Commonweal magazine is pleased to announce the opening of its second annual Commonweal Prize for Short Fiction. This year’s guest judge is Vinson Cunningham, staff writer at the New Yorker, finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for criticism, and author of Great Expectations.

The prize, which was launched last year as part of our centennial celebration, recognizes original and outstanding short fiction from emerging writers. The contest is open to emerging writers who have not yet published a novel or short story collection. 

All entries will be considered for publication, and submissions need not focus on religious themes. The winner will receive a prize of $1,000 and publication in the July/August 2024 fiction issue of the magazine and on the Commonweal website.

The deadline is March 28, 2025.

To submit and for more information, click here. 

And be sure to read last year’s winning-story, “Just Passing Through,” by Kaylie Borden O’Brien here. Guest judge Alice McDermott called O’Brien’s short story “a marvelously constructed tale, Escher-like in its emotional complexity as well as its disorienting realism.”