2024 Breakout! Writers Prize
The 2024 Breakout! Writers Prize is now open for submissions. The Breakout! Writers Prize brings visibility to and supports outstanding undergraduate and graduate student writers. Winners have won the PEN/Dau Prize and gone on to get agents, publish books, and discover new careers in publishing. This year’s prize judges are: James Cagney for poetry, and Manuel Muñoz for prose. Submissions close Sept. 30th at 11 pm.
Two Writers, One in Prose and One in Poetry, Will Each Receive:
* A $1000 cash prize
* Publication in the Summer 2024 issue of Epiphany
* A one-year subscription to Epiphany
To apply you must have been enrolled in an accredited university, at least part-time, for the academic years 2023 or 2024. The prize is open to both undergraduate students and graduate students receiving a Masters degree. PhD candidates are not eligible. Students need not be specifically enrolled in MFA programs or creative writing programs.
Meet this year’s prize judges:
James Cagney’s second poetry collection, Martian: The Saint of Loneliness is the winner of the 2021 James Laughlin Award from the Academy of American Poets. His first, Black Steel Magnolias In The Hour Of Chaos Theory won the PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award in 2018. His work has appeared in Alta Magazine and Beat Not Beat Anthology co-edited by Kim Shuck. For more information, please visit JamesCagneypoet.com
Manuel Muñoz is the author of a novel, What You See in the Dark, and the short-story collections Zigzagger and The Faith Healer of Olive Avenue, which was shortlisted for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award. He has been recognized with a Whiting Writer’s Award, three O. Henry Awards, and two selections in Best American Short Stories, and was awarded the 2023 Joyce Carol Oates Prize. His most recent collection, The Consequences, was published by Graywolf Press. It was a finalist for the Aspen Words Literary Prize and longlisted for the Story Prize. A native of Dinuba, California, and a first-generation college student, Manuel graduated from Harvard University and received his MFA in creative writing at Cornell University. He currently lives and works in Tucson, Arizona.
