaches in the MFA program at Georgia College and State University in Milledgeville, Georgia. She is the author of a memoir, Surrendered Child, which received the Association of Writers and Writing Programs Award for Creative Nonfiction, and two novels, Strange Birds in the Tree of Heaven and Motel of the Stars.
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