NEWEST INFO AND LINKS TO CONTEST GUIDELINES & RESULTS:

01.26.12: Like the idea of going to Lithuania to study writing? Check out this contest for the Summer Literary Seminars. Our editor, Ander Monson, is judging nonfiction. You know you love nonfiction. And our editor. Or maybe not, in which case don't tell us or him. Info [here]. Winner gets travel + a full ride to the SLS program of their choice! Plus publication in DIAGRAM, which is like flying first-class to the Lithuania of the mind.

12.14.11: 2012 Innovative Fiction Contest guidelines [below]. Deadline is March 30, 2012.

11.01.11: 2012 Chapbook Contest guidelines [below]. Deadline: March 30, 2012.

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2012 Innovative Fiction Contest Guidelines

The contest deadline (for receipt of submission) is March 30, 2012. This contest is for an unpublished story of fewer than 10000 (ten thousand) words. The winner will receive $1000 and publication. The finalists (typically anywhere from 3-10) will be published along with the winner in our summer fiction issue.

The judge for 2012 is Salvador Plascencia, the author of the spectacular (and innovative, you may know), People of Paper, among other things.

Entry fee is $15.

FAQ stuff:

  • We prefer our entries electronic (if possible), with the manuscript itself anonymous. A removable cover page would be ideal if you send hardcopy. If you send electronically no cover page is necessary; just don't put your name on the manuscript).
  • Anyone with more than a casual relationship with either of these is ineligible (though we're happy to read your work via regular submissions). Sorry lovers, former lovers, friends, students, mentors, and so on.
  • Images are fine as long as you have or can get rights to print/reprint (or if they are in the public domain) if selected.
  • We don't have any particular aesthetic biases for this contest other than the name: Innovative, yo. Which more or less means: wow us. Surprise us. Mainly we just want it good. That's a pretty open definition, we admit.
  • If you're sending something multimedia sometimes it's easier to send snail mail if the file is too big (our submissions manager only accepts up to about 9 meg) or unwieldy.
  • Multiple submissions are fine. Simultaneous submissions are fine as long as you notify us as soon if a story is no longer available. In which case, congratulations on getting it published! Then you can withdraw your submission manually from the submissions manager if you sent it electronically, or email us below.
  • Collaborative submissions are fine (obviously if you win, you'd split the prize).
  • We expect to notify finalists and winners no later than the end of June, with luck. Thanks for entering! And good luck. Questions can go to nmp--atsymbol--thediagram--dot--com.

Then, here's how to submit:

Option 1, Electronic, you know, like this is the future (much preferred but maybe a little awkward):

REQUIRED Step 1 of 2: Pay contest fee through Paypal by filling out the form with your last name and the story title, then clicking on the Buy Now button just below this paragraph. You can use a credit card if you like (or a checking account etc.), or a Paypal account. No need to create an account: just click the credit card button on the next page in that case. Once you complete step one it will click through to a page with step 2.

Last Name/Title of Entry

Note that the payment goes to New Michigan Press, which is the publisher of DIAGRAM.

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Option 2, Snail mail, old school:

Step 1 and 2: Send entry and payment to DIAGRAM Innovative Fiction Contest, c/o Ander Monson, Dept. of English, P.O. Box 210067, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721-0067. Make checks out to DIAGRAM for $15 or send cash. If you send Express Mail or Overnight, please check the box so it doesn't require a signature.

Or pay online with the paypal button above and make a note of that in your cover letter. Include a SASE if you'd like a response. Otherwise we will only contact you if you're a finalist or winner, and will post the results on the contests page here when the decision is made.

*

Keep in mind that we need to receive your submission by March 30, 2012.

Good luck, and thanks for entering the contest.

Questions can go to <nmp--at--thediagram.com>.

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2012 Chapbook Contest Guidelines

The New Michigan Press / DIAGRAM chapbook contest announces our guidelines for 2012. We pick the majority of our chapbook list each year from the ranks of the chapbook contest finalists, so this is the best way to get your work read by our eager readers.

