Shortlist
(titles listed in no particular order)

Top 10

‘A Priest Travels to See Her Spiritual Director’

‘The Cure of Souls’

‘All Through the Night’

‘And I will sew my heart shut’

‘I Didn’t Want This Crop’

‘Metta’

‘Searching For the Source of the Moneycarragh River’

‘Party Animals’

‘The Weather at Sycamore Gap’

‘Par Avion’

Congrats to all those 10 poets on our long list. The winners, with comments from Lachlan, will be posted next week.

Please note: we do not publish names with titles until the judging process is complete. When it is – we’ll publish names with the final results; winners, short-listed, long-listed. We publish your name because you asked us to.

The Plaza Poetry Prize (60 lines max) is OPEN now to enter. Judge: Natalie Diaz. 1st prize: £4,000 / $5000. Deadline: 28th February 2025. 

ENTER NOW! Jamie Quatro, American novelist and short story writer, is our judge for The Plaza Short Story Prize (2500 words max).

Jamie Quatro was born in 1972 in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Quatro earned her MFA from Bennington College.

Her debut collection, I Want to Show You More (2013), was widely acclaimed for its daring exploration of infidelity and spiritual yearning. The collection was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction and was longlisted for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award.

In 2018, Quatro released her first novel, Fire Sermon, which follows a woman grappling with a passionate extramarital affair while questioning the role of faith and desire in her life. Her latest novel is Two-Step Devil. It will be released in October 2024. Praise for the novel:-

Jamie is a fantastic writer, and is represented by arguably the best literary agent in the business, either side of the Atlantic, Anna Stein at CAA. For more details, and a picture of a sheep with red horns please go to: https://jamiequatro.com/tsd

EXTENDED DEADLINE. The Plaza Short Story Prize (2500 words max). Judge: Jamie Quatro. 1st Prize: £1000 ($1250). Deadline: 31st December 2024. 

Long List
(titles listed in no particular order)

Top 20

‘A Priest Travels to See Her Spiritual Director’

‘The Cure of Souls’

‘Love Song II’

‘All Through the Night’

‘And I will sew my heart shut’

‘My Daughter’s Sleeping Nose’

‘I Didn’t Want This Crop’

‘Metta’

‘Searching For the Source of the Moneycarragh River’

‘Crow’s Landing’

‘Party Animals’

‘The Weather at Sycamore Gap’

‘What the Seals Sang’

‘Before Long’

‘Hatchling’

‘Par Avion’

‘Biopsy (long after)’

‘An emigrant finds a line of pine processing caterpillars’

‘Seeing in the Dark’

‘Tracking Tiger’

There were 571 entries. Congrats to all those 20 poets on our long list. The shortlist will be posted next week.

Please note: we do not publish names until the judging process is complete. We’ll publish names with the final results, the winners, short-listed, long-listed. We publish your name because you asked us to.

The Plaza Poetry Prize (60 lines max) is OPEN now to enter. Judge: Natalie Diaz. 1st prize: £4,000 / $5000. Deadline: 28th February 2025. 

Jamie Quatro, American novelist and short story writer, will judge The Plaza Short Story Prize (2500 words max) in 2024.

Jamie Quatro was born in 1972 in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Quatro earned her MFA from Bennington College.

Her debut collection, I Want to Show You More (2013), was widely acclaimed for its daring exploration of infidelity and spiritual yearning. The collection was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction and was longlisted for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award.

In 2018, Quatro released her first novel, Fire Sermon, which follows a woman grappling with a passionate extramarital affair while questioning the role of faith and desire in her life. Her latest novel is Two-Step Devil. It will be released in October 2024. Praise for the novel:-

Jamie is a fantastic writer, and is represented by arguably the best literary agent in the business, either side of the Atlantic, Anna Stein at CAA. For more details, and a picture of a sheep with red horns please go to: https://jamiequatro.com/tsd

OPEN FOR ENTRIES NOW. The Plaza Short Story Prize (2500 words max). Judge: Jamie Quatro. 1st Prize: £1000 ($1250). Deadline: 30th November 2024. 

Win Publication and Build Platform

The Plaza Prizes publishes all the amazing writers who are shortlisted, and win, our literary competitions in a massive 550 page book: The Plaza Prizes Anthology.

