Submit your entries now for our 2013 contests

We are extending the submission deadline through April 15th, 2013  

Please review our submission guidelines, then prepare your submission and upload them here.

The 49th Parallel Award for Poetry

1st Prize: $1,000
Final Judge: Kevin Clark

The 49th Parallel is the nickname for the US/Canada border that stretches from Washington State to Minnesota. Bellingham, Washington, the home of Western Washington University and the Bellingham Review lies just shy of the border.

The Annie Dillard Award for Creative Nonfiction

1st Prize: $1,000
Final Judge: Dinah Lenney

Born April 30, 1945, Annie Dillard is best known for her nature-themed writing. She has explored her past and present dealings with nature through poetry, essays and novels. Often compared to Thoreau and other transcendentalist writers, Dillard is unique in her defiance of any strict categorization. As she examines the natural world, her subjects move between wildlife, God and the human condition. Among the nine book-length publications Dillard has published over the past twenty years, her use of multiple genres allows her to seamlessly move from Virginia creeks, to the Puget Sound, to the Galapagos Islands.

The Tobias Wolff Award for Fiction

1st Prize: $1,000
Final Judge: Marjorie Sandor

Born in 1945 in Alabama, Wolff has been regarded as the master of memoir and short stories. His best known work, This Boy’s Life, recounts the story of his early childhood years in the Northwest and was the basis for a 1993 motion picture starring Robert DeNiro and Leonardo DiCaprio. A three-time winner of the O. Henry Award, Tobias Wolff is celebrated for his collections of short stories, novels, and memoirs. Wolff’s second collection of short stories, Back in the World (1985), was hailed as a sensitive work of fiction focusing primarily on the experiences of returning Vietnam veterans. In literary circles, Wolff is revered as much as a teacher as he is as a writer. After completing a Stegner Fellowship at Stanford University, Wolff served as the Jones Lecturer in Creative Writing at that institution (1975-1978). He later spent 17 years leading the Creative Writing Program at Syracuse University (1980-97). In 1997, he returned to Stanford where he currently resides and teaches.

2013 Contests Are Now Open!

https://bhreview.submittable.com/submit/

following awards are offered once a year by the Bellingham Review.

The 49th Parallel Award for Poetry

1st Prize: $1,000
Final Judge: Kevin Clark
>The 49th Parallel is the nickname for the US/Canada border that stretches from Washington State to Minnesota. Bellingham, Washington, the home of Western Washington University and theBellingham Review lies just shy of the border.

The Annie Dillard Award for Creative Nonfiction

1st Prize: $1,000
Final Judge: Dinah Lenney
Born April 30, 1945, Annie Dillard is best known for her nature-themed writing. She has explored her past and present dealings with nature through poetry, essays and novels. Often compared to Thoreau and other transcendentalist writers, Dillard is unique in her defiance of any strict categorization. As she examines the natural world, her subjects move between wildlife, God and the human condition. Among the nine book-length publications Dillard has published over the past twenty years, her use of multiple genres allows her to seamlessly move from Virginia creeks, to the Puget Sound, to the Galapagos Islands.s

The Tobias Wolff Award for Fiction

1st Prize: $1,000
Final Judge: Marjorie Sandor
Born in 1945 in Alabama, Wolff has been regarded as the master of memoir and short stories. His best known work, This Boy’s Life, recounts the story of his early childhood years in the Northwest and was the basis for a 1993 motion picture starring Robert DeNiro and Leonardo DiCaprio. A three-time winner of the O. Henry Award, Tobias Wolff is celebrated for his collections of short stories, novels, and memoirs. Wolff’s second collection of short stories, Back in the World (1985), was hailed as a sensitive work of fiction focusing primarily on the experiences of returning Vietnam veterans. In literary circles, Wolff is revered as much as a teacher as he is as a writer. After completing a Stegner Fellowship at Stanford University, Wolff served as the Jones Lecturer in Creative Writing at that institution (1975-1978). He later spent 17 years leading the Creative Writing Program at Syracuse University (1980-97). In 1997, he returned to Stanford where he currently resides and teaches.
Contest Submission Guidelines

The 2012 Contest Winners

The Bellingham Review is Pleased to Announce Winners of the 2012 Literary Contests

The Annie Dillard Award for Creative Nonfiction

Final Judge: Sheila Bender

First Place: Anittah Patrick

“The Math”

Runner Up: Aaron Alford, “Dead Man’s Land”

