2014 Baseball Issue and Baseball Writing Prize

$5.00 USD

We are looking for creative non-fiction/essays that come hard and straight down the pipe; fiction that throws us a curveball; and poetry that reinvigorates our love for the game. Any written work (including scholarly essays) on the amazing game of baseball are welcomed!

All entries to this category will be considered for the 2014 Baseball Writing Prize.

Regardless of genre, each work should have baseball as a central theme or key component. Cricket, softball, and other such similar things will also be considered.

Before anything else, you should check out last year’s baseball issue, which featured 18 short stories, essays, and poems, as well as interviews with Stewart O’Nan and Frank Deford. Part I: Away Team. Part II: Home Team.

Contest Guidelines:

1. Fiction, non-fiction and poetry are welcomed for this contest. Fiction and non-fiction should be 4,000 words or less (please consider length a loose guideline). Poetry has no length requirement.

2. Files should be submitted in .doc/.docx or PDF format.

4. One story/essay/poem per entry. You may submit multiple works, but must enter them separately, paying separate entry fees.

5. The entry fee for this contest is $5.00 per submission.

6. We plan to put primarily unpublished work into July’s all-baseball issue. However, previously published work will be considered for the prize itself. You must include a brief description of where the work appeared and if there is a contact person with that publisher that we may contact to confirm permission to reprint. Publication status will not in any way disqualify your work from winning the prize; however, Cobalt must have the ability to publish/reprint the work in order for it to be considered.

7. Deadline: June 30, 2014 (submissions will be reviewed and accepted/declined on a rolling basis).

Prizes:

One winner will be selected and awarded $50.00, as well as publication in both the baseball issue and Volume 3 (2014 print issue).

One or more finalists may be included in Volume 3.

Any authors appearing in the annual print issue, Volume 3 (released in late 2014) will received a complimentary copy of the issue in which they appear.

Cobalt retains the right to anthologize works published in all issues. All other rights revert to the author.