New Letters Literary Awards
New Letters invites you to submit fiction or poetry to the New Letters Literary Awards or an essay to the Conger Beasley Jr. Award for Nonfiction. Winners receive $2,500 for best essay, $1,500 for best poetry, and $1,500 for best fiction, and publication in New Letters. Deadline for entry is May 18th, 2018.
All entries are considered for publication and must be unpublished. Winners will be announced mid-September 2018. Essay and fiction entries may not exceed 8,000 words; poetry entries may contain one to six poems. Entry includes a one-year subscription to New Letters.
Previous judges have included Philip Levine, Joyce Carol Oates, Rishi Reddi, Mary Jo Salter, Carole Maso, Cornelius Eady, Margot Livsey, Benjamin Percy, Robin Hemley, and Kim Addonizio.
For complete guidelines, visit our website or send an S.A.S.E. to Ashley Wann, Contest Coordinator, New Letters, 5101 Rockhill Road, Kansas City, MO 64110.
Please enjoy the winning poem from our 2016 contest. It appeared in New Letters, Vol. 83, Nos. 2 & 3.
The Year God Discovered Pointillism
by Deborah Bogen
Winter wouldn't quit. There was a generalized, harmonized
breathing, but no speech, no words, as if talk had never
been real. We grew attentive to small changes, spatial
ones and even vacillating pressures. Some days we tasted
stillness, but it was nothing mystical. It was only weather.
This is not meant to confuse you. Think of snow-softened
edges, contrasts smudged—hushed, the way mother
hushed your questions without even speaking. It was the
snow in her that stopped your breath and filled the room
with glitter.
