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Ninth Letter @ninthletter.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Thank you for the mention. A great list put together by a great magazine. Huge fans of NER here at 9L!

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New England Review @newenglandreview.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

To celebrate #LitMagWeek, we’re sharing four literary journals our editors love. Check out @ninthletter.bsky.social , The Georgia Review, Brink, Crayfish & @commonmag.bsky.social. Use the code #LITMAGWEEK for 15% off an annual subscription to NER. Deal ends Oct 2 at midnight. www.middstore.com/ner/

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Ninth Letter @ninthletter.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

New book review + interview live on the site. Ninth Letter staffer Diana Towner chats with @eshanisurya.bsky.social about RAVISHING, Surya’s debut novel. Plus, an exclusive excerpt from the book and a review. Check it out!

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Ninth Letter @ninthletter.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

New flash excerpt + interview live on the site! Rory Strong spoke with Chris Vanjonack about OUT OF BODY, Vanjonack’s debut short story collection out from @wmmorrowbooks.bsky.social later this month.

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Ninth Letter @ninthletter.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

New book review + interview live on the site. Ninth Letter staffer Nathan Metz chats with @wmorrow about CLOUD BUILDER, Morrow’s National Poetry Series winning debut poetry collection. Plus, an exclusive excerpt from the book and a review.

Image of book front cover for "Cloud Builder" by Weston Morrow, featuring a textured landscape book cover. Transcribed Text: Book Review + Interview + Sneak Preview

Black-and-white portrait of Weston Morrow seated in front of a painting easel. Transcribed Text: WESTON MORROW is the author of Cloud Builder, winner of the 2025 National Poetry Series, forthcoming from University of Georgia Press on Sept. 1, 2026.

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Ninth Letter @ninthletter.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Congratulations to the amazing 2026 finalists in poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction.

A minimalist design featuring a grid of red and white squares, with a white panel in the center listing the finalists in poetry:
Maria Isabelle Carlos
Emma De Lisle
Troy Osaki
Margaret Ray
Jeff Whitney

A minimalist design featuring a grid of green and white squares, with a white panel in the center listing the finalists in creative nonfiction:
Lance Larsen
Willi Pascual
Kasey Payette
m. mick powell

A minimalist design featuring a grid of red and white squares, with a white panel in the center listing the finalists in fiction:
Mariah Gese
Matthew Lansburgh
Mimi Manyin
AJ Rodriguez
Rebecca Swanberg
Jennifer Wawrzinek

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Ninth Letter @ninthletter.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Announcing our 2026 Literary Award Winners! Meg Day, T.C. Martin, and @lathemwriter.bsky.social win $1000 prizes & publication our fall/winter issue. 🎉 Congratulations to our honorable mentions & finalists, and special thanks to judges Steven Espada Dawson, Angela Pelster, and Dantiel W. Moniz!

Title card for "Ninth Letter Literary Awards Results {2026}", featuring a grid background with green and red squares, displaying the title, subtitle, and a section for winners and finalists.
Transcribed Text:
NINTH LETTER
Literary Awards Results {2026}
Winners & Finalists

A minimalist design featuring a grid of red and white squares, with a white panel in the center listing the winners of poetry, creative nonfiction, and fiction categories: Meg Day, T.C. Martin, and Laurie Lathem.

A minimalist design featuring a grid of green and white squares, with a white panel in the center listing the honorable mentions of the contest. Leila Farjami, poetry and Philip Schaefer, poetry.

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Ninth Letter @ninthletter.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

Ninth Letter is honored to feature Amanda Borquaye's essay “Wayward,” which is the Disquiet International Literary Award’s Nonfiction Prize winner for 2026. Check it out at ninthletter.com. Link in bio!

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Ninth Letter @ninthletter.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

Introducing the 2026 Literary Awards Creative Nonfiction Judge: Angela Pelster 🏆 Submit your best work for a chance at $1000 prize. Link in bio! Plus: 📗 One-year print subscription included. 🖋 All submissions considered for publication.

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Ninth Letter @ninthletter.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

Introducing the 2026 Literary Awards Poetry Judge: Steven Espada Dawson 🏆 Submit your best work for a chance at $1000 prize. Link in bio! Plus: 📗 One-year print subscription included. 🖋 All submissions considered for publication.

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Ninth Letter @ninthletter.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

Submit by May 1! $1000 prize in each genre. All domestic entrants get a one-year print subscription. All work considered for publication. To submit + full details find the link in our bio.

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Ninth Letter @ninthletter.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

Introducing the 2026 Literary Awards Fiction Judge: Dantiel W. Moniz 🏆 Submit your best work for a chance at $1000 prize. Link in bio! Plus: 📗 One-year print subscription included. 🖋 All submissions considered for publication.

