Prose & Poetry Contest
Contest guidelines can be found on our Submissions page or at the contest entry link below!
Winter Prose & Poetry Edition Contest Details – 2026
- First Prize $500 – One award for Prose | One Award for Poetry
- Second Prize $100 – One award for Prose | One Award for Poetry
- Third Prize $50 – One award for Prose | One Award for Poetry
- Contest closes on Sunday, November 1, 2026
Each category (Prose and Poetry) will be judged independently with each judge selecting their top three winners. Onyx Publications staff will provide the initial screening with our judges providing the final selections.
The Winter 2026 contest provides two tracks, one for short stories, memoirs, and flash fiction, and the other for poetry. First, second, and third place prizes will be awarded for both prose and poetry. First place winners will be interviewed and their works narrated on our Story Discover Podcast. If you haven’t already, give it a listen.
We’re pleased our contest made the 2026 Best Writing Contests List by Reedsy. Please check out their other recommended contests and consider submitting to Reedsy as well!
2026 Contest Judges
Amy Pence
Guest Poetry Judge - 2026
Author Amy Pence’s work spans poetry, hybrid, fiction, interviews, and essays. Her full-length poetry collections include Armor, Amour (Ninebark, 2012) and The Decadent Lovely (Main Street Rag, 2010). Her hybrid book, [It] Incandescent(Ninebark Press, 2018), winner of the Eyelands International Poetry Award in Athens, Greece, blends fiction, poetry, and scholarship. In 2019, Amy launched her chapbook, Your Posthumous Dress: Remnants from the Alexander McQueen Collection (dancing girl press), with a unique fashion/art reading that supported a national nonprofit dedicated to reversing the addiction crisis. We Travel Towards It, released by Serving House Books in Spring 2025, explores both loss and the necessary resilience and insight needed in the face of climate change-induced natural disasters. Red Hen Press released her debut novel, Yellow, in 2026. She’s taught composition and poetry for many years, including at Emory University, and continues to tutor students in Atlanta. Learn more about Amy at www.amypence.com.
Candace Simar
Guest Prose Judge - 2026
Poet and writer, Candace Simar, likes to imagine how things might have been. She has written eight historical novels: Abercrombie Trail, Pomme de Terre, Birdie, Blooming Prairie, Sister Lumberjack, Shelterbelts, Escape to Fort Abercrombie, and Montana Matrimonial News. Simar has been blessed with Spur Awards, a Will Rogers Gold Medallion, Midwest Book Awards, Northeastern Minnesota Book Award, Willa Awards, numerous regional prizes, Catholic Media Award, and a Peacemaker Award. She writes a bi-monthly column for Roundup Magazine called Best Writing Tips and teaches an annual zoom writing course called Pencil to Paper during January and February. Learn more at www.candacesimar.com.
Be sure to submit your works to the contest by November 1, 2026.
