The SFWP Awards Judged by Deesha Philyaw
The Awards Program will return in 2025. The most recent winners and finalists can be found right here.
See Past Winner Publications Below
Deesha Philyaw will be the judge.
Deesha Philyaw’s debut short story collection, The Secret Lives of Church Ladies, won the 2021 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, the 2020/2021 Story Prize, and the 2020 LA Times Book Prize: The Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction and was a finalist for the 2020 National Book Award for Fiction. The Secret Lives of Church Ladies focuses on Black women, sex, and the Black church, and is being adapted for television by HBO Max with Tessa Thompson executive producing. Deesha is also a Kimbilio Fiction Fellow and will be the 2022-2023 John and Renée Grisham Writer-in-Residence at the University of Mississippi.
Learn more here: deeshaphilyaw.com
Details and Guidelines
The 2023 Literary Awards Program has concluded.
We publish in English, but the contest is open to writers from anywhere in the world.
The grand prize will be $1500. Two runner ups will be selected, each receiving $500. A competitive publishing contract will be offered, but winners are not required to accept. The prize amount will be paid out regardless.
All submissions will be reviewed for possible publication. You need not make the winner’s circle or even be a finalist to be considered.
There is a $30 reading fee.
We are seeking fiction and creative nonfiction of every genre. We have global distribution and publish authors from all around the world.
Simultaneous submissions are accepted. Unpublished work, self-published work, and work from small or micro-presses that has not received marketing support will be eligible.
We are asking that all entries be submitted electronically. If you are unable to use Submittable, then please contact us for assistance.
If your manuscript is accepted for publication during the contest, it is still eligible. We are unable to refund the reading fee if you withdraw your entry.
Full guidelines are available on our Submittable Page
We are offering an optional “pay it forward” program on the entry form. 100% of these funds will be used for authors who demonstrate that they cannot afford the entry fee.
First time here? What’s this all about?
Since 2000, the SFWP Literary Awards Program has recognized excellence in writing. More than 90% of all of our winners have gone on to publication. Please see below for a list of past judges and winners.
Full List of Past Winners (linked titles have been published by SFWP)
2009: Fiction/Nonfiction
Judge: Pagan Kennedy
Matthew Pitt – Listening for Life
Nicole Louise Reid – This One Last Thing
Adam Sturtevant – Ease Chest Tuck Hid Debt Art
2007: Fiction/Nonfiction
Judge: Robert Olen Butler
Jacob Appel – Natural Selection
Genaro Smith – Dailies
Katherine Crawford – Deep Breathing Under Big Sky
2005: Fiction/Nonfiction
Judge: Ayun Halliday
Anna Green – Brown Jesus
Michael Kardos – Mr. Marotta’s Ashes Have the Personality of a Grouchy Old Man and One Last Good Time
Jeff Fearnside – Making Love While Levitating Three Feet in the Air
2004: Fiction/Nonfiction
Judge: Richard Currey
Bethany Harvey – Falling Rock
Joseph M. Schuster – A Saint in the Family
Whitney Purvis – Cuentitos Caoticos
2002: Fiction/Nonfiction
Judge: Chris Offutt
Kenneth Cook – Last Call: The Texas Moon Stories
Cate McGowan – Thirty Men, Not One
Emily Raboteau – A Gesture of Belonging
W.A. Smith – Leaving and Girls, Past
2001: Fiction/Nonfiction
Judge: Jayne Anne Phillips
Charlotte Gullick – By Way of Water
Kate Small – The B-Zone Open
Patricia Schaefer – Love Is Blue
Haruko Yamauchi – Witness
2000: Fiction/Nonfiction
Judge: Richard Currey
Mary L. Tabor – The Burglar: Stories
Maureen P. Stanton – Laundry
Carson H Wu – Different Brothers
Ira Sukrungruang – A Normal Thai Son
2023: Fiction / Nonfiction
Judge: Deesha Philyaw
Melissa Llanes Brownlee– Bitter Over Sweet (coming in 2025)
Erica Kent – Black Dog (coming in 2026)
Mathew Goldberg – Night Watch
2022: Fiction / Nonfiction
Judge: Deesha Philyaw
Emma Smith-Stevens – Greyhounds (coming in 2025)
Rachel Zimmerman – The Good Suicide (Published as Us, After)
Kim McLarin – Crone-ish
2019: Fiction / Nonfiction
Judge: Carmen Maria Machado
Deborah Jackson Taffa – Kiva Song
Lilly Dancyger – Negative Space
Joseph Holt – Golden Heart Parade
2017: Fiction / Nonfiction
Judge: Benjamin Percy
Wendy Fox – If the Ice Had Held
Doug Crandell – Tornado Season
Kate Wisel – Driving in Cars With Homeless Men
2015: Fiction / Nonfiction
Judge: Emily St. John Mandel
A.A. Balaskovits – Magic for Unlucky Girls
Elizabeth Horneber – Chinese Red
Lisa Reisman – 5 Months 10 Years 2 Hours
2013: Fiction/Nonfiction
Judges: David Morrell (fiction), Lee Gutkind (nonfiction)
Fiction winners:
April L. Ford — The Poor Children
Daniel Mueller — Nights I Dreamed of Hubert Humphrey
Stephen Eoannou — Muscle Cars
Nonfiction winners:
Annita Sawyer — Smoking Cigarettes, Eating Glass
Allen Gee — My Chinese America
Mary Quade — Ideal Uncertainties
2011: Fiction/Nonfiction
Judge: Alan Cheuse
Lance Larsen — Seventeen Ways to Float
Angie Chuang — The Four Words for Home
Emily Stone — In Search of Chocola: Love, Chocolate, and Language in Guatemala
2010: Fiction/Nonfiction
Judge: Robert Olen Butler
Tara Laskowski –Black Diamond City
Nicole Louise Reid – A Purposeful Violence
W.A. Smith – Einstein’s Fiddle
“The SFWP Literary Prize launched my career and boosted my confidence as a writer. This is a contest all writers should enter. SFWP has the history of discovering the best writers and the business savvy to sell their books. It’s truly the best indie publisher in existence. ”
“I had already published two books when I submitted to the SFWP contest, and I did so because I admired their work. What I didn’t know then was how much support I would receive as an SFWP author. As a writer, it truly changed my career. I have always believed in the mission of small press, but SFWP elevated that experience and gave me exposure I would not have otherwise had.”
“Winning the Santa Fe Writers Project Literary Award was the big break I’d been hoping for and working toward for a decade. SFWP is a truly excellent independent press, with the passion and industry know-how to set a book up for success.”
“Winning the Grand Prize for the Santa Fe Writers Project Literary Awards Program launched the best year of my professional life. SFWP is a first class organization, one that actually uses its program to promote writers.”