2024 SWA Contest
Here is the updated list of sponsored contests for our 50th anniversary.
If you have questions, suggestions, or comments regarding our contests, feel free to contact Amy Wethington at swa50cne@gmail.com.
Please note: Contests are only open to members.
A cash award is included with placement in our contests along with the prestige of winning.
Contests are now closed: The deadline to submit was April 30.
Please fill out the online form or email your contest submissions to swa50cne@gmail.com.
Contest rules and guidelines
Please take the time to read the contest rules and guidelines before submission.
This document includes information about the judging process, cash awards, and how to submit via email if you are unable to access the online submission form.
Timetable for contest entrants
Contests will open January 1 and close April 30, at the end of the day. To submit your entry, fill out the form below.
By May 31, a finalist list will be published in our newsletter, Purple Prose and on SWA’s website.
Finalists registering at the last minute will still be able to take advantage of our Early Bird discount rate.
Placement in SWA contests will be announced LIVE during our 50th Anniversary Conference, June 7-11. 2024, at Epworth by the Sea in St. Simons Island, GA.
A list of winners will be posted on SWA’s website within a week of the live awards ceremony and in the summer issue of our Purple Pros newsletter.
If applicable, feedback to contest entrants will be shared with the entrants via email, within a week of the awards ceremony.
PDFs of award certificates will be emailed to those unable to attend our 50th Anniversary Celebration meeting within a week of the ceremony.
Absent award recipients can pay postage and receive printed award certificates via USPS.
Contest List
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[Some minimal feedback will be offered.]
Submit first 10 pages of the manuscript (double-spaced); plus a 1-page synopsis and 1-paragraph “elevator pitch.” Any genre, literary or mainstream.
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Submit complete manuscript, not to exceed 1,000 HILARIOUS words. Any subject suitable for all ages.
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Fiction, any genre, no poetry, slice of life, or vignette. A complete manuscript with beginning, middle and end -- which is character-driven and has a resolution. Less than 1,000 words; up to 999 words, not counting the title.
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Submit no more than two limericks (each consisting of five lines using an AABBA rhyme scheme). They can be nonsensical, comedic, outrageous, raunchy, or just plain fun.
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Submit complete manuscript, not to exceed 4,000 words. Short fiction in any of the fantastical genres, such as science fiction, fantasy, horror, weird, magical, supernatural, superhero, utopian or dystopian, apocalyptic or post-apocalyptic, alternate history. Short story or flash; stand-alone novel chapters also accepted.
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The author shall compose a fictional short story with a word count not exceeding 1,000 words. It can be any genre and will be judged on grammar, on adherence to the prompts and word count. The prompts consist of the following:
1) Somewhere in the story “50th Anniversary” must appear.
2) “A midnight encounter with a weird stranger” must be a critical turning point in the story.
3) There must be a surprise ending.
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The story can be fictional or (auto)biographical. It can be set in the past, present, or future. Entries can be of any genre for any age group [picture books should only include text]. Entries can be flash fiction, a self-contained story, or a chapter of a larger work. Constraints: It must involve the following writing prompt: Beast Within. Entries should not exceed 5,000 words as counted by Word and use Shunn format: https://www.shunn.net/format/.
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For Excellence in Southern Poetry, a single poem of no fewer than 10 lines and no more than 50 lines addressing the Southeast in some broad way, either through subject matter or through style or through homage.
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Submit the first 30 pages or the first three chapters of a crime novel. 12-point font. Double space. Do not use tab indentions—use the paragraph formatting option to set paragraph indentions. A one-page synopsis recommended. File name should include Crime Novel Contest SWA, your title.
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Cozy Mystery Award
Submit first 10 pages of manuscript (double-spaced), plus a 1-page synopsis and 1-paragraph “elevator pitch.” Cozy mysteries are a sub-genre of crime fiction -- a comfort read that leaves the reader satisfied rather than scared. The detective is an amateur sleuth, and the crime and detection take place in a small, socially intimate community. Think TV shows like “Murder She Wrote,” “Father Brown,” and “Death in Paradise” or Agatha Christie’s Murder at the Vicarage.
