Betwixt and between…longer than a story, shorter than a novel. Here are some options for your novellas:
1.
The Miami University Press Novella Contest
The novella form has had a long and distinguished place in American literature, and has triumphed in the hands of Herman Melville, Henry James, Katherine Anne Porter, Stanley Elkin, Cynthia Ozick, Jane Smiley, Toni Morrison, Philip Roth, Saul Bellow, William Gass, John Gardner, Andrea Barrett and Tobias Wolff, to name just a few.
As commercial publishers are driven more and more by marketplace concerns, novellas, by nature of their length, often fall between the cracks of short story collections and novels and wind up being published—if at all—not as individual volumes but as part of a collection of stories. Because the form is such a pleasure for readers and writers alike—short enough to be read at a single sustained sitting, but long enough to allow the writer greater freedom in character and plot development than does the short story—we are happy to present a rare venue for publishing individual novellas as stand-alone volumes.
Manuscripts submitted for the award will be read and evaluated by our creative writing faculty, all of whom are active publishing writers. The manuscripts will be read “blind;” in other words, all identifiers will be stripped from the pages before the manuscripts are read, and the author’s history of previous publication will not be available to readers. Each year a different member of our faculty will serve as the final judge and will decide from among the list of finalists submitted by the other readers.
Students, former students, faculty, former faculty, or anyone connected to Miami University will not be considered for the award. Though we believe strongly in the talent of those we have worked with and taught, we will do everything we can to assure that this prize is administered impartially, fairly, and without regard to association.
Miami University Press is a non-profit organization. Though we are requiring an entrance fee, we wish to make it clear that this money will be used to pay for the administrative costs of the contest, to help with the costs of publishing a book of high quality, and to allow each entrant to receive a copy of the winning volume. We want that book to be a pleasure to hold in the hands and to read. The winning volume will be distributed nationwide.
Submission rules and guidelines:
Entries must be postmarked by October 1, 2008.
Submit manuscripts, 18,000–40,000 words, with two title pages: one with author’s name, address and phone number, one without. Author’s name must not appear elsewhere.
Word count must be included on title page.
Winning entry receives $1,000 and book publication.
Reading fee $25, payable to Miami University Press. All entrants receive copy of winning book.
Mail to:
MU Press Novella Prize
English Department
356 Bachelor Hall
Miami University,Oxford, OH 45056
2.
The Cleveland State University Poetry Center is pleased to announce the fourth annual Ruthanne Wiley Memorial Novella Contest.
One prize of $1000 and publication of the winning novella is offered for the best original novella submitted between April 1, 2008 and October 1, 2008.
MANUSCRIPT REQUIREMENTS:
Manuscripts must contain a minimum of 60 and no more than 120 double-spaced manuscript pages, not including front matter.
Manuscript pages should be numbered, and, if appropriate, include a table of contents.Include one title page with manuscript title, your name, address, phone number, and e-mail address.The author’s name should not appear anywhere else on the manuscript.Include a second title page containing the manuscript title only.
Clearly indicate on the outside of the mailing envelope “Novella Contest”.
Do not include a cover letter or biographical information.
MULTIPLE & SIMULTANEOUS SUBMISSIONS:
Send multiple submissions in the same envelope, marked “Multiple;” entry fee must be included for each manuscript. Simultaneous submissions accepted; please notify us immediately if the manuscript is accepted elsewhere.
ELIGIBILITY: The Judge for the 2008 contest is Josip Novakovich. Intimate friends, relatives, current and former students of the Novella Contest judge (students in an academic degree-conferring program or its equivalent) are not eligible to enter the 2008 Novella contest.
Manuscripts that have been previously published in their entirety, including self-published, are not eligible.
Translations are not eligible.
MAIL ENTRIES TO:
Cleveland State UniversityPoetry Center – Novella Contest
Department of English
2121 Euclid Avenue
Cleveland, OH 44115-2214