The Prize
   $1000 plus publication; finalist chapbooks also considered for publication
The Entry Fee
   $17.00
The Mailing Deadline
   March 30, 2012
What we want
   Interesting, lovely unpublished work (unpublished as a whole; individual pieces may be published already of course), prose or poetry or some combination or something between genres, 18-44 manuscript pages (no more than one poem per page if you're sending poems unless they are very, very short)
Images okay?
   Yes. You must be able to obtain reprint rights (and high-res image files) for any images you include, though we recommend the manuscript be at a relatively low-res to keep file size down; please don't send originals of anything, since we cannot return manuscripts.
Other questions?
  

It's fine with us if individual works have been published elsewhere, but the manuscript can't have been published as a whole before. Please include specific acknowledgments if any of the works have appeared elsewhere: tell us where individual pieces appeared, as we do consider submitted and unpublished individual pieces for possible publication in DIAGRAM.

We recommend that your manuscript be as coherent--as much a project--as possible. Not to say everything needs to be thematic or narratively related, but most of our winning chapbooks have a feeling of aesthetic unity or resonance:books should make sense as books. Chapbook manuscripts do not necessarily have to be diagrammatic (though the diagrammers among us do enjoy those).

Co-authored manuscripts are fine.

Submitting multiple manuscripts is fine with entry fees for each.

Please don't put your name/identifying info on the piece itself. If you send electronically, it'll be in the submitter info only. If you send via the mail, include a detachable cover page.

Email nmp--at--thediagram.com with further questions if you have them.
How to Get Your Work to Us (electronic, preferred)
  

REQUIRED STEP ONE: Pay contest fee through Paypal* by filling out the form below with your last name and the manuscript title, then clicking on the [Add to Cart] button just below this paragraph. You may use a credit card if you like (or a checking account etc.). No need to create an account. Once you complete step one it will click through to a page with step two on it (also copied below just in case).

Last Name/Title of Entry

Great. Note that the payment goes to New Michigan Press, the publisher of DIAGRAM. 

*If you have a hard time with paypal for any reason, drop us a line. We can take credit cards directly if you'll send us the info via email (card #, CVV (3 digit code on back), expiration date, billing address w/zipcode) at nmp--at--thediagram--dot--com.

REQUIRED STEP TWO (COPIED FROM THE PAGE THAT PAYPAL WILL DIRECT YOU TO AFTER PAYMENT: submit your manuscript through our Submissions Manager system [here]. You'll have to create an account with the system if you haven't submitted to us before. Make SURE, SURE, that when you enter the submission's genre, you choose CHAPBOOK CONTEST SUBMISSION ONLY. Do NOT select "fiction," "poetry," or anything else. That way it gets read, processed, and responded-to properly (our contest submissions go through a different reading process than regular submissions). If you submit under something else things will get munged (though we are happy to read your non-contest submissions whenever, of course) and you'll have to resubmit. Please give us some kind of cover letter if you like. Or not.

Note: only one file may be submitted through the submissions manager. PDF preferred, or Word format (.doc, .docx), or .rtf is fine if necessary (we cannot read any other word processing formats; sorry). If your submission is more than one file, copy and paste it into one file or otherwise attach it. A zipfile would be acceptable if that's easier.

If you'd like your complimentary copy of the winning chapbook (or another chapbook in our series—please specify which, if any, on the envelope), mail us a self-addressed 6" x 9" envelope with $2 of postage (in USA—$6 is a safe bet if you're sending from overseas). If you do not care, there is no need for this.

If you send electronically you'll be notified electronically by default. No SASE required unless you want a copy of the winning chapbook. If you'd like us to send you a hardcopy results letter, that's fine (then send us a SASE as specified below).
How to Get Your Work to Us (old school hard copy postal mail: also OK)
  

If you'd rather send traditional mail, fine. Mail your manuscript and check (made out to New Michigan Press--or pay online above if you'd rather and include the receipt) for $17 to: NMP/DIAGRAM Chapbook Contest, English Department, P.O. Box 210067, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721-0067.

