Ember Chasm Review Fiction & Poetry Winter Contest

After months of deliberation, we’ve narrowed down hundreds of submissions, hundreds of heart-wrenching, hard-hitting stories and poems to our top ten finalists and sent them off to the judges. While we wait for the results of the first contest, we’re excited to announce that Ember Chasm Review’s second Fiction & Poetry Summer Contest is now open for submissions—and you can win a hand-made, unique trophy, crafted by us! Here’s a breakdown of what we’re offering:
- First Place in each category receives:
- a physical trophy
- $100 PayPal
- a print copy of the contest issue
- an interview with Ember Chasm.
- Second Place in each category receives:
- $50 PayPal
- a print copy of the contest issue
- an interview with Ember Chasm.
- Third Place in each category receives:
- $25 PayPal
- a print copy of the contest issue
- an interview with Ember Chasm.
- Honorable Mentions in each category:
- a print copy of the contest issue
We are thrilled to announce our phenomenal judges for this quarters contest.
Fiction will be judged by Matt Bell. Matt Bell’s next novel, Appleseed, is forthcoming from Custom House/William Morrow in July 2021. His craft book Refuse to Be Done, a guide to novel writing, rewriting, & revision, will follow in early 2022 from Soho Press. He is also the author of the novels Scrapper and In the House upon the Dirt between the Lake and the Woods, as well as the short story collection A Tree or a Person or a Wall, a non-fiction book about the classic video game Baldur’s Gate II, and several other titles. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, Tin House, Conjunctions, Fairy Tale Review, American Short Fiction, and many other publications. A native of Michigan, he teaches creative writing at Arizona State University.
Poetry will be judged by Amy Lerman. Amy Lerman is a residential faculty member in the English department at Mesa Community College. Her poems have been published in Rattle, The Gila River Review, ABZ, Generation,; Garbanzo, Prime Number, Euphony, Stories That Need to Be Told, and Irises. She took second place in the 2014 Prime Number Magazine Award for Poetry, won the 2015 Art Young Memorial Award for Poetry, received an honorable mention in Glimmer Train‘s February 2015 Short Story Award for New Writers, and was a finalist in poetry for the 2017 Princemere Poetry Prize.We can’t wait to be moved by what you send us—for what matters most than the stories we tell?
Submissions close June 30th for both the Fiction & Poetry categories, you must submit on Submittable, and both contests follow our general submission guidelines. The fee is $10 to submit.

Submissions are now open for Issue III.
We want stories that scream in libraries, stories that veer us down a hidden road in a well-known city—we want the stories you construct outside your comfort zone. Diversity of content is appreciated: play with genre, form. Break walls and show us the mold sprouting beneath. We especially encourage submissions from emerging, unpublished, and undergraduate writers.
Issue III submissions will close in December.
Into the Caves

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