Don’t get spooked, but the deadline for the Tucson Festival of Books literary competition is Halloween.
The 13th annual contest is accepting poetry, fiction and nonfiction submissions by Thursday, Oct. 31.
First-place winners will receive $1,000 in each category. Second place comes with a prize of $500, third place $250. All winners also receive scholarships to the 2025 Masters Workshop, March 17-18, following the Tucson Festival of Books.
The top 50 entrants will be invited to attend the Masters Workshop ($350), the faculty for which is drawn from the Festival’s 2025 presenters.
Entries are $20 per submission, but writers may submit as many entries as they wish.
Submitters of poetry may submit five poems of any length. Prose submissions are limited to 5,000 words and may be a book excerpt or a short story or nonfiction piece. Submissions must be unpublished at the time of entry, with the exception of self-published work.
The writing contest has proven to be a popular part of the Tucson Festival of Books. In past years, the contest has received submissions from every U.S. state and many other countries.
For more information and to submit an entry, go to tucsonfestivalofbooks.org or email Meg Files at masters@tucsonfestivalofbooks.org.
Time is running out to enter the annual Tucson Festival of book literary competition.
