Northern Moon Semi-Annual Review invites writers to submit to our biannual Vernal Equinox Prize.
Contest submissions will be accepted from 11:06 p.m. on March 19 to 11:12 a.m. on March 20. Submissions are capped, and the window may close early if we reach our emotional limit. Thank you for understanding.
We are literally shitting ourselves to announce J. Ellerson Paul as our judge. Paul’s debut novel What’s Your Sign? was awarded the PEN/Paul Prize and was almost a National Book Award finalist. Paul is an assistant professor at Bennington College, where he teaches fictional discourse. He is a husband and proud father of some kids and an even prouder author and Sagittarius.
Contest Guidelines:
- Submissions cost $33, non-refundable
- Prose: We accept work up to 10,000 words, but rarely publish anything over 1,692.
- Poetry: Please send no more than 66 lines.
- Hybrid: A hybrid submission crosses genres between prose, poetry, tarot, and photography. If you’re unsure what category your work falls into, draw a card here [broken link].
- Humor: No.
- Submissions whose cover letters transpose J. Ellerson Paul’s middle and last name will not be considered.
If our contest fee poses a financial hardship, then email our editors at [email protected]. To qualify for free or reduced submission, please be prepared to share a copy of your most recent tax return and an accurate birth chart. Ultimately, we’ll determine your eligibility based on vibes.
The first-place winner may receive a $1,000 delayed payment and a personal consultation with J. Ellerson Paul’s seventeen-year-old son, Buck. All entrants receive a lifetime subscription to Northern Moon Semi-Annual Review, to be billed later. Complimentary incense available at Submittable checkout, and consolation incense available when we remember.
The following groups are ineligible to submit: volunteers currently associated with Northern Moon Semi-Annual Review, current and former students, and Geminis. We ask previous winners to wait a full astrological age before submitting again.
Past contest winners include T.C. Boyle, Ocean Vuong, Roxane Gay, Herman Melville, Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, Mary Shelley, Ann Putnam, John Milton, Joan of Arc, Homer, Sappho, and Aesop. We love saying we publish debut authors after that happened one time. Still, we jovially invite them to roll the dice!
Writing we want:
We are looking for writing that is urgent, sharp, fresh, delightful, exhilarating, quiet, compelling, surprising, contemplative, emotional, incisive, unexpected, celestial, debilitating, triumphant, and disgusting. To get a sense of our style, purchase a back issue here [broken link] (required).
Genres we do not consider:
Northern Moon Semi-Annual Review is a genre-agnostic journal. However, we rarely publish science fiction, fantasy, young adult, romance, stories about dogs or rabbits, limericks, sonnets, spoken word, black & white photography, cubism, Dadaism, realism, or nonfiction of any kind. Pieces featuring Geminis will be considered, but if we’re being honest, are unlikely to work. Send us your best!
How to format your manuscript:
Please double-space, insert page numbers on the bottom left hand corner ONLY, and use size 12.5 font. Serif fonts preferred, except the following: Times, Garamond, Georgia, Palatino, and Baskerville. Sans serif STRONGLY NOT preferred unless the piece is about Geminis.
For prose submissions, include your contact information on all odd-numbered pages. For poetry, include on even-numbered pages. For hybrid submissions, include on every page except the first and in the footer ONLY. We will be unable to read any pages inappropriately numbered. Please seal paper submissions with the blood of a wild animal (preferably sacrificed during a waxing moon).
For personalized feedback:
You may purchase an editorial feedback letter written by J. Ellerson Paul’s fifteen-year-old son, Charlie, for $75.00 at checkout. If you opt out of personalized feedback, then you must assume that your writing is bad and you’re a bad writer and that no other alternatives exist.
Information on simultaneous submissions:
With a heavy heart, we do accept these. But it is the author’s burden to let us know if a manuscript is accepted elsewhere AS SOON AS POSSIBLE, like within 24 minutes/seconds. If we discover you have not informed us of an accepted manuscript as soon as it is accepted, then we’ve promised J. Ellerson Paul he may curse you and all your future submissions. Also, we will be really, really mad.
When you should expect to hear back:
Please allow 2 days to a lifetime for a response. Contest winners will be announced no later than the moment Saturn returns.
Thank you for your interest in the Northern Moon Semi-Annual Review, Vernal Equinox Prize! Supporting the arts is important now more than ever. Before you go, please consider telling a Gemini to get fucked.
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Rumpus original art by Natalie Peeples
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