The 2011 Third Coast Fiction & Poetry Contests

EXTENDED DEADLINE: January 15, 2011

Fiction Prize: $1,000 & Publication 

Poetry Prize : $1,000 & Publication

Final Judges

Fiction: Brad Watson         Poetry: Natasha Trethewey

 Complete Guidelines: www.thirdcoastmagazine.com/contests

1. Submit one previously unpublished story of up to 9,000 words or three (3) previously unpublished poems with a $15 reading fee payable to Third Coast.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 $15 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.  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 Simultaneous submissions are permitted; if accepted elsewhere, we ask that work be withdrawn from the contest immediately. If a poem or story is chosen as a finalist, Third Coast requires that it be withdrawn from any other publication considerations until the winner is selected. If the poem or story is scheduled to be published elsewhere before September 2011, please do not submit it.

5. Winners will be announced in March 2011 and published in the Fall 2011 issue 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

Brad Watson won the Sue Kauffman Award for First Fiction from the American Academy of Arts & Letters for his first collection, Last Days of the Dog-Men. His first novel, The Heaven of Mercury, was a finalist for the 2002 National Book Award. Watson’s most recent collection of stories is Aliens in the Prime of Their Lives (2010).

Natasha Trethewey is the winner of the 2007 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry for her book Native Guard. Her first poetry collection, Domestic Work, won the Cave Canem Poetry Prize, and her second collection, Bellocq’s Ophelia, was named a Notable Book for 2003. Trethewey’s most recent work is a book of creative non-fiction, titled Beyond Katrina: A Meditation on the Mississippi Gulf (2010).

Complete guidelines can be found at www.thirdcoastmagazine.com/contests