F(r)iction Contests

Short Story Judge
$1,000 Prize

TBA

TBA

Website: TBA
Twitter/bluesky: TBA

Poetry Judge
$300 Prize

K. Iver

K. Iver was born in Mississippi. Their debut collection Short Film Starring My Beloved’s Red Bronco won the 2022 Ballard Spahr Prize for Poetry from Milkweed Editions, selected by Tyehimba Jess. Short Film won the Wisconsin Literary Award, was a finalist for the L.A. Times Book Award, the Kate Tufts Discovery Award, and the Lambda Literary Awards. It was named a Best Book of 2023 by the New York Public Library. Iver’s poems have appeared in Boston Review, Kenyon Review, LA Review of Books, and elsewhere. Iver has received fellowships from the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing, the Sewanee Writers Conference, and the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation. They have a Ph.D. in Poetry from Florida State University. 

Instagram: @ivertownandcountry

Creative Nonfiction Judge
$500 Prize

Grace Talusan

Grace Talusan wrote The Body Papers, which won the Restless Books Prize for New Immigrant Writing and the Massachusetts Book Award in Nonfiction. Her work has been supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, Fulbright, US Artists, the Brother Thomas Fund, and the Massachusetts Cultural Council as well as with artist residencies, most recently at MASS MoCA and Vermont Studio Center. She teaches writing at Brown University and is on the board of the National Book Critics Circle. She was born in the Philippines, raised in New England, and currently lives outside of Boston. 

Talusan has published creative nonfiction, fiction, book reviews, and journalism in publications such as Creative Nonfiction, Brevity, The New York Times, Boston Magazine, Solstice, The Seventh Wave,Boston Art Review, and The Boston Globe, and anthologies such as Troubling Borders: An Anthology of Art and Literature by Southeast Asian Women in the Diaspora and Somewhere We Are Human: Authentic Voices on Migration, Survival, andNew Beginnings. 

X (formerly Twitter): @gracet09
Instagram: @gracetalusanwriter
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gtalusan

Recent publications:

“The Nightmares He Carried,” in Consequence Forum, Volume 16.2 (November 2024) (https://consequenceforum.org/journals/) & a supplemental piece in their Substack, to be posted in mid-December (https://consequenceforum.substack.com/).

“Ripple Effect: Lani Ascunción confronts colonial pasts while envisioning liberated futures,” a profile in Boston Art Review (November 2024): https://www.bostonartreview.com/shop/issue-13-make-believe?image=6.

Flash Fiction Judge
$300 Prize

Terry J. Benton-Walker

Terry J. Benton-Walker is the bestselling author of the young adult contemporary fantasy series Blood Debts, which is published by Tor Teen in the US and Canada and Hodderscape in the UK.

Alex Wise vs the End of the World is Terry’s apocalyptic middle grade contemporary fantasy series, which is published by Labyrinth Road and Random House Children’s.

Terry is also editing and contributing to The White Guy Dies First, a young adult horror anthology featuring 13 subversive stories by authors of color and published by Tor Teen.

Terry grew up in rural GA and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering from Georgia Tech and a Master’s in Business Administration from Georgia State. He lives in Atlanta, and when he’s not writing, he can be found gaming, eating ice cream, or both.

Instagram: @icecreamvicelord
Bluesky: @tjbentonwalker.bsky.social
X (formerly Twitter): @tjbentonwalker
https://tjbentonwalker.com/