Calling All Student Writers for the 2021 Breakout! Writers Prize
Submissions are now open for the 2021 Breakout! Writers Prize for undergraduate and graduate prose and poetry writers. The prize consists of $1000 cash (each) for two prose writers and two poets, publication in the Fall/Winter 2021 issue of Epiphany, a year-long membership to The Authors Guild, and a year-long mentorship with editor-in-chief Rachel Lyon. This year's contest will be judged by Nadia Owusu, Shane McCrae, and Rachel Lyon. Submissions close on November 1st at midnight. All applicants will receive a complimentary digital subscription to Epiphany.
About
The Fourth Annual Breakout! Writers Prize brings visibility to the creators of our future by honoring and supporting outstanding college and graduate student writers. Winners have gone on to get agents, publish books, and discover new careers in publishing. Submissions close on November 1st. All applicants will receive a complimentary digital subscription to Epiphany.
Four writers, two in prose and two in poetry, will receive:
Publication in the Fall/Winter 2021 Breakout Issue of Epiphany
A $1000 cash prize each
A year-long mentorship, including an additional short manuscript review, with Epiphany's editor-in-chief Rachel Lyon
A one-year membership with The Authors Guild
A one-year subscription to Epiphany
Eligibility
Candidates must have been enrolled in an accredited university, at least part-time, for the academic years 2020 or 2021. The prize is open to both graduate and undergraduate students. Students need not be enrolled in MFA programs or creative writing programs.
Submissions
Applications will be submitted by individual writers. Interested applicants must submit a creative manuscript and a “Statement of Interest,” which includes the creative manuscript title, author’s enrollment status and the name of college or university attended, and an email address and telephone number for the department head of the student’s program of study or academic advisor (if applicable). Prose manuscripts may consist of one short story, a novel excerpt, or a work of creative nonfiction not to exceed 5000 words. Poetry manuscripts may include up to five poems, formatted in accordance with standard poetry conventions using a 12-point font. The author’s name should not appear on the creative manuscript. Please number all pages of the manuscript and include the manuscript title.
Judging
Honorees will be selected blind on the basis of the work’s creative merit by a judging panel comprised of Rachel Lyon, Nadia Owusu, and Shane McCrae.
Rachel Lyon is the author of Self-Portrait with Boy (Scribner 2018), which was longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, and which is currently in feature film development at Topic Studios. Rachel's shorter work has recently appeared or is forthcoming in One Story, Longreads, Electric Literature's Recommended Reading, and other publications. A cofounder of the reading series Ditmas Lit, she has taught for Catapult, Sackett Street Writers Workshop, Slice Literary, and elsewhere. Subscribe to Rachel's Writing/Thinking Prompts newsletter at tinyletter.com/rachellyon, and visit her at www.rachellyon.work.
Nadia Owusu is a Ghanaian and Armenian-American writer and urbanist. Her first book, Aftershocks, topped many most-anticipated and best book of the year lists, including The New York Times, The Oprah Magazine, Vogue, TIME, Vulture, and the BBC. It was a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice. Nadia is the recipient of a 2019 Whiting Award. Her writing has appeared or is forthcoming in The New York Times, Orion, Epiphany, Granta, The Paris Review Daily, The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, Slate, Bon Appétit, Travel + Leisure, and others. By day, Nadia is Director of Storytelling at Frontline Solutions, a Black-owned consulting firm working for justice and liberation in partnership with philanthropic and nonprofit organizations. She teaches creative writing at the Mountainview MFA program and lives in Brooklyn.
Shane McCrae's most recent books are Sometimes I Never Suffered, shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize and the Rilke Prize, and The Gilded Auction Block, both published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. He has received a Lannan Literary Award, a Whiting Writer’s Award, an Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, a Pushcart Prize, and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the New York Foundation for the Arts. He lives in New York City and teaches at Columbia University.
Submissions and Fees
The entry fee of $10 can be paid via Submittable to subsidize administrative costs associated with the application review. All applicants will receive a complimentary 1-year digital subscription to Epiphany. Entries must be received by midnight on November 1st.