Finalists: Natalie Vestin, Kate Washington, Sharon Carmack, Gina Troisi, Cathy Warner

The 49^th Parallel Award for Poetry

Final Judge: Linda Bierds

First Place: Anna Marie Craighead-Kintis

“A Bosque Burns on the Feast of John the Baptist”

Runner Up: Marcia Popp, “you can sit over there”

Finalists: Hadara Bar-Nadav, Wesley Rothman, Traci Brimhall, Amy Miller, Kristina Moriconi, Kumani Gantt, Shawn Fawson

The Tobias Wolff Award for Fiction

Final Judge: Robin Hemley

First Place: Dalia Rosenfeld

“Swan Street”

Runner Up: Patricia Brieschke “Beans, Love, and Revolution”

Finalists: Allyson Armistead, Amalia Gladhart, Judy Myers, Karen Uhlmann

The Bellingham Review Literary Contests 2013

The 49th Parallel Poetry Award                           Final Judge: Kevin Clark

The Annie Dillard Award for Creative Nonfiction Final Judge: Dinah Lenney

The Tobias Wolff Award for Fiction                     Final Judge: Marjorie Sandor

1st Place: $1,000 in each Category

First place winners will be published in the Bellingham Review.

Runners-up and finalists may be considered for publication.

Check out our website for the full contest guidelines.

An Interview with Brenda Miller

The Committee Room recently featured Bellingham Review in their literary journal series and interviewed Bellingham Review's Editor-in-Chief, Brenda Miller.
Check out the interview for some insight regarding the Bellingham Review's submission process, the journal's aesthetic, and what it means to publish "literature of palpable quality."

Issue 64 is here!

Hot off the press, issue 64 of The Bellingham Review is finally here. Featuring this year's winners of The Tobias Wolff Award for Fiction, The Annie Dillard Award for Creative Nonfiction , and The 49th Parallel Poetry Award. For information on where to get your copy, visit our website.

AWP De-brief

In my few days at the AWP conference in Chicago this March, I was honored
to see so many writers in person whose work I’ve only read and to be in
the presence of thousands of attendees who love writing as I do. Amongst
the events I attended were a Word Party hosted by Derrick Brown and
some poets on the Write Bloody Publishing team, a Cave Canem legacy
conversation with poet Nikki Giovanni, and a panel on persona poetry from
an anthology co-edited by our very own Oliver de la Paz that featured poet
Patricia Smith. Of the many remarkable panels and readings that I attended,
I will share with you some insights on “From Question to Quest: Redefining
Nonfiction in the Field, in the Classroom, and on the Page” with author and
editor Donovan Hohn, journalist and author V.V. (Sugi) Ganeshananthan,
and novelist Jesmyn Ward. Also on the panel were Jeremiah Chamberlin and
Matthew Power, but my late arrival prevented me from hearing their talks.

I walked into the panel presentation in the middle of a discussion on Moby-
Duck. ‘Moby-Duck? Did I hear that right?’ As I entered the presentation in
media res, I had to imagine what came before my entrance, what context
I was missing. In this way, I was reminded of how I’ve felt when trying to
piece together enough fragments of memory to write a nonfiction narrative—
the uncertainty that usually comes when searching for specific details that
time has often separated from me. My notes that at the time felt sufficient,
thorough, poignant even, are actually choppy at best, and now that I am out
of the Astoria room of the Chicago Hilton, the details are even more fuzzy.
The appearance of notes on a page always seem so contextless. “Moby-
Duck: The True Story...” floats in the middle of my notebook page and at
the time of my writing those four words, I knew little more about the book
than part of the title and my mind was overflowing with questions. ‘I couldn’t
have heard the title of that book correctly, could I have?’ I made a note to
look the book up on the internet and after a recent search on Amazon, I
realize that yes, it is as I heard.

Donovan Hohn, author of Moby-Duck: The True Story of 28,800 Bath Toys
Lost at Sea and of the Beachcombers, Oceanographers, Environmentalists,
and Fools, Including the Author, Who Went in Search of Them, spoke of
the art of speculation, the usefulness of doubt (“doubtful certainties”), and
the aesthetics of perhaps. For Hohn, “in a good literary quest, the treasure
rarely lies in the ‘X’ on the map.” Quests often begin with the standard Q +
A form, but usually lead to “Q + Q + Q and then possibly A?”. In response
to the frequent question “Why did you feel compelled to chase the toys
lost at sea?” Hohn answers that questions can be like being in a current—
one line of inquiry can lead you to being swept away. As many writers of
nonfiction may be familiar, when writing a narrative, one has to ask “What
do I know?” then “What do I have to imagine?” and then lastly “What might
have happened?”