So, make sure you send us a business-sized SASE with $0.46 (or a forever stamp) of postage if you'd like notification of the results by mail in the USA. Manuscripts cannot be returned (sorry—please don't send your only copy).

Optional: enclose a self-addressed, stamped postcard if you'd like confirmation that we received your manuscript.

Enclose a self-addressed 6" x 9" envelope with $2 of postage (in USA—$6 is a safe bet if you're sending from overseas; no IRCs please) if you would like a complimentary copy of the winning chapbook (or another chapbook in our series—please specify which, if any, on the envelope; we'll honor requests if we have the chapbook in stock). If you do not care, there is no need for this.

Please send your manuscripts via airmail for best results. And please do not send submissions certified mail, express mail, or anything we have to sign for; it's a pain and if we're not at the office, we're not going to be able to make a trip to the post office, which is a drag in Arizona, to pick up your manuscript. If you want to overnight it, fine, just please check the "no signature req'd" box.
Judge
  

We don't have a celebrity judge for our chapbook contest. Since we pick the majority of our chapbooks from the submissions to the contest, we judge everything internally. The final judge is our editor, Ander Monson. Readers change year to year. We read anonymously and try to vary our aesthetic year to year. Still, we like what we like. To find out what we like, you should probably check out our authors if you haven't already.
Okay
   That's it. Good luck!

 

And we have our 2011 chapbook contest winners chosen! Notifications have gone out by email to all who entered via the submissions manager, and via post to all who entered hardcopy and provided SASEs.

Our winner is James D'Agostino's Slur Oeuvre. He received the $1,000 honorarium, and publication.

Additionally we'll publish three of the finalists:

  • Karen Carcia's On Subjects of Which We Know Nothing
  • Barbara Maloutas' Of Which Anything Consists
  • Lauren Shapiro's Yo-Yo Logic

And here are our other excellent finalists:

  • Jack Boettcher's Animals Resisting Arrest
  • Christine Bown's Lithiasis
  • William Carty's The Watchtower
  • Liz Countryman's Like Like Poles
  • Justin Dodd's Outtakes from My Boys
  • Christopher Lirette's Disquisitiones Pornographiae
  • Scott McFarland's America I'm Not Talking to You
  • James Meetze's Phantom Hour
  • Frank Montesonti's For Oh, Yvonne I Am
  • JoAnna Novak's Manning Up
  • Kory Shrum's Triboluminescence
  • Joseph Spece's A Forest Walk
  • Daniel Story's Richard Falls in Love
  • M. Thompson's Fatal Accidents, Not Necessarily Complete

Everyone who provided a suitable ($2 postage in USA, at least 6" x 9") SASE will receive their complimentary copy of the winner when it's published.

Check back for the 2012 guidelines in the fall.

01.05.11: 2010 Hybrid Essay Contest results are in. Our winner is Peter Jay Shippy, for his essay "Goonies: or Wallace Stevens's 'The Snowman'--an Essay in 7 Films." He will receive the $1000 honorarium, and his essay will be published in DIAGRAM 11.1, to be released in the beginning of February. We're also pleased to publish one of our finalists, Chelsea Biondolillo's essay, "A Linguistic Kazooistry: the European Starling as Unlikely Teacher," in the same issue. Notes have gone out to everyone who entered. So thanks for letting us read your work!

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2011 DIAGRAM Essay Contest Guidelines

The Essay Contest deadline for 2011 is October 31, 2011. This is the deadline for receipt of submissions.

DIAGRAM's yearly Essay Contest encourages submissions of essays—essays in an expansive sense, meaning essay as experiment, essay as heterogenous and sometimes strange beast. We will read your submissions of unpublished (in a serial/book or on a non-personal website—blogs etc. are fine) essays. (Unpublished means you must be able to give us, if your work is selected, first serial rights.)

