2012 Press 53 Open Awards

2009 Press 53 Open Awards Anthology

8.5 x 5.5 paperback

202 pages

$14

(NC residents pay sales tax)

Enter POETRY

The 2012 Press 53 Open Awards is Open for Entries!

New This Year!

$1250 in Total Cash Prizes,

plus etched-glass awards and publication!

$250 Cash Prize

for First Prize in Each Category,

plus our beautiful, personalized etched-glass award!

Online submission and payment through Submishmash,

the world's leading submission manager (or submit by mail)

5 Categories with 3 Winners in each!

Poetry, Flash Fiction, Short Story, Creative Nonfiction, Novella

Finalists and Winners Announced via Online Video

Top Three Winners in Each Category (First Prize Only in Novella) Published in the 2012 Press 53 Open Awards Anthology

All finalists will receive a free copy of the 2012 Press 53 Open Awards Anthology

GUIDELINES

RIGHTS:

By entering the Press 53 Open Awards Writing Contest, writers give Press 53 permission to publish the entered work or works in the Press 53 Open Awards Anthology and to list the author’s name in the Press 53 Open Awards Anthology and on the Press 53 website. Author retains copyright to the work or works entered and published. Press 53 is granted a one-time right to publish the work or works in the Press 53 Open Awards Anthology.

CATEGORIES: (Please note changes from previous years)

Poetry (submit 3 poems to be judged and published as a group. Three poems equal one entry. 10 pages max. No word count needed.)

Flash Fiction (fiction up to 1500 words)

Short Story (fiction of 1501-5000 words)

Creative Nonfiction (up to 5000 words)

Novella (fiction of 12,000 to 25,000 words)

HOW TO ENTER:

Cover Sheet: Include a cover sheet with your entry (3 poems equal one entry) that lists your name, address, telephone, e-mail, and category with word count and the title of the work(s).

NOTE: This is a blind read; your name must appear ONLY on your cover sheet and NOT on your manuscript pages, otherwise your entry will be disqualified.

Poetry: Submit 3 poems (10 pages max, no word count needed), single-spaced. Note: 3 poems equal one entry. Poetry will be judged on the collective strength of all 3 poems.

Prose: Submit one double-spaced copy of your entry with the following: title on page one, numbered pages (title in header optional), standard font (Times or similar preferred) in 12-pt. type and black ink.

READING FEES:

Poetry, Flash Fiction, Short Story, Creative Nonfiction: $15 by mail, $17 by Submishmash (saves postage and paper)

Novella: $25 by mail, $28 by Submishmash (saves postage and paper)

To submit and pay online through Submishmash, click here. (Account sign up is free)

To submit via US Mail, please read and follow the guideliens below:

PAYMENT for mailed entries (One payment for multiple entries is preferred. Thanks):

Personal check, money order, and credit/debit cards are accepted. Check or money order must be in US dollars. Please make checks and money orders payable to Press 53. If you wish to pay by credit/debit card, we can accept your payment through PayPal (click the appropriate buttons to the right). Remember to print your receipt and mail it with your entry.

MAIL PAYMENT AND ENTRY:

Mail entry and payment to: Press 53 Open Awards, PO Box 30314, Winston-Salem, NC 27130-0314. All submissions are recycled; SASE is NOT necessary. Winners will be notified by phone or by email. Results will be posted online and announced via online video on July 1, 2012.

DEADLINES:

All entries in each category must be postmarked by March 31, 2012. Press 53 has the right to extend deadlines if deemed necessary. Multiple entries are accepted and one payment for all entries is preferred. Simultaneous submissions and previously published pieces are accepted so long as any previous publishing agreements do not prohibit Press 53 from publishing the work in Oct. 2012. Work may be withdrawn from the contest prior to June 1, 2012, but reading fees will not be refunded.

WINNERS ANNOUNCED:

The judges’ decisions will be announced on this website and via online video on this website on Friday, June 29, 2012 at 12 p.m. EST. No SASEs for results, please. Entrants may check this website for winners or email us for a list of winners on or after June 29, 2012.

