Announcement: The 2024 Plentitudes Prizes in Fiction, Nonfiction, & Poetry

We are delighted to announce the launch of our Second Annual Plentitudes Prizes.

Submissions Guidelines

From November 1 to December 31, 2023, submit short stories and essays between 1,000 to 5,000 words, or a set of 1-3 poems of no more than 65 lines each. Winners in each genre will receive $1,000; second-place winners will receive $300; and third-place winners will receive $200. All winners and runner-ups will be considered for publication.

Awards: First Prize in each genre is $1,000, Second Prize is $300, Third Prize is $200.

Submission Fee: There is a $20 fee (non-refundable) for each entry.

Submission Platforms: We accept submissions through Submittable and Duotrope.

Timing: The submission deadline is December 31, 2023, at 11:59 p.m., Eastern Time. Winners will be notified by email and announced on the Journal's website in our Special Prizes (Spring 2024) Issue.

Judging:

First-round judging by Editors, with final-round judging by this year's Guest Judges:

Mahtem Shiferraw (Guest Judge for Poetry)

Mahtem Shiferraw is a writer and visual artist from Ethiopia and Eritrea. Her work has been published in various literary magazines, including Callaloo, Prairie Schooner, Poets.org, The 2River View, Luna Luna Magazine, Diverse Voices Quarterly, Numero Cinq, and more. Her short story The River received an honorable mention from Glimmer Train’s Open Fiction Contest. She is the author of three full-length poetry collections; FUCHSIA (University of Nebraska Press, 2016) which won the Sillerman First Book Prize for African Poets; YOUR BODY IS WAR (University of Nebraska Press, 2019) and NOMENCLATURES OF INVISIBILITY (BOA Editions Ltd., 2023). She is also the author of the chapbook collection BEHIND WALLS & GLASS (Finishing Line Press, 2015). She has served as an editor, curator or advisor for different literary journals including Atlas and Alice, The Bleeding Lion, The Hunger Mountain, and more. She is the founder and executive director of ANAPHORA ARTS, a nonprofit organization that advocates for writers and artists of color. She has served as a jury member for different literary prizes and artist residencies, including the Neudstat International Prize for Literature, the Brunel International African Poetry Prize, the Lucy Munro Brooker Prize, and more. She is a Pushcart prize nominee, and her work has been anthologized widely. As of 2020, she also serves on the Editorial Board of World Literature Today, where she curated the Black Voices Series (2020, 2021) and the New African Voices portfolio. She holds an MFA from Vermont College.

Joss Lake (Guest Judge for Fiction)

Joss Lake is a novelist and educator. His first book, Future Feeling, was long-listed for the PEN/Hemingway award for debut novel. He was named one of the Strand’s “30 Writers to Watch.” He currently teaches at Columbia University and The School of the New York Times. He was a 2022 Jacob Julien Visiting Writer at Wesleyan University. He runs a literary sauna series called Trans at Rest and received a Columbia University Provost’s Emerging Technology Grant to implement VR into creative writing courses. He lives in the Catskills.

Daniel Allen Cox (Guest Judge for Nonfiction)

Daniel Allen Cox is the author of I Felt the End Before It Came: Memoirs of a Queer Ex-Jehovah’s Witness, and four novels. His essays have appeared in The Guardian, The Globe and Mail, Electric Literature, Literary Hub, The Malahat Review, and elsewhere, and have been recognized by Best Canadian Essays and The Best American Essays. Read more at: danielallencox.net.

Guidelines:

All writers who enter will be notified by email of the judges’ decisions, which will be final. Winners will have seven days upon the receipt of email to confirm their publication agreement; otherwise, the offer is considered rescinded. Submissions must be in English and must be an original, unpublished work, written by the submitter.
Multiple submissions by the same writer is permitted, though each must be submitted under a separate entry.
Simultaneous submissions are fine, as long as you contact us if the work is accepted elsewhere.
All entries will be considered for publication.
You may retain your name on the submission, but you may not submit if you are personally connected to any of the guest judges and/or the editors.
The Plentitudes Journal acquires First Rights for accepted works for publication. Upon acceptance of publication, The Plentitudes Journal retains the right to be the sole publisher of the works for the first year from the initial date of publication. Thereafter, contributors may republish their works, with The Plentitudes Journal credited as the initial publisher. The Plentitudes Journal retains the right to re-publish works designated for print publication in an anthology and on our social media platforms.
Historically marginalized voices, including BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and Disability writers, are particularly encouraged to submit.