It’s submission season again, and as you all know, there are a bazillion first book contests for poets and fiction writers. And you also know I’ve got some ambivalence about all of that.
Still, I was talking with a friend recently about publishing and we wondered aloud together, What about memoir? Where are all the first book contests for nonfiction? Off the top of our heads we could name four: AWP Award Series, Bakeless, River Teeth Literary Nonfiction Prize and Many Voices Project (MVP) sponsored by New Rivers Press. But that can’t really be it, can it?
I combed through Poets & Writers and New Pages that night and clicked on just about every link (I really did. It was numbing.) that mentioned “memoir” or “nonfiction” in its description, hoping it would take me to either a nonfiction book contest or a press that accepts queries or full manuscripts without agent representation. For the amount of clicking I did, I didn’t come up with a very long list. I am sure I must be missing some. Missing a lot. But here is that list, which is a start, anyway, and something I would have loved to have found in my own search.
If you know of a press or a contest that ought to be here, please leave me a comment and I’ll include it.
Nonfiction Book Prizes
Bakeless Prize (published by Graywolf)–submit Sept 15-Nov. 1 ($10 fee)
MVP Competition (New Rivers Press)–submit Sept 15- Nov. 1 ($20 fee)
River Teeth Literary Nonfiction Series (U. Nebraska Press)–submit by Dec. 1 ($25 fee)
Orphan Press Book-length Creative Nonfiction Contest–submit by Dec. 15 ($45 fee)
AWP Award Series–2011 deadline was Feb. 28. Check site for next deadline. ($30 fee)
Literary Presses
Tupelo Press–accepts full-length manuscripts year round. ($45 fee)
Sarabande Books–accepts queries year round ($10 handling fee)
Algonquin Books–accepts queries year round
C & R Press–accepts queries and full-length submissions year round (no official reading fee, but they “invite” authors to make a donation.)
Persea Press–accepts queries year round
EM Press–accepts queries year round
Ashland Creek Press–accepts full-length submissions year round. Focus on travel, the environment, ecology, wildlife only.
City Lights Books–accepts proposals with sample year round
Greenpoint Press–will accept queries starting winter, 2012
Scarletta Press–accepts queries with sample from Nov. 1-March 1
