Our annual Non-fiction contest offers a $1500 prize. We're excited to welcome this year's contest judge, Brian Brett, author of Trauma Farm and winner of the 2009 Writer's Trust Non-Fiction Prize. Check out our contest page for more details, and start licking your stamps!

Still got things of a prosaic, poetic or interstitial nature to say? We understand if your poetry or prose has been drifting down the lazy river of summer. You've still got time to get us your prose poetry or microfiction!

Post-date your work by September 30 and we'll still have time to read it at the beach. Check out our submission guidelines for more details.

We're proud to announce that Laura Boudreau's story "The Dead Dad Game" has been nominated for a Western Magazine Award.

"The Dead Dad Game" first appeared in PRISM 47.4 (Summer 2009). Wanna read it? Check out the first page here, and order yourself a copy of 47.4 from our store!

Congrats Laura!

WMA winners will be announced Friday, October 15, 2010.

Calling all y'all with gnat-sized attention spans! PRISM international's Winter 2010 issue will be micro-fiction- and prose poetry-themed. Check out our genre guidelines and definitions below, but don't freak out if you're finding your footing interstitially. Keep on the path, friend. We're into genre-bending.

Micro-fiction
Alternatively referred to as postcard stories, short short stories, and flash fiction, micro-fiction is like fine dark chocolate: effective in small doses. For the purposes of this issue, the cut-off is 1000 words.

Prose Poetry
Prose poetry usually features full sentences and no forced line breaks. The difference between prose poetry and micro-fiction is up for discussion — generally, prose poetry focuses more precise attention on language. It's less narrative than micro-fiction, and asks readers to make larger jumps than micro-fiction might demand. Our word-count limit for prose poems is 250 words.

Check out our submission guidelines and send us your best small works.

Deadline for submissions: August 31, 2010.

We received almost two hundred entries for this year's fiction contest, and we were amazed by the quality of submissions: the stories were captivating, heartbreaking, stunning.

After much debate, our editors and board members winnowed down the list of entries to create a shortlist of ten stories, which we sent to our contest judge, Zsuzsi Gartner.

The winners of the 2010 PRISM International Fiction Contest are:

Winner ($2,000)
"Roadnotes" by Eliza Robertson

First runner-up ($200)
"The Dead Roads" by D.W. Wilson

Second runner-up ($200)
"The Fur Trader's Daughter" by Seyward Goodhand

We'd also like to congratulate the writers whose stories were shortlisted:

"Winter Road" by Gerard Beirne

"Hospitality" by Jessica L. Hobbs

"Little Pictures" by Jeffrey Luscombe

"Skins" by Jeffrey Luscombe

"Birthday Girl" by Laura Roebuck

"As Heat Speaks to Ice" by Catriona Wright

"Airplanes" by Emma Wunsch

A hearty congrats to the winning writers, and a big thank you to everyone who entered. We'd also like to thank our contest judge, Zsuzsi Gartner, for selecting this year's winners.

The contest-winning entry and runners-up will be published in the Summer 2010 issue of PRISM (48:4).

Our poetry contest was a great success. Editors, board members, and volunteers read close to two hundred entries and faced the difficult task of choosing only eight poems for the shortlist, which was in turn read by contest judge Rhea Tregebov.

Without further ado, we're thrilled to announce the winning entries of the 2009 Poetry Contest:

Winner ($1000)

"Owl on the roof" by Joelene Heathcote

First runner-up ($300)

"Leap" by Leslie Vryenhoek

Second runner-up ($200)

"The Big Siesta (or: "The End of Modern Warfare)" by Patrica Young

Congratulations also to the writers whose entries were shortlisted:

"The Evolutionary Biologist Remembers the Highland Fling" by Patricia Young

"Proofs" Elisabeth de Mariaffi

"The live arbutus carries dead branches" by Jane Munro

"Banff" by Leslie Vryenhoek

"Beyond Cobequid Bay" by Catherine Owen

Congratulations to the winners and shortlisted writers, and thank you to everyone who entered. We also thank our contest judge Rhea Tregebov. Look for the winning poems in the upcoming spring issue of PRISM (48:3) available very soon!

We're pleased to announce the results of our 2009 Creative Non-Fiction Contest:

Winner: "Fetters" by Madeline Sonik
1st runner-up: "Sunsets On Lake Huron" by Mary B. Valencia
2nd runner-up: "How to Be A Widow" by Christine Cleary

Congratulations!

Look for "Fetters" in our upcoming spring issue (48:3), which will include an interview with judge Susan Olding.

Many thanks to Susan and to all the writers who sent in work. Enjoy your year-long subscription to PRISM!

We graciously thank the University of British Columbia Bookstore, our ongoing sponsor of this prize, for supporting emerging writers. This prize is an important milestone in their career.

The following Vancouver businesss have generously donated door prizes and food for the PRISM international 50th Anniversary Retrospective Edition launch:

Pulp Fiction Books (2422 Main Street)

Liberty Wines (various locations in Vancouver)

The Naam Restaurant (2724 West 4th)

Aphrodite Organic Cafe and Pie Shop (3598 West 4th)

Hell's Kitchen (2401 West 4th)

Pane e Formaggio Artisan Bread and Cheese Shop (4532 West 10th)

Sun Sushi Japanese Restaurant (4512 West 10th)

Cupcakes (2887 West Broadway)

UBC Bookstore (6200 University Boulevard)

Thank you for supporting literary arts in Vancouver and around the world!

We're pleased to announce that Sue Sinclair's poem "Cherry Trees" has been awarded the Earle Birney Poetry Prize.

Each year, the outgoing poetry editor chooses the winning poem. 2008/09 poetry editor Crystal Sikma says she chose the poem "for its quiet evocation of the metaphysical -- for the way it evokes the image of cherry trees in spring, in all their fleeting beauty."

"Cherry Trees" appeared in our summer issue (47:4) and is available for purchase here.

Excellent choice, Crystal, and congratulations, Sue!

Many thanks to Wailan Low, whose generous support keeps the PRISM poetry prize available.

We are thrilled to announce that Shawn Syms' story "On the Line," published in PRISM international issue 47:1, has been nominated for the prestigious Journey Prize. Congratulations Shawn and good luck!

Click here to read an interview with Shawn and former fiction editor Michelle Miller.

Jennica Harper’s poem “Liner Notes” (issue 47:1) has won Silver in The National Magazine Awards Poetry Category. Congratulations, Jennica. You are super!

PRISM international supports the arts in Canada, and so do our readers and writers. We urge you to show your support by joining facebook’s Coalition to Keep Federal Support of Literary, Scholarly and Arts, to download, sign and distribute the petition, as well as to write the Honorable Heritage Minister James Moore and tell him you support literary arts in Canada.
For more information, join PRISM on facebook!

Leah Bailly’s creative non-fiction article “Long Views Across Nothing," the runner-up in the 2008 PRISM non-fiction prize (Issue 47:2), has won the Alberta Writers’ Guild inaugural Amber Bowerman Memorial Travel Writing Award. Congratulations, Leah!!!!

We're proud to announce that Jennica Harper's poem "Liner Notes" has been nominated for a National Magazine Award.

"Liner Notes" first appeared in PRISM 47.1 (fall) and was also shortlisted for the 2008 CBC Literary Awards.

Lucky for you, we still have copies available. See our Issues page to order your copy.

Way to go, Jennica!