This is World Literature at its finest, from the very best new poets and writers. A fabulous mix of poetry, short stories, prose poetry, flash fiction, microfiction and the first chapters from novels, and a memoir.

The anthology is proofread, formatted, and edited by professionals. It costs thousands of pounds to produce. We want it to be a showcase for your work. We use Lulu to print it because that helps us distribute copies all over the world.

Everybody published in the anthology will get a FREE copy on the run up to Christmas. Distributing copies to winners from around the world is quite the task so if you could bear with us, have patience, that would be appreciated.

In the meantime – please do support The Plaza Prizes by buying a copy of the anthology on Shopify. It is available in Trade Paperback and ebook. Help us cover our costs and champion new poets and writers like yourselves.

The Plaza Prizes Anthology 2 will go on sale in November 2024. It will contain the rolls of honour: we will be releasing all the names of those writers and poets who won a spot on our longlists, and those novelists who placed on our shortlists. Buy it as a Christmas present for your friends – this is a very acceptable form of boasting that you are a published writer.

Golden Bay

We will be staging our awards ceremony in Malta, on Wed 16th October 2024, in Swizzles, at the Radisson Golden Sands Hotel, Golden Bay, Mellieha, MLH 5510, Malta.

Thanks to all those who have RSVPed. If you’re attending please aim to arrive between 5.45 and 6.00 PM.

Winners and shortlisted writers and poets will be reading from your work, likely 5-6 minutes per reader.

There will be dinner after the awards and readings are over, likely around 9.00 PM, at Agliolio, a Mediterranean-style hotel restaurant.

We look forward to seeing you all there. Bolt is the best way to zip around the island. All taxis run Uber and Bolt, but they earn more from Bolt fares so they will book those over Uber (they ditch Uber clients if a Bolt client pops up.)

Any questions, please contact: simon@theplazaprizes.com

The Plaza Literary: First Chapters Prize-winners

Big thanks go to U.S. National Book Award Winner, Jason Mott, for judging our winners and giving them some valuable insights and encouragement. We really appreciate very successful authors paying it back, and helping aspiring writers to improve their work and build a platform to launch a publishing career.

All the comments listed below are Jason Mott’s words. If you haven’t read his novels yet – you are in for a treat. They are extraordinary.

Top 4

1st place: The Bright, Bright World by Jaki McCarrick (IRE)

‘A taut, gripping opening crafted with precision and movement. The characters—as deplorable as they are—grab the reader’s attention and promise to provide both fascination and intrigue. This chapter does what an opening chapter should do: it provides a glimpse into something fascinating and yet, somehow, familiar.’

2nd place: The Book of Tears by Heather Newton (USA)

‘A haunting, well-executed opening chapter full of sharp tone and masterful pacing. There is a rhythm and precision to how this chapter unfolds, each sentence pushing the last forward, compelling the reader through the unfolding world of it characters. This is how books should be written.’

3rd place: Promising Lands by Jeffrey Stephens (USA)

‘A wonderful beginning told through a lens that feels necessary and unique. The perspective offered here is one that reinvents the familiar and reminds us why we like story telling. The sense of family and character is expertly delivered and believable. These characters all feel like real, multi-dimensional people. Excellent writing.’

Highly Commended: The Three Arrows by Tamako Takamatsu (JAP)

‘Historical fiction is notoriously difficult to execute, but the research and conveying of information done here is exceptional. The world of this story feels vivid and alive. The description is sharp and the characters well-defined.’

Shortlisted

‘Brave Translunary Things’ by Claire Thomas Hawnt (ENG)

‘Stray Voltage’ by Karen Garloch (USA)

‘The Calico Girls’ by Phoebe Haws (USA)

‘Mammoth’ by Alex Cassidy (ENG)

‘Vivian Maier Framed’ by Axel Forrester (ENG)

‘Salted Earth’ by Muhammad Bandial (ENG)

Long-listed

‘Nothing Really Happened’ by Lisa Overton (ENG)

‘The Betrothed’ by Jeffrey Stephens (USA)

‘The Gift of Sentience and Sorrows’ by Anthony Streeter (ENG)

‘Yggdrasil’ by Judy Birkbeck (ENG)

‘All the Hollow Places’ by Rebekah Lattin-Rawstrone (ENG)

‘The Plunge’ by Linda Jordan (N.IRE)

‘Siberia’ by Josh Kemp (AUS)

‘The Hexens of Jackson County’ by Robin Lovelace (USA)

‘Heron’ by Alex Reece Abbott (ENG)

‘Daddy Issues’ by David Newdorf (USA)

Congrats to our four winners. With Jaki’s permission (all rights remaining with her) we will be publishing the start of The Bright, Bright World this October in The Plaza Prizes Anthology 2. Very well done indeed to everyone who made the long-and shortlists!