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Ninth Letter @ninthletter.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

Ninth Letter is proud to present the latest web edition: Performance. 🎭 Featuring the work of 15 amazing writers, this issue asks what it means to perform? How do we do it, why do we do it, and for whom? 🎭 Read it for free at ninthletter.com! 🎭 Link in bio.

Web Edition: Performance. Featuring work from: Iyanuoluwa Adenle, Clary Ahn, Maddie Barone, Morgan Canaan, Sher Ting Chim, Hee-June Choi, Kelsey Day, Chinua Ezenwa-Ohaeto, Lane Falcon, Claire Lee, Jeffrey Morgan, Yukti Narang, Lydia O’Donnell, Noreen Ocampo, Katie Henken Robinson. Art by Michael Alfred.

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Ninth Letter @ninthletter.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

TJ Price (@eerieyore.bsky.social) unnerves readers (and writers) with a story that questions the future of AI and what may happen when that intelligence is fed and grows in power. Read “THE GLORIOUS” at ninthletter.com. Link in bio.

[The Glorious] by TJ Price, an excerpt. "“People love to talk about “voice” in writing. As if you can set it, like a ringtone, or proofread for it. But voice is a posture in the throat. It’s musculature, and breath, and all the tiny micro-timed choices that dictate style. It’s something you cannot borrow without becoming someone—or something—else. Here is a lie we like to tell about machines: they do not want.” Link in bio. ninthletter.com.

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Ninth Letter @ninthletter.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

Submit your best work for a chance at $1000 in poetry, fiction, and cnf. Plus: Free one-year print subscription to 9L included ✅ All submissions considered for pub ✅ Open until April 30 ✅ Waiting on a response from us for another submission? You're still eligible for the contest!

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Ninth Letter @ninthletter.bsky.social · 01/03/2026

Ninth Letter is heading to Baltimore for #AWP26! Come visit us at BOOTH 1270 for a good hang.

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Ninth Letter @ninthletter.bsky.social · 10/02/2026

Ninth Letter reviews the exciting new collection LETTERS OF THE ALPHABET GO TO WAR (Sarabande 2026) by Lesyk Panasiuk trans. by Katie Farris and Ilya Kaminsky. Link in bio!

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Ninth Letter @ninthletter.bsky.social · 20/01/2026

Ninth Letter is pleased to present an excerpt from RANGE OF MOTION (@acrebooks.bsky.social) by former 9L contributor Brian Trapp (@btrapperkeeper@bsky.social)! Plus, 9L staffer Nathan Metz chats with the author for an exclusive interview. Check it out on our website. Link in bio.

Text overlayed on a photo of camp bunk beds. Contributor Book Feature: RANGE OF MOTION by Brian Trapp. Brief excerpt from book reads: So far, Camp Cheerful seemed to be mostly about singing. You sang for your breakfast. You sang for your lunch. When you tried to fall asleep, good luck. Someone was singing. The morning they drove across the bridge and into camp, the very first activity was to gather around the flagpole and sing about baby sharks and a-bear-way-up-there and the spelling out of b-a-n-a-n-a. The camp had a distinct feel of a cult, with lyrics designed to break the will.

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D.W. Baker @lowermelody.bsky.social · 13/12/2025

Ellie Black's "S L A S H E R" in @ninthletter.bsky.social

good /girl / girl / green / girl / glow / on / screen / smart / girl / girl / clean ] girl I feel/ un / seen girl / observed / girl / selected / killer / watch / girl / cathected / camera / watch / switch perspective / jump / scare / girl / scream/ make / good / scream / queen / girl / strangled I girl slashed / drip / gore / gush / gash / girl / fucked / systematic / hard / core / pornographic / girl chosen /sacrifice / girl stagger / girl / sliced / girl/ see / behind I mask / massacre / remain intact / abject /object / girl / subjected / brutal/ specter / resurrected / error / message / girl/ reflected camera / eye / girl / I / girl / you / not / true / psycho / sexual / meta / textual / girl trapped in / effectual / girl / endangered / not / real / girl / fake / girl / feel / girl / think / girl / am girl / was / girl / damned I girl I freak ] fucked / up / girl / remain / un / fucked / penetrated /by/ blade chain / saw / virgin / flayed / shock / splatter / no / matter / blood / glisten / guts / glitter /. blood red / cherry / sweet / fake / cloying / dead / meat / girl/ meet / slow / fate / see / killer mutilate |girl / halt / killing / spree / girl / realize / never / free / girl / become / cult / classic/ monster-/ movie / cinematic / feed / fear / fantasy / girl / inhabit /TV / static / girl / victim / girl victor I girl / know / being / watched / girl / suffer / every / loss / girl / survive / what / cost

Ninth Letter
fall / Winter 2023-24
Vol. 20 No. 2

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Ninth Letter @ninthletter.bsky.social · 22/12/2025

Ninth Letter’s latest feature is from Maternal Mitochondria, the mother-daughter duo of Miriam Sagan and Isabel Winson-Sagan. Their collaborative piece is a ghostly tale of a deserted house that may or not be haunted, a story that may or not be true. Link in bio!

