NEWEST:

01.23.10: 2010 Chapbook Contest Guidelines are ready [link].

12.30.09: 2009 Hybrid Essay Contest Results are in [link].

10.27.09: 2010 $5 IFC Guidelines are up [link]. Chapbook contest guidelines to be posted in November 2009.

07.14.09: The DIAGRAM/NMP Chapbook Contest results are in [link].

06.16.09: The $5 IFC results are in [link].

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2010 Chapbook Contest Guidelines

The New Michigan Press / DIAGRAM chapbook contest announces our guidelines for 2010. We pick the majority of our chapbook titles each year from the ranks of the chapbook contest finalists, so this is an important one for us.

The Prize		$1000 plus publication; finalist chapbooks also considered for publication
The Mailing Deadline		April 30, 2010
What we want		Interesting, lovely unpublished work (unpublished as a whole; individual pieces may be published already of course), prose or poetry or some combination or something between genres, 18-44 manuscript pages (no more than one poem per page if you're sending poems unless they are very, very short)
Images okay?		Yes. We don't print color interiors, so black and white images are acceptable; you must be able to obtain reprint rights for any images you include; please don't send originals of anything, since we cannot return manuscripts.
Other questions?		It's fine with us if individual works have been published elsewhere, but the manuscript can't have been published as a whole before. Please include specific acknowledgments if any of the works have appeared elsewhere—tell us where individual pieces appeared, as we consider submitted work for possible publication in DIAGRAM. We recommend that your manuscript be as coherent--as much a project--as possible. Not to say everything needs to be thematic or narratively related, but most of our winning chapbooks show a sense of aesthetic unity so that the books make sense as books. Chapbook manuscripts do not necessarily have to be diagrammatic (though the diagrammers among us do enjoy those). Co-authored manuscripts are fine. Submitting multiple manuscripts is fine with entry fees for each. Please don't put your name/identifying info on the piece itself. If you send electronically, it'll be in the submitter info only. If you send snail mail, include a detachable cover page. Email nmp--at--thediagram.com with further questions if you have them.
How to Get Your Work to Us (electronic, preferred)		REQUIRED STEP ONE: Pay contest fee through Paypal by filling out the form with your last name and the manuscript title, then clicking on the [Add to Cart] button just below this paragraph. You may use a credit card if you like (or a checking account etc.). No need to create an account. Once you complete step one it will click through to a page with step two on it (also copied below just in case). Last Name/Title Great. Note that the payment goes to New Michigan Press, which is the publisher of DIAGRAM.  REQUIRED STEP TWO: submit your manuscript through our Submissions Manager system [here]. You'll have to create an account with the system if you haven't submitted to us before. Make SURE, SURE, that when you enter the submission's genre, you choose CHAPBOOK CONTEST SUBMISSION ONLY. Do NOT select "fiction," "poetry," or anything else. That way it gets read, processed, and responded-to properly (our contest submissions go through different process than regular submissions). If you submit under something else things will get munged (though we are happy to read your non-contest submissions whenever, of course) and you'll have to resubmit. Please give us some kind of cover letter if you like. Or not. Note: only one file may be submitted through the submissions manager. PDF preferred, or Word format (.doc, .docx), or .rtf is fine if necessary (we cannot read any other word processing formats; sorry). *If you'd like a complimentary copy of the winning chapbook or another NMP chapbook of your choice (if we have it in stock; please indicate on envelope), send us a 6" x 9" or larger self-addressed envelope to NMP/DIAGRAM Chapbook Contest, English Department, P.O. Box 210067, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721-0067. If you send electronically you'll be notified electronically by default. No SASE required unless you want a copy of the winning chapbook. If you'd like us to send you a hardcopy results letter, that's fine.
How to Get Your Work to Us (snail mail)		If you'd rather send traditional mail, fine. Mail your manuscript and check (made out to New Michigan Press--or pay online above if you'd rather and include the receipt) for $16 to: NMP/DIAGRAM Chapbook Contest, English Department, P.O. Box 210067, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721-0067. So, make sure you send us a business-sized SASE with $0.46 of postage if you'd like notification of the results in the USA. Manuscripts cannot be returned (sorry—please don't send your only copy). And we can't do email if you don't submit online. Enclose a self-addressed, stamped postcard if you'd like confirmation that we received your manuscript. Enclose a self-addressed 6" x 9" envelope with $2 of postage (in USA—$6 is a safe bet if you're sending from overseas) if you would like a complimentary copy of the winning chapbook (or another chapbook in our series—please specify which, if any, on the envelope). If you do not care, there is no need for this. Unfortunately we are giving up on IRCs. They don't seem to work. It is truly horrible. Please send your manuscripts via airmail. Please do not send submissions certified mail, express mail, or anything we have to sign for; it's a pain and if we're not home, we're not going to be able to make a trip to the post office, which is truly horrible in Arizona, to pick up your manuscript. If you want to overnight it, fine, please check off the "no signature req'd" box.
Judge		We don't have a celebrity judge for our chapbook contest. Since we pick the majority of our chapbooks from the submissions to the contest, we judge everything internally. The final judge is our editor, Ander Monson. Readers change and vary year to year. We read anonymously and try to vary our aesthetic year to year. Still, we like what we like. To find out what we like, you should probably check out our chapbooks if you haven't already.
Okay		That's it. Good luck!