The Plaza Poetry Prize (20 lines max) is OPEN to enter. Judge: Lachlan McKinnon. 1st prize: £1,000 / 1250. Deadline: 30th September 2024.

The Plaza Short Story Prizes (2500 words max) is OPEN to enter. Judge: Jamie Quatro. 1st prize: £1000 / $1250. Deadline: 30th November 2024.

Booker Prizewinner, Damon Galgut, will judge The Plaza Short Story Prize (5000 words max) in 2025

In 2021, Galgut won the prestigious Booker Prize for his novel The Promise, a multigenerational family saga that grapples with the legacy of apartheid, racial injustice, and broken promises. The novel was widely praised for its innovative structure and deft handling of South African history, making him a key voice in contemporary world literature.

Damon Galgut is a distinguished South African writer, known for his profound literary contributions that explore themes of identity, displacement, and the human condition. Born in Pretoria in 1963, Galgut showed an early affinity for storytelling, writing his first novel, A Sinless Season, at the age of 17. His work is often deeply personal, reflecting the complexities of South African society during and after apartheid.

Galgut’s breakthrough came with The Good Doctor (2003), a Booker Prize finalist, which delves into the moral ambiguities and tensions in post-apartheid South Africa. This novel solidified his reputation as a perceptive chronicler of his country’s fraught history. His sparse, evocative prose and psychological insight draw readers into intense, often unsettling narratives.

Galgut has written plays and short stories, and his work has been translated into multiple languages. His first collection of short stories is titled Small Circle of Beings, published in 1988. This collection includes the title novella as well as other short stories that explore themes of illness, familial bonds, and psychological tension, showcasing Galgut’s early talent for nuanced, introspective storytelling.

OPEN FOR ENTRIES NOW. The Plaza Short Story Prize (5000 words max). Judge: Damon Galgut. 1st Prize: £4000 ($5000). Deadline: 30th April 2025. .

Literary: First Chapters Long List
(titles listed in no particular order)

Top 10

‘The Bright, Bright World’ by Jaki McCarrick (IRE)

‘The Book of Tears’ by Heather Newton (USA)

‘Brave Translunary Things’ by Claire Thomas Hawnt (ENG)

‘The Three Arrows’ by Tamako Takamatsu (JAP)

‘Stray Voltage’ by Karen Garloch (USA)

‘The Calico Girls’ by Phoebe Haws (USA)

‘Mammoth’ by Alex Cassidy (ENG)

‘Vivian Maier Framed’ by Axel Forrester (ENG)

‘Salted Earth’ by Muhammad Bandial (ENG)

‘Promising Lands’ by Jeffery Stephens (USA)

Congrats to the 10 aspiring novelists on our short list. We published your name because you asked us to. We’ll post the winners next week, along with longlist including all writers names.

The Plaza Poetry Prize (20 lines max) is OPEN to enter. Judge: Lachlan McKinnon. 1st prize: £1,000. Deadline: 30th September 2024.

Literary: First Chapters Long List
(titles listed in no particular order)

Top 20

‘Nothing Really Happened’

‘The Betrothed’

‘The Gift of Sentience and Sorrows’

‘Yggdrasil’

‘All the Hollow Places’

‘The Bright, Bright World’

‘The Book of Tears’

‘Brave Translunary Things’

‘The Three Arrows’

‘Stray Voltage’

‘The Calico Girls’

‘Mammoth’

‘Vivian Maier Framed’

‘Salted Earth’

‘Promising Lands’

‘The Plunge’

‘Siberia’

‘The Hexens of Jackson County’

‘Heron’

‘Daddy Issues’

Congrats to all those 20 aspiring novelists on our long list. We do not publish names until the judging process is complete. We’ll publish names with the final results, the winners, short-listed, long-listed. We publish your name because you asked us to.

The Plaza Poetry Prize (20 lines max) is OPEN to enter. Judge: Lachlan McKinnon. 1st prize: £1,000. Deadline: 30th September 2024.