Grist: The Journal for Writers is thrilled to announce our second annual contest: ProForma. We welcome submissions of unpublished creative work: fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and/or hybrids that explore the relationship between content and form. This contest is open to all forms of literary expression.
What is “pro forma”? For most, it is something static or an established way of doing things. For us, it could mean a break from traditional forms or an homage to them; genre blending or bending; the hybrid text or the genre-less.
First Prize: $750 plus publication in the print journal, two contributors’ copies, and a feature on our website
Second and Third Prizes: publication in the print journal, two contributors’ copies, and features on our website
Entry fee: $15 or $22 (includes a subscription to Grist or a Grist t-shirt). Submit here.
Multiple submissions have the option of gifting the subscription or extending an existing subscription.
For longer works: no more than 5000 words
For shorter works: no more than 3-5 pieces
**Please indicate in the comments section on Submittable if your manuscript should be considered in a certain way (if three flash pieces or poems should be grouped together rather than read as separate pieces, for example).
Submission deadline: May 31. Submit here.
Reading will be blind, so please remove your name or any other identifying information from from both the file name and the manuscript itself. Otherwise, we will be unable to consider it. Simultaneous submissions are fine, but please notify us if the submission is accepted elsewhere. Multiple submissions are also fine, but you will be charged the full reading fee per submission. We cannot refund the fee if the submission is withdrawn. No one currently or recently affiliated with the University of Tennessee or with the Creative Writing Program at the University of Missouri-Kansas City is eligible to enter. Additionally, former students of our final judge and close associations of current Grist staff are also ineligible. All submissions will also be considered for publication outside of the contest feature.
To read past winners, visit here.

Hadara Bar-Nadav will judge our next ProForma writing contest.
Please submit your manuscript to Grist via our Submittable site.