Grain Magazine's 24th annual Short Grain writing contest for poetry and prose

Grain, the journal of eclectic writing, is a literary quarterly that publishes engaging, eclectic, and challenging writing and art by Canadian and international writers and artists. Grain is published by the Saskatchewan Writers' Guild and appears in Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter.

In the last three years alone, writings published in Grain have been finalists for the Writers' Trust / McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize, nominated for the National Magazine Awards, singled out for inclusion in Best Canadian Poetry (2010 and 2009), Best Canadian Fiction (2011), and in numerous consecutive issues of the Journey Prize Anthology. Grain was a finalist for Magazine of the Year (SK) in the 2010 and the 2011 Western Magazine Awards, and non-fiction in Grain took home first prize in two categories (Student Writing and Gold Awards Best Article–Saskatchewan) in the 2011 Western Magazine Awards.

The annual Short Grain writing contest has two categories:
Poetry: (to a max of 100 lines) Poetry of any style including PROSE POEM up to 100 lines.
Fiction: (to a max of 2,500 words) Short fiction in any form including POST CARD STORY, to a maximum of 2500 words.

Three prizes will be awarded in each category: 1st Prize: $1,000; 2nd Prize: $750; 3rd Prize: $500.
The basic fee for Canadian entrants is $35 for a maximum of two entries in one category. Every entrant receives a one-year (four-issue) subscription to Grain Magazine.

And the Judges are...
For poetry: rob mclennan, author of over 20 trade books of poetry, fiction, and non-fiction, including Glengarry (2011) and wild horses (2010).
For fiction: Lawrence Hill, author of The Book of Negroes and winner of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Book.

Deadline: All entries must be postmarked by April 1, 2012.  Full contest rules here.

Submissions
As a literary quarterly, Grain also accepts regular submissions. Grain has a nine-month reading period, September 1st to May 31st. Manuscripts postmarked and/or received between June 1st and August 31st will not be read nor returned.
Poetry: Individual poems, sequences, or suites up to a maximum of 12 pages.

Fiction: 1 or 2 stories, to a maximum of 5000 words each (stories at the longer end of the word count must be of exceptional quality). Please provide a word count!

Literary non-fiction: To a maximum of 5000 words. The key here is "literary" – imaginative, inventive, culturally/critically relevant (no academic papers or reportage)....Surprise us.

Other writing: Queries for submissions of work in other forms, less easy to categorize forms, cross-genre work, are welcome.

Full submssion guidelines here. Home page here.

See Brian's full schedule here, including writing workshops and creative writing courses in Kingston, Peterborough, Toronto, Mississauga, Brampton, Georgetown, Oakville, Burlington, St. Catharines, Hamilton, Dundas, Kitchener, Guelph, London, Woodstock, Orangeville, Newmarket, Barrie, Gravenhurst, Sudbury, Muskoka, Peel, Halton, the GTA, Ontario and beyond.