Author Archives: Darian Araiza-Samples
25th Annual Prize – Submissions Open!
Prize submission period February 1st – March 31st
25th Annual Arts & Letters Prize Judges Announced
2024 Prize Judges
Poetry: Chelsea Rathburn
Creative Nonfiction: Beth Ann Fennelly
Fiction: Tiphanie Yanique
Poetry, Creative Nonfiction, and Fiction Winners will appear in next year’s Fall or Spring issue of Arts & Letters.
About the Prizes
For our prizes in fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction, we offer the winner a $1,000 prize and publication in the next year’s Fall or Spring issue. Our prizes are made possible through generous gifts to our prize endowments from Dr. Martin Lammon, Dr. Barry Darugar, Bahram and Fari Atefat, and other friends of Arts & Letters. If you are interested in contributing to our endowments, please contact us!
Submission Guidelines:
Please do NOT include your name on any part of the uploaded file you submit to any genre. We accept most file formats (Word, .rtf, PDF).
We prefer, for the prizes, that your work not be simultaneously submitted. This helps us preserve the integrity of the contest(s). Our judges’ decisions are usually made by the end of May.
All fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction prize submissions will be considered for publication at regular payment rates.
All writers and poets writing in English are eligible to enter, excepting friends, relatives, or current and former students of the current-year judges.
The submission period for our annual prizes is February 1 – March 31st. The entry fee is $20.
Arts & Letters Prize for Fiction:
Submit a manuscript of up to 25 pages, typed, double-spaced
Susan Atefat Prize for Creative Nonfiction:
Submit a manuscript of up to 25 pages, typed, double-spaced
Rumi Prize for Poetry:
Submit a manuscript of up to 4 poems, typed, single-spaced (poems need not be thematically linked, though it is fine if they are)
All submissions are through our Submittable site:
24th Annual Arts & Letters Prize Winners
Rumi Prize for Poetry Judge: Rodney Jones WINNER: Owen Lewis, for “Something’s Wrong,” “Waking This New Year’s Day,” and “More Than Twice”
Arts & Letters Prize for Fiction Judge: Francesca Ekwuyasi WINNER: Patricia Grace King, for “Pax Americana”
Susan Atefat Prize for Creative Nonfiction Judge: Sue William Silverman WINNER: Jonathan VanBallenberghe, for “Winchester Street: Living with My Father’s Suicide”
Issue 47
25th Anniversary
Order Online
ANNUAL PRIZE WINNERS
Patricia Grace King
Pax Americana
Jonathan VanBallenberghe
Winchester Street: Living with my father’s suicide
Owen Lewis
Something’s Wrong, More Than Twice, and Waking Early This New Year’s Day,
UNCLASSIFIABLE PRIZE WINNER
Christy Sheffield Sanford
Wreck Tangles of Désirée Acking
FICTION
Laura Cruser
Counting Mississippis
POETRY
Ciaran Berry
States
The Last Days of the Amato Opera
Billy Collins
L’esprit D’escalier
Todd Davis
The Dam on Loup Run
The Bear Inside the Bear
Kathie Jacobson
Feynman, Joan
Still Life with Boat and Woman
Zachary Kluckman
Describe a Skull to Someone Who Has Never Seen One
Agree to Disagree
Half Sunken Home
Chelsea Rathburn
“…And That’s How People Burn to Death in Hotel Rooms”
On Failing to Feel What I Think I Ought at the Keats House, London
CREATIVE NONFICTION
Nolan Capps
Strange Fire
Kristin W. Davis
Willowbrook
Gila Green
Messianic Games
Alexandria Peary
Sleeping with Knickknacks
FLASH FICTION
Jessica Barksdale
Ready for Digging
Sophia Khan
Cells
Alyson Mosquera Dutemple
Pugilists
Anna Schachner
All My Appreciation
Editor
Laura Newbern
Creative Nonfiction Editor
Peter Selgin
Fiction Editor
Chika Unigwe
Poetry Editor
Kerry James Evans
Managing Editor
Alexis Calhoun
Assistant Managing Editor
Cas McKinney
Assistant Editors
Collin Bishoff
Timothy Connors
Jordan Crider
Sherri-Anne Forde
Aachel Kerger
Aron Liebig
Aatalie Mau
Michaela Reed
Jonna Smith
Nathanael Williams
Issue #47 – Special Issue Announcement
Arts & Letters is pleased to announce that Issue #47 will be published as a special mid-year issue in celebration of the journal’s 25th Anniversary. The 25th Anniversary issue will feature the work of our 2023 Annual Prize Winners (Patricia Grace King, Jonathan VanBallenberghe, and Owen Lewis) and our Unclassifiable Contest Winner (Christy Sheffield Sanford). We are happy to share that Sanford’s “Wreck Tangles of Désirée Acking” will be printed in color for the occasion. The issue will also feature poetry by Billy Collins, former Poet Laureate of the United States, and Chelsea Rathburn, current Poet Laureate of Georgia, plus prose by New Hampshire Poet Laureate Alexandria Peary and Flash by Sophia Khan. Issue #47 will be available for purchase in January. We hope you look forward to this special issue as much as we do!