Please Note: The deadline for the 2021 Halifax Ranch Fiction Prize is has passed.
We’re thrilled to announce that our judge for this year’s Halifax Ranch Fiction Prize will be the brilliant R.O. Kwon, author of the bestselling novel, The Incendiaries, and coeditor of the groundbreaking new story anthology, Kink, published by Simon & Schuster in February 2021.
There’s more exciting news! This year, we’ve partnered with the Tasajillo Residency, an idyllic writing residency that neighbors the Halifax Ranch just outside of Austin in Kyle, Texas. In addition to publication and a $2,500 prize, we are excited to offer the winning writer an all-expenses-paid writing retreat at the Tasajillo’s beautiful cabin.
General Guidelines
— Submit your entry online between April 7, 2021 and June 1, 2021. The deadline to submit ended on June 15, 2021.
— The winner will receive a $2,500 prize and publication in an upcoming issue of American Short Fiction. In addition, the winner will receive a week-long all-expenses-paid writing retreat (optional—dates TBD) at the Tasajillo Residency, which neighbors the Halifax Ranch just outside of Austin in Kyle, Texas. The residency must be scheduled within a year after the winner is announced. All submitters will receive a copy of the prize issue.
— Please submit your $20 entry fee and your story through Submittable. We no longer accept submissions by post. International submissions in English are eligible. The entry fee covers one 6,500 word fiction submission.
— All entries must be single, self-contained works of fiction, between 2,000-6,500 words. Please DO NOT include any identifying information on the manuscript itself.
— You may submit multiple entries. We accept only previously unpublished work. We do allow simultaneous submissions, but we ask that you notify us promptly of publication elsewhere.
Conflicts of Interest
Staff and volunteers currently affiliated with American Short Fiction are ineligible for consideration or publication. Additionally, students, former students, and colleagues of the judge are not eligible to enter. We ask that previous winners wait three years after their winning entry is published before entering again.
American Short Fiction adheres to the CLMP Contest Code of Ethics. You can find the CLMP Code of Ethics and our contest procedures here.
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About R.O. Kwon
R.O. Kwon’s nationally bestselling first novel, The Incendiaries, is published by Riverhead and is being translated into seven languages. Named a best book of the year by over forty publications, The Incendiaries received the Housatonic Book Award and was a finalist or nominated for seven other prizes, including the National Book Critics Circle First Book Award. Kwon was named one of four “writers to watch” by The New York Times, and she has received awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, Yaddo, and MacDowell. Kwon and Garth Greenwell coedited the nationally bestselling Kink, an anthology exploring love and desire, published by Simon & Schuster in February 2021.
American Short Fiction is grateful to The Burdine Johnson Foundation for their grant in support of this prize.