Ninth Letter Literary Awards
Ninth Letter accepts submissions of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry for our literary awards from March 1 to May 1.
Prize
The winner in each genre (poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction) will receive $1,000, publication in the Fall/Winter print issue and online, two contributor’s copies of the print issue, and bragging rights. Ninth Letter acquires First North American Serial Rights (FNASR) only; all other rights are retained by the author. All submissions are considered for publication in our general issue and/or online. Judge information is available on our website.
General Guidelines
Submissions are read anonymously, so neither the author’s name nor any identifying information should appear on the manuscript itself. If the author’s name appears in the poem, story, or essay, please replace with [Author’s Name] to maintain anonymity. Acceptable file formats are .pdf, .doc, .docx.
We do not accept previously published work, including self-published work on websites, blogs, etc. We do not accept AI generated writing. You may email ninthletter9@gmail.com if you have questions.
Please ensure you submit the correct document for your entry. At this time we are unable to accommodate submission replacements or edits.
Prose Guidelines
Please submit one piece of no more than 8,000 words. You may also submit up to three pieces of flash-fiction or flash-nonfiction as long as the total word count of the submission is no more than 4,000 words.
Poetry Guidelines
Please submit up to 5 poems in a single file of no more than 10 pages.
Submission Fee
There is an $20 submission fee for each entry. All U.S. entrants will receive a one-year print subscription to Ninth Letter. All international entrants will receive a copy of the fall/winter print issue. Payments are accepted via Submittable.
Multiple Submissions
You are welcome to send multiple submissions in multiple categories provided a fee is paid for each entry. Should you submit more than once, your print subscription will be cumulative. For example, if you submit one manuscript to each poetry, fiction, and CNF, you will receive a three-year subscription.
You may also choose to gift any or all of your print subscriptions to another literary magazine fans of your choosing. If you’d like to gift any of your submissions, please fill out this Google Form after submitting, and our contest coordinator will manage the subscriptions. The Google Form is anonymous and will not collect your email.
Simultaneous Submissions
Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but please withdraw your submission immediately upon acceptance elsewhere. For poetry, please send a message via Submittable if withdrawing select poems but not the entire manuscript. Due to logistical and labor considerations, neither refunds nor replacement submissions will be offered for withdrawn manuscripts. You will still receive the complimentary one-year subscription even if you have to withdraw your submission.
Eligibility
No current students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign or students associated with the school in the past five years are eligible to submit. Likewise, any entrants with a close relationship with guest judges are not eligible to submit.
Accessibility
If you require additional accessibility considerations, please email ninthletter9@gmail.com with the subject line “Contest Accessibility.”
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Web Edition Submissions
Ninth Letter accepts submissions of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry for our web issues to be published at ninthletter.com. Submissions are open from September 1 to November 1 and February 1 to April 1 .
*For this issue, submissions are capped at 350 submissions per genre.*
Web Edition Theme: Reaction
Theme Description:
We find ourselves in a moment of American Reaction. But what sparks that reaction, and what is born out of it? Send us your stories, poems and essays that react without or before forethought, or deal with its spurious repercussions. Render reactivity in digital and material and spiritual spaces in all its spectacle and earnestness. Show us poignant moments of unexpected emotion, or sudden bodily reflexes or the mind's recoil. We want characters caught in unforeseeable moments and narrators that drop their guard, or poems that embody one action’s equal and opposed reaction. We welcome writing that spans the spectrum of reactions – chemical, physical, biological, psychological and political – and pieces that capture reaction in all its possibility and detriment.
General Guidelines:
You may submit up to three poems or one piece of short prose (fiction or nonfiction) of up to 3500 words; please also include a cover letter that briefly explains how you see your work connecting to the theme. Note: work submitted without this information may be withdrawn. Acceptable file formats are .doc, .docx, .rtf, and .pdf.
We only accept submissions for web editions via ninthletter.submittable.com. Submissions sent via snail mail will not be considered for web editions. Email submissions are not accepted and will not be read.
Unless otherwise requested, please submit only once per reading period. We do not accept submissions of previously published work (including work published on personal blogs or social media sites). Please do not send multiple submissions within the same genre.
Simultaneous submissions are encouraged, but please withdraw any work accepted by another publication.
Formatting Note:
Or website does not allowed justified text, so works with fully justified text blocks will not be considered for publication.
Publication Terms and Payment:
Authors who work is selected for the web issue will be offered payment of $25 per poem or $75 per piece of prose, plus an exclusive discount for a one-year print subscription.
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Info & Guidelines
Prize
The winner in each genre (poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction) will receive $1,000, publication in the Fall/Winter print issue and online, two contributor’s copies of the print issue, and bragging rights. Ninth Letter acquires First North American Serial Rights (FNASR) only; all other rights are retained by the author. All submissions are considered for publication in our general issue and/or online.
