Essay Press / University of Washington Bothell MFA Submissions are open from October 1 to December 15.
Essay Press and the University of Washington Bothell’s MFA in Creative Writing and Poetics Program are hosting a 2021 Essay Book Contest to be judged by Ronaldo Wilson! We’re particularly excited to read manuscripts that extend or challenge the formal possibilities of prose, including but not limited to: lyric essays and prose poems or poetics; experimental biography and autobiography; innovative approaches to journalism, interdisciplinary historiography, criticism, scholarship and philosophy. Simultaneous submissions, multiple submissions, collaborative manuscripts, digital and hybridized text/art manuscripts are all welcome. The ideal manuscript will run roughly 70-200 pages, though no manuscript will be denied consideration on account of being too short or too long. We will consider all submitted manuscripts for additional publishing possibilities. Selections will be made and announced by April 2021. Along with book publication by Essay Press, the contest winner will receive an award of $1,000 and a visit to University of Washington Bothell. The reading fee is $20, or $25 to receive a copy of a previous or forthcoming Essay Press book, or one of the winning contest books, for those in the United States. For those living internationally, if you would like to enter the contest and receive an EP book, please contact Meagan Wilson at m.essaypress@gmail.com. See previous winners and judges here.
ABOUT THE JUDGE
Interdisciplinary artist, poet and scholar Ronaldo V. Wilson, PhD is the author of Narrative of the Life of the Brown Boy and the White Man (University of Pittsburgh 2008), Poems of the Black Object (Futurepoem Books 2009), Farther Traveler: Poetry, Prose, Other (Counterpath Press, 2015), and Lucy 72 (1913 Press, 2018). Wilson’s Carmelina: Figures (Wendy’s Subway, 2021) and Virgil Kills: Stories (Nightboat Books, 2022) are forthcoming. Wilson is the recipient of fellowships from Cave Canem, Kundiman, MacDowell, the Center for Art and Thought, and the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation. He is Professor of Creative Writing and Literature at UC Santa Cruz, serving on the core faculty of the Creative Critical PhD Program, and principal faculty of Critical Race and Ethnic Studies. ABOUT EP / THE UWB MFA Essay Press is dedicated to publishing artful, innovative and culturally relevant prose that extends or challenges the formal protocols of nonfiction. University of Washington Bothell’s MFA in Creative Writing and Poetics is unique for its emphasis on poetics, encouraging a cross-genre and multi-media curriculum, bringing together nationally and internationally renowned faculty including visual artists and creative writers, and giving students the freedom to pursue their second year as residency or non-residency students, or a hybrid of both. |
