Breakout 8 Writers Prize
What’s one bit of advice you wish you’d have gotten early on?
Not to close yourself off to experiences or genres or forms or themes or anything like that. It's easy to say "I'd never do X" but later on you realize that you will, whether by choice or not. Keep yourself open to challenges!
Shuang Ang
2019 Breakout 8 Prize Winner
Our Third Annual Breakout 8 Writers Prize brings visibility to the writers of our future by honoring and supporting outstanding college and graduate student writers. Submissions close September 15th.
Eight Writers, Four in Prose and Four in Poetry, Will Receive:
Publication in the Fall/Winter 2020 Breakout 8 Issue
A $250 cash prize
A year-long mentorship, including an additional short manuscript review, with Epiphany's editor-in-chief Rachel Lyon
A spotlight interview on the Epiphany website
Submission Guidelines:
Candidates must have been enrolled in an accredited university, at least part-time, for the academic year Fall 2019–Spring 2020. The prize is open to both graduate and undergraduate students; students need not be enrolled in an MFA or creative writing program.
Applications should be submitted by individual writers. Interested applicants must submit a creative manuscript and a “Statement of Interest,” which includes the manuscript title, the author’s enrollment status, the name of college or university attended, and an email address and telephone number for the department head of the student’s program of study or academic advisor, if applicable.
Prose manuscripts may consist of one short story, a novel excerpt, or a work of creative nonfiction, not to exceed 5000 words. Poetry manuscripts may include up to five poems. The author’s name should not appear on the creative manuscript. Please number all pages of the manuscript, include the manuscript title, and use a 12-point font.
This Year's Guest Judges:
Amber Sparks is the author of the short story collections The Unfinished World and Other Stories and I Do Not Forgive You, which have received praise from The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, and the Paris Review, among other publications. She is also the author of a previous short story collection, May We Shed These Human Bodies, as well as the co-author (with Robert Kloss and illustrator Matt Kish) of a hybrid novella titled The Desert Places. She's written numerous short stories and essays which have been featured in various publications and across the web. Find them at ambernoellesparks.com, and say hi to her on Twitter.
Marcus Wicker is the author of Silencer (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) and Maybe the Saddest Thing (Harper Perennial), a National Poetry Series selection. His awards include a Tennessee Arts Fellowship, Ruth Lilly Fellowship, Pushcart Prize, as well as fellowships from Cave Canem, and The Fine Arts Work Center. Wicker’s work has appeared in Poetry, The Nation, The New Republic, American Poetry Review and elsewhere. He is co-poetry editor of Southern Indiana Review, and an associate professor of English at the University of Memphis where he teaches in the MFA program.
