Each year from May 1 – August 1 we accept entries of unpublished single works in three genres (fiction, nonfiction, & poetry) for consideration for The Best Spiritual Literature Awards. The winner in each genre will receive a $500 cash prize as well as publication in Best Spiritual Literature, an annual collection of the finest spiritually engaged writing from a broad and inclusive range of perspectives that appeared in periodicals the preceding year. (The unpublished work selected for The Best Spiritual Literature Awards will be featured alongside the reprinted material.)
Submit up to 3 poems (10 pp. max), 1 story (up to 8,000 words), or 1 work of nonfiction (up to 8,000 words). Simultaneous submissions are accepted. You may submit in multiple genres, and/or submit multiple entries in each genre.
Entry Fee: $12
Submission Period: May 1 – August 1
Judges: Diamond Forde (poetry), Jacinda Townsend (fiction), and Kazim Ali (nonfiction)
About the Press
Orison Books is a non-profit literary press focused on the life of the spirit from a broad and inclusive range of perspectives.
Orison Books seeks to publish spiritually-engaged poetry, fiction, and nonfiction of exceptional literary merit. In our view, spiritual writing has little to do with subject matter. Rather, the kind of work we seek to publish has a transcendent aesthetic effect on the reader, and reading it can itself be a spiritual experience. Such work is not merely about spiritual contemplation, but itself leads the reader into profound contemplation. It is not merely about the sublime, but itself has a sublime effect on the reader. It is not merely about the mystery of being, but itself heightens the reader’s sense of the mystery underlying the fabric of our daily lives.
Orison Books titles have been reviewed or featured in The New York Times Book Review, The New York Times Magazine, Publishers Weekly, Poets & Writers, Foreword Reviews, Booklist, The Boston Globe, The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, The Jewish Review of Books, Electric Literature, The Millions, The Rumpus, Literary Hub, Poetry Daily, The Washington Independent Review of Books, Pleiades, River Teeth, Gulf Coast, The Georgia Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, and many other places. Our books have won The Chicago Review of Books Award for Poetry, The Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award for Essays, The Writers’ League of Texas Award for Poetry, and The IPPY Silver Medal for Poetry, as well as being named finalists for The Kate Tufts Discovery Award, The National Jewish Book Award in Poetry, The William Saroyan International Prize, The Balcones Fiction and Poetry Prizes, The New Mexico Book Award in Poetry, and The Paterson Poetry Prize.