Duluth's Holy Cow! Press announces major new Midwest fiction prize

Duluth nonprofit publisher Holy Cow! Press is teaming up with the Lindquist & Vennum Foundation to establish a significant new fiction prize. The "First Fiction Prize" is open to writers across the Midwest and will award $5,000 and publication for a first collection of short fiction or novella.

The judge will be Linda LeGarde Grover, author of "The Dance Boots" and "The Road Back to Sweetgrass."

Lindquist & Vennum has previously established, with Milkweed Editions, a significant prize for poetry.

Here are the rules! Read closely!

1. "First Fiction" submissions are open to residents of North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Michigan, Illinois and Wisconsin.

2. Submissions must be hard copy (no e-mail) and must be accompanied by a $20 reading fee.

3. The submitted manuscript must be unpublished, though individual stories may have been published, and it cannot be longer than 160 pages.

5. The work may not be currently under consideration by Holy Cow! Press, though it may be under consideration elsewhere. (And if it is accepted elsewhere, you must alert Holy Cow! Press.)

6. Do not include any identifying information on the manuscript.

7. Do include your name, address, email, phone, title of manuscript, number of pages, titles of stories that have been published (and where), and brief biographical information on a separate sheet of paper.

8. Here's the mailing address:

ATTN FIRST FICTION PRIZE
c/o Holy Cow Press
P.O. Box 3170, Mount Royal Station
Duluth, MN 55803