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2009 Hybrid Essay Contest Results

We're pleased to announce the results of our 2009 Hybrid Essay Contest. This year's winner is:

• Cheyenne Nimes, for her essay, "Section 404 of the Clean Water Act and the Santa Cruz River Sand Shark, subtitled 'This troublesome regulatory constraint.'"

She received a $1000 honorarium and publication in an upcoming issue of DIAGRAM. Congrats to her, and to our three other finalists:

• Josh MacIvor-Andersen and Roderick McClain: "How To Talk Up Gravity and Take Down a Tree"
• Raquel Maldonado: "How My Baby Would Kill the Devil and God With A Bat of Her Non-Existent Eyelashes"
• Lucas Farrell: "A Description of the Hook I am Capable Of"

These finalists will also be featured in an upcoming issue of DIAGRAM. Also their egos will be stroked profusely. We'll send out announcements via snail mail (if you provided a SASE) and email (if you sent via the submissions manager software) shortly. Thanks to everyone who entered. Decisions were difficult as always, and there were a number of entrants that were doing exciting things with form and hybridity.

Signed, your contest judges, Nicole Walker and Ander Monson

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10.27.09: 2010 $5 IFC Guidelines

First off, the contest deadline is Mar 08, 2010. It is for an unpublished story of fewer than 10000 (ten thousand) words. The winner will receive $1000 and publication. The finalists (typically anywhere from 5-15) will be published along with the winner in our summer fiction issue.

This contest runs on the cheap (the entry fee's only $5, and the winner receives $1000) so there's no overhead for administration. For this contest we DO NOT notify entrants who send via snail mail. We strongly recommend you enter via the submission manager software, which will ensure you get a notification. Otherwise we'll notify finalists and the winner, and post the results on the website. That's it.

The judge for 2010 is Ander Monson, editor of DIAGRAM, winner of the World's Best Short Short Story Competition from the Florida Review, author of the award-winning Other Electricities among other things. Ah, you probably know him. He's the editor. We're keeping the judging in house this year.

All entries will be judged anonymously in house by our rotating staff of readers, so please do NOT put your contact info on your story. If you send via the submissions manager, the system will have your info. If you send snail mail, please include a detachable cover page or cover letter with your information and the story's title, and don't include contact info on the manuscript.

To enter: Submit an unpublished story of up to 10,000 words with a $5 entry fee by March 8th, 2010.

Anyone with more than a casual relationship with the judge is ineligible (though we're happy to read your work via regular submissions). Sorry lovers, former lovers, friends, students, mentors, and so on.

Here's how to submit:

Option 1: Electronic (very much preferred but maybe a little awkward (sorry)!):

REQUIRED STEP ONE: Pay contest fee through Paypal by filling out the form with your last name and the story title, then clicking on the [Add to Cart] button just below this paragraph. You may use a credit card if you like (or a checking account etc.). No need to create an account, but you may if you like. Once you complete step one it will click through to a page with step two on it (also copied below just in case).

Last Name/Title

Great. Note that the payment goes to New Michigan Press, which is the publisher of DIAGRAM. 

