Terrain.org 16th Annual Contest
More than $4,000 in prizes! $1,000 grand prize in each genre and $200 to finalists.
Deadline: September 1, 2025
The Terrain.org 15th Annual Contest is now closed. Semi-finalists, finalists, and others will be notified in December 2024.
We accept contest submissions from May 1 to U.S. Labor Day. The deadline for our 15th Annual Contest is September 1, 2025, for publication in February 2026.
Contest Details
Judges for 15th Annual Contest
Poetry: Paisley Rekdal
Paisley Rekdal is the author of four books of nonfiction and seven collections of poetry, including Animal Eye, a finalist for the 2013 Kingsley Tufts Prize and winner of the UNT Rilke Prize; Imaginary Vessels, finalist for the 2018 Kingsley Tufts Prize; Nightingale, winner of the 2020 Washington State Book Award for Poetry; and West: A Translation, which was longlisted for the 2023 National Book Award in Poetry and just received the 2024 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award. She is a distinguished professor at the University of Utah, where she directs the American West Center.
Nonfiction: Taylor Brorby
Taylor Brorby is the author of Boys and Oil: Growing up Gay in a Fractured Land, Crude: Poems, and Coming Alive: Action and Civil Disobedience, and co-editor of Fracture: Essays, Poems, and Stories on Fracking in America. His work has been supported by grants and fellowships from the National Book Critics Circle, the MacDowell Colony, the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture, Mesa Refuge, Blue Mountain Center, and the North Dakota Humanities Council. He is an assistant professor at the University of Alabama.
Fiction: Manuel Muñoz
2023 MacArthur Fellow Manuel Muñoz is the author of a novel, What You See in the Dark, and the short-story collections Zigzagger and The Faith Healer of Olive Avenue, which was shortlisted for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award. He is the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York Foundation for the Arts. He has been recognized with a Whiting Writer’s Award, three O. Henry Awards, and two selections in Best American Short Stories, and was awarded the 2023 Joyce Carol Oates Prize. His most recent collection, The Consequences, was published by Graywolf Press. It was a finalist for the Aspen Words Literary Prize and longlisted for the Story Prize. He is a professor at the University of Arizona.
Submission Period
The contest submission period for our 15th Annual Contest is May 1, 2025 to 11:59 p.m. on September 1, 2025 (Labor Day in the U.S.). Winners and finalists will be announced in December 2025.
Prizes
A prize of $1,000 plus publication for the first-place winner will be awarded in each genre. Finalists in each genre will also receive publication and a $200 prize.
Selection Process
All submissions are considered for publication. Terrain.org’s editors will read all entries, passing the top entries in each genre to the judges, who will choose the first-place winners. Decisions of the judges are final. Judges and editors do not know the identity of the contestants.
How to Submit
You are not eligible to enter this contest if you are a current student of the contest judges or if you have been a winner in the contest in the last five years. Finalists are welcome to submit again.
Simultaneous submissions are acceptable, but previously published material in any format, including blogs or social media, will not be considered. Submissions can be withdrawn through the submission system, though in that case contest entry fees will not be refunded. Individual components of submissions (i.e., a single poem in a poem set) may be withdrawn by sending a message through Submittable.
Cost
The cost to submit is $20 per story, essay or article, or set of 1-5 poems.
What to Submit
You may submit up to three entries (at $20/entry) in any or all genres:
Poetry
Submit 1-5 poems per entry. Combine all poems into a single document. For poetry, we are seeking the single best poem or set of poems. The entire submission must not exceed 7 pages. Poems must contain only the poem title(s) and poem(s) without the author name or contact information (including in the document header/footer).
Fiction
Submit one story, up to 5,000 words total, or up to 2 flash fictions, up to 1,000 words each, per entry. Stories must contain only the story title and story itself without the author name or contact information (including in the document header/footer).
Nonfiction
Submit one essay or article, up to 5,000 words total, or up to 2 flash essays, up to 1,000 words each, per entry. Essays must contain only the essay title and essay itself without the author name or contact information (including in the document header/footer). We will consider all nonfiction, but are most interested in creative nonfiction, including personal essays, lyric essays, memoir, literary journalism, and other literary forms.
The Submission Process
Submissions and payment for the 15th Annual Contest are conducted on our Submittable site.
Submit from May 1 – September 2!
