I am excited to announce the second annual Emerging Writers Network Short Fiction Contest. The winning story will be posted on this blog during the month of December 2007. I have not yet found a journal that will guarantee publishing the story as well, but that still remains a strong possibility. The author will also receive $1000, a doubling of prize money from last year. Update: The incredible literary journal, Storyglossia, has offered to publish the winning story in an issue following the announcement of the winner. This is very exciting to me as Steven McDermott has been publishing absolutely excellent fiction for some time now!

While the stories will all initially be read and evaluated by myself, 20 finalists will be passed along to this year’s Guest Judge: Alyson Hagy!! She will select a winner out of these 20 finalists and write a brief introduction as to what it was that jumped out at her, and elevated it to the top of her pile. Alyson Hagy has published a trio of story collections, as well as the novel, Keeneland. Her second novel, Snow, Ashes, will be published by Graywolf Press next month.

Now for the W’s:

Entry Fee: $15 (an increase from last year, yet not the doubling that you see in the prize money!)

Deadline: All stories must be physically mailed and arrive with a postmark of July 1, 2007 or earlier (and feel free to start sending as early as today)

Length: Stories must be between 3000 and 8000 words in length

Other: As the stories will be judged blind, please send a cover letter that includes the story name as well as your own name and contact information, including an email address. Please also send two copies of the story, pages numbered, story title on the first page, and NO OTHER information beyond the story itself.

Rules:

No former classmates of either Alyson Hagy or Dan Wickett are eligible to win.

No students, former students, or former instructors of either Alyson Hagy or Dan Wickett are eligible to win. This includes students of any seminars Alyson may have taught, as well as creative writing classes.

No family members of either Alyson Hagy or Dan Wickett are eligible to win.

Of the 20 stories selected by Dan Wickett as finalists, at least half will come from non-EWN members (to ensure no pro-EWN member bias on my part, unintentional or not). This caveat relies on having received at least 10 submissions from non-EWN members. (In the inaugural EWN Short Fiction Contest, 11 of the 20 stories selected as finalists were from non-EWN members).

The 20 finalists will be sent to Alyson Hagy with no author names – she will be selecting her winner blindly. Once she’s made a choice – we will verify that Hagy has never been a student of, the author; nor a former professor of the author; nor a former classmate of the author; nor a family member of the author. At that point, we will announce the winner.

The 20 finalist titles and authors will be listed on this blog in the winner announcement post, again, in December 2007.

As this is an EMERGING WRITERS network – only authors who have (or will have) published three books or less as of December 31, 2007 will be eligible to win.

2 copies (as detailed above) of the manuscripts, and checks for $15 (made out to Dan Wickett) per entry, should be mailed to:

Dan Wickett
EWN 2007 Short Fiction Contest
1334 Woodbourne Street
Westland, MI 48186