-1000 Below: Flash Prose and Poetry Contest
Enter Midway Journal’s -1000 Below: Flash Prose and Poetry Contest for a chance to win the $500 grand prize! See contest guidelines below.
Opens: March 1st
Closes: June 1st
Fee: $10 per entry (unlimited entries)
Prizes:
First Prize: $500 + publication in Midway Journal
Second Prize:$250 + publication in Midway Journal
Third Prize: $100 + publication in Midway Journal
Judge: Michael Martone
Contest Guidelines:
Entries and payments must be received through Midway Journal‘s online submission manager under “-1000 Below: Flash Prose and Poetry Contest.” You may submit an unlimited number of entries, but a new entry fee must be paid for each new submission. You may also submit to each genre. However, there is only one grand prize winner, one second prize winner and one third prize winner and not a winner in each genre.
Paste the title of your submission and your contact information (name, mailing address, telephone number, and email address) in the cover letter box. Your name and contact information must not appear anywhere on the manuscript you upload.
Previously published work will not be accepted. Simultaneous submissions are permitted, but must be withdrawn from the contest if accepted elsewhere.
Poetry: up to 2 poems per entry, up to 55 words per poem. No more than one poem per page.
Prose (Fiction and Nonfiction): 1 piece per entry, up to 1,000 words per piece.
All submissions will be considered for publication.
Judge: Michael Martone
Michael Martone’s recent books include Table Talk & Second Thoughts: A Memoir in Flash; Plain Air: Sketches from Winesburg, Indiana; The Complete Writings of Art Smith, The Bird Boy of Fort Wayne, Edited by Michael Martone; The Moon Over Wapakoneta; Brooding; and Memoranda. Michael Martone, is a memoir in contributor’s notes. Unconventions: Writing on Writing and Rules of Thumb, edited with Susan Neville, are craft books. He is also the author of The Blue Guide to Indiana, published by FC2. The University of Georgia Press published his book of essays, The Flatness and Other Landscapes, winner of the AWP Award for Nonfiction, in 2000. With Robin Hemley, he edited Extreme Fiction. With Lex Williford, he edited The Scribner Anthology of Contemporary Short Fiction and The Touchstone Anthology of Contemporary Creative Nonfiction. He has edited two collections of essays about the Midwest: A Place of Sense: Essays in Search of the Midwest and Townships: Pieces of the Midwest. His stories and essays have appeared in Harper’s, Esquire, Story, Antaeus, North American Review, Benzene, Epoch, Denver Quarterly, Iowa Review, Third Coast, Shenandoah, Bomb, Story Quarterly, American Short Fiction and other magazines.
Martone was born and grew up in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He attended Butler University and graduated from Indiana University. He holds the MA from The Writing Seminars of The Johns Hopkins University.
Martone has won two Fellowships from the NEA and a grant from the Ingram Merrill Foundation. His stories have won awards in the Italian Americana fiction contest, the Florida Review Short Story Contest, the Story magazine Short, Short Story Contest, the Margaret Jones Fiction Prize of Black Ice Magazine, and the first World’s Best Short, Short Story Contest. His stories and essays have appeared and been cited in the Pushcart Prize, The Best American Stories and The Best American Essays anthologies. In 2013 he received the national Indiana Authors Award, in 2016, the Mark Twain Award for Distinguished Contribution to Midwestern Literature, and in 2022, the Truman Capote Award Short Fiction.
Michael Martone is now Emeritus Professor at the University of Alabama where he had been teaching since 1996. He has been a faculty member of the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College since 1988. He also taught at Iowa State University, Harvard University, and Syracuse University.
Judging Process:
The staff of Midway Journal will select a group of finalists from all the contest entries. Finalists will be chosen for strong work regardless of genre and sent to the judge by September. The finalists will be sent to judge blindly. A winner will be announced in October.
Enter Midway Journal’s Action/Words Poetry Contest for a chance to win the $300 grand prize! See contest guidelines below.
Opens: October 1st
Closes: December 31st
Fee: $10 per entry (unlimited entries)
Prizes:
First Prize: $300 + publication in Midway Journal
Second Prize: $150 + publication in Midway Journal
Third Prize: $50 + publication in Midway Journal
Judge: Leah Umansky
Contest Guidelines:
Entries and payments must be received through Midway Journal‘s online submission manager under “Action/Words Poetry Contest.” You may submit an unlimited number of entries, but a new entry fee must be paid for each new submission.
Action/Words Poetry Contest seeks submissions that call for, enact, or reflect upon connections between poetry and praxis. Each fall, the Midway team will select a verb to serve as the “action word” and theme for that year’s contest. This year, we have selected the verb “to face.” We welcome writers to submit poems that respond directly or indirectly to the various meanings of this term.
Paste the title of your submission and your bio and contact information (name, mailing address, email address, etc.) in the cover letter box. Your name and contact information must not appear anywhere on the manuscript you upload.
Previously published work will not be accepted. Simultaneous submissions are permitted but must be withdrawn from the contest if accepted elsewhere.
Poetry: up to 3 poems per entry. Any style. No word limits. No more than one poem per page.
All submissions will be considered for publication.
2024 Winners Judged by Ana Bozicevic:
1st place: He Promises the World Won’t End, by Sara Moore Wagner
2nd place: Altitude, by Robbie Gamble
3rd place: Split Sonnet: Sea Poles, by Jennifer Harrison
2025 Judge: Leah Umansky
Leah Umansky is the author of three collections of poetry, including her newest, OF TYRANT (Word Works Books 2024.) She earned her MFA in Poetry at Sarah Lawrence College and has curated and hosted The COUPLET Reading Series in NYC since 2011. Her creative work has been featured on PBS and The Slowdown Podcast, and in such places as The New York Times, The Nation, The Academy of American Poets’ Poem-A Day, POETRY, and American Poetry Review. She is an educator and writing coach who has taught workshops to all ages. She can be found at www.leahumansky.com and at @leah.umansky on IG.
Judging Process:
The staff of Midway Journal will select a group of finalists from all the contest entries. Finalists will be chosen for strong work regardless of style and sent to the judge by February. The finalists will be sent to judge blindly. A winner will be announced in March and published in Midway.