Use the holiday weekend now upon us to prepare your manuscript for entry into one of this autumn's upcoming first book awards. Unpublished poets, fiction writers, and creative nonfiction writers all have an opportunity to submit debut works to competitions running from now through November 15, listed below.
For poets:
Academy of American Poets
Walt Whitman Award
open from September 15 through November 15
American Poetry Review
Honickman First Book Prize
open through October 31
Persea Books
Lexi Rudnitsky First Book Prize
open through November 2
Perugia Press
Poetry Prize
open through November 15
Silverfish Review Press
Gerald Cable Book Award
open through October 15
Yale University Press
Yale Series of Younger Poets
open from October 1 through November 15
(N.B. Poets, check out Katrina Vandenberg's article "Putting Your Poetry in Order, the Mix-Tape Strategy" for one writer's advice on how to organize a manuscript.)
For fiction writers:
University of Iowa Press
Short Fiction Awards
September 30
For writers in all genres:
Bread Loaf Writers' Conference
Bakeless Literary Publication Prizes
open from September 30 through November 1