REQUIRED STEP TWO: submit through our killer Submissions Manager system [here]. You'll have to create an account with the system if you haven't submitted to us before. Make SURE, SURE, that when you enter the submission's genre, you choose $5 IFC SUBMISSION. Do NOT select "fiction" or anything else. That way it gets read, processed, and responded-to properly (our contest submissions go to a different process than regular submissions). If you submit under something else things will get munged (though we are happy to read your non-contest submissions whenever, of course) and you'll have to resubmit. Please give us some kind of cover letter if you like. Or not.

Note: only one file can be submitted through the submissions manager. PDF preferred, or Word format (.doc, .docx), or .rtf is fine if necessary (we cannot read any other word processing formats; sorry).

If you send electronically you'll be notified electronically.

Option 2: Snail mail (not preferred but you can hit this if it's easier; downside is that we have to ask for an extra $2 in your entry fee to process these) submissions can go to $5IFC, DIAGRAM, c/o Ander Monson, Dept. of English, P.O. Box 210067, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721-0067. The entry fee for snail mail submissions is $7 per story. Make checks out to DIAGRAM or send cash. Or pay online with the button above and make a note of that on your cover letter. We don't notify snail mail but will contact you if you're a finalist or winner, and will post the results on this page when the decision is made.

Multiple submissions are fine. Simultaneous submissions are fine as long as you notify us as soon as a story is no longer available. In which case, congratulations on getting it published! Then you can withdraw your submission manually from the submissions manager.

Images are fine as long as you have or can get rights to print/reprint (or if they are in the public domain).

We don't have any particular aesthetic biases for this contest other than the name: innovative is part of the title. And, like, we're DIAGRAM. We like innovative stuff. Obviously good is the most important quality, but innovative is important too.

We expect to notify finalists and winners no later than the end of May 2010. Thanks for entering! And good luck. Questions can go to nmp--atsymbol--thediagram--dot--com.

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08.09.09: 2009 Hybrid Essay Contest Guidelines -- closed for submission as of 11/01/09

Okay, so this is the second year we've run the Hybrid Essay contest. We still don't know exactly what we mean by hybrid, and we would certainly prefer to leave definitions up to you. We don't like them. We think the term hybrid suggests a resistance to definition. I guess the only way to describe it is we're looking for essays that are in some way outside the traditional boundaries of the genre. The lyric essay is a great example of a hybrid form: an essay that is essay but also poem. So we're looking for fusion of one sort or another. In particular we'd like to see work with greater visual components, or perhaps audio, or something that will amaze and beguile us. You can check out the issue with the finalist essays in early 2009 if you like, though again, we want crazy, awesome (maybe nixing the comma between them) stuff. So:

DIAGRAM announces the second Hybrid Essay Contest, with a deadline of October 31, 2009. Following our continued interest in reinvented, unusual literature, a contest for an unpublished (in a serial/book or on a non-personal website — blogs etc. are fine) hybrid essay. Unpublished means you must be able to give us, if selected, first serial rights.

To enter: Submit an unpublished essay of up to 10,000 words with a $15 reading fee by October 31, 2009.

The prize is $1000 + publication. We'll shoot for publishing several of our finalists with the winner in DIAGRAM.

Entries should be anonymous, with a removable cover page (if you send electronically no cover page is necessary; just don't put your name on the manuscript). It will be judged by Ander Monson and Nicole Walker, so anyone with more than a casual relationship with either of these is ineligible (though we're happy to read your work via regular submissions). Sorry lovers, former lovers, friends, students, mentors, and so on.

Here's how to submit:

Option 1: Electronic (much preferred but maybe a little awkward (sorry)!):

REQUIRED STEP ONE: Pay contest fee through Paypal by filling out the form with your last name and the essay title, then clicking on the [Add to Cart] button just below this paragraph. You can use a credit card if you like (or a checking account etc.). No need to create an account, but you may if you like. Once you complete step one it will click through to a page with step two on it (also copied below).

[x]

Great. Note that the payment goes to New Michigan Press, which is the publisher of DIAGRAM.

REQUIRED STEP TWO: submit through our killer Submissions Manager system [here]. You'll have to create an account if you haven't submitted to us before. Make SURE, SURE, that when you enter the submission's genre, you choose HYBRID ESSAY CONTEST SUBMISSIONS ONLY. That way it gets read/processed/responded-to properly. If you submit under something else things will get munged (though we are happy to read your non-contest submissions whenever, of course) and you'll have to resubmit. Please give us some kind of cover letter if you like. Or not.