To enter: Get us your unpublished essay (definition here is a bit hazy because we like lots of things) of up to 10,000 words with a $15 reading fee by Oct 31, 2011.

The prize is $1000 + publication. This contest is judged by Nicole Walker and Ander Monson. We'll shoot for publishing several of our finalists with the winner in DIAGRAM, as we have the last few years.

FAQ stuff:

  • We prefer our entries electronic (if possible), with the manuscript itself anonymous. A removable cover page would be ideal if you send hardcopy. If you send electronically no cover page is necessary; just don't put your name on the manuscript.
  • Anyone with more than a casual relationship with either of the judges is ineligible (though we're happy to read your work via regular submissions). Sorry lovers, former lovers, friends, students, mentors, and so on.
  • Images are fine as long as you have or can get rights to print/reprint (or if they are in the public domain) if selected.
  • We don't have any particular aesthetic biases for this contest other than the name: we are looking for works of nonfiction that essay interestingly--however you'd like to define. That's a pretty open definition, we admit.
  • If you're sending something multimedia sometimes it's easier to send snail mail if the file is too big (or unwieldy). The submission manager system only accepts files less than 10 megabytes or so. (Remember when that was a crazy size for a file?)
  • Multiple submissions are fine. Simultaneous submissions are fine as long as you notify us as soon if an essay is no longer available. In which case, congratulations on getting it published! Then you can withdraw your submission manually from the submissions manager if you sent it electronically, or email us below.
  • We read everything for contests anonymously, ethically, and rigorously.
  • We expect to notify finalists and winners in February 2012 or before. Thanks for entering! And good luck. Questions can go to nmp--atsymbol--thediagram--dot--com.
  • Multiple authors are fine, if weird.

Then, here's how to submit:

Option 1, Electronic (much preferred but maybe a little awkward):

REQUIRED Step 1 of 2: Pay contest fee through Paypal* by filling out the form with your last name and the essay title, then clicking on the Buy Now button just below this paragraph. You can use a credit card if you like (or a checking account etc.), or a Paypal account. No need to create an account: just click the don't have a paypal account button on the next page in that case. Once you complete step one and pay the entry fee, it will click through to a page with step two.

[form gone since the deadline passed!]

Note that the payment goes to New Michigan Press, which is the publisher of DIAGRAM.

*If you have a hard time with paypal for any reason, drop us a line. We can take credit cards directly if you'll send us the info via email (card #, CVV (3 digit code on back), expiration date, billing address w/zipcode) at nmp--at--thediagram--dot--com.

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Option 2, Snail mail, old school:

Step 1 and 2: Send entry and payment to DIAGRAM Essay Contest, c/o Ander Monson, Dept. of English, P.O. Box 210067, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721-0067. Make checks out to DIAGRAM for $15 or send cash. If you send Express Mail or Overnight, please check the box so it doesn't require a signature.

Or pay online with the paypal button above and make a note of that in your cover letter. Include a SASE if you'd like a response. Otherwise we will only contact you if you're a finalist or winner, and will post the results on the contests page here when the decision is made.

*

Keep in mind that we need to receive your submission by October 31, 2011.

Good luck, and thanks for entering the contest.

Questions can go to <nmp--at--thediagram.com>.

 

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2010 Hybrid Essay Contest Results

Our winner is Peter Jay Shippy, for his essay "Goonies: or Wallace Stevens's 'The Snowman'--an Essay in 7 Films."

He will receive the $1000 honorarium, and his essay will be published in DIAGRAM 11.1, to be released in the beginning of February. We're also pleased to publish one of our finalists, Chelsea Biondolillo's essay, "A Linguistic Kazooistry: the European Starling as Unlikely Teacher," in the same issue.

Notes have gone out to everyone who entered. So thanks for letting us read your work!

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On this page, find:

Contest Guidelines:

Contest Results: