Third Coast Contest Now Open!

2013 Jaimy Gordon Prize in Fiction: $1,000 & Publication

Judged by: Antonya Nelson

2013 Third Coast Poetry Prize : $1,000 & Publication

Judged by: Jane Hirshfield

Complete Guidelines for Online Submissions

1. Submit one previously unpublished story of up to 9,000 words or three (3) previously unpublished poems under the proper heading (Fiction Contest or Poetry Contest). Multiple contest entries in one or more genres are permitted, but you must submit each piece separately.

2. There is a $16 reading fee for each entry, and each entry fee entitles entrant to a 1-year subscription to Third Coast, an extension of an existing subscription, or a gift subscription. Please indicate your choice in the “cover letter” box and include a complete address for subscription.

3. All manuscripts should be typed (fiction entries should be double-spaced). Please include entry title(s) and page numbers on all manuscript pages. Since the judging is blind, the author’s name and identifying information (including address, telephone, and email) should be appear only in the “cover letter” box; identifying information must not appear anywhere on the manuscript itself.

4. Simultaneous submissions are permitted; if accepted elsewhere, we ask that work be withdrawn from the contest immediately. If a poem or story is chosen as a finalist, Third Coast requires that it be withdrawn from any other publication considerations until the winner is selected. 

5. Winners will be announced in April 2013 and published in the Fall 2013issue of Third Coast.  All contest entries will be considered for regular inclusion in Third Coast.

6. Writers associated with the judges or Third Coast are not eligible to submit work to the contest.

7. No money will be refunded. Submissions will not be returned.

Submit Online Here

Complete Guidelines for Postal Submissions

1. Submit one previously unpublished story of up to 9,000 words or three (3) previously unpublished poems with a $16 reading fee payable to Third Coast. Please send each entry separately and clearly mark whether it is a poetry or fiction entry. Send entries and reading fee to:

Third Coast 2011 Fiction or Poetry Contest
Department of English
Western Michigan University
1903 W Michigan Ave.
Kalamazoo, MI 49008-5331

2. Each $16 entry fee entitles entrant to a 1-year subscription to Third Coast, an extension of an existing subscription, or a gift subscription. Please indicate your choice and enclose a complete address for subscription.

3. All manuscripts should be typed (fiction entries should be double-spaced), and accompanied by a cover letter with the author's name, contact information (address, telephone, and email address), and entry title(s). Please include entry title(s) and page numbers on all manuscript pages. Since the judging is blind, the author’s name and identifying information should only appear on the cover letter; identifying information must not appear anywhere on the manuscript itself.

4. Simultaneous submissions are permitted; if accepted elsewhere, we ask that work be withdrawn from the contest immediately. If a poem or story is chosen as a finalist, Third Coast requires that it be withdrawn from any other publication considerations until the winner is selected. 

5. Winners will be announced in April 2013 and published in the Fall 2013issue of Third Coast. All contest entries will be considered for regular inclusion in Third Coast.

6. Writers associated with the judges or Third Coast are not eligible to submit work to the contest.

7. No money will be refunded. Submissions will not be returned. Send SASE for results only.

About the Judges

Jane Hirshfield is the author of seven collections of poetry, including the new Come, Thief, After (shortlisted for England’s T.S. Eliot Prize and named a “best book of 2006” by the Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the London Financial Times), Given Sugar, Given Salt, (finalist for the 2001 National Book Critics Circle Award), The Lives of the Heart, and The October Palace, as well as a book of essays, Nine Gates: Entering the Mind of Poetry. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Times Literary Supplement, The Nation, Orion, The American Poetry Review, Poetry, six editions of The Best American Poetry, and many other publications. In 2012, she was elected a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets.

Antonya Nelson is the author of eight books of fiction, including Female Trouble and the novels Talking in Bed, Nobody’s Girl, and Living to Tell.Nelson’s work has appeared in the New Yorker, Esquire, Harper’s, Redbook,and many other magazines, as well as in anthologies such as Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards, and Best American Short Stories. Her books have been New York Times Notable Books of 1992, 1996, 1998, and 2000. The New Yorker called her one of the “twenty young fiction writers for the new millennium.” She is also a recent recipient of the Rea Award for Short Fiction and is a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and an NEA Grant.