Breakout Writers Prize 2022

Submissions are currently open for the 5th Annual Breakout! Prize in the categories of poetry and prose. This year's guest judges will be Safiya Sinclair and Meredith Westgate.

Each winner will receive:

- a $1000 cash prize
- publication in the next issue of Epiphany
- a print subscription to the magazine.

All contest entrants will receive a free digital subscription with the code included in our initial response letter.

To apply you must have been enrolled in an accredited university, at least part-time, for the academic years 2021 or 2022. The prize is open to both graduate and undergraduate students. Students need not be enrolled in MFA programs or creative writing programs.

THIS YEAR’S GUEST JUDGES:

POETRY: Safiya Sinclair was born and raised in Montego Bay, Jamaica. She is the author of the memoir How to Say Babylon, forthcoming from Simon & Schuster. She is also the author of the poetry collection Cannibal, winner of a Whiting Writers’ Award, the American Academy of Arts and Letters’ Metcalf Award, the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Poetry, the Phillis Wheatley Book Award, and the Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Poetry. Cannibal was selected as one of the American Library Association’s Notable Books of the Year, and was a finalist for the PEN Center USA Literary Award, as well as being longlisted for the PEN Open Book Award and the Dylan Thomas Prize.

PROSE: Meredith Westgate is the author of The Shimmering State. Her work has appeared in Joyland, LitHub, No Tokens, and more. She is a graduate of Dartmouth College and has an MFA in Fiction from The New School. She is also a mentor with Girls Write Now. Visit her at meredithwestgate.com and on Instagram @meredithwestgate.