Hurston/Wright Foundation

Submission Guidelines and Procedures of Awards Competition    The Zora Neale Hurston/Richard Wright Foundation is proud to host the annual Hurston/Wright Awards for College Writers, which is the only award of its kind that recognizes Black college writers. The award is the foundation’s first program. It was initiated to support emerging Black artists in fiction and poetry enrolled full-time in an undergraduate or graduate school program anywhere in the United States.  The deadline for submission is April 1, 2023

Submissions are judged by distinguished published authors in fiction and poetry who are not employees of the Hurston/Wright Foundation. Selected winners will be notified in July 2023. Only winners will be notified.

There is a $1000 prize for the winner in each category. Also, award winners will be invited to attend a summer workshop of their choice for free, as well as attend the Legacy Award ceremony that is hosted in October in Washington, DC.    

Requirements 

• Black writers who are full-time students in undergraduate and graduate programs at a college or university in the United States are eligible to submit a work of fiction or poetry. They must be enrolled at the time of submission. 
• Writers who have published books, including poetry chapbooks or fiction narratives, through any publishing platform, are not eligible.  Note: Writers are still eligible if they have published pieces that are not books. 
• All work submitted must be original and unpublished at the time of submission. Hurston/Wright does not accept simultaneous submissions.
• Author name and contact information should not appear on the submission. 
• Winning works may be published in whole or in part by Hurston/Wright online or print. Your submission gives the Hurston/Wright Foundation permission to publish an excerpt or the entire work. The author retains all rights.
• Hurston/Wright maintains the right to decline any submission not deemed eligible.

 Format Guidelines The original creative work submitted should be formatted as follows: 

Fiction:

• No more than 20 pages of fiction, double-spaced, Times New Roman, 12-point font, and within 1-inch margins.
• Put title of the work on each page of the submission.
• Do not put the author’s name on the pages of the work. Provide a separate page with the title of the work, name and contact information of author, school and year of study.  

 Poetry:

• Maximum of 3 poems. 
• The submission must total at least 120 lines or more.
• Do not include the author’s name on the pages of poetry. Provide a separate page with the title of the work, name and contact information of author, school and year of study.  

Questions may be sent to info@hurstonwright.org 

No phone calls or mailed inquiries