Contests

Each year, Boston Review runs competitions in poetry and fiction. We also partner with the Unterberg Poetry Center/92nd Street Y to publish the winner of the annual “Discovery”/Boston Review poetry contest. We now accept online submissions exclusively through Submittable:

Online submissions are strongly encouraged; contestants also may submit entries via postal mail, but will not receive acknowledgement of successful submission. Email submissions are not accepted.

To check on the status of a contest submission made through our old online submission system, please log in there. However, it will no longer accept new submissions. If you have an active submission there, there is no need to resubmit it; we are still reviewing submissions there. 

All contest entry payments are non-refundable and previously published work may not be submitted to any contest. All winners are announced publicly and informed prior to that announcement. Please do not contact us to ask whether you have won a contest.

Complete instructions for submission to all contests follow.

Aura Estrada Short Story Contest

Deadline: October 3, 2016
Judge: Min Jin Lee
Prize: $1,500

Aura Estrada (1977–2007) was a promising young Mexican writer and student, and the wife of Francisco Goldman. This prize is meant to honor her memory by supporting other burgeoning writers. Aura's writing, and more about her life, can be found here.

Complete guidelines:
The winning author will receive $1,500 and have his or her work published by Boston Review. Runners up may also be published. Stories should not exceed 5,000 words and must be previously unpublished. Mailed manuscripts should be double-spaced and submitted with a cover note listing the author’s name, address, and phone number. No cover note is necessary for online submission. Names should not appear on the stories themselves. Any author writing in English is eligible, unless he or she is a current student, former student, relative, or close friend of the judge. Simultaneous submissions are not permitted; if you submit your story to another publication, you must withdraw it from our submissions manager or inform us by email. Submissions will not be returned, and submissions may not be modified after entry. A non-refundable $20 entry fee, payable to Boston Review in the form of a check or money order or by credit card, must accompany each story entered. All submitters receive a complimentary half-year subscription to Boston Review. Submissions must be postmarked no later than October 3, 2016. The winner will be notified in the spring of 2017 and publicly announced by July on the Boston Review Web site.

You can check the status of a 2016 contest submission by logging into our old contest entry manager. Entries for our 2017 contest are accepted exclusively through Submittable:

Or mail submissions to:

Short Story Contest, Boston Review
PO Box 425786
Cambridge, MA 02142

2016's winner has been announced! Congratulations to Mikayla Ávila Vilá.

Read winning stories from past years:
Mikayla Ávila Vilá's Trumpeteers (2016)
Barbara Hamby's Dole Girl (2015)
Leslee Becker's Severance (2014)
Kerry-Lee Powell’s There Are Two Pools You May Drink From (2013)
Alexandra Thom’s The Piano (2012)
Kalpana Narayanan’s Aviator on the Prowl (2011)
Adam Sturtevant’s How Do I explain? (2010)
Jessica Treglia’s Canceled (2009)
Patricia Engel’s Desaliento (2008)
Padma Viswanathan’s Transitory Cities (2007)
Tiphanie Yanique’s How to Escape from a Leper Colony (2006)
Lisa Chipongian’s Intramuros (2005)
D.S. Sulaitis’s If It’s Anywhere, It’s Behind Us (2004)
Gale Renee Walden’s Men I Don’t Talk to Anymore (2003)
Manini Nayar’s Home Fires (2002)
Kate Small’s One Night a Year (2001)
Girija Tropp’s The Pretty Ones Have Their Uses (2001)
Pauls Toutonghi’s Regeneration (2000)
Jacob M. Appel’s Shell Game with Organs (1999)
Kris Saknussemm’s Unpracticed Fingers Bungle Sadly Over Tiny Feathered Bodies (1998)
Kiki Delancey’s Jules Jr Michael Jules Jr (1997)
Mary Ann Jannazo’s No Runs, No Hits, No One Left on Base (1996)
Tom Paine’s The Milkman & I (1995)
Michael Dorris’s Layaway (1994)

For more fiction in Boston Review, click here.

Annual Poetry Contest

Deadline: June 1, 2016
Judge: Shane McCrae
First Prize: $1,500 and publication

Complete guidelines:
The winning poet will receive $1,500 and have his or her work published online at Boston Review. Submit up to five unpublished poems, no more than 10 pages total. Any poet writing in English is eligible, unless he or she is a current student, former student, relative, or close friend of the judge. Mailed manuscripts must be submitted in duplicate, with a cover note listing the author’s name, address, email, and phone number. No cover note is necessary for online submissions. Names and other identifying information must not be on the poems themselves. Simultaneous submissions (i.e., when the same poems are simultaneously submitted to other magazines) are not permitted, submissions will not be returned, and submissions may not be modified after entry. Failure to comply with any contest guidelines may result in your submission being disqualified. A non-refundable $20 entry fee, payable to Boston Review in the form of a check or money order or by credit card, must accompany all submissions. All submitters receive a complimentary half-year subscription (3 issues) to Boston Review. Mailed submissions must be postmarked no later than June 1, 2016.

The winner will be announced in the fall on the Boston Review Web site. All poems submitted to the contest will be considered for publication in Boston Review.

Please enter online using Submittable:

Or mail submissions to:

Poetry Contest, Boston Review
PO Box 425786
Cambridge, MA 02142

Read winning poems from past years:
Safiya Sinclair (2015)
francine j. harris (2014)
Scott Coffel (2013)
Sarah Crossland (2012)
Heather Tone (2011)
Anthony Caleshu (2010)
John Gallaher (2009)
Sarah Arvio (2008)
Elizabeth Willis (2007)
Marc Gaba (2006)
Mike Perrow (2005)
Michael Tod Edgerton (2004)
Susan Wheeler (2003)
Max Winter (2002)
D. A. Powell (2001)
Christopher Edgar (2000)
Stephanie Strickland (1999)
Daniel Bosch (1998)

For more poetry in Boston Review, click here.

“Discovery” / Boston Review 2016 Poetry Contest

Deadline: Monday, January 25, 2016 at 5 pm
Preliminary Judges: Timothy Donnelly and Solmaz Sharif
Final Judges: Thylias Moss, Paul Muldoon, Ellen Bryant Voigt
Four Prizes: $500

Submissions are accepted by the 92nd Street Y only; questions should be directed to [email protected].

The Discovery Poetry Contest is designed to attract large audiences to poets who have not yet published a book. For the eight year, 92Y’s Unterberg PoetryCenter is proud to partner with Boston Review. Each of four winners is awarded a reading at the Poetry Center, publication in the May/June issue of BR, and $500.

Many winners of this contest have gone on to distinguished careers as poets, among them John Ashbery, Rosanna Warren, Mary Jo Bang, and Mark Strand.

Read winning poems from 2013 and 2014.

The contest is open to poets who have not published a full-length poetry collection. Poets who have published chapbooks of less than 42 pages or in editions of less than 500 are still eligible to apply.

Entries must be received by January 25. An entry fee of $12 must accompany the submission. For guidelines, and to submit, visit 92y.org/Discovery.

Mail submissions to:

Discovery/ Boston Review 2016 Poetry Contest
Unterberg Poetry Center
92nd Street Y
1395 Lexington Avenue
New York, NY 10128