We welcome short story nominations from editors of journals, magazines, and short story collections and anthologies published during the 2026 calendar year. Editors may nominate up to two stories per publication.
Nominated stories must be written by authors originally from or currently residing in the U.S. South, or the story itself must be clearly set in the U.S. South. Blair defines the U.S. South as including the following states: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia.
This year nominations will be accepted between November 1 and February 28 for the volume to be published in Fall 2027. Submit all nominations via Submittable at this link: https://blair.submittable.com/submit. Please send one copy of each work. Do not send entire books or journals. Submit the final version of the story as it appeared in your publication.
Nominated stories will be reviewed and selected by Blair’s editorial staff and by the Contributing Editors, who may also make nominations.
Short stories published Contributing Editors are not eligible.
There is no entry fee. Each story must be nominated separately (one Submittable form completed per story).
Authors whose stories are selected for New Stories from South and their editor will each receive a copy of the anthology. By submitting a story, editors and authors indicate that they are willing to provide Blair with the right for its one-time publication in the Blair anthology.
DEADLINE--January 15, 2027
The Lee Smith Fiction Prize opens for submissions November 15, 2026, and will close on January 15, 2027 at midnight EST, or when we reach our cap of 300 entries. The final judge will be Jason Mott, author of Hell of a Book and People Like Us. Winner will receive $1,000 and publication.
There is no submission fee for this contest. The suggested donation is optional. Readers and the final judge will not see submitters' donation status or any identifying information of the submitter. Submissions should be full-length, literary fiction manuscripts (novels, short story collections, or novellas) of at least 17,000 words.
Manuscripts should be typed, double-spaced, in 12-point Times New Roman or a similar font, and should NOT contain the submitter's name or any identifying information anywhere in the manuscript or the name of the manuscript file. Manuscript files should be named with the title of the manuscript only. Be sure author's name and any other identifying information only appear in the cover letter and not in the manuscript itself (including in headers or footers or on the first page of the manuscript).
Author's biography and list of previously published works is not required but may be included in the cover letter.
Simultaneous submissions are okay, but let us know immediately if your manuscript is accepted elsewhere.
Please note that Blair does not publish genre fiction. Manuscripts cannot be substituted or edited after submission. Finalists will be announced by or before early 2028. Thank you for your patience with the process as we give each manuscript the individual attention it deserves.
We look forward to reading your work!
About the judge:
Jason Mott is the author of five novels. His novel Hell of a Book won the 2021 National Book Award for Fiction. His latest novel, People Like Us, is a USA Today bestseller and a Late Night With Stephen Colbert Book Club selection.