General Guidelines
Submissions are read anonymously, so neither the author’s name nor any identifying information should appear on the manuscript itself. If the author’s name appears in the poem, story, or essay, please replace with [Author’s Name] to maintain anonymity. Acceptable file formats are .pdf, .doc, .docx.
We do not accept previously published work, including self-published work on websites, blogs, etc. We do not accept AI generated writing. You may email ninthletter9@gmail.com if you have questions.
Poetry Guidelines
Please submit up to 5 poems in a single file of no more than 10 pages.
Submission Fee
There is an $20 submission fee for each entry. All U.S. entrants will receive a one-year print subscription to Ninth Letter. All international entrants will receive a copy of the fall/winter print issue. Payments are accepted via Submittable.
Multiple Submissions
You are welcome to send multiple submissions in multiple categories provided a fee is paid for each entry. Should you submit more than once, your print subscription will be cumulative. For example, if you submit one manuscript to each poetry, fiction, and CNF, you will receive a three-year subscription.
You may also choose to gift any or all of your print subscriptions to another literary magazine fans of your choosing. If you’d like to gift any of your submissions, please fill out this Google Form after submitting, and our contest coordinator will manage the subscriptions. The Google Form is anonymous and will not collect your email.
Simultaneous Submissions
Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but please withdraw your submission immediately upon acceptance elsewhere. For poetry, please send a message via Submittable if withdrawing select poems but not the entire manuscript. Due to logistical and labor considerations, neither refunds nor replacement submissions will be offered for withdrawn manuscripts. You will still receive the complimentary one-year subscription even if you have to withdraw your submission.
Eligibility
No current students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign or students associated with the school in the past five years are eligible to submit. Likewise, any entrants with a close relationship with guest judges are not eligible to submit.
Accessibility
If you require additional accessibility considerations, please email ninthletter9@gmail.com with the subject line “Contest Accessibility.”
Poetry Guest Judge
Steven Espada Dawson is the author of Late to the Search Party (Scribner, 2025). From East Los Angeles and the son of a Mexican immigrant, he has received fellowships from the Academy of American Poets, the Poetry Foundation, and the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing. His poems appear in many journals and have been anthologized in Sarabande’s Another Last Call, Best New Poets, Best of the Net, and Pushcart Prize. He has served as a poetry editor for Copper Nickel and Sycamore Review and has taught creative writing at universities, libraries, and prisons across the country. He lives in Madison, Wisconsin, where he serves as poet laureate.
Info & Guidelines
Prize
The winner in each genre (poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction) will receive $1,000, publication in the Fall/Winter print issue and online, two contributor’s copies of the print issue, and bragging rights. Ninth Letter acquires First North American Serial Rights (FNASR) only; all other rights are retained by the author. All submissions are considered for publication in our general issue and/or online.
General Guidelines
Submissions are read anonymously, so neither the author’s name nor any identifying information should appear on the manuscript itself. If the author’s name appears in the poem, story, or essay, please replace with [Author’s Name] to maintain anonymity. Acceptable file formats are .pdf, .doc, .docx.
We do not accept previously published work, including self-published work on websites, blogs, etc. We do not accept AI generated writing. You may email ninthletter9@gmail.com if you have questions.
Prose Guidelines
Please submit one piece of no more than 8,000 words. You may also submit up to three pieces of flash-fiction or flash-nonfiction as long as the total word count of the submission is no more than 4,000 words.
Submission Fee
There is an $20 submission fee for each entry. All U.S. entrants will receive a one-year print subscription to Ninth Letter. All international entrants will receive a copy of the fall/winter print issue. Payments are accepted via Submittable.
Multiple Submissions
You are welcome to send multiple submissions in multiple categories provided a fee is paid for each entry. Should you submit more than once, your print subscription will be cumulative. For example, if you submit one manuscript to each poetry, fiction, and CNF, you will receive a three-year subscription.
You may also choose to gift any or all of your print subscriptions to another literary magazine fans of your choosing. If you’d like to gift any of your submissions, please fill out this Google Form after submitting, and our contest coordinator will manage the subscriptions. The Google Form is anonymous and will not collect your email.
Simultaneous Submissions
Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but please withdraw your submission immediately upon acceptance elsewhere. For poetry and flash, please send a message via Submittable if withdrawing select pieces but not the entire manuscript. Due to logistical and labor considerations, neither refunds nor replacement submissions will be offered for withdrawn manuscripts. You will still receive the complimentary one-year subscription even if you have to withdraw your submission.
Eligibility
No current students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign or students associated with the school in the past five years are eligible to submit. Likewise, any entrants with a close relationship with guest judges are not eligible to submit.
Accessibility
If you require additional accessibility considerations, please email ninthletter9@gmail.com with the subject line “Contest Accessibility.”
