Deadline: August 31, 2014

Gulf Coast is now accepting entries for the 2014 Barthelme Prize for Short Prose. The contest is open to pieces of prose poetry, flash fiction, and micro-essays of 500 words or fewer. Established in 2008, the contest awards its winner $1,000 and publication in the journal. Two honorable mentions will also appear in issue 27.2, due out in April 2015, and all entries will be considered for paid publication on our website as Online Exclusives. To view last year’s winner and honorable mentions, you can purchase issue 26.2 here.

This year’s contest will be judged by Amy Hempel. A recipient of awards from the Guggenheim and United States Artists Foundations, and the Academy of Arts and Letters, Amy Hempel is the author of four collections of stories. Published in Harper’s, Vanity Fair, Tin House, GQ, and many more, her Collected Stories was named by the New York Times as one of the ten best books of 2007. It won the Ambassador Book Award for best fiction of the year. In 2008 and 2009, the REA Award and PEN/Malamud Award for the Short Story followed. She teaches at Harvard and Bennington.

We will accept submissions both via our online submissions manager (http://www.gulfcoastmag.org/submissions/) and via postal mail.

Contest Guidelines: Online Submissions

  • Submissions accepted via Gulf Coast’s online submissions manager.
  • Submit up to three pieces of short prose in a single .doc, .docx, .rtf, or .pdf file.
  • Only previously unpublished work will be considered.
  • The contest will be judged blindly, so please do not include your cover letter, your name, or any contact information in the uploaded document. This information should only be pasted in the “Comments” field.

Contest Guidelines: Postal Mail Submissions

  • Only previously unpublished work will be considered.
  • Please address postal mail entries to:
    Gulf Coast
    ATTN: Barthelme Prize in Short Prose
    Department of English
    University of Houston
    Houston, TX 77204-3013
  • The contest will be judged blindly, so your contact information should appear only on your cover letter.
  • Please include your $17 reading fee, payable in U.S. dollars to “Gulf Coast.”

Visit the website:  http://gulfcoastmag.org/contests/barthleme-prize/