Photo Miriam Sagan and Isabel Winson-Sagan, newest Ninth Letter featured artists. Title: Maternal Mitochodria. Text reads: "New ghost story from artistic mother-daughter duo Miriam Sagan and Isabel Winson-Sagan live now! ninthletter.com"

Feature #125 excerpt from short story "Homeless Ranch/Threshold Anxiety" by Miriam Sagan and Isabel Winson-Sagan. Excerpt reads: "What can you do to protect yourself? If I were you, I'd just go home. Like right now. And take a long shower. When you go to bed, try not to think about beetles with baby faces or beautiful women whose nipples shoot fire. I think you should leave. And check your shoes."

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Ninth Letter @ninthletter.bsky.social · 12/12/2025

Ninth Letter is pleased to present Anne Menasché's poem "My Father Cooks My Mother Breakfast," the 2024 Regeneration Honorable Mention selected by Stephanie Anderson. Read it now at ninthletter.com. Link in bio.

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Dr. Jennessa Hester 🍒 @cherrypoppunk.bsky.social · 01/12/2025

New poem out from the wonderful @ninthletter.bsky.social! It's from my WIP dealing with my time in the scouts. Read the whole thing at ninthletter.com/2025/11/25/j...

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Ninth Letter @ninthletter.bsky.social · 05/12/2025

Volume 22, Issue 1 is in PRINT! ✨ Featuring work from 23 writers, this is an issue you want on your book shelf. Check out the contents list on our website, and order your copy today! Link in bio 💚 . . . . . . . #litmag #poetry #creativenonfiction #shortstory #creativewriting #literaryjournal

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Ninth Letter @ninthletter.bsky.social · 02/12/2025

Web Edition: Reversal is now live at ninthletter.com! Featuring work from 13 writers, you can read the entire issue for free today. Link in bio!

Reversal Web Edition. Featuring: Sayuri Matsuura Ayers, A.J. Bermudez, Michael Chang, Joel Fishbane, Laura Glenn, Jennessa Hester, B. Fulton Jennes, Emma Kaiser, Jennifer Maloney, Claudia Owusu, Zoe Reay-Ellers, Tessa Sophia,
M.J. Young. ninthletter.com

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Ninth Letter @ninthletter.bsky.social · 01/12/2025

Submissions are FREE until we hit our cap of 300 per genre! Submit now for print consideration. See full guidelines on our website or submittable. Link in bio.

White text on black background. "Ninth Letter December 01 - ??? Free Submissions, 300 limit per genre. Submit early. Guidelines: Submittable and ninthletter.com

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Ninth Letter @ninthletter.bsky.social · 01/09/2025

We're open for print AND web submissions & eager to read your work! No theme for the print edition. "Performance" theme for web edition. Link in bio for guidelines & details! #creativewriting #fiction #poetry #creativenonfiction #litmag

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Eleanor Ball @eleanorball.bsky.social · 25/08/2025

Day 25: “The Other Things We Swallow” by Natalia Martinez in @ninthletter.bsky.social. I’ve never read an abecedarian quite like this. ninthletter.com/2025/02/28/n...

ninthletter.com

Natalia Martinez – Ninth Letter

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Ninth Letter @ninthletter.bsky.social · 12/08/2025

Ninth Letter is excited to present the poem “The Masks above the Proscenium" by Richard Hoffman as our August feature. Read it on the website for free! Link in bio.

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Ninth Letter @ninthletter.bsky.social · 08/08/2025

🥁Drumroll, please...🥁 We are thrilled to announce the winners and finalists of the 2025 Ninth Letter Literary Awards. Thank you to all submitters for trusting us with your words. And much gratitude to our contest editorial staff and our fabulous guest judges for their hard work! ✨

The winners are Maeve Barry for fiction, Leah Mensch for creative nonfiction, and Weijia Pan for poetry.

The honorable mentions are Mickie Kennedy for poetry and Julie Marie Wade for creative nonfiction.

