Deadline: December 1, 2023 Dorianne Laux will judge. Prizes: $1,500 & publication (winner); $500 & publication (honorable mention). All finalists will be published in the 2024 Spring/Summer Awards issue. Submit up to 3 poems per entry. $20 entry fee includes a copy of the awards issue. Submit October 1 to December 1, 2023. For complete guidelines please visit our website and view our flyer.
Want early access to our eLitPak flyers? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter! You can also support NewPages with a paid subscription and get early access to the majority submission opportunities, upcoming events, and more before they are posted to our site.
“A literary legacy since 1958,” December‘s newest issue (33.2) features the 2022 Curt Johnson Prose Award Winners: “Goodnight, Irene” by Miriam Gallou, Fiction Winner; “Slow Dance” by Garnett Cohen, Fiction Honorable Mention; “On Her Waters Summoning Us Down” by Gisselle Yepes, Nonfiction Winner; “Of Cats and Men” by Anjanette Degado, Nonfiction Honorable Mention. Other contributors to this issue include poetry by Joanne Allred, David Axelrod, Nancy Botkin, Mary Crow, Kim Ports Parsons, Ricardo Pau-Llosa, Dan Rosenberg, John Schneider, Steven Schreiner, Heidi Seaborn, Mark Smith-Soto, Carole Stone, Florence Weinberger, John Sibley Williams, Erin Wilson; fiction by Quinn Adikes, Bruce Kilstein, A.C. Koch, Jenna-Marie Warnecke; nonfiction by Jacob Aiello, Jiadai Lin, Neha Potalia; art by Joy Curtis, Basil Kincaid; illustration by Sherry Shahan; and cover art by JJ Manford.
From its founding in 1958, december has remained true to its founders’ declaration, “We are humanists…far more concerned with people than dogmatic critical or aesthetic attitudes.” And showing this by publishing cutting-edge fiction, poetry, non-fiction, and art. Now on the cutting edge in print as well as online, december readers will find much to entertain: twice a year print journal, contests, online extras including contributor interviews, “From the Vault,” and “Poetry With Purpose.”
This newest print edition features Poetry by Sean Cho A., P. Hodges Adams, Jennifer Atkinson, Jessica Barksdale, Brenda Beardsley, John Blair, Evana Bodiker, Lisa Cantwell, Christian J. Collier, Sally Lipton Derringer, Daniel Donaghy, Dagne Forrest, Rebecca Foust, Ariel Friedman, Karen Holman, Romana Iorga, Judy Kaber, Susanna Lang, Jim McGarrah, Melissa McKinstry, Karen McPherson, Linda Michel-Cassidy, Michael Montlack, Kristina Moriconi, Barbara Mossberg, Alicia Rebecca Myers, David Oates, Lizzy Peterson, David Anthony Sam, Sarah Sousa, Paula Stacey, Richard Stimac, Anne Dyer Stuart, Shelly Reed Thieman, Alden Wallace, John Sibley Williams, Ariana Yeatts-Lonske; Fiction by Annelise Hatjakes, Michelle C. McAdams, John Paul Scotto, Timothy Wojcik; Nonfiction by Kierstin Bridger, Jennifer Dupree, Erin Langner, Mark Liebenow, Clancy Tripp; Art by David Humphrey; Robert Lowes Haiku Society: An Interview with Ben Gaa; Cover art by Joan Hall.
Featuring new work from Ricardo Pau-Llosa, Jane O. Wayne, Tim Whitsel, the winners of our 2021 Curt Johnson Prose Awards, two beautiful art portfolios by Howard Skrill and Jean Wolff, and much more! Poetry by Erin Bealmear, Erica Bodwell, Dina Elenbogen, Rebecca Foust, Ellen Romano, Reyes Ramirez, and others. Fiction by Dinah Cox, Bill Gaythwaite, Barb Johnson, Sarah Starr Murphy, K.W. Oxnard, and Anamyn Turowski. Check out nonfiction contributors at the december website.
Deadline: December 1, 2021 december magazine seeks entries for our 2022 Jeff Marks Memorial Poetry Prize. Grace Cavalieri is judging. Prize: $1,500 & publication (winner); $500 & publication (honorable mention). All finalists will be published in the 2022 Spring/Summer awards issue. Submit up to 3 poems per entry. $20 entry fee includes copy of the awards issue. Submit October 1 to December 1. For complete guidelines please visit our website decembermag.org/2022-jeff-marks-memorial-poetry-prize.
The Spring/Summer 2021 issue of december includes the 2021 Jeff Marks Memorial Poetry Prize winner and finalists.
