This is a column on the ins and outs of getting published, coming straight from the editor’s mouth.
Big news, my dudes.
I’m judging a contest.
Yeah. I’m shocked, too.
We are holding a contest in fiction and nonfiction (I’m handling the nonfiction side). There will be finalists along with a first, second, and third place winner in each genre.
$500 for first place.
$100 for second and third place.
All finalists get the regular contributor stipend of $40.
If you don’t place, but we enjoy your work and want to publish it, you get our standard contributor stipend of $40.
Publication. And moneys. It’s like we’re trying to compensate artists. Far out.
I’d like to share my insights on submitting to contests—as a person who has placed in a few contests, lost many, and has served as a reader.
If you are like me, you probably have a few essays (replace that word with stories if you are a fiction writer). And you have different feelings about the different essays. There is probably one in your folder right now that you feel very strongly about. I’m going to guess that it’s about a topic close to your heart and you are struggling to get the piece right. You have written and rewritten it, maybe you’ve submitted it only to get a slew of rejections, and now you have shelved it for a bit. But every time you come back to that essay you find ways to work on it more, the fire still burns.
It’s a different feeling than what you have for other essays. I have an essay about when I studied Hindi as an adult. I wrote about my father and our stilted communication, but I didn’t go into depth about the relationship like I did when I wrote the essay about my mother and my identity, an essay that won a contest. My Hindi essay was still good. It found a home in a great publication. But I hadn’t grappled with the topic the way I had when writing about my mother.
Tammy Delatorre’s “How I Won My Third Essay Contest” is a great read to better understand the drive in getting an essay to place and win in a contest. When looking for a topic to write about, she chose a haunting. The more intense the subject is within you, the stronger it comes out on the page.
If you experience such a haunting, welcome it in its unique incantation. Let it keep you up at night; let it speak to you in its own strange language. For me, before the topic of the essay was clear, it spoke to me through my body, and I tried to serve as a tuning fork for its messages. Old wounds, they still haunt—came to me so I wrote that down. And it was true my body was filled with aches from physical injuries long past, but emotional ones as well. The pain wouldn’t let me sleep. Insomnia had always been an issue for me, since I was a child, since my mother left me, I wrote.
Delatorre is very honest about her experience in writing her latest award-winning essay, not only in detailing its germination, but also the active steps she took to make it a cut above the rest. She clearly invested time and money to working on her essay, to taking in feedback and reworking her stuff to get it to a level of quality where she felt confident in submitting to contests.
Only submit your BEST WORK. I mean something you have written and rewritten and then threw away and then rummaged through your trash to pick up again and rewrite. It should be something you have shared with writing peers, getting feedback that resonates with you as you continue to work on it. It should be something you have shared in creative writing workshops if you take any in your local area. Basically, I shouldn’t look like this when I’m reading your work:
When I am reading submissions for contests, the submissions need to be incredibly strong. There should not be any developmental issues still needing to be addressed (like a weak ending or sections that don’t add to the narrative arc). Not only should the story be there, but there should be an attention to your language.
I hope that this resonates while you are planning to send out your work. Perhaps you don’t have something contest-ready right now. Having that self-awareness will lead you more success (and a more cost-effective submission fee budget). There are loads of contests every year (we do it annually). Once your work is finally ready, there will always be a fitting place to champion your work.
Hypertext Review, like many others, is open for regular submissions until the end of May. We hope to see your work!