Moon City Short Fiction Award

The 2024 Moon City Short Fiction Award

The Moon City Short Fiction Award is for an original collection of short fiction written originally in English by a single or collaborative author.

Individual pieces in the collection may be published in periodicals but not yet collected and published in full-length manuscript form.

Entries may include short shorts, short fiction, and/or up to one novella. Please include a table of contents and acknowledgements page.

No AI-generated material will be considered.

Open to all writers not associated with Moon City Press or its judges, past or present. Students, employees, and alumni of Missouri State University are ineligible.

Manuscripts should fall between 30,000 and 65,000 words.

Manuscripts should be submitted via Submittable: https://mooncitypress.submittable.com/submit/288035/the-2024-moon-city-short-fiction-award?fbclid=IwAR39Y796MGsUhDBxtkP4ajPU7JeAUBfZeFFkSQZQiAIKkGXnzR0HKIRPLlc

A $27 entry fee is due via Submittable at the time of submission; entry fees are nonrefundable.

Simultaneous submissions are permitted, though manuscripts should be withdrawn immediately if accepted elsewhere.

Deadline has been extended to June 1, 2024. Winners will be notified by Spring 2025 and the winner will be published in Fall 2025.

First prize: $1,000, publication by Moon City Press (including international distribution through the University of Arkansas Press), and a standard royalty contract. Ten additional finalists will be named and considered for publication.

For questions, please contact Editor Michael Czyzniejewski at mczyzniejewski@missouristate.edu.

Past Winners Of The Moon City Short Fiction Award:

2023: Avitus B. Carle, These Worn Bodies

2022: Lee Ann Roripaugh, Reveal Codes

2021: Michele Finn Johnson, Development Times Vary

2020: Andrew Bertaina, One Person Away From You

2019: Pablo Piñero Stillmann, Our Brains and the Brains of Miniature Sharks

2018: Amanda Marbais, Claiming a Body

2017: Kim Magowan, Undoing

2016: Michelle Ross, There’s So Much They Haven’t Told You

2015: Laura Hendrix Ezell, A Record of Our Debts

2014: Cate McGowan, True Places Never Are

All titles are available through the Store page.