FN – The Masters Review Summer Short Story Award for New Writers

The Summer Short Story Award for New Writers returns! Since 2016, our Short Story Award has connected emerging writers with some of the industry’s top literary agents. Past winners include Nana Nkweti, Nick Fuller Googins, Sanjena Sathian, and more, several of whom earned representation from one of our partnered agents as a result of this contest.

We’re looking for spectacular stories—up to 6,000 words, fiction or creative nonfiction—that only you can tell. This year’s guest judge is Jennine Capó Crucet, a recipient of the 2025 Joyce Carol Oates Prize and author of Say Hello to My Little Friend and other works. Our contest runs from July 1 to September 7, 2025, and is open to any writer who has not published a novel or memoir with a major press. The first-place winner of this contest, selected by our guest judge, will receive a $3,000 grand prize, along with online publication. Second- and third-place finalists will receive $300 and $200 respectively, along with online publication.

Here’s what Jennine Capó Crucet is looking for: I’m so excited to be judging this contest, and I think I’m looking for a story that’s charged with a similar excitement, one that asserts itself from the very first paragraph, doing so through a careful attention to language and to voice. And setting: I tend to fall in love with stories that have a strong sense of the world its characters inhabit. I also love stories that use humor to break my heart, though please don’t consider humor a requirement for that: I’m hoping to find a story that’ll stand the test of time and be just as heartbreaking a hundred years from now.

Submission Guidelines

• The first-place winner receives $3,000, online publication, and agency review.
• The second- and third-place finalists receive cash prizes ($300/$200), online publication, and agency review.
• Submissions of fiction or nonfiction must be under 6,000 words.
• Submitted work must be previously unpublished. This includes personal blogs, social media accounts, and other websites. Previously published work will be automatically disqualified.
• The entry fee is $20.
• Simultaneous and multiple submissions are allowed, though each submission requires a $20 entry fee.
• Writers from historically marginalized or underrepresented groups are invited to submit for free until we reach fifty submissions in this category. NOTE: SUBMISSION CAP HAS BEEN MET.
• If your submission is accepted elsewhere, please withdraw your submission on Submittable, or contact us otherwise to let us know the piece is no longer available.
• We do not require anonymous submissions for this contest, but the guest judge will read the shortlist anonymously.
• This contest is for emerging writers only. Writers with single-author book-length work published or under contract with a major press are ineligible. We are interested in providing a platform to new writers; authors with books published by indie presses are welcome to submit unpublished work, as are self-published authors.
• International submissions are allowed, provided the work is written primarily in English.
• No translations, please.
• All submissions must be double-spaced with one-inch page margins and use 12pt Times New Roman or Garamond font.
• The contest’s deadline is 11:59pm PDT on September 7, 2025.
• All entries are also considered for publication in New Voices.
• Every submission will receive a response by the end of December 2025. The winners will be announced by the end of January 2026.
• AI-generated submissions will be automatically disqualified.
• Friends, family, and associates of the guest judge are not eligible for this award. Consider submitting to the winter contest instead!

Entry fee: $20