Writing Contest Guidelines

As you may have already seen, Swim Press is glad to announce that we are hosting a contest in partnership with Healthline Zine and The Cloudscent Journal.

Guidelines will be posted on our socials, but here is a more complete and in depth list…

Rules

• Contestants may choose only one of the three prompts provided.
• Only one entry is permitted by each contestant, either in poetry or prose. Multiple submissions will not be accepted.
• No edits will be accepted once the submission has been received.

Theme

The theme for the contest is Ekphrasis and contestants are asked to base their submission on 1 of 3 images provided here

The Piece

• Prose limit: 2,000 words.
• Poetry limit: 40 lines of text (empty lines will not be counted).
• The piece must be submitted as a PDF using the following formatting: Times New Roman, font size 11, line spacing 1.5, and justified alignment.
• The title of the piece must be at the top of the page along with the name of the artwork utilised, example Sample Piece – The Lost Tribe.
• Final word or line count should be noted below the title.

Content

• The contestant’s name or any such identifying marks should not be added to the document. Pieces that do not comply with this will be disqualified.
• Offensive content and profanities will not be tolerated, and any pieces containing potentially triggering content should have a warning attached at the top of the page. Failure to comply will result in disqualification.

Submitting

• All submissions are to be mailed to contests.healthline@gmail.com, by midnight, your time zone, Wednesday 1st March.
• Please use an email address you are happy to be contacted on.

• The subject line should contain the title of the chosen prompt, the contestant’s name, and the title of the piece, for example: Summer Night – B. Smith – Sample Title.
• The body of the email should comprise of the contestant’s full name and/or pseudonym, their pronouns, social media handles (for contact purposes, if any), backup Email address, and a brief third-person account of themselves.
• Additionally, contestants may choose to include a short writeup in the body of the mail that talks about why the prompt spoke to them, context or details of their submission, etc. Note that this will not be considered by the reading team or guest judges.
• You will receive a reply email indicating your submission has been received. If you have not received this email three days after the end of the submission period, kindly send a follow-up email to the submission address and contact Healthline Zine on Instagram (@healthlinezine). 

Judging & Results

• Each magazine has created a small reading team who will read each piece submitted. The reading teams will then put forward their shortlist to our two guest judges Ashley Hajimirsadeghi and M. T. Khan
• The winners will be contacted via the email address attached to the submission. Due to large numbers, we will not be able to contact those who have not been successful.
• The decision of the guest judge is binding, and please know that our reading team will care for your piece and ensure it is presented to the best of its potential.

Prize

• 3 winners will be chosen from each category (prose & poetry)
• Each winner will receive: a detailed review and feedback of their work by initial submission reader and guest judge; expedited submission ticket to all three participating magazines; special feature publication in one of the three participating magazines; an interview
• First place winner will be awarded a $20 cash prize

If you have any more questions regarding the submission guidelines, the prompts, the judging, or anything you feel hasn’t been touched upon here, please don’t hesitate to send us an email or an Instagram DM.

Good luck!