Note: only one file can be submitted through the submissions manager. PDF preferred, though whatever else is fine if necessary.

If you send electronically you'll be notified electronically.

Option 2: Snail mail (not preferred but you can hit this if it's easier) submissions can go to Hybrid Essay Contest, c/o Ander Monson, Dept. of English, P.O. Box 210067, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721-0067. Make checks out to DIAGRAM or send cash. Or pay online with the button above anyhow and make a note on your cover letter. Include a SASE or your email address for notification.

*

We need to receive your submission by October 31, 2009, for your work to be considered.

And, since you asked, you may submit multiple separate submissions, though each would require its own entry fee for consideration. Unpublished work only. Multiple authors (crazy!) are fine.

We'll read everything closely, anonymously, pick finalists, and hopefully announce our winner by Xmas 2009 or shortly thereafter. We'll send out notifications to everyone who submitted.

Good luck, and thanks for entering the contest.

Questions can go to <nmp--at--thediagram.com>. Images are fine (as long as you have or can get permission to reproduce them if published). Multi- or mixed-media is fine.

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07.14.09: We announce the 2009 Chapbook Contest Winner!

The winning chapbook, chosen by our secret and glorious panel of editors (myself included, and perhaps most obviously steering the ship), is Benjamin Mirov's I is to Vorticism.

Finalist Chapbooks That We Also Liked Very Much:

Lucy Anderton, The Sinister Juice
Douglas Basford, Gull Hymns
Franklin Bruno, All That Is Solid Melts in Your Mouth
William Carty, Quarry
Justin Dodd, An Extravagant Fever
Patrick Ryan Frank, A Compact Guide to Modern Fears
Loren Goodman, New Products
Boris Jardine, Resistance
Heather Kirn, Psalms of Unknowing
Sara Levine, Misgivings
Ben Mirov, Ghost Machine
JoAnna Novak, Something Real
J. Robinson, Strap-On Aesthete
Jennifer Tamayo, Keloid
Mark Yakich, Pornocracies
Jake Adam York, The Lamps Are Never Out

And we'll publish two of the other finalists in our 2009-2010 series because we just frickin like them a whole lot:

Genine Lentine's Mr Worthington's Beautiful Experiments on Splashes and Brent Armendinger's Undetectable.

Monsieur Mirov will receive the winner's prize of $1000 and publication.

We had approximately 500 manuscripts submitted this year. It was very much our pleasure to read your work.

Many thanks to our group of highly talented and incisive, intelligent, anonymous readers. You know who you are.

Snail mail SASEs were stuffed today and the results go in the mail tomorrow. (If you sent us a SASE of enough size and postage, we'll fire you your complimentary copy of the winning chapbook when it comes out—probably Fall or Winter.)

Next year's guidelines posted in the fall. Contest deadline is later, April 30th, 2010.

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06.16.09: The $5 IFC Contest Results are in. Emails have been sent to all who submitted electronically. We don't do snail mailings for this contest, so if you sent a SASE, it has been recycled.

Celebrity judge Brian Evenson selected August Tarrier's story, "Field Notes," as our 2009 winner. Congratulations to her. She will receive $1000 and publication in our summer fiction issue (DIAGRAM 9.3).

We'll also publish five finalist stories in the summer fiction issue:

Micah Nathan's "Simulacrum"
Jenny Zhang's "The Empty the Empty the Empty"
Erica W Adams' "Opening"
Michael Agresta's "After the Party"
Kristina Born's "Jack Twig is the Evil Pulse of Canada"

along with some other work. Thanks to everyone who entered. We had about 400 entries this year, which is kind of insane. We guess $5 is the right entry fee... and we hope to read more of your work in the future.

Ander Monson, Editor

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The 2009 Contest Guidelines for the NMP/DIAGRAM Chapbook Contest (deadline for mailing of submissions: 03.27.09) are available now just below on this page:

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The 2009 $5 Innovative Fiction Contest Guidelines (no longer active; 2010 guidelines in late Fall):

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01.05.09: Here are the 2008 Hybrid Essay Contest results. Congrats to our winner and finalists, and many thanks to all who entered. If you sent snail mail you'll be getting a note via snail mail soonish.

The Winner: Matthew Glenwood, for "John Henry's Tracks." He will receive $1000 and publication in a future issue of DIAGRAM.

