-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: $50 + publication in Midway Journal
Judge: Jose Hernandez Diaz
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 Simultaneous submissions are permitted, but must be withdrawn from the contest if accepted elsewhere.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 50 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: Jose Hernandez Diaz
Jose Hernandez Diaz is a 2017 NEA Poetry Fellow. He is the author of The Fire Eater (Texas Review Press, 2020) Bad Mexican, Bad American (Acre Books, 2024) and The Parachutist (Sundress Publications, 2025). He has been published in The American Poetry Review, The Yale Review, The London Magazine, Poetry Wales, The Iowa Review, Huizache, The Missouri Review, Epoch Magazine, The Nation, Poetry, The Progressive, Poets.org, The Southern Review, and in The Best American Nonrequired Reading. He teaches generative workshops for Hugo House, Lighthouse Writers Workshops, The Writer’s Center, and elsewhere. Additionally, he serves as a Poetry Mentor in The Adroit Journal Summer Mentorship Program.
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: Ana Božičević
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 split.” 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.
Judge: Ana Božičević
Ana Božičević is a poet and writer. She grew up in Zadar, Croatia before coming to the States.
Her new book is New Life (Wave Books, 2023). She is also the author of Povratak lišća /Return of the Leaves, Selected Poems in Croatian (Hrvatsko Društvo Pisaca/Croatian Writers Society, 2020); Joy of Missing Out (Birds, LLC, 2017); the Lambda Award-winning Rise in the Fall (Birds, LLC, 2013), and Stars of the Night Commute (Tarpaulin Sky Press, 2009). She received the 40 Under 40: The Future of Feminism award from Feminist Press, and the PEN American Center/NYSCA grant for translating It Was Easy to Set the Snow on Fire by Zvonko Karanović (Phoneme Media, 2015). The anthology of translations The Day Lady Gaga Died: An Anthology of Newer New York Poets (Peti Talas/Fifth Wave) she co-edited with Željko Mitić appeared in Fall 2011.
Ana has a MFA in Poetry from Hunter College. At the PhD Program in English at The Graduate Center of the City University of New York she studied New American poetics and alternative art schools and communities, and edited lectures by Diane di Prima for Lost & Found: The CUNY Poetics Document Initiative. Ana has read, taught & performed at Bruce High Quality Foundation University, Bowery Poetry Club, Brooklyn Poets, Harvard, Naropa, San Francisco State University Poetry Center, the Sorbonne, Third Man Records, University of Arizona Poetry Center, and The Watermill Center. Her poetry workshops explore image, performance, and the lyric.
Ana has served on the board of Ruth Stone Foundation and loves their work at the Ruth Stone House in Vermont — check it out.
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.