2025 Raz-Shumaker Book Prize Now Open for Submissions

Submissions for the 2025 Prairie Schooner Raz-Shumaker Book Prize for fiction and poetry are now open! The deadline for the contest is March 15, 2025, and writers can submit their entries through Submittable.

The Prairie Schooner Raz-Shumaker Book Prize Series annually names two prize-winning manuscripts, one in poetry and one in short fiction, selected by the editor-in-chief of the Schooner with the help of guest judges. This year’s contest will be judged by Rowan Ricardo Phillips, Hilda Raz, and Peggy Shumaker for poetry and DeMisty Bellinger and Eric Wat for fiction. Winners in each category will receive a prize of $3000 and publication by the University of Nebraska Press.

Previous winners of the book prize include Gbenga Adesina for his poetry manuscript Death Does Not End At The Sea and Mi Jin Kim for her short story collection Invitation: Stories, both of which will be published this fall. The University of Nebraska Press also recently published Janelle Bassett’s Thanks for This Riot and Lory Bedikian’s Jagadakeer: Apology to the Body. Explore our catalog of past winners for more.

For the full entry requirements and submission details, see our contest guidelines.