2023 Creative Writing Awards

The English Department is pleased to announce that the submission period is open for the 2023 Creative Writing Awards. All current Montclair State undergraduate students can enter the awards listed below. For a full list of all awards offered by the English Department, please visit the Awards & Scholarships website.

• Johnny Muller Memorial Scholarship in Fiction: $1,000. One short story or excerpt from a longer piece (must be labeled as such), limited to 20 pages total, double-spaced.
• Carter Ross Flash Fiction Award: $300. A single piece of fiction under 1,000 words, not including the title. It must be self-contained, not part of a larger work.
• Tom Benediktsson Award in Poetry: $300. A maximum of three poems. If you are submitting more than one poem, the limit is 60 lines per poem. If one long poem, the limit is 150 lines.
• The Minnie Max Creative Nonfiction Award: $300. One piece of creative nonfiction or excerpt from a longer piece (must be labeled as such), limited to 20 pages total, double-spaced.

Deadline for all submissions: 11:59 p.m. on Monday, April 3. Decisions by late April.

The awards above are open to any undergraduate student at Montclair State. English majors can use the Canvas page to submit award materials. If you are not an English major, you’ll need to submit your entries to Professor Jeff Gonzalez and he can submit the entries for you.

Short FAQ

• The piece must simply have been written by you, date and place and purpose (doesn’t have to have been written for a class) irrelevant.
• No multiple entries to any one contest.
• No previous winners should submit to that contest again (we have limited funds and would like to spread the wealth).

For any questions about the contests themselves, contact David Galef, Creative Writing Program Director.