Moon City Short Fiction Award

The 2023 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.

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

A $25 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Simultaneous submissions are permitted, though manuscripts should be withdrawn immediately if accepted elsewhere.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 May 1, 2023. Winners will be notified by Summer 2023 and the winner will be published in Spring 2024.

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.

Inclusion and Diversity

Moon City Press is committed to publishing work from often-excluded and marginalized voices, including writers of color, gender-non-conforming and LGBTQ writers, and writers living with disabilities. To create an accessible platform for these artists, we are offering free submissions to our contests for anyone fitting these descriptions who requests a fee waiver via electronic correspondence. Please contact Editor Michael Czyzniejewski at mczyzniejewski@missouristate.edu to submit such a request.

Past Winners Of The Moon City Short Fiction Award:

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.