2025 Plentitudes Prizes in Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry & Flash
Submission Guidelines
Four grand prizes of $1,000 each and publication in The Plentitudes is given annually for a single poem, a work of flash fiction or nonfiction, a short story, and an essay. Using only the online submission system, submit up to three poems of no more than 65 lines each, a work of flash fiction or nonfiction of up to 1,000 words, or a story or essay of 1,000 to 5,000 words with a $20 entry fee.
Awards: Winners in each genre will receive $1,000; second-place winners will receive $300; and third-place winners will receive $200. Winners will be notified by email in March 2025 and published in the Journal's Spring 2025 Issue.
Submission Fee: There is a $20 fee (non-refundable) for each entry.
Submission Platforms: Submit via Submittable or Duotrope from November 1 - December 31, 2024.
Deadline: The submission deadline is December 31, 2024, at 11:59 p.m., Eastern Time.
Judging: First round judging by our Editorial Staff. Final round judging by our 2025 Guest Judges:
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Our Fiction Guest Judge is Annell López.
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Our Nonfiction Guest Judge is Melody Nixon.
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Our Poetry Guest Judge is Dana Isokawa.
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Our Flash Guest Judge is Celine Aenlle-Rocha.
Guidelines:
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Multiple submissions by the same writer is permitted, though each must be submitted under a separate entry. 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. Simultaneous submissions are fine, as long as you contact us if the work is accepted elsewhere.
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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have seven days upon the receipt of email to confirm their publication agreement; otherwise, the offer is considered rescinded. Submissions must be must be an original, unpublished work, written by the submitter. Submissions also must be primarily in English, though we welcome writers to leverage their linguistic diversity.
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The Plentitudes 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.
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Marginalized voices, including BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, and Disability writers, are particularly encouraged to submit.
Third Annual Plentitudes Prizes
Meet Our 2025 Guest Judges
Fiction Prizes
Judge: Annell López
Annell López is the winner of the Louise Meriwether First Book Prize and the author of the short story collection I’LL GIVE YOU A REASON from the Feminist Press. A Peter Taylor Fellow at the Kenyon Review Writers Workshops, her work has also received support from Tin House and has appeared in Guernica, American Short Fiction, Michigan Quarterly Review, Brooklyn Rail, The Common, Refinery29 and elsewhere. López received her MFA from the University of New Orleans.
Flash Prizes
Judge: Celine Aenlle-Rocha
Celine Aenlle-Rocha is a Lecturer in Undergraduate Writing at Columbia University, where she earned an MFA in Fiction. She has received fellowships from the Kimbilio Writers’ Retreat, Key West Literary Seminar, Macondo Workshop, and Martha’s Vineyard Institute for Creative Writing, as well as residencies from the Hambidge Center, Collar Works, the Fairhope Center for the Arts, and Art Farm. Her work has recently appeared in swamp pink, The Brooklyn Rail, Tahoma Literary Review, Joyland, and Obsidian, among others. She is the recipient of Nimrod's 2021 Katherine Anne Porter Prize for Fiction.
Nonfiction Prizes
Judge: Melody Nixon
Melody Nixon (she/they) is a Kiwi-American writer, critic, and academic. She holds an MFA in creative nonfiction from Columbia University, where she taught creative writing from 2019 – 2021, and continues to advise MFA students. They also hold an interdisciplinary PhD in literary criticism and critical race and ethnicity studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Melody co-founded Apogee Journal, a journal dedicated to supporting underrepresented voices in US publishing, in 2010. They also co-curated and hosted the First Person Plural Reading Series in Harlem, New York for three years, and served as the Interviews Editor of The Common for seven years.
You can read Melody’s essays, reviews, and criticism in The London Review of Books, Literary Hub, BOMB Magazine, Conjunctions, Electric Literature, Public Books, and Landfall, among others. Melody currently teaches at Massey University and Te Kura Toi Whakaari O Aotearoa in Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Aotearoa, where she lives with her partner and daughter.
Poetry Prizes
Judge: Dana Isokawa
Dana Isokawa is the editor in chief of The Margins and a contributing editor of Poets & Writers Magazine. She received her MFA in poetry from NYU and lives in Brooklyn.
