Donald Barthelme We Are Now Accepting Entries for the 2013 Barthelme Prize for Short Prose! Judged by Robert Coover Deadline: August 31, 2013 Gulf Coast is now accepting entries for the 2013 Barthelme Prize for Short Prose. The contest is open to pieces of prose poetry, flash fiction, and micro-essays of 500 words or fewer. Established in 2008, the contest awards its winner $1,000 and publication in the journal. Two honorable mentions will also appear in issue 26.2, due out in April 2014, and all entries will be considered for paid publication on our website as Online Exclusives. All entrants will receive a one-year subscription to Gulf Coast with their contest fee. This year’s contest will be judged by Robert Coover. Coover's first novel, The Origin of the Brunists, won the 1966 William Faulkner Award. His other works include the collection of short fiction, Pricksongs and Descants, a collection of plays, A Theological Position, and such novels as The Public Burning, Spanking the Maid, Gerald's Party, Pinocchio in Venice, John's Wife, Ghost Town, and Briar Rose. His latest honor is the Dugannon Foundation's REA award for his lifetime contribution to the short story. We will accept submissions both via our online submissions manager and via postal mail. Entrants may submit up to three pieces with each entry fee. Entrants may submit more than once, but each new entry of three pieces must be accompanied by a separate entry fee. Contest Guidelines for Online Submissions -    Submissions accepted via Gulf Coast’s online submissions manager. -    Submit up to three pieces of short prose in a single .doc, .docx, .rtf, or .pdf file. -    Only previously unpublished work will be considered. -    The contest will be judged blindly, so please do not include your cover letter, your name, or any contact information in the uploaded document. This information should only be pasted in the “Comments” field. -    After submitting your work you will be redirected to PayPal to authorize your $17 reading fee. You do not need a PayPal account to submit to the contest; PayPal accepts all major credit cards for payment. We will contact you if there are any issues with your payment. Contest Guidelines for Postal Mail Submissions -    Only previously unpublished work will be considered. -    Please address postal mail entries to:           Gulf Coast           ATTN: Barthelme Prize in Short Prose           Department of English           University of Houston           Houston, TX 77204-3013 -    The contest will be judged blindly, so your contact information should appear only on your cover letter. -    Please include your $17 reading fee, payable to “Gulf Coast.” The Winners of the 2012 Barthelme Prize for Short Prose Have Been Published! The Winners of the 2013 Gulf Coast Prizes Will Be Announced Soon! Before submitting to this year's Barthelme Prize for Short Prose Contest, be sure to read the winners of last year's contest, selected by Ander Monson. Congratulations to Josie Sigler Sibara, whose submission "The Compartment" won the $1,000 grand prize and is featured in the current issue of Gulf Coast! Here's what Ander Monson had to say about the winning piece: Narrative is appealing: it draws our eyes so easily. Narrative is appalling: it's so often boring once we're inside the humming thing; we’re so easily lulled to slumber. Besides, there's rarely enough scope in a short to run on narrative alone. So: if we start with narrative, we might find another fuel to run the engine into orbit once we've got it started. "The Compartment" finds this other way, offers us a situation, but then proceeds by sidesteps, goes lyric, linguistic, and soon we’re unsure of where we are, where here is, where there was. In so doing it finds the line between compression and expansion and blows it up, if only for a minute, and fashions itself a little now. Congratulations also to John Longo and Emma Eisenberg, both of whom were awarded $250 Honorable Mentions! Their respective pieces, "The Only Thing We Argue About Is Time Travel" and "There was," were published in Gulf Coast 25.2. The good news doesn't stop there! Gulf Coast is now presenting Online Exclusives -- stories, poems, and essays found exclusively on our website -- and our Online Editors fell in love with a number of finalist entries and will be featuring them on the website in the coming months. Congratulations to Penny Anderson, Nathan Hill, and Patrick Tobin, all of whom will receive paid publication on our website. Thanks to everyone who entered the contest and made it such a success. We'll soon also be announcing the winners of the 2013 Gulf Coast Prizes in Fiction, Nonfiction, and Poetry, so be sure to keep checking this page for more information.