The Letter Review Prize for Nonfiction
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We believe in literature, and in the importance and magic of new writing.
In line with our commitment to pay writers professional rates, The Letter Review Prize awards writers over $16,000 USD annually, meaning it is among the highest paying literary prizes administered by a literary journal in the world.
Via our prizes we seek the best new writing, while striving to help writers to showcase new work, gain the recognition they deserve, advance their writing careers, and reach a wide audience. To this end, we publish 50 winners a year, and shortlist up to 320. Each work is published with an attractive, bespoke, newly commissioned artwork. These writers are celebrated via our website (400,000 yearly readers), our extensive mailing list, social media channels (FB 37,000 members), and our Subreddit (11K). Winning entries are also frequently submitted to further prestigious anthologies such as the Pushcart Prize. Winners may also participate in our interview series (Writers' Insight), further raising their professional profile.
The literary mission of The Letter Review includes fostering accessibility to the professional writing industry, and supporting writers at all stages in their efforts to be published, performed, and produced. The Letter Review Prize contributes to this mission by assisting writers to gain further publication opportunities. For example, J. A. (John) deSouza (Shortlist of The Prize for Books) has commented: "I just wanted to thank The Letter Review Prize for short listing my unpublished book Unimaginable Hardship. The recognition contributed to having my chapbook Hidden, A sequence of poems addressing the war in Ukraine, recently published by Bottlecap Press. Thank you!"
The Letter Review Prize is judged blind to ensure all entrants have an equal chance of success. We do not assign entries to anonymous readers: Every entry is personally read by our highly qualified Judges. The Letter Review is a proud member of the international Community of Literary Magazines and Presses, and we adhere to the CLMP Contest Code of Ethics. We do not solicit entries: All winners are chosen from the general submission pool.
Every writer who submits to The Letter Review is informed of their result via Submittable or email. View all the wonderful previous winners of the prize by clicking here.
"The Letter Review stands as a monument of writing wisdom and talent. Being part of this mosaic of narrative and verse is a true honor." - Frederick Joseph: two-time New York Times bestselling author, activist, philanthropist, and poet (Winner of The Letter Review Prize for Poetry)
To gain the best understanding of the work we are seeking we encourage all entrants to consider subscribing to The Letter Review where they can familiarize themselves with our wonderful previous winning entries, and read our extensive professional writing advice section, along with our interviews with professional writers.
What can I submit?
The Letter Review Prize welcomes most forms of Nonfiction including: Reviews (especially book reviews), memoir, journalism, interviews, essay (including personal essay), fictocriticism, creative nonfiction, travel, nature, opinion, and many other permutations. Most works which convey information about the real world are welcome: We are not seeking works such as cookbooks, textbooks, and reference books.
How To Enter / Prizes
- The top 2-4 winning entries of the Prize for Nonfiction are declared the Winners, and share equally in the Prize pool of $1000 USD.
- Winning entries are published by The Letter Review online, and in our Winners Anthology.
- To recognize the abilities of the writers who do not place as a Winner, up to 20 entries are Shortlisted.
- All entries are considered for publication.
- Winners may request a professional recommendation / endorsement of their work in the form of a letter from our Judges which they may submit to agents, publishers etc.
- The entry fee is $20 USD. Additional entries are $10 each.
- You may enter as many times as you wish. To enter multiple times, select the "Add Additional Entries" drop down menu, and attach up to 10 files to your first entry form. If you wish to enter more than 10 times please start a second entry form.
- We are seeking entries between 0 - 5000 words. For excerpts of longer works, please submit to our Prize for Books.
- The Prize is open to anyone, from anywhere in the world.
- Please include a short biography (suitable for publication) of less than 200 words in the Cover Letter section.
- Ensure the file name of each document is only the title of your entry. Do not include your name inside your entry document(s) or in the file name as the Prize is judged blind.
- The judges will be Kita Das and Dr. Ol James.
- Format: Original works only. Submissions must be primarily written in English. Any non-English phrases which are uncommon should be accompanied by a translation. Your entry must be unpublished, and free from any claims by other parties. You must be the sole author of the work. 'Retellings' or contemporizations must be acknowledged in the cover letter or submission document.
- No AI content.
- Entrants will receive automatic confirmation via email after entry.
- All Entrants are informed personally of the result of their submission via Submittable.
- Simultaneous submissions are allowed. If you decide to publish your entry elsewhere, please withdraw from our Prize.
- You may submit work that has been awarded elsewhere, as long as no part of it has been published.
- By entering you agree to our Terms and Conditions.
- Writers (including Winners) keep ownership of, and copyright in, their entries.
- Prize entry fees may be tax deductible (speak to your accountant).
- The Letter Review Prize is a career-enhancing laurel that offers both publication and monetary awards to the Winners, improving their public profile, and lifting careers to new zeniths.
- Enter via Submittable using the form below: No entries via post please. Click here for a guide to using Submittable.