MAYDAY annually awards the MAYDAY Poetry Prize and the MAYDAY Fiction Prize to recognize exciting new work in poetry and fiction by writers living and working anywhere in the world.
- Winners receive $1,000, publication, and 25 broadsides of the winning poem or an excerpt from the winning story.
- Submissions open January 1. Deadline is March 31.
- All submissions must be previously unpublished and written in English.
- Entry fee is $15 until January 31 and $20 after.
- All submissions will be considered for publication at MAYDAY.
- Readers and judges will read blind, so please omit any identifying information (name, address, email, etc.) from the manuscript.
- Multiple submissions are allowed but each must be submitted with a separate entry fee.
- Submissions for regular publication will resume in April.
- Questions may be directed to managingeditor@maydaymagazine.com.
- See list of previous winners and finalists here.
- Submissions open January 1.
- To be considered, submit up to 6,000 words to the online submission system by March 31.
- All styles, forms, and genres of short fiction are welcome.
- 2021 fiction judge is Kali Wallace, author of short stories and essays as well as novels for adults, teens, and children. Her first novel for adults, the science fiction horror-thriller Salvation Day, is available from Berkley and her forthcoming novel Dead Space will be available in March 2021. She is also the author of the young adult novels Shallow Graves and The Memory Trees and the children’s fantasy novel City of Islands. Her short fiction has appeared in Clarkesworld, F&SF, Asimov’s, Lightspeed, and Tor.com.
- 2022 fiction judge TBA.
- Submissions open January 1.
- To be considered, submit up to 3 poems in a single manuscript to the online submission system by March 31.
- All styles and forms of poetry are welcome.
- 2021 poetry judge is Jacques Rancourt, author of the full-length poetry collections Brocken Spectre (forthcoming 2021) and Novena (2017), as well as the chapbook In the Time of PrEP (2018). His poems have appeared in the Boston Review, Georgia Review, Kenyon Review, New England Review, Ploughshares, and Virginia Quarterly Review, among others. His work has been featured in Poetry Daily, Verse Daily, From the Fish House, Best of the Web, San Francisco Chronicle, and Best New Poets.
- 2022 poetry judge TBA.