We will also publish these four finalists:
--Jason Anthony's "Antarctic Aesthetics"
--Michael Jauchen's "Am I Jewish?: Notes Toward a Hermeneutics of the Fake Family History"
--Nik De Dominic's "Postage Partum"
--Anne Shaw's "Monstrosities"

Many thanks to you for entering our first ever hybrid essay contest. Admittedly we didn't know what we would get when we started it, what we even meant by hybrid. As you surely noticed in our guidelines. We wanted more interesting, multiform nonfiction, and we got lots of it (yours included). Our goal was mostly to encourage the writing of stranger nonfictions and to encourage those who are working on these odder pieces to send them our way. I think we accomplished this, and it would not have worked without your help. We will run another hybrid essay contest next year, and I hope you'll consider sending your work to it (or to us in a non-contest way, also encouraged; we read year round). And I hope you'll come back by to check out the winners (should appear in DIAGRAM 9.1, out at the end of February).

As you know, without your support of this project, NMP and DIAGRAM would not be able to continue, so we thank you greatly for sending your work our way.

Best,
Contest Judges: Ander Monson, Editor and Nicole Walker, Nonfiction Editor

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10.31.08: Happy Halloween! The Hybrid Essay Contest is closed for submissions. Thanks if you entered. Boo hoo if you did not. Results to be posted here before January. Ideally sooner. New chapbook contest guidelines forthcoming in November, yo.

06.27.08: The 2008 Hybrid Essay Contest Guidelines

So here, friends, is the lowdown.

DIAGRAM announces, to inaugurate our new nonfiction editorship (of Nicole Walker) and our continuing interest in reinvented, unusual literature, a contest for an unpublished (in a serial/magazine/journal/book or on a non-personal website) hybrid essay.

Submit an unpublished essay of up to 10,000 words with a $15 reading fee by October 30, 2008. We are particularly interested in hybrid essays, texts that exhibit some form of hybridity.

The prize is $1000 + publication. We'll shoot for publishing several of our finalists, too, in DIAGRAM.

Judged by Ander Monson and Nicole Walker, a hybrid if you ever saw one. Who's the ass end? Who's the head part? NO ONE KNOWS. It's scary.

What is a hybrid essay? Well, many essays are hybrids to start with—involving fiction, memoir, poetry, art, photography, mathematics. The essay is a hybrid form—it can take many shapes. We want to encourage this, to see your weirdo essays that have visual elements, information from other disciplines, or that marry two forms, or three shapes, or whatever.

What do we mean? See Lia Purpura's essay (DIAGRAM 8.4) on hybridity, Albert Goldbarth's book Griffin (Essay Press, 2007), or really nearly any essay that qualifies as lyric for some examples. We like our descriptions ambiguous because we don't want to limit what we get. No one likes a reductive definition.

Okay. You're convinced. It's going to be great. You want to throw your hat in the ring. Here's how to submit:

Electronic (preferred but maybe a little awkward (sorry)!):

STAGE ONE: Pay contest fee through Paypal by clicking on the button below.

[contest deadline passed so the button is gone]

STAGE TWO: submit through our killer Submissions Manager system [here]. You'll have to create an account if you haven't submitted to us before. Make SURE, SURE, that when you enter the submission, you choose CONTEST SUBMISSION. That way it gets read/processed properly. If you submit under something else things will get munged (though we are happy to read your non-contest submissions whenever, of course). Please give us some kind of cover letter if you like.

Snail mail (not preferred but you can hit this if it's easier): submissions can go to Hybrid Essay Contest, c/o Ander Monson, Dept. of English, P.O. Box 210067, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721-0067. Make checks out to DIAGRAM or send cash. Or pay online with the button above anyhow and make a note on your cover letter. Include a SASE or your email address for notification.

We need to receive your submission by October 30, 2008, for your work to be considered.

And, since you asked, you may submit multiple separate submissions, though each would require its own entry fee for consideration.

We'll read everything closely, pick finalists, and hopefully announce our winner by Xmas 2008. We'll send out notifications to everyone who submitted.

Good luck, and thanks for entering the contest.

Questions can go to <nmp--at--thediagram.com>. Images are fine (as long as you have or can get permission to reproduce them if published). Multi- or mixed-media is fine.

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