MAYDAY is excited to announce our 2023 prizes in short fiction, creative nonfiction and micro-chapbook poetry! These are all single work prizes, and submissions will be open from September 1st to November 15th, with an entry fee of $20. MAYDAY will award cash prizes in each category: $500 for first place, $250 for second place, and $100 for runners up. Follow the links below each individual prize’s submission guidelines! When you’re ready to submit, head over to the online submission manager for our sister organization, New American Press.
The MAYDAY Short Fiction Prize
Theme: “Endings”
Guest Judge: Alissa Hattman is author of the novel Sift. Her writing has appeared in The Rumpus, Carve, The Gravity of the Thing, Propeller, Big Other, Shirley Magazine, MAYDAY, and elsewhere. She holds an MFA in Fiction from Pacific University and a MA in English Literature from Portland State University. Alissa has worked as a fiction editor, book reviewer, zine librarian, writing group facilitator, and teacher. She lives in the Pacific Northwest.
Submission Guidelines:
- Must be under 1,500 words
- Manuscripts should be a Word or PDF document. Please use the title of your story as your document name.
- In your cover letter, please include your name, contact information, a brief third-person bio.
- Simultaneous submissions are permitted. Please let us know immediately if your manuscript is accepted elsewhere while under our consideration.
- All rights revert to the author after publication.
Regular fiction submissions will be closed from September 1st to November 15th, 2023.
The MAYDAY Creative Nonfiction Prize
Theme: “Changing my mind.” Stories about trying to change others’ minds, something you changed your mind about, or a subject you wish you could look at differently. Editors would especially love to see humor in your piece.
Contest will be judged by the nonfiction editors of MAYDAY.
Submission Guidelines:
- Manuscripts should be a single Word or PDF document. Please use the title of your essay as your document name.
- In your cover letter, please include your name, contact information, a brief third-person bio.
- Simultaneous submissions are permitted. Please let us know immediately if your manuscript is accepted elsewhere while under our consideration.
- All rights revert to the author after publication.
Regular Submissions are welcome throughout the contest.
The MAYDAY Micro-Chapbook Poetry Prize
Theme: Micro-Chapbook
Guest Judge: Sophia Terazawa is the author of Anon and Winter Phoenix, both with Deep Vellum, along with the chapbooks I AM NOT A WAR (Essay Press) and Correspondent Medley (Factory Hollow Press), winner of the 2018 Tomaž Šalamun Prize. She teaches poetry at Virginia Tech. Her favorite color is purple.
Submission Guidelines:
- To submit, please send 8-12 pages of poetry. Please also include a title page and dedication/epigraph.
- Manuscripts should be a single Word or PDF document. Please use the title of your micro chapbook as your document name.
- Individual poems from the manuscript may have been published previously in magazines or anthologies, but the collection as a whole must be unpublished.
- In your cover letter, please include your name, contact information, a brief third-person bio, and a list of acknowledgments for previously published chapbook poems.
- Simultaneous submissions are permitted. Please let us know immediately if your manuscript is accepted elsewhere while under our consideration.
- All rights revert to the author after publication.
Regular submissions will be closed from November 15th to Jan 1st, 2023 while we read micro-chapbook submissions.