Contest Judges for Montana Prize in Fiction, Montana Prize in Creative Nonfiction, and Patricia Goedicke Prize in Poetry

Contests are all open from now until February 29, 2012. Click here to submit! Montana Prize in Fiction Judge – Benjamin Percy

Benjamin Percy is the author of two novels, Red Moon (forthcoming from Grand Central/Hachette in 2012) and The Wilding, as well as two books of stories, Refresh, Refresh and The Language of Elk. His fiction and nonfiction have been published by Esquire, GQ, Men's Journal, Outside, the Wall Street Journal, and the Paris Review. His honors inlcude a fellowship from the NEA, the Whiting Writers' Award, the Plimpton Prize, a Pushcart Prize, and inclusion in Best American Short Stories and Best American Comics.

Montana Prize in Creative Nonfiction Judge – Eula Biss

Eula Biss holds a BA in nonfiction writing from Hampshire College and an MFA in nonfiction writing from the University of Iowa. Her second book, Notes from No Man’s Land, received the Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism. Her work has also been recognized by a Pushcart Prize, a Jaffe Writers’ Award, and a 21st Century Award from the Chicago Public Library. She teaches writing at Northwestern University and is working on a new book about myth and metaphor in medicine with the support of a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Howard Foundation Fellowship. Her essays have recently appeared in The Best American Nonrequired Reading, The Best Creative Nonfiction and the Touchstone Anthology of Contemporary Nonfiction as well as in The Believer, Gulf Coast, Columbia, Ninth Letter, the North American Review, the Bellingham Review, the Seneca Review, and Harper’s.

Patricia Goedicke Prize in Poetry Judge – Bhanu Kapil

Bhanu Kapil lives in Colorado where she teaches writing and thinking at Naropa University’s Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, as well as Goddard College’s low-residency MFA.  She has written four full-length cross-genre works–The Vertical Interrogation of Strangers (Kelsey Street Press, 2001), Incubation: a space for monsters (Leon Works, 2006), humanimal [a project for future children] (Kelsey Street Press, 2009), and Schizophrene (forthcoming, Nightboat Books).

Big Fish Online Winner

I am proud to announce our 2011 Big Fish Online Winner: "When Lewis Carroll Faced the Jabberwocky" by Todd Seabrook. Thanks to everyone that submitted this year! Please enjoy the winning piece below. Click image to see full sized poem!

Big Fish Lyric Essay/Writers on Writing Contest

Congratulations to Ryan Spooner! His lyric essay "Ineffable" has been selected as the winning entry in our spring Big Fish Online contest.

We're also pleased to credit Cal Freeman's genre-bending prose piece "Cartesian Grammar and the Lyric Form" with Big Fish honorable mention status. Keep your eyes peeled because these poetic prose pieces are both coming soon to CutBank online.

Our editorial staff was blown away by the quality and variety of this year's submissions, and we'd like to extend our sincere thanks to all who submitted. Reading your work was a true pleasure.

Montana Prize in Fiction, Montana Prize in Creative Nonfiction, and Patricia Goedicke Prize in Poetry – Winners Announced!

We’re pleased to announce the winners of this year’s print contests: the Montana Prize in Fiction, Montana Prize in Creative Nonfiction, and Patricia Goedicke Prize in Poetry! Thank you to everyone who submitted. We received an unprecedented number of submissions, and were impressed and excited by the power of the submitted work. It was a pleasure reading your writing. The winners will each receive a $500 prize and publication in CutBank 75, out summer 2011. Additionally, several finalists will also be published in the 75th issue. Montana Prize in Fiction – judged by Eileen Myles

Winner: Anne Ray, Novio, Novia

Eileen Myles writes, “I first admired this story because it felt enormously readable. I felt teased forward as a reader. In its way it's very inward, this story, so though it is taking place in “the world” there was a peephole experience about it so that you felt like you were looking out from the inside in a very graphic way. There’s lots of details but they are never heavy. It’s almost murmured in a way. I knew enough about the narrator but mostly I knew about how the narrator felt about herself. Not so good but still registering things on an exact level like how a moment of successful dancing though quickly abandoned did indeed go to one’s hips in relation to the music and the man you were dancing with and everything else in the world and the writing delivered a sensation that life on almost more a micro level than a macro one is persistently shocking.”

