Kathleen McNamara of Rimrock, Arizona won first prize in fiction and $3,500 for her story, “Cryptozoology”. Lanfu Liu of Anshan, China won first prize in nonfiction and $3,500 for his essay, “Memory in Tibet”. 2,249 entries were received from around the world. Mina Manchester judged, assisted by Sarah Halper. $10,000…

Lanfu Liu and Kathleen McNamara Win the 32nd Annual Tom Howard/John H. Reid Fiction & Essay Contest

Press release announcing the winners of the 32nd annual Tom Howard/John H. Reid Fiction & Essay Contest sponsored by Winning Writers

Lanfu Liu

Kathleen McNamara

ScreenCraft Cinematic Prose Competition

Submit true and fictional stories with potential to be adapted for the screen, everything from full-length novels to novellas under 20,000 words

Subscriber News: October 2024

Recent honors and publications earned by our newsletter subscribers

An Interview with Mina Manchester, Judge of the Tom Howard/John H. Reid Fiction & Essay Contest

Winning Writers managing editor Annie Mydla speaks with Mina Manchester about what it’s like to judge the Tom Howard/John H. Reid Fiction & Essay Contest

Too Much Horror Fiction

Pulp horror collector Will Errickson’s blog reviews his favorites from the 1960s-90s

Trespass Point

Nothing was broken. She'd gone down to the dock to see the heron. The rocks were slick with algae and morning dew, and her feet in her worn hiking boots had bolted out from under her with astonishing force. Leaning on a stick, she'd made it back up the hill,…

Juliana Delany

Juliana Delany has worked for more than three decades as a freelance marketing writer and editor. A manic reader of fiction from early childhood, she began writing her own stories during the pandemic of 2020 as a way to quell anxiety, quiet demons, and honor family. Juliana holds a Bachelor's…

Exchanges

Online journal of literary translation, published by the University of Iowa

Pride Book Tours

Cost-effective social media book tours for LGBTQ literature

Subscriber News: September 2024

Recent honors and publications earned by our newsletter subscribers

What makes a winning humor poem? An interview with Wergle Flomp Humor Poetry Contest judge Lauren Singer

Managing editor Annie Mydla asks Wergle Flomp judge Lauren Singer about the poems that make her laugh

The Novelry

Online courses, coaching, and matchmaking with literary agents

Literary Journals That Publish Poetry That Rhymes

Reputable journals with a traditional aesthetic

Milk Candy Review

Online journal of “beautifully weird, lyrical” flash fiction

Pink Matter

I have been told many things by men. Most slide through my brain, painful but fleeting. Others etch themselves deep into the pink matter like a brand: “I usually only go for black women, but I'd make an exception for you. I ain't ever seen a white woman with all…

I Don’t Know What Possessed Me

“My first reaction to most things is, 'Fuck this, fuck you, this is bullshit,'” I said. My therapist blinked. “You don't seem like an angry person to me,” she said. You don't seem like a good therapist to me, I thought, but instead said, “Oh?” I don't get angry, as…

For All the Birthdays

Lydia hasn't seen Paul in five years. He is behind her in the queue, holding a can of baked beans, a pint of skimmed milk and a loaf of gluten-free bread. It is a moment of recognition that suspends them both. She tries to say his name, but the man…

Memory in Tibet

Illustration by Connie Chang Tibetan Plateau The sky was high and blue. White clouds floated by like the shed feathers of some enormous bird. This was the typical picturesque scenery here—the Tibetan plateau, high above sea level, pure and uncontaminated like some heavenly realm hidden from the prying eyes of…

I Am No Beekeeper

My housemate sleeps all day, makes art all night, and paints giant bees. “I want people to feel my paintings,” she says, stroking the palm of her hand against a still dripping head-to-toe canvas. I keep my hands in pockets. We've only been at the art residency for a week,…

Washing Light

Say: Have ye thought: If (all) your water were to disappear into the earth, who then could bring you gushing water? —The Noble Quran: Surah Al-Mulk (The Sovereignty) 67:30 I will treasure bathing my son. Placing him in his tub. Little hands tapping the water. A plump, tiny pilgrim enjoying…

Bottle Girl

At 8 a.m. on a Sunday morning I found myself running east on 33rd Street from Madison Avenue. I didn't know how I'd gotten there or where exactly I was going. It was July and the New York air was dewy. I could feel the strings of my bikini—tied too…

Sea Changes

My grandfather slipped quietly beneath the waves one day shy of his 70th birthday. His modest fishing craft, the pea-green Minato-Maru, was found bobbing peacefully on the ocean a little way from shore. As per local tradition, the boat had its anchor down but was otherwise unmoored, allowing for an…

The Demulcent of Shame

I'm sitting by the edge of a lake, waiting for my husband to come and tell me we're over, that I've bamboozled him into our marriage, and he can't stay in a relationship with a fraud. He's about ten feet away, inside our little lake house, lying on the floor…

Robert Garnham Wins the 23rd Annual Wergle Flomp Humor Poetry Contest

Robert Garnham of Paignton, Devon (UK) won the 23rd annual Wergle Flomp Humor Poetry Contest sponsored by Winning Writers and co-sponsored by Duotrope. His entry, “Torquay, 2 - The Other Team, 2”, bested those of 6,845 other poets to receive the $2,000 prize. The Second Prize of $500 was awarded…

Final Month: North Street Book Prize

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