USA: Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction

The following is a call for stories from the Flannery O'Connor Short Fiction Award:

The University of Georgia Press is proud to be the publisher of the Flannery O'Connor Short Fiction Award series. More than fifty short fiction collections have appeared in the series, which was established to encourage gifted emerging writers by bringing their work to a national readership. The first prize-winning book was published in 1983; the award has since become an important proving ground for writers and a showcase for the talent and promise that have brought about a resurgence in the short story as a genre. Winners are selected through an annual competition. Past winners of the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction include such widely read authors as Ha Jin, Antonya Nelson, Rita Ciresi, and Mary Hood. For news and updates about the competition and past winners, visit the Flannery O'Connor Short Fiction Award on Facebook. The contest is open for submissions from April 1 to May 31 each year.

Dates for submission: Manuscripts may be submitted between April 1 and May 31. Winners will be announced by the end of August.

If you encounter any technical difficulties while using the submissions manager, don't hesitate to contact our submission manager support: support@submishmash.com and/or phone: 1-406-480-6274. The $25 entry fee can be paid online via credit card or PayPal.

Selection process: Each of three contest judges reads approximately one third of the manuscripts submitted to the competition, with a fourth judge available if needed based on the total number of submissions. Judges select 7-10 finalists each; the pool of finalist manuscripts is read by series editor Nancy Zafris, who makes the final selection of two winning manuscripts. Authors of winning manuscripts receive a cash award of $1,000, and their collections are subsequently published by the University of Georgia Press under a standard book contract. More information about the series editor and this year's judges can be found at http://www.ugapress.org/index.php/series/FOC.

Eligibility
The competition is open to writers in English, whether published or unpublished. Writers must be residents of North America.

Manuscript guidelines
1. Manuscripts must be between 40,000-75,000 words in length.
2. The award recognizes outstanding collections of short fiction. Collections may include long stories or novellas (est. length of a novella is 50-150 pages). However, novels or single novellas will not be considered.
3. Stories included in the submission may have appeared previously in magazines or anthologies but may not have been previously published in a book-length collection of the author’s own work.
4. Authors may submit more than one manuscript to the competition for consideration as long as no material is duplicated between submissions. Each submission will require a separate entry fee.
5. Manuscripts under consideration for this competition may be submitted elsewhere at the same time. Please notify us immediately (via e-mail at press[at]ugapress.uga.edu) if your manuscript is accepted by another publisher and should be withdrawn from the Flannery O’Connor Short Fiction Award competition (entry fees are not refundable).

Blind review
The intent of this contest is that manuscripts will be considered on the merits of the fiction and that judges will not be aware of the names or publication records of the authors. To this end:
1. Please do not include a list of acknowledgments crediting where stories have been published.
2. Please do not include your name on the pages of the manuscript – only in the form boxes of the electronic submission manager. The first page of the manuscript should include the title of the collection only.
Judges who recognize work will recuse themselves and the submission will be reassigned to a different judge.

Confirmation of receipt and notification

Receipt of your submission will be confirmed via e-mail. An announcement of winners and finalists will be sent to all entrants via e-mail by the end of August.