Writing Competition: 2012 Gulf Coast Prizes

Announcing the 2012 Gulf Coast Prizes in Poetry, Fiction, and Nonfiction!

Submissions link.

The 2012 Gulf Coast Contests, awarding publication and $1,500 each in Poetry, Fiction, and Nonfiction, are now open. Honorable mentions in each category will receive a $250 prize.

The Postmark/Online Entry deadline is March 15th, 2012. Winners and Honorable Mentions will be announced in May.

Judges:

Fiction: Victor LaValle. Victor's most recent novel, Big Machine, won the Ernest J. Gaines Award and the Shirley Jackson Award, among others. He has been a Guggenheim Fellow and been given the Key to Southeast Queens. He teaches at Columbia University's MFA program. His next novel, The Devil in Silver, will be released in August.

Nonfiction: Jenny Boully. Jenny is the author of four books, most recently not merely because of the unknown that was stalking toward them (Tarpaulin Sky Press). Her other books include The Books of Beginnings and Endings (Sarabande Books),[one love affair]* (Tarpaulin Sky Press), and The Body: An Essay (Essay Press, first published by Slope Editions). Her work has been anthologized in The Best American Poetry, The Next American Essay, Great American Prose Poems: From Poe to the Present, and other places. Born in Thailand, she was reared in Texas by parents who farm and fish. She lives in Chicago, Illinois with her husband and daughter and teaches at Columbia College Chicago.

Poetry: Joyelle McSweeney. Joyelle is the author of the poetry books The Red Bird,The Commandrine and Other Poems, and the upcoming Percussion Grenade: Poems and Plays, all from Fence. She is also the author of two lyric novels, Flet (Fence, 2008) and Nylund, the Sarcographer (Tarpaulin Sky, 2007), with a collection of short stories, Salamandrine, 8 Gothics, forthcoming from Tarpaulin Sky in Fall 2012. In 2010, she published an artist's book, The Necropastoral, featuring poems and essays by McSweeney and collages by Andrew Shuta, from Spork Press. McSweeney is a co-founder of Action Books and Action, Yes, a press and web-quarterly dedicated to international writing and hybrid forms. She teaches in the MFA program at the University of Notre Dame.

Guidelines:

To enter online (preferred), visit the online submissions manager and be sure to choose "CONTEST: Fiction," "CONTEST: Poetry," or "CONTEST: Nonfiction/Lyric Essay" as your genre.

Upload one previously unpublished story or essay (25 double-spaced pages max) or up to five previously unpublished poems (10 pages max). Do not include a cover letter, your name, or contact info of any kind in your uploaded document; please put this information in the "comments" field.

Once you've clicked "submit," you will be redirected to PayPal to authorize your $23 online reading fee, which also gets you a one-year subscription. You won't need a PayPal account, only a credit card. Multiple submissions are acceptable, but you must pay the fee for each entry. We'll contact you if there are any problems with your payment; please do not email us to confirm whether payment was received.

To enter by mail, send one previously unpublished story or essay (25 double-spaced pages max) or up to five previously unpublished poems (10 pages max) to the address below. Indicate your genre on the outer envelope. Your name and address should appear on the cover letter only. Include a SASE for results. Your $20 postal reading fee, payable to "Gulf Coast," will include a one-year subscription. Manuscripts will not be returned.

Send Postal Entries to:
Gulf Coast Prize in [Genre]
Department of English
University of Houston
Houston, TX 77204-3013