Native Voices Award

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Submissions are now open for the Native Voices Award for prizes up to $500 USD. No entry fee is required. Indigenous storytellers, such as from Native American, First Nation Australian, and Polynesian communities, can submit an original, unpublished work in English; short story, flash fiction, nonfiction essay, script, poetry, or visual art collection. 

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Submissions must be received by October 31, 2023 and should feature themes rich in culture. Winning submissions will be featured in the Kinsman Quarterly, its social media sites, and printed promotions. Winning submissions will also be published in the 2024 anthology, Native Voices. Copyrights of the individual submissions remain with the authors and artists. However, copyrights for the anthology as a collection are reserved to Kinsman Avenue Publishing, Inc.

 

Those Eligible

• individuals 18 years or older

• literary or visual artists of an indigenous community (preferred)

• must be able to receive cash prizes through Paypal or honorary finalist prizes through Amazon gift cards. 

• must allow winning submission to be published in the Kinsman Quarterly, in promotional announcements, and social media outlets

 

Contest Guidelines

• Each entry should be an original, unpublished work by the submitting author, which does not infringe upon the copyrights of another individual or entity. Works published solely on the blog or social media outlets of the author or artist are eligible to submit.

• Employees and directors of Kinsman Quarterly and Kinsman Avenue Publishing are ineligible to enter Kinsman Quarterly contests.

• Submissions must be received by October 31, 2023 at 11:59 p.m. EST.

• Submissions should feature themes related to indigenous communities; including, but not limited to, culture’s history, past/present family dynamics, customs, spirituality, myths and/or beliefs, cultural art, community challenges, etc. 

• Participants may enter more than one submission.

• Changes to the competition entry cannot be made once a work is submitted.

 

Genre Guidelines:

• visual art piece, collection, or 1-min video

• short stories (1000-5000)

• flash fiction (up to 1000 words)

• creative nonfiction (up to 1000 words)

• poetry (1 to 5 poems)

• onstage play (up to 10 pages)

 

Formatting Guidelines

• All text entries must be in Times New Roman, font size 12, double-spaced. 

• Text files should be submitted in .doc, .docx, or .pdf formats.

• Multipage submissions must include page numbers (not mandatory for title pages)

• Be sure to remove all track changes from edited text. 

• Visual artwork must be submitted as a high resolution .jpg or .png file.

• Stage plays must follow the Dramatist Guild Traditional/Modern Stage Play format.

• Video submissions for visual art entries must be in .mp4 format.

• Entries that do not adhere to guidelines, unfortunately, will not be considered. 

 

Available Prizes

• First Place = $500 cash prize and publication in the Kinsman Quarterly and Native Voices

• Second Place = $250 cash prize and publication in the Kinsman Quarterly and Native Voices

• Third Place = $100 cash prize and publication in the Kinsman Quarterly and Native Voices

• Six Finalists receive $25 gift card and publication in the Kinsman Quarterly and Native Voices

• Six Honorary Mentions to receive publication in the Kinsman Quarterly and Native Voices

 

Note that prizes will be received within 30 days of announcements and are non-transferable. Kinsman Quarterly reserves the right to extend competition deadline and announcement dates up to 30 days.