Congratulations to all the Winners and Honorees in
The 2023 Plentitudes Prizes
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2023 Nonfiction Prizes
Guest Judge: Nigel Collett
First Place: The Greyhound by Alan Sincic
Second Place: When You Used to Love Me by Cindy Dean Jones
Third Place: From the Blind, Peruvian Amazon by Peggy Shrum
Finalists
Experience Sisters by Sandra Eliason
Too Late by Cynthia Carlisle Fields
Irina, Act II by Madeleine Jullian
The John Problem by Judith Stiles
On (God) Mothering by Haley Swanson
Honorable Mentions
In Strange Company by J.D. Mathes
The Hurricane by Lynne Schmidt
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2023 Fiction Prizes
Guest Judge: Tia Clark
First Place: No, Marty is Not on Instagram by Shayla Frandsen
Second Place: Diomedéa by Sandra Jackson-Opoku
Third Place: Empty Dresses by Lisa Michelle Corn
Finalists
American Cockroach by Rachel Chapman
The Prank Caller by Greta Klassen
Twenty Four Years Later by Iris Harris
Pigs by Ronald McGuire
Our Little Manila by Alessandro Romero
Someday I'll Love You by Sara Surani
Honorable Mentions
Easy Mondays by Lena Benenstein
Passing Strangers by Holly Woodward
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2023 Poetry Prizes
Guest Judge: Leah Umansky
First Place: Love (in the Shade of Midnight Blue) by Nicole Buzzelli
Second Place: The Rock by R.B. Simon
Third Place: Echoes of Diaspora by River 瑩瑩 Dandelion
Finalists
Weedkiller by Jonathan Fletcher
Decay, 1981 by H.E. Fisher
The Sky is (Not) Falling by Hassan A. J.
Reunion by Amanda Leon
The Hungry by C.L. Liedekev
Like a Good Man Does by Rachel Mikita
Windshield Glass by Lynne Schmidt
Yegors Memory by Sylvain
Honorable Mentions
Supermarket by Eva Gonzalez
Causality Study, Bosnia, 1996 by Laura Joyce-Hubbard
romanced by wrath, unspoken by Sofia Linn Macías
Read winning pieces in the 2023 Special Prizes Issue
2024 Plentitudes Prizes
Second Annual Plentitudes Prizes
2024 Guest Judges
Congratulations to all the Winners and Honorees in
The 2024 Plentitudes Prizes
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2024 Fiction Prizes
Guest Judge: Joss Lake
First Place: Slackdrop by Jenna Bly
Second Place: The Stone Man's Harem by Helen Han Wei Luo
Third Place: Visa Gods by Ber Anena
Finalists
Nature by Dwayne Scott Davis
Sprint for Integrity by Iris Harris
Shattered Cup by Mario René Padilla
Certain Dark Things by Kayli Paulston
Small by Sharon Lee Snow
Trip, Fall by Kem Joy Ukwu
Honorable Mentions
Flight of Fancy by Paul Byall
Absolution by Nancy L. Davis
Jesus Wept by Dennis Reed
Trash by Elizabeth Quirk
White Flag by Tara Williams
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2024 Nonfiction Prizes
Guest Judge: Daniel Allen Cox
First Place: I Dream of Mermaids, Memories, Shapeshifting and Serpents by Alisha Acquaye
Second Place: The Myth of the Perfect Victim by Emily Withnall
Third Place: A Traveling Pantry by Kosisochukwu W. Ugwuede
Finalists
Queering the Island by Robin Carstensen
family/bił kééhashtʼíinii stories by Anne Gudger
Calamity by B.C. Reynolds
Telephones by Faith Shearin
Dragonflies by Sean Wang
Night and Day by Thalia Williamson
Honorable Mentions
A Routine of Impermanence by Désirée Jung
How She Suffered by Sarah Orman
Jesus Wept by Dennis Reed
Breeding in Captivity by Amelia Skinner Saint
Snapshots by Tori Weston
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2024 Poetry Prizes
Guest Judge: Mahtem Shiferraw
First Place: After I give you the great American novel by K. Hari
Second Place: GONEWOMAN by Molly Pershin Raynor
Third Place: Flood Elegy by Lillian Emerick Valentine
Finalists
Do You Speak Spanish? by Porsha Allen
Proxy Season by Megan Duffy
The Sunken Cathedral by Hilde Weisert
November by Caroline Wellman
Editors' Final Round Picks
Routine by AJ Baumel
Just Like It Had Before by Taylor Bland
Olam HaBa by Bay Colt
June 12, 2020 by Joy Johnston
Self-portrait as St. Petersburg by Olga Mexina
Subversion by Amanda Powell
Guadalupe by Linda Ravenswood
Father of Two by Jendi Reiter
Learning to Read a Compass by Kristen Richards
Tía rebuilds her house as she snores by Purvi Shah
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Read winning pieces in the 2024 Special Prizes Issue