The 2023 Gulf Coast Prizes

We are now accepting entries for the 2023 Gulf Coast Prizes in Fiction, Nonfiction, and Poetry.

SUBMISISONS OPEN: February 11-April 16

Judges: Alexandra Kleeman (Fiction), Ingrid Rojas Contreras (Nonfiction), Carmen Giménez (Poetry)

Entries for the Gulf Coast Prizes in Fiction and Nonfiction should be a single prose work not exceeding 7,000 words. Entrants for the Gulf Coast Prize in Poetry may submit up to five poems not exceeding 10 total pages in length. We only accept submissions via Submittable. Entrants may submit more than once or in more than one genre, but each new entry must be accompanied by a separate $26 entry fee.

Contest Guidelines

  • Click here for online submissions accepted via Gulf Coast’s Submittable 
  • Submit your work as a single .doc, .docx, or .pdf file.
  • Only previously unpublished work will be considered.
  • The contest will be judged blindly, so please do not include your cover letter, your name, or any contact information in the uploaded document. This information should only be pasted in the “Comments” field in Submittable.
  • Submittable accepts all major credit cards for the $26 entry fee, which includes a one-year subscription to Gulf Coast.

 

Entries for Gulf Coast Prizes in Fiction, Nonfiction, and Poetry are accepted annually between February 11 and April 16. The contest awards $1,500 and publication in Gulf Coast to the winner in each genre. Two honorable mentions in each genre are awarded $250. All entries are considered for publication and the entry fee includes a one-year subscription to Gulf Coast.

Alexandra Kleeman

Alexandra Kleeman

Alexandra Kleeman is the author of the novel Something New Under the Sun, Intimations, a short story collection, and the novel You Too Can Have A Body Like Mine, which was awarded the 2016 Bard Fiction Prize and was a New York Times Editor’s Choice. In 2020, she was awarded the Rome Prize and the Berlin Prize, and was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in Fiction in 2022. Her second novel, Something New Under the Sun, named one of the New York Times’ Notable Books of 2021, was published in 2021 by Hogarth Press. She lives in Colorado, and teaches at the New School.

Ingrid Rojas Contreras

Ingrid Rojas Contreras

Ingrid Rojas Contreras was born and raised in Bogotá, Colombia. Her memoir, The Man Who Could Move Clouds, was a National Book Award Finalist and was named a Best Book of the Year by? TIME, People, NPR, Vanity Fair, Boston Globe, among others. Her first novel Fruit of the Drunken Tree was the silver medal winner in First Fiction from the California Book Awards, and a New York Times editor’s choice. Her essays and short stories have appeared in the New York Times Magazine, The Cut, Zyzzyva, and elsewhere. She lives in California.

Carmen Giménez

Carmen Giménez

Carmen Giménez is publisher and director of Graywolf Press and the author of several books including Be Recorder, a finalist for the 2019 National Book Award.