The Rumpus Creative Nonfiction Prize (judged by Megan Stielstra)
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Announcing the Inaugural Rumpus Creative Nonfiction Prize
The Rumpus has a long history of championing emerging and established writers, and we're pleased to announce a new way of bringing attention to essayists.
- $1,000 first-place prize and publication on therumpus.net
- Honorable mention receives $200 and publication
- All entries are eligible for publication in The Rumpus. Those published will be offered the standard contributor payment of $50.
The Rumpus will accept contest submissions from December 5, 2024, through March 2, 2025. Finalists will be contacted in May 2025. Winners will be announced publicly and published by June 2025.
We are honored to have MEGAN STIELSTRA as our judge for the inaugural Rumpus Creative Nonfiction Prize.
Megan Stielstra is the author of three essay collections: Everyone Remain Calm, Once I Was Cool, and The Wrong Way to Save Your Life. Her work appears in the Best American Essays, New York Times, The Believer, Poets & Writers, Tin House, LitHub, The Rumpus, and elsewhere. A longtime company member with 2nd Story, she has told stories for NPR, the Museum of Contemporary Art, and theatres, festivals, and classrooms across the country. She teaches creative nonfiction at Northwestern University and is the senior editor for Northwestern University Press where she acquires fiction, nonfiction, and genre-bending narrative.
For CREATIVE NONFICTION submissions:
Submit one essay or creative nonfiction piece (up to 4,000 words total) or up to 3 flash nonfiction pieces (up to 4,000 words total for all pieces combined) per entry. Entries must contain only the title(s) without the author’s name or contact information on the submission itself. We are open to all forms of creative nonfiction but are most interested in personal essays, lyric essays, memoir, and other literary forms. Submissions should be at least 12-point font and double-spaced for readability.
Prizes
A prize of $1,000 plus publication for our first-place winner will be awarded in each of the three genres. Honorable mention in each genre will receive $200 and will also be offered publication.
Selection Process
The Rumpus’s editorial teams will read all entries and pass along their top choices to the judges. Final selections will be made anonymously, and the judges will choose the winners and honorable mentions blindly. Decisions of the judges are final.
How to Submit
Writers age 18 and over are eligible to enter. Writers cannot be a current or former student of the contest judge in the genre to which they are submitting. Writers cannot be on The Rumpus's masthead as a current member of the editorial team or a volunteer reader, even if you're interested in submitting in a genre outside of your department.
Simultaneous submissions are acceptable, but previously published material in any format (including blogs and social media) is not eligible. Submissions can be withdrawn from the submission system if accepted elsewhere. However, entry fees will not be refunded.
Fee
The cost to submit is $20 per essay or up to 3 flash creative nonfiction pieces. Writers may submit multiple essays or sets of flash nonfiction pieces, but each entry will include a $20 submission fee.
Submissions Process
Submissions and payment for the inaugural Rumpus Prize for Creative Nonfiction are conducted through this Submittable page. If you are interested in entering prose for our Poetry and/or Fiction Prizes, please see those guidelines here. Do not combine submissions in multiple categories in the same entry.
We look forward to reading your work!