Guidelines

• Open to everyone over the age of 18. International entries welcome. You and your entry do not need to be associated with New Mexico, we publish a wide variety of fiction and nonfiction globally. You can find a list of past winners right here.
• What are we looking for? All fiction and creative nonfiction will be eligible despite genre, form, subject, or length. So we’ll take full-length manuscripts, works-in-progress, collections short or long, and essays. We don’t care about what the big presses believe to be “marketable,” we want to see excellence in writing, no matter the form it takes. Past winners have ranged from flash fiction to memoir to magical realism to literary fiction to cultural essays.
• The length of your entry is not an issue. There’s no minimum or maximum.
• The grand prize is $1,500, and two runner-ups will receive $1,000 each.
• Authors retain all rights to their work.
• Winners will be offered a competitive book contract for full-market, frontlist release. There’s no obligation to sign this contract.
• There is a $30 reading fee.
• This year’s judge is Benjamin Percy. See below for more details.
• SFWP will not keep submissions on file or use them for any purpose without the permission of the respective authors. We do not share personal contact information with any individual, organization, or marketing agency.
• Deadline: July 20th, 2017.
• Multiple entries will be accepted.
• Entries may include a synopsis, outline, or introductory letter. Do not send personal correspondence to the judge.
• You may participate in other contests and programs as well as pursue publication during the SFWP 2017 Awards Cycle. There will be no penalties if your work wins another award or is published before the judging begins.

Who is eligible?

• All unpublished work is eligible.
• Previously published material is also eligible as long as it has not been published by a major press. So you can submit if you have published in zines, lit journals, and with small indie presses.
• Self-published books are eligible, as are books published via Amazon’s CreateSpace, KDP, etc.
• If you have published with a small press and have not received any marketing support, then your book is eligible (The standard industry cut-off for marketing support (advertising, publicity, etc.) is $5000-$10,000).
• If you have questions, please contact us.