Ronald Sukenick Innovative Fiction Contest
Eligibility
The FC2 Ronald Sukenick Innovative Fiction Contest is open to any writer in English who has not previously published with FC2. Submissions may include a collection of short stories, one or more novellas, or a novel of any length. There is no length requirement. Works that have previously appeared in magazines or in anthologies may be included. Translations and previously published or self-published novels and collections are not eligible. To avoid conflict of interest, employees and Board members of FC2, as well as former or current students or close friends of the final judge, are not eligible to enter.
Prize
The Prize includes $1,500 and publication by FC2, an imprint of the University of Alabama Press. In the unlikely event that no suitable manuscript is found among entries in a given year, FC2 reserves the right not to award a prize.
Judges
Finalists for the Sukenick Contest will be chosen by the FC2 Board of Directors. The winning manuscript will be chosen from the finalists by our final judge, Sarah Blackman. Selection criteria will be consistent with FC2’s mission to publish fiction considered by America’s largest publishers too challenging, innovative, or heterodox for the commercial milieu, including works of high quality and exceptional ambition whose styles, subject matter, or forms push the limits of American publishing and reshape our literary culture. For more information on FC2’s mission, history, aesthetic commitments, authors, events, and books, please visit our About page.
Catherine Doctorow Innovative Fiction Prize
Eligibility
The FC2 Catherine Doctorow Innovative Fiction Prize is open to any writer in English with at least three books of fiction published. Submissions may include a collection of short stories, one or more novellas, or a novel of any length. There is no length requirement. Works that have previously appeared in magazines or in anthologies may be included. Translations and previously published or self-published novels and collections are not eligible. To avoid conflict of interest, FC2 authors and employees of FC2, as well as former or current students or close friends of the final judge, are not eligible to enter.
Prize
The Prize includes $15,000 and publication by FC2, an imprint of the University of Alabama Press. In the unlikely event that no suitable manuscript is found among entries in a given year, FC2 reserves the right not to award a prize.
Judges
Finalists for the Doctorow Prize will be chosen by the FC2 Board of Directors. The winning manuscript will be chosen from the finalists by our final judge, Renee Gladman. Past judges include Shelley Jackson, Mary Caponegro, Rikki Ducornet, Percival Everett, Laird Hunt, Stephen Graham Jones, Ben Marcus, Carole Maso, Stacey Levine, and Sam Lipsyte. Selection criteria will be consistent with FC2’s mission to publish fiction considered by America’s largest publishers too challenging, innovative, or heterodox for the commercial milieu, including works of high quality and exceptional ambition whose styles, subject matter, or forms push the limits of American publishing and reshape our literary culture. For more information on FC2’s mission, history, and aesthetic commitments, please visit our About page.
The FC2 Catherine Doctorow Innovative Fiction Prize is funded by grant support from the Jarvis and Constance Doctorow Family Foundation.
Guidelines
Entries for the 2020 contests can be submitted beginning August 15, 2019 through November 1, 2019. The winner will be announced in May 2020.
- Submit a previously unpublished manuscript of any length through our online submissions manager. Electronic submissions only.
- The manuscript must be anonymous. The author’s name or address must not appear anywhere on the manuscript. The title page should contain the title of the manuscript only. Pages should be numbered consecutively. Files should be uploaded as a MS Word document or PDF.
- Please include a cover letter, including a biography, your name and contact information. (*For the Catherine Doctorow Innovative Fiction prize, you will also list three previously published works of fiction with ISBNs and publishers, in the space allotted on the submission form.)
- Include a $25 submission fee. Submission of more than one manuscript is permissible if each manuscript is submitted separately and accompanied by a $25 submission fee. Simultaneous submissions to other publishers are permitted, but FC2 must be notified immediately if the manuscript is accepted elsewhere.
