New Jersey Writers Exchange Contest

Poets & Writers is now welcoming submissions for the 2010 Maureen Egen Writers Exchange Award. Initiated in 1984, the Writers Exchange Contest was created to introduce emerging poets and fiction writers to literary communities outside of their home state, and provide them with a network for professional advancement. To date, 78 writers from 31 states have participated.

One poet and one fiction writer from New Jersey will receive an all-expenses-paid trip to New York City, where they will meet with agents, editors, and prominent writers, and give a public reading of their work. The winners will be selected by Sophie Cabot Black (poetry) and Nahid Rachlin (fiction).

The contest is open to poets and fiction writers who:

• Have never published a book, or
• Have published no more than one full-length book in the genre in which they are applying, and
• Have resided in New Jersey for at least two consecutive years prior to the date they submit their manuscripts.
  

An application must accompany all manuscripts and be postmarked no later than December 1, 2009.

For complete guidelines and an application, please visit:
http://www.pw.org/files/WEXApplication09.pdf.