“RUMINATE Magazine is now accepting submissions for Issue 21. For this issue we are looking for essays or short fiction, deadline: May 15, 2011.  Poets may be interested in entering our annual Janet B. McCabe Poetry Prize. The Janet McCabe Poetry contest deadline is May 1, 2011. www.ruminatemagazine.org A good word, in and of itself, can be a spiritual endeavor expressing the beauty, creativity, and ironies of the human experience....

Over 50 writing contests are available at FanStory.com. Share your writing, get feedback for your stories and poems, and enter writing contests. All contests are free with membership.  $6.95 per month covers everything. Web address: http://www.fanstory.com/page/writing_contest/writing_contest.jsp

 Love/Loathe/Life – a challenge to writers to compose autobiographies in 555 words or less. The entry fee is $5.00 the winner receives $555, and several runners-up will be published as well. Submissions and fees can be provided online (paypal for fee and submit@555c.org for piece) or mailed to PO Box 247 Ross, Texas 76684. Deadline is April 30th, 2011. Please check us out at www.555c.org or call...

OKANAGAN MEMORIES SHORT STORY CONTEST Artistic Warrior Publishing is holding its first Short Story competition. The competition is open to all writers of all ages from anywhere the world.  The stories must be written in English, non-fiction, previously unpublished (in print and online) and between 1,000 and 3,000 words in length. The topic is “Okanagan Memories.” You may live in the Okanagan, have friends or relatives here, maybe you’ve...

Heather Sappenfield of Vail, Colorado, has been selected as winner of the fifth annual Danahy Fiction Prize by the editors of Tampa Review. She will receive a cash award of $1,000 and her winning short story,  “Indian Prayer,” will be published in Tampa Review 42, forthcoming in summer 2011.     Sappenfield recently earned her MFA from Pacific University in Forest Grove, Oregon, where she studied with Brady Udall, Pete Fromm, and Bonnie Jo...