Fiction Guest Judge
Born and raised in Jacksonville FL, DANTIEL W. MONIZ is a National Book Foundation “5 Under 35” Honoree, a 2024 USA Fellow, the recipient of a Pushcart Prize, the Alice Hoffman Prize for Fiction, and Fellowships from Yaddo and MacDowell, among others. Her debut collection, Milk Blood Heat was a finalist for the PEN/ Jean Stein Award, the PEN/ Robert W. Bingham Prize, and the New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award. Her writing has appeared in the Paris Review, Harper's Bazaar, American Short Fiction, Tin House, and elsewhere. Moniz is an Assistant Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her debut novel, Beholder, is forthcoming from Scribner in 2027.
Info & Guidelines
Prize
The winner in each genre (poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction) will receive $1,000, publication in the Fall/Winter print issue and online, two contributor’s copies of the print issue, and bragging rights. Ninth Letter acquires First North American Serial Rights (FNASR) only; all other rights are retained by the author. All submissions are considered for publication in our general issue and/or online.
General Guidelines
Submissions are read anonymously, so neither the author’s name nor any identifying information should appear on the manuscript itself. If the author’s name appears in the poem, story, or essay, please replace with [Author’s Name] to maintain anonymity. Acceptable file formats are .pdf, .doc, .docx.
We do not accept previously published work, including self-published work on websites, blogs, etc. We do not accept AI generated writing. You may email ninthletter9@gmail.com if you have questions.
Prose Guidelines
Please submit one piece of no more than 8,000 words. You may also submit up to three pieces of flash-fiction or flash-nonfiction as long as the total word count of the submission is no more than 4,000 words.
Submission Fee
There is an $20 submission fee for each entry. All U.S. entrants will receive a one-year print subscription to Ninth Letter. All international entrants will receive a copy of the fall/winter print issue. Payments are accepted via Submittable.
Multiple Submissions
You are welcome to send multiple submissions in multiple categories provided a fee is paid for each entry. Should you submit more than once, your print subscription will be cumulative. For example, if you submit one manuscript to each poetry, fiction, and CNF, you will receive a three-year subscription.
You may also choose to gift any or all of your print subscriptions to another literary magazine fans of your choosing. If you’d like to gift any of your submissions, please fill out this Google Form after submitting, and our contest coordinator will manage the subscriptions. The Google Form is anonymous and will not collect your email.
Simultaneous Submissions
Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but please withdraw your submission immediately upon acceptance elsewhere. For poetry and flash, please send a message via Submittable if withdrawing select pieces but not the entire manuscript. Due to logistical and labor considerations, neither refunds nor replacement submissions will be offered for withdrawn manuscripts. You will still receive the complimentary one-year subscription even if you have to withdraw your submission.
Eligibility
No current students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign or students associated with the school in the past five years are eligible to submit. Likewise, any entrants with a close relationship with guest judges are not eligible to submit.
Accessibility
If you require additional accessibility considerations, please email ninthletter9@gmail.com with the subject line “Contest Accessibility.”
Creative Nonfiction Guest Judge
Angela Pelster’s new essay collection The Evolution of Fire: Essays on Crisis and Becoming is forthcoming with Milkweed Editions in April 2026. Her first essay collection, Limber, won the Great Lakes Colleges Association award and was a finalist for the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel award for the Art of the Essay. Her children’s book, The Curious Adventures of India Sophia, won the Golden Eagle Children’s Choice Award. Her essays have previously appeared in Agni, Orion, LitHub, Ploughshares, Tin House, Granta, and The Kenyon Review, among others. She received her MFA from the Nonfiction Writing Program at the University of Iowa, and she’s been a McKnight fellow, a Bread Loaf fellow, and a Minnesota State Arts Board grantee. She’s the Director of the Creative Writing Programs at Hamline University and is the founder and director of Writers Go to the Movies.
Please submit one piece of short fiction of no more than 3500 words. You may also submit up to three pieces of flash fiction as long as the total word count of the submission is no more than 3500 words. Our website does not have the capability to publish fully justified text, so please do not submit work with that formatting. Please also include a note that briefly explains your work's connection to the theme. Submissions without this note will not be accepted. Acceptable file formats are .doc, .docx, and .pdf. Fiction submissions for the web edition are accepted through this link only. Submissions sent via snail mail, email, or our print edition general submissions links will not be considered for this edition.
Please submit up to three poems. Poetry submissions should be no longer than 10 manuscript pages.
Please also include a note that briefly explains your work's connection to the theme. Submissions without this note will not be accepted.
Acceptable file formats are .doc, .docx, and .pdf.
Poetry submissions for the web edition are accepted through this link only. Submissions sent via snail mail, email, or our print edition general submissions links will not be considered for this edition.
Formatting Note: Our website does not allow justified text, so poems with a strict justify will not be considered for publication.
Please submit one essay of no more than 3500 words. You may also submit up to three pieces of flash nonfiction as long as the total word count of the submission is no more than 3500 words. Please also include a note that briefly explains your work's connection to the theme. Submissions without this note will not be accepted. Acceptable file formats are .doc, .docx, and .pdf. Creative nonfiction submissions for the web edition are accepted through this link only. Submissions sent via snail mail, email, or our print edition general submissions links will not be considered for this edition.