Dogwood: A Journal of Poetry and Prose will begin accepting entries of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry for the 2014-2015 issue and contest on July 1, with a deadline of Sept. 5. A prize of $1000 goes to one winning entry, with two additional entries receiving $250 each..

The grand prize winner will be chosen from winners in nonfiction, fiction, and poetry. Winners in the other two genres will receive prizes of $250. Entry fee is $10; all submissions considered for publication in the  14th annual edition of this print and e-pub journal. Non-contest entries will also be considered; please submit under the “Non-Contest” tab with the $3 processing fee. Results of the contest will be announced in Spring 2015 and published in the 2015 issue of Dogwood. All entrants receive an electronic PDF of the journal. Please use our online submission manager for your submissions.

Judges

Creative Nonfiction

Jill Christman’s memoir, Darkroom: A Family Exposure, won the 2001 AWP Award Series in Creative Nonfiction and in 2011 was reissued in paperback by the University of Georgia Press. Her first e-book, Borrowed Babies: The Science of Motherhood, is forthcoming from Shebooks in Summer 2014.  Recent essays have appeared in Fourth Genre, Brevity, River Teeth, Iron Horse Literary Review, and Brain, Child, as well as many other journals, magazines, and anthologies.  She is an Associate Professor of English in Ball State University’s Creative Writing Program and teaches creative nonfiction in Ashland University’s low-residency MFA program (where she is also a regular presenter at the River Teeth Nonfiction Conference). In 2013, Jill was elected to the Board of Directors of The Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP) and is currently serving as the Midwest Representative. She lives in Muncie where she lives with her husband, writer Mark Neely, and their two children.

Poetry

Mark Neely is the author of Beasts of the Hill (winner of the FIELD Poetry Prize) and Dirty Bomb (forthcoming 2015), both from Oberlin College Press. His chapbook, Four of a Kind, was published by Concrete Wolf Press and his poems have appeared in many anthologies and magazines, including Gulf Coast, Indiana Review, Boulevard, Willow Springs, and Barrow Street. He is an Associate Professor of English at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, and the editor of The Broken Plate. 

Fiction

Rachel Basch is the author of two novels. The Passion of Reverend Nash (W.W. Norton) was named one of the five best novels of 2003 by The Christian Science Monitor.Degrees of Love (W.W. Norton, Harper Paperbacks) was translated into Dutch and German and was a selection of The Hartford Courant’s Book Club. Basch has reviewed books for The Washington Post Book World, and her nonfiction has appeared in n+1,Parenting and The Huffington Post. Basch was a 2011 MacDowell Colony Fellow. She received the William Van Wert fiction prize for an excerpt from her new novel, The Listener, which will be published by Pegasus Books in 2015.She teaches in Fairfield University’s MFA Program and in the Graduate Liberal Studies Program at Wesleyan University.

 Some important stuff

·      Our contest is completely anonymous, so if you enter and your name is on the file, we have to bounce your entry. We understand that might be annoying, but those are our rules. So please double-check your file before pressing the “submit” button.
·      Current and former employees and students of Fairfield University are not eligible, as are current and former students of the editor.
·      We ask that you look at the names of the judges. If you have a strong relationship with one of the judges, we ask that you not submit work in that genre.
·      More on why we like the anonymous contest.

What did we pick for our winners and others to publish last year? You should read a copy to find out! If you’re planning to submit, you can get a copy of last year’s Dogwood as an electronic publication via LitRagger. We also have excerpts and past submissions on our site. You can also read a bit more vagueness about our editorial sense. If you submitted to last year’s contest, you should have received an email with an invitation to receive a free electronic copy of the issue. If you missed that, or if you change your mind and want to check it out now, please email the editor at dogwoodliterary (at) gmail.com and we’ll send you one.

Please sign up for our periodic newsletter for information about future contests and announcement of the winners!

Detailed Guidelines

Fiction and Nonfiction Submission Guidelines:

• Submit fiction or nonfiction up to 22 pages using this online submission manager in a file with a .doc or docx. file extension.
• Please title your submission with the title of your piece.
• Please double space and use 12-point font.
• Include a brief bio in the cover letter field on the submission manager, but no name should appear on the manuscript file itself.
• Simultaneous submissions allowed if Dogwood is notified of acceptance elsewhere.
• Previously published work is not eligible.

Poetry Submission Guidelines:

• Submit one, two, or three poems (max ten pages)
• Please include all poems in one document.
• Please single space and use 12-point font.
• In the submission manager, please include the titles of all poems in your submission title (rather than “Three Poems”).
• Include a brief bio in the cover letter field on the submission manager, but no name should appear on the manuscript.
• Simultaneous submissions allowed if Dogwood is notified of acceptance elsewhere.
• Previously published work is not eligible.

Deadline: September 5, 2014

For All Submissions

• Work not meeting the above guidelines will not be considered for publication. All contest entries meeting these requirements will be considered for publication in Spring 2015 Issue of Dogwood along with selected non-contest submissions. Contest entries will be given priority for publication.
• Work can also be mailed to Dogwood, Dept. of English, 1073 N. Benson Rd., Fairfield, CT 06824. We ask that the submission itself be anonymous with a cover letter that mentions your name and the name of the piece for later identification.

For more information, please email us at dogwoodliterary (at) gmail.com.