Finalists:

Kim van Alkemade, “His Amy Hours”

Matthew Burnside, “Six Rules to Win the Game”

Sara Leitenberger, “Emergency Donkey: A Travelogue”

Nicole Louise Reid, “A Purposeful Violence”

Montana Prize in Creative Nonfiction – judged by Thalia Field

Winner: Ryan Flanagan, “Wolf Man”

Thalia Field writes, “this excerpt from a longer work uses language in a way which continually surprises conventions of memoir -- invested in a pedagogy of the poetry of its subject -- to teach and instruct the reader in things we might not know -- the specific ways we might not know the story, which is a memoir and a lesson being learned. Inviting us into imaginative scenarios dovetailing an addict's hallucinatory exit, this piece allows grace into the cracks.”

Finalists:

Maggie Anderson, “Prolonging the Illusion”

Helen Phillips, “Life Care Center”

Catherine Sharpe, “One Thousand Kittens”

Chris Wiewiora, “Now”

Patricia Goedicke Prize in Poetry – judged by D. A. Powell

Winner: Wendy Xu, “I am Your Youngest Poet, and Fill Your Bed with Ink”

D. A. Powell writes, “It's a poem that negotiates that middle space between playful and serious; between the mythic self and the private self. Flaming planets, demons, dreams and wolves could easily be the stuff of legend. But in this poem, they are the forces an artist wrestles with in order to ‘push through ink and digit’ and to lay aside the ache of the ‘disconnected telephone’ and ‘the car sitting in the driveway covered in snow.’”

Finalists:

Sara Deniz Akant, “The Kingdom”

Kerin Sulock, “Applied Psychological Strategy: Neurofeedback”

Adam Tavel, “Having Drank Two-Thirds a Bottle of Riesling During Her Office Hours, Professor Adler Lectures on the Venus of Willendorf"

Arianne Zwartjes, “weld, so irretrievable”

Submissions Open for the Big Fish Online Contest: The Lyric Essay & Writers on Writing

We're thrilled to announce the launch of the Big Fish Online Contest: The Lyric Essay & Writers on Writing, open March 1 - April 1!

In addition to innovative, sonically pleasing essays on topics of your choosing, CutBank is looking for great craft essays, as well as essays on teaching writing or why writing matters. Stylistic manifestos and smart, self-referential fiction pieces that illuminate the writing process are also welcome.

A prize of $200 and online publication will be given for the best piece of nonfiction writing under 5,000 words that we receive in one of the following categories:

The Lyric Essay. Innovative, sonically pleasing nonfiction prose on any topic is welcome in this category. John D'Agata quoting his teacher Deborah Tall once suggested that a lyric form of the essay "is a kind of essay propelled not by its information, but rather by the possibility for transformative experience." CutBank likes this definition, but we're also excited to see how you interpret such a malleable genre.

Writers on Writing. We're looking for original, personal takes on the literary arts--form is largely up to you (our submitters). We're hoping to receive your best craft essays, stylistic manifestos, and impressions on why writing matters. You might even take a crack at defining the lyric essay for us. Smart, self-referential fiction pieces that illuminate the writing process or the importance of writing are also welcome in this category.

All submissions will be considered for print and online publication. For more information, guidelines, and to apply, click here.

CutBank Contests Close Feb. 28

Don't miss your chance to enter the Montana Prize in Fiction, Montana Prize in Creative Nonfiction, and Patricia Goedicke Prize in Poetry contests! Winners receive $500 and publication in CutBank 75. All submissions will be considered for print publication, and all submitters will receive a one-year subscription to CutBank. For more information and to submit your work, click here.

CutBank Closes for General Submissions Feb. 15, Contest Submissions Feb. 28

We've been blown away by the incredible work submitted to us this year, and we're still accepting submissions for one more week. Be sure to get your general CutBank submissions in by February 15th. Contest submitters have until February 28th to submit to our annual print contests: The Montana Prize in Fiction, Montana Prize in Creative Nonfiction, and Particia Goedicke Prize in Poetry.

Click here for information about general submissions.

Click here for information about our contests.

Thank you, and we look forward to reading your work!

Congrats: Big Fish Flash Fiction/Prose Poetry Contest Winners

Congratulations to Nicholas Gulig, whose prose poem "from the Book of Books" has been selected as the winning entry in our fall Big Fish Online contest. This poetic prose piece is coming soon to CutBank online.

We're also pleased to announce two honorable mentions: "My Mother's Disappearance" by Rosa del Duca and "Diorama of a People, Burning" by Bradley Harrison.

Our editorial staff was blown away by the quality of this year's submissions, and we're excited that all three of these pieces will soon appear in the print journal. Many thanks to all who submitted.

Contest Judges Announced

CutBank is thrilled to announce this year's judges for the 2011 Montana Prize in Fiction, the Montana Prize in Creative Nonfiction, and the Patricia Goedicke Prize in Poetry.

