CRAFT 2025 First Chapters Contest — Guest Judge Alejandro Heredia

CRAFT 2025 First Chapters Contest

$2,800 Awarded

Guest Judge: Alejandro Heredia

June 8, 2025 – August 10, 2025

A setting can make or break a book. So can a character. So can a plot (or rather, a plot hole). We know novels are hard to write, and that they can take years to complete, even decades. That’s why we want to reward your early efforts, and keep you working on your magnum opus, whether it be your first novel or your fifth. Each summer, CRAFT holds its First Chapters Contest, which is an opportunity designed to reward and encourage the diligent novelist. Your novel need not be complete for you to enter your first chapters into this summer contest. We just want to see great promise in the work. Here’s what Guest Judge Alejandro Heredia would like to see:

I am drawn to work that is invested in sentences, style, and form. Not experimentation for superficial purposes, but formal risks that expand or elevate what’s happening on the level of character, theme, or story. I’m also drawn to work with a special focus on place, be it a neighborhood, city, village, apartment complex, et cetera. How does place shape a character, and how does a character shape a place?

Submissions are open June 8 to August 10, 2025. Heredia will choose three winning excerpts from fifteen anonymized entries. Learn more in our guidelines below!

Guidelines:

• The First Chapters Contest is open to all fiction writers; CRAFT is a market for adult literary fiction.
• International submissions are welcome. Work must be written primarily in English, but some code-switching/meshing is warmly welcomed.
• Please send excerpts of book-length fiction only—please submit the first chapter or chapters* of your unpublished novels/novellas. Your novel need not be completely written.
• Please do not submit short stories or nonfiction essays.
• Please adhere to the 5,000 word count maximum*.
• We review adult literary fiction, but are open to a variety of genres and styles, as long as you show excellence in your craft.
• Submit previously unpublished work only—we do NOT review reprints or partial reprints for contests (including any form of self-publishing such as on blogs, personal websites, social media, et cetera.). Reprints will be automatically disqualified.
• We allow simultaneous submissions—writers, please notify us and withdraw your excerpt if your work is accepted elsewhere.
• We allow multiple submissions—please submit each excerpt as a separate submission accompanied by an entry fee.
• Please note the $20 entry fee per submission.
• Kindly double-space your submission and use Times New Roman 12. (Feel free to contact us directly if you need to change these formatting requirements for better accessibility.)
• Please include a brief cover letter with your publication history (if applicable), and a summary of your book-length project. Also include any necessary content warnings, in consideration of our reading team.
• We do not require anonymous submissions, but the guest judge will read the shortlist anonymized.
• Writers from historically marginalized groups will be able to submit for FREE until we reach fifty free submissions. This free category will close when we reach capacity. No additional fee waivers will be granted. NOTE: Submission cap has been met.
• 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.
• Any AI-generated work submitted to this contest will be immediately disqualified.
• Unless you’ve already secured the necessary permissions, please do not include quoted song lyrics in your submitted work.
• Any work that does not adhere to these guidelines will be automatically disqualified.
• Artful Editor is offering every entrant a 10% discount for query services—they will critique and edit your query letter, synopsis, and first fifty pages. Coupon code provided upon contest entry.

*Your entry may include more than your first chapter, up to 5,000 words total, but should contain complete sections—please do not leave us hanging midparagraph just to maximize word count—and must be the first chapter(s) of your book-length project, as if you were querying agents or publishing houses.

Awards:

• First place will receive $2,000 and a full manuscript critique of the novel or novella, up to 100K words, by Artful Editor.
• Second and third place will receive $500 and $300, respectively.
• First, second, and third place will receive an agent query workshop by Annalise Errico of Ladderbird Literary Agency—Annalise will offer feedback on the first 5,000 words of the project, the summary, and a query letter.
• The top three excerpts will be published in CRAFT, each with an introduction by Guest Judge Alejandro Heredia.
• Each publication will include an author’s note (craft essay) written by the winning writers.

Fine Print:

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

Guest Judge:

ALEJANDRO HEREDIA is a writer from the Bronx. He has received fellowships from Lambda Literary Foundation, Dominican Studies Institute, and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas’s Black Mountain Institute, where he served as a 2024-2025 Shearing Fellow. He was selected by Myriam Gurba as the winner of University of Southern California's Gold Line Press Fiction Chapbook Contest. His chapbook of short stories, You’re the Only Friend I Need (2021), explores themes of queer transnationalism, friendship, and (un)belonging in the African Diaspora. Heredia’s work has been featured in The Offing, American Short Fiction, Kweli Journal, Apogee Journal, Literary Hub, and elsewhere. He received an MFA in fiction from Hunter College. Loca (2025) is his debut novel. Find him on Instagram @aleherex.

Contest Partners:

Founded in 2010, ARTFUL EDITOR is an editorial agency that helps writers elevate their prose and prepare their manuscripts for agent submission and publication. We offer honest manuscript reviews, developmental editing, line editing, and copyediting. Our team is composed of book editors and published authors, many of whom also edit for traditional publishers. We’re based in Los Angeles, California, but work with writers from all over the world and at every stage of their careers. Find us on Instagram and LinkedIn.

ANNALISE ERRICO of Ladderbird Literary Agency is a graduate of Lesley University where she earned a BA in creative writing with a double minor in literature and women’s, gender, and sexuality studies. She is excited about uplifting stories by authors with marginalized voices and intersectional identities, ultimately making room for the diverse voices that have long since been ignored and suppressed in the literary world and beyond. Find her on Twitter @AnnaliseErrico.

LADDERBIRD is a full-service boutique literary agency out of the Boston area with a passion for bringing marginalized voices to the forefront. We work with authors at all levels to create the right path toward achieving each author’s specific goals. It is our passion to create long-lasting relationships and to be the best advocate for our clients. At Ladderbird, we believe in building a supportive community that benefits all. Find us on Twitter @ladderbirdlit.

Optional Editorial Feedback:

You may choose to receive editorial feedback on your excerpt. We will provide 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. Work that we critique is not eligible for submission to future CRAFT contests, but can be revised and resubmitted in our general queues for further consideration.