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Ninth Letter @ninthletter.bsky.social · 24/07/2025

Check out "Sundogs" by Meghan E. O'Toole live on our website. Meghan was the 2024 Regeneration Contest winner as chosen by Stephanie Anderson, and this story originally appeared in print Vol. 21.2. Link in bio!

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Ninth Letter @ninthletter.bsky.social · 24/06/2025

Ninth Letter is honored to feature Tylea Richard’s essay “Caribbean Gothic,” which is the Disquiet International Literary Award’s Nonfiction Prize winner for 2025. Read it for free at ninthletter.com. Link in bio!

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Ninth Letter @ninthletter.bsky.social · 09/06/2025

Ninth Letter, in partnership with I-Regen, is accepting submissions to the 2025 Regeneration Literary Awards. The great Scott Chaskey serves as our guest judge. Submit work that explores the “regeneration" as it relates to food and food systems. Link in bio! #regenerativeagriculture #writingcontest

Text reads "9L Regeneration Literary Award $1,000 prize" overlayed on a photo of a wheat field.

Deadline: June 30

Prize: $1,000 to one winner + print and web publication + two contributor copies

Theme: We invite poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction responding to or exploring the subject of "regeneration," specifically as it relates to food and food systems. All interpretations of this theme are welcome.

Photo of a wheat field.

Text reads: Full details linked in bio. Check out past winners on our website.

For accessibility help, please email ninthletter9@gmail.com.

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Ninth Letter @ninthletter.bsky.social · 10/05/2025

We’re back to share more incredible writing! Don’t miss Anne Pritikin’s short story “Hold Hands, Children,” which received an honorable mention for fiction in our 2024 Literary Awards chosen by Lena Valencia. Live now on our website. Link in bio.

Excerpt from Anne Pritikin's short story "Hold Hands, Children" reads: "The Portuguese man has tightroped in sleet, snow, two cyclones, a sandstorm, dense fog, sunshowers, and boiling heat. But he has never missed a step. He has
walked the globe in the air, Georgie thinks, and now he will walk it in my little part of the world.” Live now at https://ninthletter.com/2025/05/09/anne-pritikin/

2024 Literary Award Honorable Mention - Fiction
Anne Pritikin for story "Hold Hands, Children"
Selected by Lena Valencia

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Ninth Letter @ninthletter.bsky.social · 07/05/2025

We're thrilled to feature the work of Daniel Uncapher, whose three collage essays won the 2024 Ninth Letter Literary Award in Creative Nonfiction selected by Kristen Millares Young. Check out this genre-bending work live on our website and coming soon in print in Vol. 21.2. Link in bio!

2024 Literary Award Winner - Creative Nonficiton.
Daniel Uncapher - Three Essays
Selected by Kristen Millares Young

Excerpt from Daniel Uncapher's essay "Promiscuous Young Men" reads: "I am writing this anonymously,[2] with phrases and sentences that[3] I have borrowed from the library,[4] so nobody knows who did it.[5]

If you recognize me[6]-no, you don't.[7]"

Numbers in the text represent footnote citations that are available at https://ninthletter.com/2025/05/07/uncapher/

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Derrick @dmartincampbell.bsky.social · 07/05/2025

"Three Plagues" up on @ninthletter.bsky.social now is so great and such a wonderful example of how real, immersive world-building is inseparable from line and tone. @ivygrimes.bsky.social sepia old-testament voice makes big, weird things look easy. ninthletter.com/feature/ivy-...

ninthletter.com

Featured Writer #122: Ivy Grimes – Ninth Letter

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Ninth Letter @ninthletter.bsky.social · 06/05/2025

We’re proud to share this fantastic poem by Michelle Phương Hồ which will appear in print in Volume 21, Issue 02. Check out “Facing It,” and stay tuned all week for more work from out 2024 contest winners. Link in bio.

2024 Literary Award Winner - Poetry.
Michelle Phuong Ho - "Facing It"
Selected by Sara Borjas

Excerpt from Michelle Phuong Ho's poem "Facing It" reads: “I can almost say my name. Am almost/someone I know. They say I was sold// by my own mother. Call me traitor, sellout, prostitute/ to the empire. What is a girl but an easy// sin to pin down.”

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Ninth Letter @ninthletter.bsky.social · 03/05/2025

(23 of you) asked, we listened! The 2025 9L Literary Awards deadlines is extended until May 10 at 11:59 p.m. CDT. Last chance to win 1 of 3 $1000 prizes + publication. Stay tuned as we drop free web access to 2024 winners all week. We can't wait to read your work!

Text reads: Ninth Letter Literary Awards in fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction, deadline is extended to May 10. $3,000 in prizes. Entry includes free print subscription.