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Montana Prize in Fiction Judge - Eileen Myles

Eileen Myles is probably America''s best-known unofficial poet. THE INFERNO/A POET'S NOVEL came out in October 2010, and THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING ICELAND (MIT Press, 2009), is a talkative prose collection in which she describes her travels and explores art criticism. She's published more than 20 volumes of poetry, fiction, articles, plays and libretti including HELL (an opera with composer Michael Webster, 2004), SKIES (2001), ON MY WAY (2001), COOL FOR YOU (a novel, 2000), SCHOOL OF FISH (1997), MAXFIELD PARRISH (1995), NOT ME (1991) and CHELSEA GIRLS (stories, 1994). With Liz Kotz, she edited THE NEW FUCK YOU/ADVENTURES IN LESBIAN READING (Semiotext(e) in 1995. Eileen conducted in 1992 an openly female write-in campaign for President of the United States. In the 80's she was Artistic Director of St. Mark''s Poetry Project. In '97 and again in 2007 Eileen toured with Sister Spit. She is a Professor Emeritus of writing at UCSD. In 2007 she received The Andy Warhol/Creative Capital art writing fellowship.


Montana Prize in Creative Nonfiction Judge - Thalia Field

Thalia Field’s recent book of interrelated story-essays, BIRD LOVERS, BACKYARD, joins her earlier POINT AND LINE, and INCARNATE:STORY MATERIAL from New Directions Press. She also recently released, A PRANK OF GEORGES (with Abigail Lang) from Essay Press, and has written a "performance-novel" ULULU (CLOWN SHRAPNEL), published by Coffee House. Thalia's work has appeared in Tin House, Conjunctions, Ploughshares, Chicago Review, Seneca Review, Angelaki, and other journals. She is included in The Next American Essay, edited by John D'Agata, and considers the essay to be essentially a mode or register at home and in the lineage of any genre. Thalia teaches in the Literary Arts Program at Brown University.

 

Patricia Goedicke Prize in Poetry Judge - D. A. Powell

D. A. Powellmost recent collections, COCKTAILS (2004) and CHRONIC (2009), were both chosen as finalists for the Publishing Triangle and National Book Critics Circle Awards. In 2010, Powell received the California Book Award, the Kingsley Tufts Prize in Poetry and the Northern California Book Award. A former Briggs-Copeland Lecturer in Poetry at Harvard University, Powell has taught at Columbia University, University of Iowa and New England College. He is currently the McGee Visiting Writer at Davidson College in North Carolina.

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Thank you to our terrific judges! Contests will open for submissions December 1 and remain open through February 15. Winners receive $500 and publication in CutBank 75. Click here for more information. We look forward to reading your work!

CutBank Contest News and Updates

Thank you to everyone who submitted to our first ever Big Fish Online Contest: Flash Fiction and Prose Poetry! We are in the process of reading through the submissions and will announce the winner by December 1.

In the meantime, we hope you're gearing up for our third annual Montana Prize in Fiction, Montana Prize in Creative Nonfiction and Patricia Goedicke Prize in Poetry contests, open December 1 - February 28. The winners each receive $500 and publication in CutBank 75. We will announce the judges in the next month. Last year's judges were Peter Rock (Fiction), Kim Barnes (Creative Nonfiction) and Major Jackson (Poetry). More information is available on our contests page. We're looking forward to reading your work!

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CutBank Announces NEW Big Fish Online Contest: Flash Fiction and Prose Poetry

In an effort to keep our online content fresh, to promote some of the less-traditional genres that we love, and to reward some of the many deserving writers out there, we've revamped the structure of our online contest for 2010/2011. Instead of a single award, we're offering two awards--one in the fall and one in the spring.


Fall Big Fish Online Contest: Flash Fiction and Prose Poetry

A prize of $200 and online publication will be given for the best piece of writing under 500 words that we receive. Flash fiction, short-shorts, micro-prose, prose poems, poetic prose, just plain short stories--whatever you call your briefest prose pieces, send them our way.

The contest winner will be chosen by the CutBank editorial staff and announced on our website on December 1. All submissions will be considered for both online publication and print publication in CutBank.

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Submission Details:

Submissions for the online flash fiction and prose poetry contest are accepted from October 1 to November 1 and must be accompanied by a $9 submission fee. Please submit using our new online submission manager (link below). Make sure you select "Flash Fiction and Prose Poetry Contest" as your genre.

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Previously unpublished work only. Multiple submissions are acceptable, as long as each one is accompanied by its own submission fee. Simultaneous submissions are also acceptable, but please inform us promptly if your work is accepted elsewhere.

