The Tusculum Review 2024 Nonfiction Chapbook Prize

A prize of $1,000, publication of the essay in The Tusculum Review’s 2024 issue, and creation of a limited edition stand-alone chapbook with original art is awarded for the winning essay.

The deadline is June 15, 2024 on Submittable.com.

The entry fee is $20 per manuscript. Entry fees include a one-year subscription to The Tusculum Review (an annual publication) and consideration for publication. We encourage international submissions but must charge an additional $15 fee to mail the journal to locations outside the U.S.

Each manuscript should consist of a single essay in a standard 12-point font. Final judge Mary Cappello is interested in reading essays in both short- and longform. Submitted essays may be novelette-length, up to 17,000 words (55 manuscript pages).

Essays may not have been previously published nor be forthcoming, though small portions (less than 20% of the essay) may have been printed elsewhere (provided rights have reverted to the author). Simultaneous submissions are accepted: please alert us if your essay is going to be published elsewhere.

Please do NOT include your name or any other identifying information on any page of the essay manuscript.

Editors of The Tusculum Review and final judge Mary Cappello will determine the winner of the 2024 prize. Family, friends, and previous students of the final judge as well as The Tusculum Review editors are disqualified from the contest, as are those with reciprocal professional relationships.

Names and identifying information will not be visible to the judges. The Tusculum Review reserves the right to extend the call for manuscripts or cancel the award.

Mary Cappello’s seven books of literary nonfiction include a Los Angeles Times bestselling detour on awkwardness; a lyric biography; the mood fantasia, Life Breaks In; and a speculative manifesto, Lecture. She has been variously honored with Guggenheim and Berlin Prize Fellowships in Nonfiction; the Dorothea Lange-Paul Taylor Prize for her documentary work with new immigrants to Italy; and the Bechtel Prize for Educating the Imagination from Teachers and Writers Collaborative. Her third book, the breast cancer anti-chronicle, Called Back, was recently re-issued by Fordham UP. Professor Emerita of English and creative writing at the University of Rhode Island, she is currently completing Frost Will Come: Essays from the Bardo based on the last two weeks of her mother, poet Rosemary Cappello’s life.