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Beegshotdeentcha @amityvandal.bsky.social · 02/05/2025

It’s National Short Story Month and I’ll try to recommend at least one a day. First up is Three Plagues by @ivygrimes.bsky.social in @ninthletter.bsky.social. Mother on the roof, grandmother somewhere. A mystery man. Loved it. ninthletter.com/feature/ivy-...

ninthletter.com

Featured Writer #122: Ivy Grimes – Ninth Letter

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Ninth Letter @ninthletter.bsky.social · 01/05/2025

New story just dropped! Read "Three Plagues" by @ivygrimes.bsky.social for free on our website. Link in bio!

Quote from story reads "We saw some of our neighbors fly by, and we tried to catch them, but the wind took them just beyond our reach. Finally, we saw Grandmother, clinging to the post of her bed, whipped into our lives again. Her bed settled on the roof beside us, and then her body." Attributed to Ivy Grimes's short story "Three Plagues."

Photo of Ivy Grimes with text that reads "Featured Writer #122, Ivy Grimes, live at ninthletter.com"

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Ninth Letter @ninthletter.bsky.social · 30/04/2025

Today's the day! Send in your last minute submissions for a chance at $1,000. ✨ Link in bio ✨

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Ninth Letter @ninthletter.bsky.social · 23/04/2025

Only one week left to submit! Send us your work by April 30th 💌 First prize is $1,000 for each genre, print and web publication, and bragging rights! Every U.S. entrant receives a free, one-year print subscription per submission. Full guidelines on our website + link in bio ✨

Ninth Letter Literary Awards Deadline April 30th $3,000 in prizes

Only one week left to submit! Send us your work by April 30th

First prize is $1,000 for each genre, print and web publication, and bragging rights! Every U.S. entrant receives a free, one-year print subscription per submission.

Full guidelines on our website + link in bio

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Justine S. Murison @jsmurison.bsky.social · 09/03/2025

We're fundraising for our award-winning literary journal, Ninth Letter, and the challenge ends tonight! Please consider donating!

payment.giving.illinois.edu

Support Creative Writing Students!

Join me in supporting Creative Writing Students for Orange and Blue Week!

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Ninth Letter @ninthletter.bsky.social · 06/03/2025

📣 Announcing our annual Literary Awards and this year’s fantastic judges 📣 Send us your unpublished work and get a free 1-year subscription to Ninth Letter—oh and the chance to win $1,000! Deadline: Midnight, April 30th. For more information, link in bio ✨

Ninth Letter Literary Awards in Fiction, Poetry, and Creative Non-Fiction, submissions open March 1st, $3,000 dollars in prizes

K-Ming Chang is the Guest Judge for Fiction. She is a Lambda Literary Award winner, a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 honoree, and an O. Henry Prize Winner. She is the author of the New York Times Book Review Editors’ choice novel Bestiary (One World/Random House, 2020), which was longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and others. Her latest books are Organ Meats (One World, 2023) and Cecilia (Coffee House Press, 2024), and her next two books are forthcoming from Simon & Schuster.

Jane Wong is the Guest Judge for Creative Non-Fiction. Jane Wong is the author of the debut memoir, Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City, out now from Tin House (2023). She is also the author of two books of poetry: How to Not Be Afraid of Everything from Alice James (2021) and Overpour from Action Books (2016). She is an Associate Professor of Creative Writing at Western Washington University. Her poems and essays can be found in places such as The New York Times, Best American Poetry 2015, The Kenyon Review, McSweeney’s, POETRY, and others.

Derrick Austin is the Guest Judge for Poetry. Derrick Austin is the author of Tenderness (BOA Editions, 2021), winner of the 2020 Isabella Gardner Poetry Award, and Trouble the Water (BOA Editions, 2016), a finalist for the Kate Tufts Discovery Award, Thom Gunn Award for Gay Poetry, and others. His third collection, This Elegance, is forthcoming in Spring 2026. A Cave Canem fellow, he is the recipient of a Ron Wallace Poetry Fellowship, a Stegner Fellowship, and an Amy Lowell Poetry Traveling Scholarship.

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Seth Peterson @sethpeterson.bsky.social · 28/02/2025

“It’s the not knowing that kills us. / The thought that a (worse/better) world could exist / where we (turn into butterflies/get eaten by a flycatcher). / A world where we die alone. / A world where everything is perfect.” Thanks to @ninthletter.bsky.social for publishing one of my favorites

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Adam Gianforcaro @adamg.bsky.social · 28/02/2025

I am so excited to have a new poem in Ninth Letter's "de/composition" web feature! ninthletter.com/2025/02/28/a...

ninthletter.com

Adam Gianforcaro – Ninth Letter

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