PRIZES:

First Prize in each category will receive a $250 cash prize, the Press 53 Open Award (a beautiful, personalized, etched-glass award), publication in the 2012 Press 53 Open Awards Anthology, two complimentary copies of the 2012 Press 53 Awards Anthology, and a winner's discount on unlimited additional copies to sell on his or her website and at readings.

Second Prize in each category will receive a personalized award certificate, publication in the 2012 Press 53 Open Awards Anthology (First Prize only in Novella), one complimentary copy of the 2012 Press 53 Awards Anthology, and a winner's discount on unlimited additional copies to sell on his or her website and at readings.

Honorable Mention in each category will receive a personalized award certificate, publication in the 2012 Press 53 Open Awards Anthology (First Prize only in Novella), one complimentary copy of the 2012 Press 53 Open Awards Anthology, and a winner's discount on unlimited additional copies to sell on his or her website and at readings.

All finalists in each category will be listed by name in the 2012 Press 53 Open Awards Anthology and will receive one complimentary copy.

Special Mention is given to writers who are multiple finalists in one of more categories. Since this is a blind read, it is possible for one writer to be a finalist two or more times in the same category.

JUDGES:

All of our final judges are industry professionals in the writing or publishing fields. Preliminary judges include teachers, editors, and published writers. All entries will be read blind, meaning the manuscripts will not show the writer’s name. The judges' decisions are final. Due to the number of entries received, comments from judges are not possible.

ELIGIBILITY:

The Press 53 Open Awards Writing Contest is open to writers anywhere in the world who write in English. Press 53 employees and family members are not eligible. Writers who have published full-length books with Press 53 are not eligible. Writers whose work has appeared in anthologies published by Press 53 are eligible. Judges have agreed to disqualify any work that, for whatever reason, they may recognize. Use your best judgment when entering. Previously published pieces are accepted so long as any previous publishing agreements do not prohibit Press 53 from publishing the work in Oct. 2012. Simultaneous submissions are fine so long as the author notifies Press 53 by May 1, 2012, that the entry is accepted elsewhere and is no longer available for consideration.

DISCLAIMER:

Reading fees are non-refundable. Entries postmarked after deadlines will not be considered. Entries received with author's name appearing anywhere on the manuscript will be disqualified. No refunds will be made. Work withdrawn from the contest will not receive a refund. All manuscripts will be recycled, not returned. All submissions must be original works.

QUESTIONS:

Please direct all questions to Press 53 publisher/editor Kevin Morgan Watson at kevin@press53.com.

5 Categories, 3 Winners in Each

Poetry, Flash Fiction, Short Story, Creative Nonfiction, Novella

5 Industry-Professional Judges

Meet our Judges

5 $250 Cash Prizes

5 Beautiful Etched-Glass Awards

13 Opportunities for Publication

First Prize, Second Prize, and Honorable Mention in each category (First Prize only in Novella) will be published in the 2012 Press 53 Open Awards Anthology

Read the guidelines to the left to learn how to enter.

Submit and pay online through Submishmash (Account sign up is free)

Mail your entry and reading fee to:

Press 53 Open Awards

PO Box 30314

Winston-Salem, NC 27130-0314

Pay your reading fee using the PayPal buttons below and mail your entry along with your PayPal receipt to the address above.

Enter FLASH FICTION

Enter SHORT STORY

Enter CREATIVE NONFICTION

Enter NOVELLA

MEET OUR JUDGES FOR THE 2012 PRESS 53 OPEN AWARDS

POETRY

Tom Lombardo is series editor of the Tom Lombardo Poetry Selections for Press 53. In 2008, Tom edited and published After Shocks: The Poetry of Recovery for Life-Shattering Events (Sante Lucia Books), which features 152 poems by 115 poets from 15 countries. Tom is a widely published and respected poet, and is a graduate of the MFA program at Queens University in Charlotte, NC.

