Marianne Gingher Flash Prose Contest

Submissions accepted December 15 – February 15

The NCWN’s Marianne Gingher Flash Prose Contest is open to pieces of flash prose, fiction or creative nonfiction, of no more than 1,000 words. Entrants must have a mailing address in North Carolina or one of its four adjacent states (Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia), or be a member of the North Carolina Writers’ Network. The Marianne Gingher Flash Prose Contest honors Marianne Gingher, former director of the Creative Writing Program at UNC Chapel Hill and editor of the pioneering flash anthology Long Story Short: Flash Fiction by 65 of North Carolina’s Finest Writers. The contest is administered by Cold Mountain Review at Appalachian State University. The winner receives $500 and possible publication in Cold Mountain Review.

Eligibility and Guidelines

The competition is open to anyone with a mailing address in North Carolina or one of its four adjacent states (Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia), and to members of the North Carolina Writers’ Network
Entries must be unpublished* single pieces of flash prose, 1,000 words or less.
Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but please notify us immediately if your work is accepted elsewhere.
An entry fee must accompany each piece. Multiple submissions are accepted, one piece per entry fee: $5 for NCWN members, $8 for non-members.
You may pay the member entry fee if you join the NCWN with your submission. Checks should be made payable to the North Carolina Writers’ Network.
To submit online you must create an account with Submittable, which will collect your entry fee. If submitting online, do not include a cover sheet or any identifying information within your entry. Provide your cover letter and contact information in the Submittable form only.
To submit as a Member of NCWN ($5), click here.
To submit as a Non-Member of NCWN ($8), click here.
If submitting by mail, submit two copies of each flash piece, double-spaced on single-sided pages, in black 12-point Times New Roman font, with 1-inch margins.
If submitting by mail, do not include the author’s name on the piece(s). Instead, include a separate cover sheet with name, mailing address, phone number, e-mail address, and title(s).
To submit by USPS:

Marianne Gingher Flash Prose Contest
NCWN
PO Box 21591
Winston-Salem, NC 27120

Entries will not be returned.
The winner will be announced on ncwriters.org.
For questions, please contact ed@ncwriters.org.
Please read the Network’s statement on “A.I.” in contests and other Network-administered programs.

*“Published” means the work has appeared for public consumption in any form: print, online, digital, etc.

Has it appeared in a magazine or journal, of any size or circulation? Then it’s been published. Has it appeared on a blog, even one hardly anybody reads? Then it’s published. Audio book? E-book? Free download? ‘Zine, mimeographed and stapled in 1995? Published.

For our contests, we’re looking for new work, fresh work, work unseen by anyone outside your immediate family and/or critique group. Shine a light on your published work in your portfolio, and submit your new work for one (or more) of our annual prizes. Good luck.