The winning author will receive a prize of $1,000, a contract for publication by Stillhouse Press, 10 copies of their book, and paid transport to the 2017 Fall for the Book festival in Northern Virginia, where the winner will participate in a reading and conversation with contest judge, Porochista Kahkpour. The contest is open from April 1st - June 15th, with the winner to be announced at the 2016 Fall for the Book festival.
RULES
- Reading fee: $25/submission (multiple submisisons allowed); reading fee is non-refundable.
- All submissions will be considered for publication.
- Simultaneous submissions are allowed. Please notify us if your manuscript is accepted elsewhere.
- All manuscripts should include a query letter and an overview of the work. Authors are also invited to share information about their writing background, on-line presence, involvemet with the writing community, and inspiration for their work.
- Only complete manuscripts of literary fiction (a novel, or a collection of short stories or linked stories) will be considered. Our ideal manuscript is between 60,000-90,000 words; please include word count in the top right corner of the first page.
- Previously published books and books forthcoming elsewhere cannot be considered; poems previously published in priodicals or chapbooks are acceptable. Al work must be original. Translations will not be accepted.
- Finalists will be judged by Kyle Dargan; Stillhouse Press cannot consider work from anyone currently or recently affiliated with the judge.
- Entries will only be accepted online via Stillhouse Press' Submittable page; no hard copies or emailed submissions will be accepted.
- Deadline for submissions is 11:59 p.m. EST, Wednesday, June 15th, 2016.
JUDGE
Porochista Khakpour is the author of two novels, Sons and Other Flammable Objects: A Novel (Grove Press, 2008), a New York Times “Editor’s Choice,” and The Last Illusion (Bloomsbury, 2014), which was named by NPR as one of the “Best Books of 2014.” Born in Tehran in 1978 and raised in the Greater Los Angeles area, her work has been nominated for several Pushcart Prizes. She has been awarded fellowships from the NEA, Johns Hopkins University, Northwestern University, Sewanee, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and Yaddo. Khakpour's essays and stories have appeared in or are forthcoming in Harper’s, The New York Times, The Paris Review Daily, Elle, Spin, Slate, Salon, Poets & Writers, The Rumpus, Guernica, Departures, Paper, Flaunt, Nylon, Bidoun, Alef, and Canteen, among others. She is currently a Writer in Residence at Bard College in New York.