Founded in 1980, The Pinch is a literary journal featuring fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, and visual art produced by the MFA program in creative writing at the University of Memphis. That 1980 date makes The Pinch one of the longest-running literary journals in the country, and in terms of contributors, it has a nationwide reach. But it draws on local writers and artists too. The cover art for the latest issue? It’s, as it has been for years, the distinctive work of graphic designer Gary Golightly, assistant professor in the U of M’s art department.
Celebrate with food, cocktails, and readings when The Pinch hosts a release party for its fall 2013 issue. The place: the Dixon Gallery & Gardens (4339 Park) on Friday, November 1st, 7-9 p.m. And you’re invited.
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If you’re an author who lives within a 150-mile radius of Memphis and if you’re a short-story writer, you could be the winner of $1,000. That’s the grand prize in the 2014 Memphis Magazine Fiction Contest, and it’s not too early to polish that manuscript. Make that manuscripts — plural. Because if quality warrants, two honorable mention awards will be given, at $500 each. Full details on the contest are here, but as to the general guidelines:
Stories should be between 3,000 and 4,500 words, but they needn’t be Memphis-set or Southern-themed, and entries should not have previously appeared in a Shelby County publication or in a national magazine with a circulation over 20,000. Deadline for entries — $10 per entry, check or money order payable to Memphis magazine, multiple entries per author accepted — is February 1, 2014. Address for entries (no faxes or emails, please): Fiction Contest, c/o Memphis magazine, P.O. Box 1738, Memphis TN 38101.
Winners in the 2014 Memphis Magazine Fiction Contest will be contacted in late March or early April, with the grand-prize story appearing in the magazine’s culture issue in June.
“We are pleased to have sponsored this contest since 1989,” Marilyn Sadler, a senior editor at Memphis magazine and fiction contest coordinator, says. “It’s an opportunity for local and regional writers to compete in an area where few, if any, such competitions are offered.”
The contest is co-sponsored by the Booksellers at Laurelwood and Burke’s Book Store.
Further questions? Call Marilyn Sadler at 901-521-9000 ext. 451 or email her at sadler@memphismagazine.com. •
