The Porter House Review staff is excited to announce our 2023 – 2024 Editor’s Prizes in Poetry, Nonfiction, and Fiction. This year’s contest will be judged by Kaveh Akbar, Elisa Gabbert, and Andrew Najberg. This contest will open on December 15, 2023 and will close on January 31, 2024. Winners and Finalists will be announced in April 2024. Please see below for full submission guidelines and more information on our brilliant guest judges.
Kaveh Akbar
Poetry Judge
Kaveh Akbar‘spoems appear in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Paris Review, Best American Poetry, and elsewhere. He is the author of two poetry collections:Pilgrim Bell(Graywolf 2021) andCalling a Wolf a Wolf(Alice James 2017), in addition to a chapbook,Portrait of the Alcoholic(Sibling Rivalry 2016). He is also the editor ofThe Penguin Book of Spiritual Verse: 100 Poets on the Divine(Penguin Classics 2022). In 2024,Knopf will publishMartyr!, Kaveh’s first novel. In 2020 Kaveh was named Poetry Editor ofThe Nation. The recipient of honors including multiple Pushcart Prizes, a Civitella Ranieri Foundation Fellowship, and the Levis Reading Prize, Kaveh was born in Tehran, Iran, and teaches at the University of Iowa and in the low-residency MFA programs at Randolph College and Warren Wilson. In 2014, Kaveh foundedDivedapper, a home for dialogues with the most vital voices in American poetry. With Sarah Kay and Claire Schwartz, he wrote a weekly column for theParis Reviewcalled“Poetry RX.”
Elisa Gabbert
Nonfiction Judge
Elisa Gabbert is the author of six collections of poetry, essays, and criticism:Normal Distance, which will be out from Soft Skull in September (available for preorder now);The Unreality of Memory & Other Essays,out now fromFSG OriginalsandAtlantic UK;The Word Pretty(Black Ocean, 2018);L’Heure Bleue, or the Judy Poems(Black Ocean, 2016);The Self Unstable(Black Ocean, 2013); andThe French Exit(Birds LLC, 2010).The Unreality of MemoryandThe Word Prettywere both named aNew York TimesEditors’ Choice, andThe Self Unstablewas chosen by theNew Yorkeras one of the best books of 2013. She writes the On Poetry column for theNew York Times, and her work has appeared inHarper’s,The New Yorker, The Believer, The New York Times MagazineandBook Review, the New York Review of Books, the Guardian Long Read, the London Review of Books, A Public Space, The Nation, the Paris Review Daily, American Poetry Review,and many other venues. Her next collection of nonfiction,Any Person Is the Only Self, will be out in 2023 from FSG.
Andrew Najberg
Fiction Judge
Andrew Najberg is the author ofThe Mobius Door (Wicked House Publishing 2023),the forthcoming speculative-horror novel Gollitok (Wicked House Publishing, 2023), and the forthcoming YA dark fantasy novelThe Neverborn Thief (Olive-Ridley Press, 2024). He is also the author of the collection of poemsThe Goats Have Taken Over the Barracks(Finishing Line Press, 2021) and the chapbook of poemsEasy to Lose(Finishing Line Press, 2008). His short fiction has appeared inProse Online, Psychopomp Review, Bookends Review, Wondrous Real,Utopia Science Fiction, Translunar Traveller’s Lounge, Fusion Fragment,and is forthcoming inFantasy and Science Fiction as well asTheGods and Globes IIIanthology, theMake Your Presence Knownanthology, theSolar Press 2023anthology, and theUtopia Science Fiction Five Year Anniversary Best ofAnthology. His poems have appeared in dozens of journals online and in print, includingNorth American Review, Asheville Poetry Review, Cimarron Review, Another Chicago Magazine,andGood River Review.
Contest Rules & Submission Guidelines
One winner will be selected in each of the three genres—fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. The three winners of Porter House Review Editor’s Prize will each receive an award of$750 and publication in our literary journal. All submitted works will be considered for publication. Porter House Review is dedicated to paying all of our featured writers a competitive rate for accepted works.
The submission fee for this contest will be $10.00. During the week of January 22nd through January 29th, this submission fee will be waived. While we rely in part upon submission fees to pay our contributors, we are also dedicated to offering free submission periods as we recognize these fees may present a hardship to submitters. Whether a submission was received during a paid period or a waiver period will have no bearing on its consideration by our editors and judges.
Poetry
We seek poetic works that capture experience by reinvigorating the language of the everyday, or surprising readers with novel, rarefied text. We are particularly interested in poetry that champions inventive forms and content.
Submit a maximum of 5 poems or fewer.
Include the number of poems you are submitting in your submission title.
All entries will be read blind. Before you submit, please remove your name and any other identifying information from your manuscript. Texas State University students, alumni, and faculty members are not eligible.
All work must be submitted through our Submittable portal. We do not accept paper or emailed submissions.
All submitted work must be previously unpublished. Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but please immediately withdraw from our contest if you place your work elsewhere.
Nonfiction
We seek nonfiction that involves discovery for the reader and the writer, work that creates a dynamic of mutual construction through literary dialogue. Personal essays, creative nonfiction flash, memoir, and literary reportage are all welcome.
Limit your submissions to 6,000 words or fewer.
Submissions should be typed, double-spaced, and paginated.
All entries will be read blind. Before you submit, please remove your name and any other identifying information from your manuscript. Texas State University students, alumni, and faculty members are not eligible.
All work must be submitted through our Submittable portal. We do not accept paper or emailed submissions.
Please send work that is previously unpublished. Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but please immediately withdraw from our contest if you place your work elsewhere.
Fiction
We seek to publish fiction that is emotionally affecting, haunting, bizarre, and in firm control of the machinations of storytelling (e.g. character, scene, plot, and momentum). We welcome both traditional short stories, flash fiction, and other hybrid forms.
Limit your submissions to 8,000 words or fewer.
Submissions should be typed, double-spaced, paginated.
All entries will be read blind. Before you submit, please remove your name and any other identifying information from your manuscript. Texas State University students, alumni, and faculty members are not eligible.
All work must be submitted through our Submittable portal. We do not accept paper or emailed submissions.
Please send work that is previously unpublished. Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but please immediately withdraw from our contest if you place your work elsewhere.