Picking up on the subject of imagination, V.V. (Sugi) Ganeshananthan,
author of Love Marriage and whose journalism often centers on Sri Lanka
and Sri Lankan politics, spoke on how her work as a journalist informs her
fiction-writing. Ganeshananthan spoke of when she moves from journalism
to fiction-writing, she leaves the world of fact for the one of imagination.
She began with the common sentiment that literature tends to last and
periodicals tend to line pet cages. Because of the shelf-life inherent in
some written word, she poses the question “How are we going to be
remembered?” Instead of focusing on the polarizing debate of journalism vs.
creative writing, Ganeshananthan’s talk centered on what creative writers
can learn from journalists, so what follows are some words of advice: Be
willing to produce things that are bad (the “shitty first draft”). Even in
creative writing, the questions that still need to be answered are “who?,
what?, where?, when?, and why?”. Be ravenous in your search for
information and have the audacity to imagine that you can pursue anything.
Don’t neglect to lean heavily on a solid combination of lived experience,
research and imagination. Ganeshananthan said “Objectivity is a total myth”
and likened objectivity to infinity in that it’s an unreachable goal but is worth
trying for. Lastly, don’t be afraid to pursue an interview, as most people
will want to share their expertise and doing so will help build voice, adding
character to your writing. Her final words were “writing allows us to enter
other consciousnesses,” a sentiment that speaks to the power of the written
word.

Jesmyn Ward whose book Salvage the Bones won a National Book Award
has a memoir forthcoming about five men very dear to her (including a
brother) that she lost in a short span of time. Through writing, Ward, who
is a survivor of Hurricane Katrina, tries to find sense in loss and of this, she
said, “I don’t know how to write a narrative short on hope.” She explains
her turn to memoir by saying that she never tried to write about her loss
in fiction because the grief was too immense to grasp to write in that
medium. Creative nonfiction has a different power than fiction and through
the medium of memoir, she can honor the names of the men that she lost
and allow them to live again on the page. Ward mostly writes about the
south and the subjects in Ward’s writing (systemic racism, poverty, etc.) are
difficult and often easier to ignore, but those systems and victims need to be
acknowledged.

I was haunted by Ward’s story and after the panel ended, my obsessive
nature was piqued and I felt compelled to know everything about her writing
and her history. I have visited her Wikipedia page multiple times, have
bookmarked her blog. Ward said that she seeks to allow her five men to live
again on the page and by her speaking of them even in such a summary
way for that short time on the panel, I want to know them. I don’t know
when her memoir will be released, but I know I will read it. Too, I have
bookmarked Ganeshananthan’s website and browsed several of her articles,
and I have read summaries and reviews on Hohn’s Moby-Duck and yes,
am just a bit curious about all of those toys. So is the power of hearing the
voices of authors beyond the blurbs and their still picture on the book flap.

As I left AWP with as many journals and pamphlets as I could carry, I
couldn’t wait to write again, to read my newly purchased books, to borrow
Hohn’s language about the aesthetics of perhaps with my composition class,
even. What was most surprising for me, I think, was that I began to revisit
the question of an MFA degree and if maybe I should pursue further study in
creative writing someday. And yet, I know an MFA is not the only way. Here
I am again in my own current of uncertainty, but what I do know is that
however I proceed from here, I know that I can’t imagine exiting this writing
community just yet.

Bellingham Review on the Radio!

Lauri Anderson, the winner of the 2011 Tobias Wolff Award for Fiction, was recently interviewed on NPR's All Things Considered. During this interview, Anderson discussed her prize-winning story, "A Saint and a Criminal," which won NPR's three-minute fiction contest. She also mentioned her recent win of Bellingham Review's annual award in fiction.

In addition, Bethany Carlson, a finalist in the 2011 49th Parallel Award for Poetry, read her poem "If truth is a dreamcatcher, then" on WIFU, a local NPR station in Bloomington, Indiana. Both Anderson and Carlson's works will appear in Issue 64 of Bellingham Review.

Way to go ladies!

This year's contests, Tobias Wolff Award for Fiction, the 49th Parallel Award for Poetry, as well as the Annie Dillard Award for Creative Nonfiction, are still open for entry. The contests close March 15th. Please visit our website for our full contest guidelines, as well as a link to Submittable: http://www.bhreview.org.