The Ohio State University Press
The Ohio State University Prize in Short Fiction
Sponsored by The Ohio State University Press and the MFA Program in Creative Writing at The Ohio State University

Formerly known as the Sandstone Prize

Rules

This annual award is given to the manuscript collection of short fiction selected by an independent judge to be the best submitted. The winning author will receive publication under a standard book contract that includes a cash prize of $1,500 as an advance against royalties. The winner and finalists will be announced in May.

Eligibility Requirements

  • Submissions may include short stories, novellas, or a combination of both (but a single novella is not an eligible submission).
  • The competition is open to all writers in English.
  • Previously published stories or novellas may be included in the manuscript.
  • Current students and employees of The Ohio State University are ineligible.
  • Manuscripts must be between 150 and 300 typed pages (approx. 40,000 to 80,000 words).
  • Individual stories or novellas in the collection may not exceed 125 pages (approx. 35,000 words).
  • No translations unless done entirely by the author.

Submission Format

  • Manuscripts must be typed, double-spaced, on quality white 8 1/2" x 11" paper, 250–300 words per page, one side only, pages numbered consecutively.
  • Crisp photocopies are acceptable.
  • Your identity is not revealed to the judges, so your name should not appear anywhere on the manuscript. Instead, please include the following with your submission:
     
    • a cover sheet with name, street and email address, and phone numbers
    • an acknowledgement page with publication history for any previously published work
    • a title page listing title and approx. word count
    • a table of contents page listing only the stories and/or novellas and page numbers
       
  • Include a self-addressed stamped envelope so we can notify you of the contest results.
  • Include a self-addressed stamped postcard if you wish to receive confirmation of receipt of your manuscript.
  • OSU Press assumes no responsibility for lost or damaged manuscripts.
  • Do not send your only copy. Manuscripts will not be returned.

Deadline information

Manuscripts must be postmarked in the month of January and be accompanied by a nonrefundable fee of $20 (U.S. dollars). Send check or money order (no cash) made payable to The Ohio State University.

Mail to

Fiction Editor
The Ohio State University Press
180 Pressey Hall
1070 Carmack Road
Columbus, OH 43210-1002

2010 Winner
Diane Simmons
Little America


Diane Simmons’ short fiction has been published in numerous journals including Missouri Review, Beloit Fiction Journal, Blood Orange Review, Drunken Boat, Northwest Review, and Fiction. She is also the author of two novels, Dreams Like Thunder (which won the Oregon Book Award for Fiction) and Let the Bastards Freeze in the Dark. She has also published critical biographies of Jamaica Kincaid and Maxine Hong Kingston, and a study of popular Imperial British fiction, The Narcissism of Empire. A native of eastern Oregon, she was a reporter for newspapers in Idaho, Alaska and Washington before moving to New York where she teaches writing and literature at the Borough of Manhattan campus of the City University of New York. She holds an MA in Creative Writing from the City College of New York, and a Ph.D. in English literature from the City University of New York Graduate Center. She lives in New Jersey with her husband, the poet Burt Kimmelman. Links to recently published work can be seen on her blog: freezeinthedark.blogspot.com.

And congratulations to the runners-up for 2010:
Shane Alan Noecker, “Twin Cities: Love Stories”
Robert Morgan Fisher, “Cabaret Nation”

Previous winners

 

2009

 

Matt Debenham

 

The Book of Right and Wrong

2008 Paul Eggers The Departure Lounge
2007 Ric Jahna True Kin

2006

Morgan McDermott

Owner’s Manual

2005 J. David Stevens Mexico Is Missing: And Other Stories
2004 Scott Kaukonen Ordination
2003 Gerald Shapiro

Little Men: Novellas and Stories

2002 Trudy Lewis The Bones of Garbo
2001 William J. Cobb The White Tattoo
2000 Wendy Rawlings Come Back Irish
1999 Molly Best Tinsley Throwing Knives
1998 Steven Polansky Dating Miss Universe
1997 John Clayton Radiance: Ten Stories


 
 

© THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY PRESS