2024 Chapbook Open — Judged by Rita Bullwinkel | $3,000 Prize + 50 Contributor Copies (Discounted for Marginalized or Historically Underrepresented Writers)

2024 Chapbook Open

Note: This submission category is for marginalized or historically underrepresented writers ONLY. 

The Chapbook Open, returning for the fifth year, is a call for submissions of literary prose chapbooks. We’re looking for collections of flash fiction, creative nonfiction essays, short stories, and anything in-between. We encourage you to experiment with style and form and push the boundaries of genre. But be aware: manuscripts are capped at 45 pages. The Masters Review is proud to offer the winner a $3,000 cash prize, along with manuscript publication and 50 contributor copies. Selecting this year’s winning chapbook is Rita Bullwinkel, author of the collection Belly Up and the new novel Headshot. Our chapbooks are distributed internationally and are available through Bookshop.org, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon. 

Submissions will be accepted between September 1 and December 15, 2024. The Masters Review staff will select a shortlist of five to ten chapbooks to pass along to Rita Bullwinkel, who will pick the winner and write an introduction for the manuscript. The winning chapbook will be published in Spring 2026. Last year’s winner, A Most Natural Thing by Lisbeth White, will be published next spring. For details on all of our past winners, please visit the links at the bottom of this page. 

All submissions must be single-author prose manuscripts of 25 to 45 pages. We are not interested in traditional lineated poetry. All manuscripts must be complete: no excerpts, no chapters of a novel, no works in progress, or any other incomplete work. Individual pieces may be previously published, but submitted manuscripts should contain some unpublished material. If you have questions or concerns about whether your manuscript would qualify, please email us at contact [at] mastersreview [dot] com.

Submission Guidelines:

• The winner receives $3,000, manuscript publication, and 50 contributor copies.
• The second- and third-place finalists will be acknowledged on our website, alongside any honorable mentions.
• Manuscripts should include a table of contents (if necessary) and an acknowledgements page listing any previously published material within the manuscript.
• Submitted manuscripts must be between 25 to 45 double-spaced pages, at 12-point font (not including front/back matter, i.e., title page, dedication, table of contents, etc.). For collections, each piece should begin on a new page.
• Manuscripts must contain some unpublished material. Previously published material cannot have been published in any other chapbook or full-length collection. (Work that was included in a multiauthor anthology is permissible.)
• Self-published chapbooks are considered previously published and are therefore ineligible.
• We are not interested in poetry chapbooks. (We will consider chapbooks that contain some prose poetry.)
• Only single-author manuscripts will be considered.
• Simultaneous and multiple submissions are allowed, though each submission requires a $25 entry fee.
• Writers from historically marginalized groups may submit for a reduced fee of $15 until we reach our cap of 50 submissions in this category. 
• If your chapbook is accepted elsewhere, please withdraw your submission on Submittable, or contact us otherwise to let us know the collection is no longer available.
• We do not require anonymous submissions for this contest. 
• This contest is for emerging writers only. Writers with single-author book-length work published or under contract with a major press are ineligible. We are interested in providing a platform to new writers; authors with books published by indie presses are welcome to submit unpublished work, as are self-published authors.
• International submissions are allowed, provided the work is written primarily in English. Some code-switching/meshing is warmly welcomed.
• No translations, please.
• Submissions are accepted through Submittable only.
• The contest’s deadline is 11:59pm PST on December 15, 2024.
• AI-generated work is not eligible for this contest.
• Individual stories or essays within the manuscript may also be considered for publication in New Voices.
• Every submission will receive a response by the end of April 2025. The winners will be announced by the end of May 2025. 
• Friends, family, and associates of the guest judge are not eligible for this award, nor are past Chapbook Open winners. 

Judging

Rita Bullwinkel is the author of Headshot and Belly Up, a story collection that won the Believer Book Award. She is a 2022 recipient of a Whiting Award, the editor of McSweeney's Quarterly, a contributing editor at NOON, and the Picador Guest Professor of Literature at Leipzig University in Germany, where she teaches courses on creative writing, zines, and the uses of invented and foreign languages as tools for world building.

Editorial Letter Option

If you’re interested in getting feedback on your writing, utilize our editorial letter add-on option. Editorial letters are available for chapbook submissions on a sliding scale (see below). Our response to your submission will be accompanied by a one- to two-page letter from an experienced guest editor, who will offer observations on the strengths of the piece as well as opportunities for revision. Your editor may also offer further submission and reading suggestions, or other comments on craft. A significant portion of the additional fee is paid directly to your feedback editor.See a sample editorial letter.
 

Editorial Letter Payment Scale:

• One complete story/essay, under 6,000 words: $69
• Two complete stories/essays, or one complete story/essay between 6,000-12,000 words: $133
• Three complete stories/essays, or work longer than 12,000 words: $197