2021 Poetry and Fiction Awards
Work for the awards is accepted year round; if received between contest seasons, it will be held for the next year’s competition. The deadline for 2021 is April 2.
The 2021 Sherwood Anderson Fiction Award
First Prize: $1,000 and publication
Finalists: Notation, possible publication
Final Judge: Sequoia Nagamatsu, author of Where We Go When All We Were Is Gone (Black Lawrence, 2016) and the forthcoming How High We Go in the Dark and Girl Zero (William Morrow/Harper Collins).
The 2021 James Wright Poetry Award
First Prize: $1000 and publication
Finalists: Notation, possible publication
Final Judge: TBA
Contest Fee: $10 for 1 story of up to 6000 words or up to 3 poems. You may submit online or by post. If submitting online, please be sure to select the correct contest for your genre designation (Sherwood Anderson or James Wright), rather than selecting Poetry or Fiction. If submitting by post, please make checks and money orders payable to Mid-American Review. Our prize for each contest is $1000 and publication of our winner. All participants receive the issue in which our winners are printed!
The contests are for previously unpublished work only–if the work has appeared in print or online, or has been contracted for such, it is ineligible and will be disqualified. Manuscripts and intro material need not be left anonymous. Close contacts (students, friends, family) of the judge in a particular contest may not submit to that contest.
The 2019-2020 Awards
Our congratulations to Bethany Kaylor, author of “Ghost World,” winner of the 2019-2020 Sherwood Anderson Fiction Award, and Sarah Burke, author of “Open Letter to Frida Kahlo,” winner of the 2019-2020 James Wright Poetry Award.
Their works appear in issue 40.2, currently in distribution!
Thank you to our 2019-2020 judges, Mark Wagenaar and Robert James Russell!
The 2018-2019 Awards
Our congratulations to Chris Morgan, author of “A Short History of Violence,” winner of the 2018-2019 Sherwood Anderson Fiction Award, and Mark Wagenaar, author of “Psalm XXXI,” winner of the 2018-2019 James Wright Poetry Award.
Their works appear in issue 39.2, available now!
Thank you to our 2018-2019 judges, Phong Nguyen and Alan Michael Parker!
Additional Information
All queries regarding the contests can be directed to the MAR Staff.
