Announcing the 2016 Lake Prize

The Lake Prize from Midwestern Gothic
We are so excited to announce The Lake Prize for 2016. The Lake Prize is our annual literary prize for fiction and poetry that best represents the Midwest. We have been consistently wowed with submissions, and previous years’ finalists perfectly exemplified our mission: rewarding those who see the beauty of the Midwest, whether that be quiet forests, gutted industrial wastelands, small towns or vibrant urban neighborhoods.

Lake Prize submissions will be open July 1 – August 31, 2016. Entries will be a flat rate of $5—only one entry per person.  One winner will be selected for each category, and they will receive $300 and publication in the Winter 2017 issue. One finalist will be selected for each category as well, and they will each receive $100 and publication in the Winter 2017 issue.

We are also excited to announce our 2016 judges:

Emily Schultz

2016 Fiction Judge: Emily Schultz is the co-founder of Joyland Magazine, host of the Truth & Fiction podcast, and creator of the blog Spending the Stephen King Money. Her family hails from Michigan and Schultz grew up across the border in Canada. Her newest novel, The Blondes, was named a best book of 2015 by NPR and Kirkus. Her forthcoming novel, Men Walking on Water, is set in 1920s Detroit and inspired by her family’s rumrunning history. She currently lives in Brooklyn.







Airea Dee Matthews

2016 Poetry Judge: Airea D. Matthews, a resident of Detroit, is the winner of the 2016 Yale Series of Younger Poets for her manuscript collection, simulacra, which Yale University Press will publish in 2017. Her poems and prose have appeared in a number of periodicals and anthologies, such as Best American Poetry 2015, Missouri Review, Muzzle, Indiana Review, Four Way Review, American Poets, Michigan Quarterly Review, Vinyl, Callaloo and elsewhere. She is the Assistant Director of the Helen Zell Writers’ Program at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where she earlier received her MFA in creative writing.






Submissions for the 2016 Lake Prize will open July 1, 2016.

For additional details, plus all guidelines, please visit the official Lake Prize page.

Looking forward to reading your work!

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