Writing Competition: Ann Petry Award of Red Hen Press

Founded in 2020 in partnership with Red Hen Press and the Peauxdunque Writers Alliance, the Ann Petry Award seeks to publish prose literature by Black authors.

The Ann Petry Award is for a work of previously unpublished prose, either a novel or a collection of short stories or novellas, with a minimum of 150 pages, by a Black writer.

The awarded manuscript is selected through an annual submission process, with primary review by the Peauxdunque Writers Alliance, who will winnow the submissions to a list of finalists for the final judge.

The final judge for 2021 will be Maurice Carlos Ruffin.

The Ann Petry Award will consist of $3000, publication of the awarded manuscript by Red Hen Press, and an opportunity to be in residence for up to four weeks at The Community Library's Ernest and Mary Hemingway House in Ketchum, Idaho. In addition, the opening chapter or story of the awarded manuscript will be published in the Peauxdunque Review.

There is no submission fee.

Deadline: July 31, 2021

Please use double-spaced, 12-pt. Times New Roman font. Title only on the cover sheet, with no other identifying information on the manuscript itself. The entry should be a minimum of 150 pages.

Eligibility Guidelines:

The Ann Petry Award is open to all Black writers, with the following exceptions:

A) Authors who have had a full-length work published by Red Hen Press, or a full-length work currently under consideration by Red Hen Press;

B) Current employees, interns, or contractors of Red Hen Press;

C) Relatives of employees or members of the Red Hen Press executive board of directors;

D) Members or former members of the Peauxdunque Writers Alliance;

E) Relatives or individuals having a personal or professional relationship with any of the final judges or with members of the Peauxdunque Writers Alliance where they have taken any part whatsoever in shaping the manuscript, or where, for whatever reason, selecting a particular manuscript might have the appearance of impropriety.

For more information and to submit, go here.