Dzanc Books solicits submissions through three annual contests:
- the Prize for Fiction, which recognizes novels (40,000 words and up) that are daring, original, and innovative, and offers a $5,000 advance and publication;
- the Short Story Collection, which seeks well-crafted and powerful book-length collections and offers a $2,500 advance and publication;
- and a final contest which changes from year to year. This year, we will offer a Novella Prize, seeking sharp and creative short works between 20,000 and 40,000 words in length. The Novella Prize offers a $1,500 advance and publication.
Our contests open March 1 and close September 30. The winner of each contest, along with a short list of finalists, will be announced on November 15.
For any questions about the contests or our submissions policy, please email michelle@dzancbooks.org. We look forward to reading your work.
The Dzanc Books Prize for Fiction recognizes daring, original, and innovative novels (40,000 words and longer). A $5,000 advance and publication in Fall 2020 by Dzanc Books will be awarded to the winner. Finalists will be compiled in-house and passed along for evaluation to this year’s judges: Lee Martin (Late One Night and The Mutual UFO Network), Julia Dixon Evans (How to Set Yourself on Fire), and John Englehardt, author of Bloomland, which was chosen as the winner of last year’s Prize for Fiction.
The contest is open to new, upcoming, and established writers alike. Agented submissions are also eligible, and we ask that you include all agency contact information with the application. All submitted works must be previously unpublished novel-length manuscripts and should include a brief synopsis, author bio, and contact information. The full work should be formatted as a Word .doc or .docx file.
We will accept submissions from March 1st, 2019 through midnight on September 30th, 2019. There is a $25 submission fee. (Note: we will not accept physical entries.) The winning submission and a short list of finalists will be announced on the Dzanc web page on November 15th.
Dzanc Books is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. All contest fees will go toward funding the prize as well as supporting Dzanc’s commitment to producing quality literary works, providing creative writing instruction in public schools through the Dzanc Writers-in-Residence program, and offering low-cost workshops for aspiring authors. Active and former Dzanc authors and employees are not eligible for the prize.
The Dzanc Books Novella Prize seeks innovative and well-crafted works of fiction in the short form (18,000 to 40,000 ords). In the tradition of Elle Nash's Animals Eat Each Other, Lindsey Drager's The Lost Daughter Collective, and Lisa Birnbaum's Worthy, this contest honors writers who have honed their craft to deliver an outsized punch in a small package. A $1,500 advance and publication in Fall 2020 by Dzanc Books will be awarded to the winner.
The contest is open to new, upcoming, and established writers alike. Agented submissions are also eligible, and we ask that you include all agency contact information with the application. All submitted works must be previously unpublished novel-length manuscripts and should include a brief synopsis, author bio, and contact information. The full work should be formatted as a Word .doc or .docx file.
We will accept submissions from March 1st, 2019 through midnight on September 30th, 2019. There is a $25 submission fee. (Note: we will not accept physical entries.) The winning submission and a short list of finalists will be announced on the Dzanc web page on November 15th.
Dzanc Books is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. All contest fees will go toward funding the prize as well as supporting Dzanc’s commitment to producing quality literary works, providing creative writing instruction in public schools through the Dzanc Writers-in-Residence program, and offering low-cost workshops for aspiring authors. Active and former Dzanc authors and employees are not eligible for the prize.
The Dzanc Books Short Story Collection Prize celebrates imaginative and inventive writing in book-length collections. Past winners include Anne Valente (By Light We Knew Our Names), Chaya Bhuvaneswar (White Dancing Elephants), Jen Grow (My Life as a Mermaid), and Nino Cipro (Homesick, coming October 2019). The winning submission will be awarded a $2,500 advance and publication in Fall 2020 by Dzanc Books.
The contest is open to new, upcoming, and established writers alike. Agented submissions are also eligible, and we ask that you include all agency contact information with the application. All submitted works must be previously unpublished collections and should include a brief synopsis, author bio, and contact information.
We will accept submissions from March 1st, 2018 through midnight on September 30th, 2018. There is a $25 submission fee. (Note: we will not accept physical entries.) The winning submission and a short list of finalists will be announced on the Dzanc web page on November 15th.
Dzanc Books is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. All contest fees will go toward funding the prize as well as supporting Dzanc’s commitment to producing quality literary works, providing creative writing instruction in public schools through the Dzanc Writers-in-Residence program, and offering low-cost workshops for aspiring authors. Active and former Dzanc authors and employees are not eligible for the prize.
