Book Contests
2026/2027 Fiction, Non-Fiction & Memoir Contest
Memoir and Fiction Contest featured on Reedsy.com, in Poets & Writers Magazine, in New York Review of Books, and in Writer’s Digest.
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. High-quality “unpublished” manuscript—no self-published books allowed—submissions of memoir, fiction and non-fiction, as well, a call for indigenous writers to submit (possible publication through Global Voice) entrusted to us will be read, sorted and pondered by our angel team, to be announced momentarily! (No use of Chat GPT is allowed.)
Entry Requirements for 2026/2027 Contests: 50 pages double spaced + a 1-page synopsis of story via email at “Enter here:”
Begin submission: October 1, 2026 (no early submissions please)
Deadline: November 1, 2026
Fee for Entry: $40
Finalists announced: January 15, 2027
Finalists Full book submissions up to 100,000 words due: February 15, 2027
Award: 1000 dollars in prizes (Note details below.*)
or Send your document to hello@imlpublications.com
or Pay through ZELLE 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
Chinwe Mary Okoye’s Memoir: REDBONE
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, (to be published Fall 2025).
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