Contest Winners
14th Annual Contest Winners
Poetry
“Prayer of a Nonbeliever” by Tim Raphael
Judged by Ross Gay
Nonfiction
“Equations for a Falling Body” by Katie Duane
Judged by Toni Jensen
Fiction
“Bust” by Hannah Smith
Judged by Talia Lakshmi Kolluri
13th Annual Contest Winners
Poetry
Two Poems by Maura High
Judged by Sean Hill
Nonfiction
“Loon Boy” by Yelizaveta P. Renfro
Judged by Janisse Ray
Fiction
“Chiara, Chiara” by Anna Farro Henderson
Judged by Kali Fajardo-Anstine
12th Annual Contest Winners
Poetry
Two Poems by Jennifer K. Sweeney
Judged by Ellen Bass
Nonfiction
“The Snake and the Sanctuary” by Melina Walling
Judged by Aimee Nezhukumatathil
Fiction
“The Frontier” by Sean Sam
Judged by Maurice Carlos Ruffin
11th Annual Contest Winners
Poetry
Five Science Poems by Susan Cohen
Judged by Arthur Sze
Nonfiction
“Notes on Building a Somewhat Bearable Space for Disbelief” by Kristina Moriconi
Judged by Julian Hoffman
Fiction
“Star, Fish” by Cameron Walker
Judged by Joy Castro
10th Annual Contest Winners
Poetry
“In the Forest,” “The Water, the Truth, the Water,” and “Grounded” by Stacey Balkun
Judged by Camille T. Dungy
Nonfiction
“Hysteresis” by Cara Stoddard
Judged by Alison Hawthorne Deming
Fiction
“The Night of the Day of the Dead” by Michael McGuire
Judged by Tara Lynn Masih
9th Annual Contest Winners
Poetry
“Tallow,” “Exhibit: ‘Song of Lost Species’,” and “armadillo” by Jane Lovell
Judged by Jane Hirshfield
Nonfiction
“The Violence of the Given World” by Sarah M. Wells
Judged by Elizabeth Dodd
Fiction
“Out of Good Ground” by John Thomson
Judged by Daniel Orozco
8th Annual Contest Winners
Poetry
Two Poems by Edward Harkness
Judged by Robert Wrigley
Nonfiction
“Ghost Trees” by Jennie Goode
Judged by Nicole Walker
Fiction
“N-Place Exiting” by Thomas Ausa
Judged by Padma Viswanathan
7th Annual Contest Winners
Poetry
One Poem in Four Parts by William Wright
Judged by Eamonn Grennan
Fiction
“Varya’s Black Suede Shoes” by Peter Justin Newall
Judged by Kate Bernheimer
Nonfiction
“Geography of the Self” by Catherine Mauk
Judged by Lauret Savoy
6th Annual Contest Winners
Theme: (Dis)placement
Poetry
Four Poems by G. L. Grey
Judged by Pattiann Rogers
Fiction
“Contrition” by William Cass
Judged by Luis Alberto Urrea
Nonfiction
“Of No Ground: Late Days in the Country of Eighteen Tides” by Lawrence Lenhart
Judged by Scott Russell Sanders
5th Annual Contest Winners
Poetry
Anne Haven McDonnell
“The Underworld is Alive” and “Emerging View”
Judged by Derek Sheffield
Nonfiction
Nancy Campbell
“The Library of Ice”
Judged by Julian Hoffman
4th Annual Contest Winners
Issue No. 34 : Elemental
Poetry
Rob Carney
“Seven Pages from The Book of Sharks“
Judged by John Daniel
Fiction
Eloise Schultz
“The Water Cycle”
Judged by Teague Bohlen
Nonfiction
Nancy Geyer
“(Dis)Appearances”
Judged by Kathryn Miles
3rd Annual Contest Winners
Issue No. 31 : Ruin and Renewal
Poetry
Genevieve Leet
“[when I died they found a nest of snakes in my intestines, their backs]” and “Somewhere beyond the curve of the earth, there is a ceremonial bamboo boat”
Judged by Suzanne Frischkorn
Nonfiction
Sonya Huber
“Love and Industry: A Midwestern Workbook”
Judged by Christopher Cokinos
Fiction
Courtney Amber Kilian
“Color Has History”
Judged by Skip Horack
2nd Annual Contest Winners
Issue No. 28 : Image
Poetry
Rebecca Dunham : “Morning: Joplin, MO”
Judged by Alison Hawthorne Deming
Nonfiction
Julian Hoffman : “Faith in a Forgotten Place” + Image Gallery
Judged by Elizabeth Dodd
Fiction
GE Tallant : “Song of the Turkey Vulture”
Judged by Andrew Wingfield
Inaugural Contest Winners
Issue No. 26 : The Signal in the Noise
Poetry
Laura-Gray Street : “Goya’s Dog”
Judged by Jessie Lendennie
Nonfiction
Elizabeth Dodd : “Sinuous”
Judged by David Rothenberg
Fiction
Andrew Wingfield : “Right of Way”
Judged by Aurelie Sheehan
For further information or assistance, please contact us.
