Book Contests
2026/2027 Fiction, Non-Fiction, Memoir & Indigenous Writers
Contest
We are a boutique publishing company that is dedicated to amplifying the voices of contemporary writers who are nomads and explorers of language, form, and the psyche. We’re looking for submissions of memoir, fiction and nonfiction, high-quality “unpublished” manuscripts—no self-published books allowed, nor the use of Chat GPT/ Claude/AI. We do believe in Ancestral Intelligence, which we consider is found deep inside the well-spring of the writer creating agency for both the writer and the reader. As present, there is a call for indigenous writers to submit here for possible publication in association with Global Voice Foundation https://www.globalvoicefoundation.com/books
Your final manuscripts will be entrusted to us, to be read, sorted and pondered by our angel team—
Dr. Michael Lechuga, one of Global Voice’s Ally Advisory Board Members and Jacqueline Gay Walley, one of IML’s authors!
Entry Requirements for 2026/2027 Contests: 50 pages double spaced + a 1-page synopsis of story via email at “Enter here:”
Begin submission: November 1, 2026 (no early submissions please)
Final Deadline for Submission: December 20, 2026
Fee for Entry: $40
Fee for Indigneous Writers: $10
Finalists announced: January 30, 2027
Finalists Full book submissions up to 100,000 words due: February 28, 2027
Winners announced: April 30, 2027
Award: 1000 dollars in prizes (Note details below.*) Finalists, if they’d like, will receive feedback from the Editor, I. Murphy Lewis.
or Send your document to hello@imlpublications.com
or Pay through ZELLE or VENMO to hello@imlpublications.com
or mail CHECK to:
IML Publications c/o I. Murphy Lewis, 133 E. De La Guerra Street #160, Santa Barbara, CA 93101 USA
Announcing 2025 Winner of
Fiction, Non-Fiction, and Memoir Contest
Finalists (in alphabetical order)
FICTION: Maria Clarizio’s Till Death Do Us Part, Helen Kweskin’s Slippery Slopes, Osman Njai’s Before We Became Men, Natalie Pilard’s Love Your Darkness, Patricia Rohner’s Two Poppins Lane
NON-FICTION: Shirley Glaettli’s Sylkie: Searching for Lady Sylvia Ashley, Terese Svoboda’s Hitler and My Mother-in-law, Wally Swist’s Wood and Nails, Ron Talarico’s Monday Afternoons at Three-Thirty
MEMOIR: Nicolle Goldman’s Keep Walking, Wheston Chancellor Grove’s I, Too, Shall Die, Sarah Hewitt’s Rainbows and Ravens, Maxine Meju’s I Can’t Sleep
Announcing:
Memoir and Fiction Winners and Finalists2023/2024
WINNER: Bromme Cole’s When Soft Voices Die
HONORABLE MENTION: Dawn Yackzan, Precious Crazy
FINALISTS: (in alphabetical order)
NOVEL: Barbara de la Cuesta’s The Twenty and One Nights; Lisa Friedlander’s The Bird Lover; James Makor’s Lightning in the Draught; Eliza Mood’s Under the Forbidden Tree; Osman Njai’s Before We Became Men; and Dawn Yackzan’s The Grasshopper Girls
MEMOIR: Michael Bauer’s Born Without a Race; Molly Gandour’s Vertigo: Sexual Assault Aftermath; Alyssa Osvog’s Stay: Connecting with Energy in Recovery; Dawn Service’s Not My Shame; Mike Shangkuan’s The Good Chinese Son: from the Ivy League to the Berlin Dungeons; and Dawn Yackzan’s Precious Crazy
Announcing:
Memoir and Fiction Winners and Finalists2022
Memoir Winners:
IML’s Nomad Motif: Sandra Botnen’s Body Unfolding
Grace in Writing Style: Victoria Adler’s When We Knew Nothing
Finalists in Alphabetical Order: Demetrius Butler’s Hoes Don’t Exist Monsters Do; Barbara de la Cuesta’s A Certain Height Above the Earth; Olivia Harris’s I’m Not Ready Yet; Jacqueline Monteath’s America Unmapped; Alysa Osvog’s Traipsing Down a Warpath of Addiction; and Dawn Yackzan’s Precious Crazy (First Alternate)
Fiction Winner:
Khaak by Mahdi (due to it’s indigenous content, published jointly in 2024 with IML and Global Voice Foundation)
Finalists: Eliza Mood’sVolcano Letters; Alysa Osvog’s Unforgettables; Katarzyna Janicka’s Maya; Annie Dawd’s Paradise Undone; Martha Novak Burgess’s Blood Mountain; and Marcia Peck’s The Unattended Moment (First Alternate)
*IML Publications, LLC is a hybrid publisher based on IBPA Publisher Criteria: https://www.ibpa-online.org/page/hybrid-publisher-criteria-download Indigenous book winner may be published in conjunction with https://www.globalvoicefoundation.org