THE CUPBOARD holds its first contest.
The Cupboard's first-ever contest! Featuring guest judge Michael Martone! The winning author will receive $500 and the manuscript will be published as an upcoming volume of The Cupboard.Please submit manuscripts between 4,000 and 10,000 words, of one piece or many,through Submishmash between February 1st and March 31st. The entire manuscript should not have been published previously, but if individual pieces have appeared elsewhere, please include an acknowledgments page. All submissions will be read blind so do not include your name or contact information anywhere on the manuscript, but do include this information in your cover letter. Simultaneous and multiple submissions are fine, though each submission will require the $10 contest fee.
Also, with your submission you are eligible for a discounted $12 subscription to The Cupboard that will begin with the contest winner. If interested, please click below.
The contest entry period will be open February 1, 2011. Entry fee: $10. All entries will be considered for general publication as a volume of The Cupboard. To submit a manuscript, click here.
Email cupboard [at] thecupboardpamphlet [dot] org with any questions.
About Michael Martone
Michael Martone was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where from an early age he entered contests and sweepstakes he found advertised on the side panels of cereal boxes or listed in his local newspaper. Often, he was required to collect and send box-tops from specially-marked packages or proof-of-purchase seals along with filled-in application forms. He would fill out pads of entry forms by hand to comply with the instruction in the fine print against photocopying or employing any means of mechanical reproduction. He wrote his name, address, and phone number over and over so that any time he picked up a pen or pencil he automatically began to print (the instructions always asked that he print) his contact information. His mother tracked his winnings. She kept a scrapbook she labeled My Achievements where she taped in copies of coupons and receipts sent to Martone to redeem the prizes and awards, the congratulatory letters, and the original game rules. After all those blank entry blanks, Martone gravitated to the contests asking for a bit of his creative effort, a drawing or a brief essay as well as the completion of requisite entry form. The essays were his favorite since he couldn't draw to save his life. The rules always asked for the submission to be of a certain word length, 100 words or less or 250 words or less. That formulation of words in the guidelines always disturbed Martone's mother who was an English teacher. She corrected the instructions, in red pencil no less, inserting "fewer" above the crossed-out "less." Martone liked the puzzle of the number of words, liked using every word allowed, liked to imagine that someone somewhere actually read his little essays, counted the words as he or she did so, even though he suspected, quite early, that his efforts were simply more elaborate entry forms. The winners, runners-ups, and honorable mentions were all, no doubt, selected by the usual method of random drawing. Martone became adept at the form. His specialty was the use of words compounded by employing a hyphen such as "proof-of-purchase" or "runners-up." The grafting counted as one word instead of two or three. In high school he obsessively entered such essay contests sponsored by civic organizations and church groups, soliciting his thoughts on patriotic themes, good citizenship, personal health and public sanitation. He often won contests and was invited to luncheon meetings of appreciative Rotarians, Lions, Zontas, and Veterans who appreciated the brevity of the winning essays. Years later, Martone is still entering contests, writing tiny paragraphs of prose. Now, oddly, these contests require that he pay to enter, more like a state lottery but with better odds. Martone likes using long titles. He figures those words don't count. Today, he writes on his computer. It has a word count feature. He pushes one button, and he automatically knows where he stands. His mother no longer has to count the words by hand, looking up at him at the end and whispering, "Fewer."
General Guidelines
The Cupboard is currently not accepting unsolicited submissions. Current subscribers are invited to submit prose work between 4,000 and 10,000 words at any time. Submissions can be composed of one piece or multiple pieces. We do not publish verse poetry. Send manuscripts through Submishmash here. Please include a note by way of introduction.Our next open reading period will be May 2011.