Submit a single work of creative nonfiction, with a maximum length of 600 words. The subject should be a story about love—the presence, absence, complications, hesitations, headlong rush into.  The best essays will focus on a specific event or experience and explore its larger implications and meanings.  Winners will receive publication on the back page of Iris and a two-year subscription. Due Date: November 11th. Entry Fee:  $10....

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Award winning author and psychotherapist Dr. Joan Blacher will discuss the process of writing mystery novels at the November 8th meeting of the Ventura County Writers Club (Ventura, CA – October 15, 2011) How can a writer make the transition from non-fiction academic writing to fiction? At the November 8th meeting of the Ventura County Writers Club (VCWC), Dr. Joan Blacher will talk about the experiences she went...

FISH FLASH FICTION CONTEST 2012 Judge: Michael Collins. Micheal Collins is the judge of the 2012 Contest. He is the acclaimed author of eight books, including novels and short stories which have been translated into seventeen languages. His work has garnered numerous awards, including Irish Novel of the Year along with being shortlisted for both The Man Booker Prize and Impac Prize. His novel, The Secret Life of E. Robert Pendleton won Breakout...

FISH POETRY CONTEST 2012 Judge: Billy Collins.  The ten best poems will be published in the 2012 Fish Anthology. First Prize: €1,000. Second Prize: a week at Anam Cara Writers & Artists Retreat in West Cork’s Beara Peninsula. Word limit: 200. Closes: 30 March 2012. Results announced: 30 April 2012. Entry €14. Critique €30 Visit the...

FISH SHORT MEMOIR CONTEST 2012 Judge: David Sheilds Great new contest – the Fish Short Memoir Contest, with David Shields as the judge. First prize is €2,000, and the ten best short memoirs will be published in the 2012 Fish Anthology.  David Shields author of Reality Hunger, the Judge for the inaugural Fish Short Memoir Contest famously said – It’s all in the art, you get no credit for living. Isn’t that the case? It is often...

FISH SHORT STORY CONTEST 2011/12 Judge: David Mitchell David Mitchell, author of Cloud Atlas, number9dream, Ghostwritten, Black Swan Green and The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, will be judging the 2011/12 prize. “If any readers have doubted that David Mitchell is phenomenally talented and capable of vaulting wonders on the page, they have been heretofore silent. Mitchell is almost universally acknowledged as the real deal. His...

The Fiddlehead presents its 21st annual literary contest: Deadline: Postmarked by December 1, 2011. The Fiddlehead, Atlantic Canada’s International Literary Journal, is holding its 21st annual contest. There are two contest categories, poetry and short fiction. In poetry the prizes are $1500 (Canadian) Ralph Gustafson Prize for Best Poem and $500 (Canadian) each for the 2 Honourable Mentions and in short fiction the prizes are $1500 (Canadian)...