First Place “Hold Tight” by John Okrent
Honorable Mention “Disaster A/version/Re/vision” by Margaret Ray
Finalists “Voyeurs” by Joshua Boettiger “A List of People Who Did Not Kill Me” by Tianna Bratcher “Tower Block Twelve” by Elena Croitoru “Mother & Son as Oyakodon II” by Michael Frazier “Abecedarian on Hunger” by Naomi Ling “True Story” by Chloe Martinez “Cicadas” by Saudamini Siegrist “My Mother’s House” by Isabelle Walker “Back to the Body” by Alyson Gold Weinberg “Also Be Lost” by Kelleen Zubick
Volume 32.1 is here! Hot off the press, and filled with beautiful poems, stories, essays, and art. Poetry by Mary Ardery, Joshua Boettiger, Tianna Bratcher, Dana Curtis, Kenneth Jakubas, Naomi Ling, Sara Mae, Myles Taylor, and more; fiction by Jeremy Griffin, Greg Johnson, and Candice May; and nonfiction by Gary Fincke, Ainsley McWha, and others. See more contributors at the december website.
december Magazine seeks submissions for our 2021 Curt Johnson Prose Awards in fiction and creative nonfiction. Prizes each genre: $1,500 & publication (winner); $500 & publication (honorable mention). $20 entry fee includes a copy of awards issue. Submit 1 story or essay up to 8,000 words from March 1 to May 1. For complete guidelines visit our website.
View the full April 2021 NewPages eLitPak newsletter here. Don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter to get weekly updates on lit mags, presses, writing programs, literary events, and more along with the monthly eLitPak newsletters.
december 2021 Curt Johnson Prose Awards – Submit Now!
december Magazine seeks submissions for our 2021 Curt Johnson Prose Awards in fiction and creative nonfiction. Prizes each genre: $1,500 & publication (winner); $500 & publication (honorable mention). $20 entry fee includes a copy of awards issue. Submit 1 story or essay up to 8,000 words from March 1 to May 1. For complete guidelines visit our website.
Featuring gorgeous cover art from Raqs Media Collective, new work from Eileen G’Sell, Albert Goldbarth, Noah Davis, John Sibley Williams, and the winner from our 2020 Curt Johnson Prose Awards, art from Brian Dettmer and Ebony Paterson, and much more. Read more info at the december website.
Carl Phillips will judge. $1,500 & publication (winner); $500 & publication (honorable mention); all finalists published in the 2021 Spring/Summer awards issue. Submit up to 3 poems per entry. $20 entry fee includes copy of the awards issue. Submit October 1 to December 1. For complete guidelines please visit our website.
Carl Phillips will judge. $1,500 & publication (winner); $500 & publication (honorable mention); all finalists published in the 2021 Spring/Summer awards issue. Submit up to 3 poems per entry. $20 entry fee includes copy of the awards issue. Submit October 1 to December 1. For complete guidelines please visit our website.
2021 Jeff Marks Memorial Poetry Prize. Carl Phillips will judge. $1,500 & publication (winner); $500 & publication (honorable mention); all finalists published in the 2021 Spring/Summer awards issue. Submit up to 3 poems per entry. $20 entry fee includes copy of the awards issue. Submit October 1 to December 1. For complete guidelines please visit our website.
The latest issue of december includes the 2020 Jeff Marks Memorial Poetry Prize winner and finalists.
First Place
“River” by Kimani Rose
Honorable Mention
“The Mirrored Room” by Carolyn Foster Segal
Finalists
“The Chosen” by Partridge Boswell
“An Invitation to an Eclipse Party” by
“Going to Church” by Gibson Fay-LeBlanc
“Ars Poetica With Clickbait” by Rebecca Foust
“Pink Peonies” by Valentina Gnup
“On Midwest Marriage” by Gina Keplinger
“My Daughter Makes Pan Dulces” by Abby E. Murray
“Origin of a Disaster” by Purnama
“House Bill #118” by Molly Bess Rector
“Rupture” by Raisa Tolchinsky
You can view a selection of these at the magazine’s website, or grab yourself a copy to check out all the placing poems.
Our latest issue features poetry by Kenda Allen, Jamaica Baldwin, Ronda Pizza Broatch, Satya Dash, Gibson Fay-LeBlanc, Rebecca Foust, Valentina Gnup, Tate Lewis, Abby E. Murray, Phong Nguyen, Eric Pankey, Kimani Rose, Joel Showalter, Ellora Sutton, Raisa Tolchinsky, and more; and fiction by Stacy Austin Egan, Lucy Ferriss, Tyler McAndrew, Casey McConahay, Susan Mersereau, and Griffin Victoria Reed. Read more info at the december website.
december magazine seeks submissions for our 2020 Curt Johnson Prose Awards in fiction and creative nonfiction. Judges: Dorothy Allison (fiction) & Brittney Cooper (nonfiction). Prizes each genre: $1,500 & publication (winner); $500 & publication (honorable mention). All finalists will be listed in the 2020 Fall/Winter awards issue. $20 entry fee includes a copy of the awards issue. Submit 1 story or essay up to 8,000 words from March 1 to May 1. For complete guidelines visit our website decembermag.org/2020-curt-johnson-prose-awards/.
december‘s Fall/Winter 2019 issue features the winners and honorable mentions of the 2019 Curt Johnson Prose Award in Fiction and Nonfiction.
This year’s Award in Fiction was judged by Rita Mae Brown, and the Award in Nonfiction was judged by Amy Chua. Contest Editor Lauren Lederman introduces the winners, and readers can find a full list of finalists inside the issue.
2019 Curt Johnson Prose Award in Fiction First Place
“The Land Behind the Fog” by Andrea Eberly Honorable Mention
“The Augmentation Dilemma” by TN Eyer
2019 Curt Johnson Prose Award in Nonfiction First Place
“Gumdrop Electric” by Sarah Treschl Honorable Mention
“The One Who Didn’t Stay” by Samantha Rogers
december