Spring Big Fish Online Contest: the Lyric Essay and Writers on Writing

Submissions for our spring Big Fish contest focused on the lyric essay, self-referential works, and writers on writing will be accepted from March 1 to April 1 - stay tuned for details.

We look forward to reading your work!


Submit to Cutbank Literary Journal

Big Fish Contest Winners

CutBank is pleased to announce the winners of the 2009 Big Fish Online Contest.

Fiction: Janice Deal for Repo Man

Poetry: Donna Johnson for Einarsson

Nonfiction: Michael Palmer for Layers of Skin

Art: Brandon Lingle

Congratulations to our winners!

Big Fish Online Contest Extended Deadline Dec. 1

CutBank is pleased to announce its first online contest. We will be accepting submissions of poetry, fiction, nonfiction and art. Please keep prose submissions below 10,000 words and no more than 5 poems per entry.

The submission deadline has been extended to December 1st, 2009. Winners receive $100, publication on CutBank Online, and consideration for publication in CutBank 72. It is $10 to submit.

Please send only your best work. We are seeking to highlight work that showcases an authentic voice, a boldness of form, and a rejection of functional fixedness.

Montana and Patricia Goedicke Prize Winners 2009

CutBank is pleased to announce the winners of the 2009 Montana Prize in Fiction, Montana Prize in Creative Nonfiction, and Patricia Goedicke Prize in Poetry. The prizewinning works will appear in CutBank 71, available next month.

The winner of the Montana Prize in Fiction, selected by guest judge Joy Williams, is Taylor Brown's short story "Rider." Commentary by Joy Williams on "Rider" will be featured in CutBank 71.

The winner of the Montana Prize in Creative Nonfiction, selected by guest judge Brian Bouldrey, is Josie Milliken's essay "Seven Tangents of Space and Distance."

The winner of the Patricia Goedicke Prize, selected by guest judge Noah Eli Gordon, is Mande Zecca''s untitled piece.

Thanks also to everyone who submitted. Keep an eye on cutbankonline.org for details on next year's Montana and Goedicke Prizes.

CutBank Announces New Contests

CutBank is pleased to announce the Montana Prize in Fiction, the Montana Prize in Creative Nonfiction, and the Patricia Goedicke Prize in Poetry.

We are honored to have three talented judges participating in the inaugural year of these contests. The Patricia Goedicke Prize in Poetry will be judged by Michele Glazer. Aimee Bender will select the winner of the Montana Prize in Fiction. The winner of the Montana Prize in Creative Nonfiction will be selected by Suzanne Paola. Click here to read their bios.

Deadline for submissions is February 29. Winners receive $500 and publication in CutBank 69. All submissions will be considered for publication in CutBank.

The contests' $13 entry fee includes a one-year, two-issue subscription to CutBank, beginning with the prize issue, CutBank 69.

Please send only your best work. With all three of these awards, we are seeking to highlight work that showcases an authentic voice, a boldness of form, and a rejection of functional fixedness.


FULL GUIDELINES:

Submissions postmarked earlier than December 1, 2007 or later than February 29, 2008 will be returned unread (along with payment).

Submissions are accepted via postal mail only. Please include SASE for reply and prepare your manuscript according to CutBank's conventional submission guidelines. The contest entry must be noted on the envelope and cover letter, i.e.:

The Patricia Goedicke Prize in Poetry
CutBank
English Dept, LA 133
University of Montana
Missoula, MT 59812

A $13 contest entry fee includes a one-year subscription to CutBank. The entry fee covers the reading of a single submission in a single genre. Prose writers, please send only a single work of no greater than 40 printed pages. Poets may submit up to five poems. Submissions that exceed these guidelines will be returned unread, along with payment. Please submit only once within in a genre, although writers are permitted to submit in multiple genres.

Please include a short cover letter that mentions your address, phone number, and email address, as well as the title of your work. Please include the author's name on the manuscript—names will be removed from the pool of submissions that goes before our contest judges.

Current subscribers may submit for the same $13 fee—subscriptions will be extended by one year.


Please submit entry fee by personal or cashier's check. Checks can be made out to CutBank Literary Magazine.

Entrants will be notified of their submission status no later than May 15, 2008. One winner in each genre, as chosen by our guest judges, will receive a $500 award and publication in CutBank 69, our summer 2008 issue. Winners will be required to complete a W-9 form to receive payment. All manuscripts are considered for publication in CutBank. All rights to selected manuscripts revert to the author upon publication. The author grants their permission to have their work electronically archived as part of CutBank 69 in EBSCO International's subscription-based research database.

Current University of Montana students and faculty and former CutBank staff are not eligible for the awards.