Yep, City Paper's annual Writing Contest is on, and this year, poetry is back in the mix. Submissions are due Dec. 11. There's lots more info here (and below, after the jump). But right now I'm happy to announce our judges!

Poetry Judge: Thomas Devaney! Devaney is a Penn prof who can be seen and heard on and in The Inquirer, 88.5 FM, Kelly Writer's House and books like A Series of Small Boxes and Letters to Ernesto Neto. Lots more info here.

Fiction Judge: Elise Juska! Juska has taught at UArts, The New School and such. She's the author of : One for Sorrow, Two for Joy, The Hazards of Sleeping Alone and more. You can also read her in the Inky, Esquire and every litmag on the planet. Lots more info here.

Fiction: Stories should be 3,000 words or less and previously unpublished. No more than one submission per entrant.

Poetry: One entry can consist of up to five poems.

Eligibility: Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware residents are invited to participate. Employees and regular freelancers for the City Paper are ineligible, obvs.

Prizes: Winning story and poem will be published in the Dec. 31, 2009 issue of City Paper and featured in a reading. Top two runners up will be published on citypaper.net Additional prizes TBA.

Deadline: We must receive your work before 5 p.m. on Fri., Dec. 11. No exceptions.

Please include a processing fee of $5 made payable to City Paper Writing Contest at the address below or via PayPal to paypal@citypaper.net. Stories should be e-mailed to gimmefiction@citypaper.net or mailed the old-fashioned way to:

City Paper Writing Contest
123 Chestnut St., Third Floor
Philadelphia, PA 19106.

No phone calls please regarding specific entries. Manuscripts will not be returned.

 

Know what? Let's do some FAQ.

I'd like to submit something, but I know/am enemies with/once made out with one of the judges, can I still enter?

Yes. The judges will receive a packets of entries with all names removed.

Can I submit to both the poetry and fiction contests?

Ooh, a double threat. Go for it, Shakespeare, but you gotta pay twice.

My poems have already been on a web site where, like, writers gather to critique each other's shizz. That okay?

Yes. It's cool. You were workshopping. That's fine. Shizz.

I see that your fiction contest has a 3,000 word maximum. Can I bend that a little, say to 3,300?

Sure. We're not going to be, like, sitting around counting words. But if it's obviously overlong, we might have some trouble.