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Summer Creative Nonfiction Contest

DEADLINE: August 31, 2013
ENTRY FEE: $5
PRIZE: $250 and publication in Prairie Schooner’s Spring 2014 issue

SUBMISSION SIZE: 1 piece per submission, up to 5,000 words.

Our general submission period closed May 1, but between May 2 and August 31, we’ll accept creative nonfiction essay submissions via Submittable. Click here to submit.

Never sent to us before? The contest is open to all types of creative nonfiction essays.

The winner will be announced October 1, 2013.

JUDGE: Lia Purpura

GUIDELINES: All entries should include a cover letter with the submission’s title and author’s contact information. Your name and contact information must not appear anywhere else on the manuscript. You may submit multiple entries, but the entry fee must be paid for each submission.

General Submissions

Prairie Schooner is currently closed for general submissions and will reopen Sept. 1.
 
Thank you for your interest in our journal. Prairie Schooner publishes short stories, poems, interviews, imaginative essays of general interest, and reviews of current books of poetry and fiction. Scholarly articles requiring footnote references should be submitted to journals of literary scholarship.
 
Prairie Schooner’s intention is to publish the best writing available, both from beginning and established writers. Since 1926, we have printed the work of Eudora Welty, Octavio Paz, Tennessee Williams, Weldon Kees, Joyce Carol Oates, and Rita Dove, Richard Russo, Reynolds Price, Julia Alvarez, Sharon Olds, Cornelius Eady, plus scores of others.
 
Prairie Schooner is now accepting online submissions. Click here to submit via Submittable.
 
Hard copy submissions to Prairie Schooner should be typed, double spaced (except for poetry), and printed on one side of the paper only. Use margins of at least one inch, and be sure to put your name on each page of the manuscript. A self-addressed envelope, with adequate return postage on it, must accompany the submission. For poetry, we prefer a selection of 5-7 poems; for fiction, essays, and reviews, we prefer you send only one selection at a time. Send submissions to the attention of the editor at:
 
Prairie Schooner
123 Andrews Hall
Lincoln, NE 68588-0334
 
Please allow 3-4 months for a reply. Prairie Schooner does not read simultaneous submissions, and submissions must be received between September 1 and May 1. Only solicited manuscripts may be submitted via email; all unsolicited manuscripts must be submitted through Submittable or regular mail in hard copy. We do not consider work that has been previously published anywhere, including web publications.
 
We encourage you to read Prairie Schooner before you submit.
 
Click here to subscribe.
 
Click for more information about purchasing back issues, sample copies, and the current issue.
 
For information on submitting a book-length manuscript to our Book Series competition, please click here.