Terrain.org 14th Annual Contest
More than $4,000 in prizes! $1,000 grand prize in each genre and $200 to finalists.
We accept contest submissions from May 1 to U.S. Labor Day. The deadline for our 14th Annual Contest is September 4, 2023, for publication in February 2024.
Contest Details
Judges for 14th Annual Contest
Poetry: Ross Gay
Ross Gay is the author of four books of poetry: Against Which; Bringing the Shovel Down; Be Holding, winner of the PEN American Literary Jean Stein Award; and Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude, winner of the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award and the 2016 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award. His first collection of essays, The Book of Delights, was released in 2019 and was a New York Times bestseller. His new collection of essays, Inciting Joy, was released by Algonquin in October of 2022.
Nonfiction: Toni Jensen
Toni Jensen is the author of Carry: A Memoir of Survival on Stolen Land, a finalist for the Dayton Peace Prize and a New York Times Editors’ Choice book. An NEA Creative Writing Fellowship recipient in 2020, Jensen’s essays have appeared in Orion, Catapult and Ecotone, among others. She is also the author of a short story collection, From the Hilltop. She teaches at the University of Arkansas and the Institute of American Indian Arts.
Fiction: Talia Lakshmi Kolluri
Talia Lakshmi Kolluri is a mixed South Asian American writer from Northern California. Her debut collection of short stories, What We Fed to the Manticore, is a finalist for the 2023 Carol Shields Prize for Fiction and was longlisted for the 2023 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, the 2023 Aspen Words Literary Prize, and the 2023 Pen/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Short Story Collection, and was selected as a 2023 ALA RUSA Notable Book. Her short fiction has been published in the minnesota review, Ecotone, Southern Humanities Review, The Common, One Story, Orion, Five Dials, and The Adroit Journal.
Submission Period
The contest submission period for our 14th Annual Contest is May 1, 2023 to 11:59 p.m. on September 4, 2023 (Labor Day in the U.S.). Winners will be announced in December 2023.
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, 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 1-4 poems.
What to Submit
You may submit up to three entries (at $20/entry) in any or all genres:
Poetry
Submit 1-4 poems per entry. Combine all poems into a single document. For poetry, we are seeking the single best poem. 100 maximum lines per poem. 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, 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, 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 14th Annual Contest are conducted on our Submittable site.
Contest Winners
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.
