American Literary Review Awards

Updated

The American Literary Review Awards offer three prizes of $1,000 and publication in ALR‘s Spring online issue for previously unpublished work:

  • Poetry
  • Short Fiction
  • Essay

Finalists may also be selected for publication.

Contest Timeline

  • June 1–September 1: Contest open for submissions
  • Late October: Finalists selected and sent to judges
  • Late November: Winners notified
  • April: Winners and select finalists published in ALR‘s Spring Issue
Submit Now

Submission Guidelines

Entry Fee: $15 per submission

Contest entries will be read anonymously. Do not put any identifying information in the file itself; include the author’s name, title(s), address, e-mail address, phone number, and cover letter in the boxes provided by Submittable.

We do not consider previously published work.

Submit your work using our online submission manager. We do not accept contest submissions via post or email.

Genre Specific Guidelines

Short Fiction: One work of fiction per entry ($15), limit 8,000 words per work

Creative Nonfiction: One work per entry fee ($15), limit 8,000 words per work.

Poetry: One to three poems per entry fee ($15)

Multiple Entries

Multiple entries are allowed. Each entry requires a separate $15 reading fee.

Do not submit the same piece more than once or in more than one genre. Submit any hybrid work in whichever category you feel best describes your piece.

We cannot accommodate revisions after a piece has been submitted. If you wish to submit a revised version of your entry, you must withdraw your initial submission before submitting the revised work as a new entry.

Simultaneous Submission

Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but notify us immediately through Submittable and withdraw your entry if any part of it is selected for publication elsewhere. We are unable to offer refunds or replacement submissions for withdrawn contest submissions.

If your piece is selected as a finalist, we request that you withdraw it from consideration elsewhere until a winner has been selected.

Eligibility and Conflicts of Interest

We are committed to an ethical consideration of submissions and ask that, if you are a family member, friend, colleague, or student of a judge (or have any other potential conflicts of interest), you refrain from submitting to the ALR Awards in their category. Anyone currently affiliated with the University of North Texas and those who were affiliated within the last three years are not eligible to submit to American Literary Review or the ALR Awards.

Fee Waivers

If you are a writer from a marginalized community for whom the entry fee is a significant barrier to submitting, we offer a limited number of fee waivers in each genre.

Please email us at americanliteraryreview@gmail.com with any questions about the American Literary Review Awards contest.