FLASH FICTION

Meg Pokrass published her debut collection of flash fiction, Damn Sure Right, with Press 53 in 2011. She serves as Editor-at-Large for BLIP Magazine (formerly Mississippi Review) and before that, for SmokeLong Quarterly. Her stories, poems, and flash fiction animations have appeared in nearly one hundred online and print publications, including Mississippi Review, Gigantic, Gargoyle, The Nervous Breakdown, HTML Giant, Wigleaf, The Pedestal, Keyhole, Annalemma, Smokelong Quarterly, elimae, Prime Number, Women Writers, and Joyland. Meg creates and runs the popular Fictionaut-Five Author Interview Series for Fictionaut, and consults with MFA programs about online publishing. Meg lives with her small, creative family and seven animals in San Francisco, where she edits and teaches flash fiction privately. Visit Meg's website at www.megpokrass.org.

SHORT STORY

Clifford Garstang is the author of the gold medal award-winning short story collection In an Uncharted Country from Press 53 and is editor of Prime Number magazine. Clifford grew up in the Midwest and received a BA from Northwestern University, his MA in English and a JD, both from Indiana University, and his MPA in International Development from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. He received an MFA in Creative Writing from Queens University of Charlotte in 2003. His work has appeared in Virginia Quarterly Review, Shenandoah, The Ledge, The Baltimore Review, North Dakota Quarterly, Potomac Review and elsewhere, and has received Distinguished Mention in the Best American Series. He won the 2006 Confluence Fiction Prize and the 2007 GSU Review Fiction Prize and is a Fellow of the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Visit Cliff's blog at perpetualfolly.blogspot.com and his website at CliffordGarstang.com.

CREATIVE NONFICTION

Tracy Crow is nonfiction editor at Prime Number magazine and the author of the forthcoming memoir, Eyes Right, Confessions from a Woman Marine (University of Nebraska Press, April 2012), in which she chronicles her life as a Marine journalist during the groundbreaking 1980s. Her essays have appeared in the Missouri Review, Mississippi Review, Puerto del Sol, Literary Mama, and others, and have been nominated for three Pushcart Prizes. Her short story, “Natural Selection,” based on events from her life as a Marine, was anthologized in the Press 53 collection, Home of the Brave: Stories in Uniform (2009). She is a graduate of the M.F.A. program at Queens University of Charlotte in North Carolina. As assistant professor of creative writing at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida, she teaches journalism and creative nonfiction, and advises the award-winning, nationally recognized college newspaper, The Current.

NOVELLA

Robin Miura has worked in publishing for 12 years, first as a production editor for Oxford University Press and for the past nine years as a freelance editor, proofreader, publishing consultant, and writing coach for publishing companies and individual authors. She has worked with all types of books--from academic and educational to self-help--but her passion is literary fiction and nonfiction. Robin has edited a novel and memoir series for Press 53, which includes My Sisters Made of Light, by Jacqueline St. Joan; Hustle, by Jason Skipper; My Life as Laura: How I Searched for Laura Ingalls Wilder and Found Myself, by Kelly Kathleen Ferguson; and Molly Flanagan and the Holy Ghost, by Margaret Skinner (forthcoming). You can find out more about Robin and her work at http://the-efa.org/dir/memberinfo.php?mid=7947.

MEET OUR JUDGES

FOR THE 2012

PRESS 53 OPEN AWARDS

Contest winners and finalists get two copies for the price of one. Place your order for 1/2 of the copies you want. Any questions, email kevin@press53.com

2008 Press 53 Open Awards Anthology

8.5 x 5.5 paperback

174 pages

$12.95

(NC residents pay sales tax)

2010 Press 53 Open Awards Anthology

8.5 x 5.5 paperback

260 pages

$16

(NC residents pay sales tax)

2010 Flash Fiction winner, Amy Willoughby-Burle, accepts her First Prize etched-glass award and a copy of the 2010 Press 53 Open Awards Anthology from Kevin Morgan Watson of Press 53 at the Wine &.Words Fest in Winston-Salem, NC.