CRAFT 2025 Short Fiction Prize — Guest Judge Halle Hill

CRAFT 2025 Short Fiction Prize

March 18, 2025 – May 18, 2025

Guest Judge: Halle Hill

$2,800 Awarded + Tech Bonus

The short story is a literary staple, one with its own hallmarks of structure and paragons of form. However, the short story can also employ an infinite array of guises, settings, and perspectives. For the CRAFT 2025 Short Fiction Prize, we’re once again looking for the most compelling short stories that have yet to be published. Here’s what Guest Judge Halle Hill would like to see:

When I am reading short fiction, I am looking for bravery and something wrestled with on the page. I like texture, family, space, land, and bodies interacting in a strong key. I like humor and oddity. I like stories that “open” for me. When I teach, I encourage students to consider what they can offer up for the work; that is, greater sensitivity, a strong sense of sound, attention to the senses, or exquisite detail work. I am looking for tight sentences that string along into the next sentence and the next—I want to be pulled through. I want to read both the heart and the mind. And I like to see a sense of intention in a story. No lessons or polemics, but rather a connection to something human and urgent. I love prose that sings like poetry. I want stories that make me linger after I am finished with them. Send me your best and brightest!

The first-place winner will receive a $2,000 award, online publication, and our writerly Tech Bonus worth up to $500! The second- and third-place finalists will receive $500 and $300, respectively, along with online publication. The CRAFT 2025 Short Fiction Prize opens on March 18 and closes on May 18.

GUIDELINES:

• CRAFT submissions are open to all writers.
• International submissions are allowed.
• Please submit work primarily written in English, but some code-switching/meshing is warmly welcomed.
• We seek short fiction only for this contest: 1,000 to 5,000 words in length. Please do not send flash prose or poetry to this contest.
• We review literary fiction but are open to a variety of genres and styles—our only requirement is that you show excellence in your craft.
• Submit previously unpublished work only—we do NOT review reprints for contests (including work posted on blogs, personal websites, social media, et cetera). Reprints will be automatically disqualified.
• We allow simultaneous submissions—writers, please notify us and withdraw your piece if your work is accepted for publication elsewhere.
• We allow multiple submissions—please submit each piece as a separate submission accompanied by an entry fee.
• This contest requires a $20 entry fee per submission.
• All entries will also be considered for publication in CRAFT.
• Please double-space your submission and use Times New Roman 12.
• Include a brief cover letter with your publication history (if applicable).
• We do not require anonymous submissions. However, we do anonymize the fifteen shortlisted stories before sending them to the guest judge.
• Writers from historically marginalized groups will be able to submit for free until we reach fifty free submissions.
• AI-generated work will be automatically disqualified.
• Entries that do not adhere to these guidelines will be automatically disqualified.
• We do not discriminate on the basis of age, ancestry, disability, family status, gender identity or expression, national origin, race, religion, sex or sexual orientation, or for any other reason.
• Additionally, we do not tolerate discrimination in the writing we consider for publication: work we find discriminatory on any of the bases stated here will be declined without complete review.
• We are always happy to answer any questions. Email us: contact@craftliterary.com.

AWARDS:

• Winner receives a $2,000 cash award and our Tech Bonus: their choice of an iPAD, reMarkable, or Freewrite (up to $500 value before tax).
• Second- and third-place finalists receive $500 and $300, respectively.
• The top three stories will be published in CRAFT, each with an introduction by the guest judge.
• Each publication will also include an author’s note (craft essay) by the writer.

FINE PRINT:

• Friends, family, and associates of the guest judge are not eligible for consideration for the award.
• Our collaboration with editorial professionals in the judging of our contests and the awarding of our prizes does not imply an endorsement or recognition from their agencies, houses, presses, universities, et cetera.
• Read our 2024 contest winners for examples of work chosen in the past.
• As we only consider unpublished writing and will publish the winning pieces in October 2025, anything under contract to publish prior to January 2026 should not be entered.

OUR GUEST JUDGE:

HALLE HILL is the author of Good Women (Hub City Press), which was named a 2023 Best Book of the Year by Kirkus Reviews, O Magazine, Electric Literature, Book Riot, and Southwest Review. A finalist for the 2023 Weatherford Award for Appalachian writing, she is the winner of the 2020 Crystal Wilkinson Creative Writing Prize for Emerging Black Writers and the 2020 Oxford American Debut Fiction Prize. Her short stories have been translated into French and published in journals including Joyland, New Limestone Review, Atlanta Magazine, and the Oxford American, among others, as well as featured on the Ursa Short Fiction podcast. A born-and-raised East Tennessean, she currently lives, works, and teaches in North Carolina. Find her on Twitter @hallehillwrites.

OUR CONTEST PARTNER:

STORYSTUDIO CHICAGO is a nonprofit literary arts organization focused on building a writing community. We offer more than 200 online and in-person creative writing classes and events each year, which include everything from single-session classes focused on one aspect of craft to multi-session weekly classes to full year-long programs. We nurture writers of all ages and all skill levels and our programming covers all genres, from short stories and novels, to creative nonfiction like memoirs and essays, to poetry, screenwriting, satire, and just about anything you can imagine. For the CRAFT 2025 Short Fiction Prize, StoryStudio Chicago is offering a 10% discount code, which will be provided upon submission.

OPTIONAL EDITORIAL FEEDBACK:

You may choose to receive editorial feedback on your piece directly through the contest submission form. We will provide line-level marginal notes, as well as a two-page global letter discussing the strengths of the writing and the recommended focus for revision. While editorial feedback is inherently subjective, our suggestions are always actionable and encouraging. We aim to have feedback completed within twelve weeks from the close of the contest. Should your story win, no feedback will be offered and your fee will be refunded. Please note that work we critique is not eligible for future CRAFT contests.