The CBC Creative Non-fiction contest offers $10,000 in prizes; Fourth Genre offers $1,000 prize

The CBC Creative Non-fiction Contest

Submit your original, unpublished work of creative nonfiction between 1200 and 1500 words.

Competition runs from January 1 to March 1.

All Canadian citizens and permanent residents of Canada can submit.

While the competition is active, submit online by clicking the "submit" link below or, if you wish to submit by mail, you can download the offline submission form.

A fee of $25.00 (taxes included) for administration purposes is required for each entry.

Prizes: $6,000 grand prize, $1,000 each for four runner-ups, publication in enRoute and more

Creative Nonfiction includes memoir, biography, humour writing, essay (including personal essay), travel writing and feature articles. While the events must be real and the facts true, creative nonfiction conveys your message through the use of literary techniques such as characterization, plot, setting, dialogue, narrative and personal reflection. In works of creative nonfiction, the writer's voice and opinion are evident. The work should be accessible to a general reading audience (i.e., not written for a specialized or academic audience).

Guidelines here.

Fourth Genre: Explorations in Nonfiction, a journal devoted to publishing notable, innovative work in nonfiction. Given the genre’s flexibility and expansiveness, we welcome a variety of works ranging from personal essays and memoirs to literary journalism and personal criticism. Published twice a year. Guidelines for submissions here.  

Fourth Genre also calls for submissions for the annual Steinberg Essay Prize

The judge for our 11th annual Fourth Genre Steinberg Essay Prize had been previously announced in Poets & Writers and the Writers Chronicle as the essayist, editor, and beloved teacher Judith Kitchen, who passed away in early November, to the great sadness of her current and former students, friends, and the larger community of essay-writers everywhere. (Read a brief piece here.)

We at Fourth Genre have asked one of Judith’s former students, Kate Carroll de Gutes, to judge this year’s contest in Judith’s spirit. We hope to receive an abundance of lyric essays, but all forms and modes are welcome.

The author of the winning essay receives $1,000; the winning entry will be published in Fourth Genre 18.1 (February 2016). Reading fee: $209 U.S.

Deadline: March 15. Guidelines here.

See Brian Henry’s schedule here, including writing workshops and creative writing courses in Barrie, Brampton, Bolton, Burlington, Caledon, Cambridge, Collingwood, Georgetown, Guelph, Hamilton, Kingston, London, Midland, Mississauga, Newmarket, Niagara on the Lake, Oakville, Orillia, Ottawa, Peterborough, St. Catharines, Stouffville, Sudbury, Toronto, Windsor, Halton, Kitchener-Waterloo, Muskoka, Peel, Simcoe, York, the GTA, Ontario and beyond.