Novel Writing Contest: James Jones Fellowship Contest

Happy Saturday, everyone! Sorry for my scarcity again this week. The holidays are hectic and I’ve had quite a bit of work thrown my way (and Bubba has been keeping me up at night). Anyway, today I want to tell you about a special writing competition called the James Jones Fellowship Contest. Given that last month was NaNoWriMo, I figured that this particular contest would interest many of my readers.

I got my copy of the latest Poets & Writers earlier this week. As I was skimming the “Deadlines” section, a brief section on the James Jones Fellowship Contest caught my eye. It’s a contest specifically for novels-in-progress by writers who have not previously published a novel. Needless to say, I was intrigued and decided to go to their website to learn more.

Here are the most important highlights of the contest:

• Writers who have not previously published a novel and are U.S. citizens are eligible to enter
• Self-published novels are ineligible for submission
• Writers may enter if they have published any other type of work, including non-fiction articles and short stories
• Submission can be done by physical mail or through their online submission form
• The entry fee is $30 for snail-mail entries and $33 for online entries
• The submission must include a (maximum) two-page outline or synopsis of the entire book and the first fifty pages of the novel-in-progress
• Grand prize is $10,000 and an excerpt from the winning novel will be published in Provincetown Arts (July 2019)
• Two runners up will receive $1,000
• Deadline is March 15, 2018, at midnight Eastern Standard Time

For more information on the James Jones Fellowship Contest and to enter your novel-in-progress, please refer to their website.

I highly recommend anyone with a novel-in-progress who has not previously published a novel to enter. As far as exposure and financial support goes, the possibilities attached to winning this contest are worth the entry fee. If you try and lose, at least you can take comfort in knowing that you tried. If you don’t even try, you certainly won’t win.

You can see what else Poets & Writers has to offer by visiting the magazine’s website. And for even more contests and publishing opportunities, be sure to snag your free PDF copy of Winter 2018 Guide to Writing Contest, brought to us by The Writer.

Know of any writing contests or publishing opportunities with approaching deadlines? E-mail me at thewritersscrapbin@gmail.com or drop a line in the comments below and I’ll make sure to include the information in a future post.

Happy weekend, everyone, and Merry Christmas to those who celebrate the holiday! To everyone else, Happy Holidays (including a Happy Kwanzaa to my African American readers and a belated Happy Hanukkah to my Jewish readers)!