The Journal, the literary magazine of The Ohio State University MFA Program in Creative Writing, selects one book length collection of short prose each year for publication by Mad Creek Books. The prize carries a cash award of $1500 and publication by The Ohio State University Press Mad Creek Books imprint under its standard contract.

Eligible submissions include an unpublished manuscript of short stories or essays; two or more novellas; or a combination of one or more novellas/novella-length essays and short stories/essays.

Manuscripts must be between 150 to 350 typed double-spaced pages. Manuscripts must be submitted electronically between March 15th and April 15th via online Submission Manager. Your name or any other identification must not appear anywhere on the manuscript. All manuscripts will be read anonymously.

Manuscripts as a whole must be previously unpublished. Some or all of the individual stories or essays in the collection may have been previously published, but these must be identified on a list of acknowledgements (including title and magazine/journal/anthology) with the submission.

A nonrefundable handling fee of $23.00 (US dollars) will be charged for each entry. If it is a hardship to meet the submission fee, please contact our editor to discuss options for a fee waiver at prize@thejournalmag.org.

No hard copy manuscript submissions will be accepted.

For Questions or More Information Please Contact: prize@thejournalmag.org

The Journal Non/Fiction Prize Winners