8/16 – 3 High-Paying Summer’s-End Writing Contests
This week’s contest all have deadlines of August 31 or September 1—dates that are coming up fast! Can you believe the summer has flown by so quickly? Personally, I’ll be glad to escape the
Featured Story
The Bomb by Howard Zinn
As someone who has cultivated an anti-authoritarian reading list since the end of high school (or beginning of college, depending upon your viewpoint), I was eager to read Howard Zinn’s final contribution to the annals of modern history, The Bomb, published this month by the daring
News
Dzanc Books Creative Writing Sessions: writing critiques for the broke-ass
While there are plenty of creative writing programs offered by universities, and lots of courses available as one-off workshops or even summer-long programs,
Save UT’s Informal Classes!
In a bizarre attempt to save money, the University of Texas at Austin has decided to shut down the (money-making) informal
Fiction
Model Behavior
By the second semester of my freshman year, I realized I needed a job if I wanted to keep up my club-hopping and late-night pizza orders. Unfortunately,
Video Woman
I sort of smile to keep from crying. This is as I was in love, a little gone, no different. I feel it all, the self-help books and my aura, this little
Commentary
Make Mine Small Press
My aunt is a professional palm-reader, and as such, she has a fairly diverse customer base. Apparently, a real big-time Hollywood producer has my Noni
Writing Contest of the Week
8/30 – Two ab-fab UK short story competitions
God bless America, but we do love us some UK prize money! With the British Pound Sterling currently equal to roughly $1.50 in U.S. cold hard cash, winning
8/23 – Literal Latte Ames Essay Award
Essayists! Heed the call for submissions at Literal Latté and win big. With a first prize of $1,000, that’s might big bank. Second prize nets $300
Interviews
An interview with Jason Mashak
Prague resident (and Black Heart contributor!) Jason Mashak is an author
An Interview with Amelia Gray
We recently got the chance to interview Austin writer Amelia Gray, author of AM/PM
Reviews
Henry and Glenn Forever by Igloo Tornado
henry & glenn forever is a cute little comic book about the very over-the-top homosexual relations between one henry
D*U*C*K by Poppy Z. Brite
An easily devoured read, D*U*C*K by cult author Poppy Z. Brite leaves readers wanting more. First things first,
Poetry
3 Poems by Howie Good
IN A LONELY PLACE The heart is breathing all on its own, like a town so small it doesn’t have a priest, the insects and birds just loud enough for us
Fung Wah Boogie featuring Alicia Keys
Please allow me to reintroduce myself My name is sprightly green nub Fatboy McWoothatsaniceline Exiled former patriot broken Brooklynite By way of the
Literary Events
3-Day Novel Contest strikes again!
Each year, caffeine-addled and possibly delusional aspiring novelists strap themselves to their computer chairs and take on one of the world’s wildest
Summer 2006
Bad Sex with Bad Writers
You wouldn’t think it would be difficult to write humorously about bad sex, but you’d be wrong. I mean, I expected to read about truly bad,
Dating a Minor Mogul
Not long after moving from New York to Los Angeles, I met a Minor Mogul (MM) in an upscale grocery store, first hearing his voice before actually turning
Fall 2005
Andrew
Even in our moments of most profound intimacy, I have always harbored a deep resentment for Andrew. There are few revelations more painful than the recognition
The Hopeless Case
is it romantic if I say that I love long walks in the rain with wide meandering conversations that take an hour as the water drips from my chin and that
Spring 2005
The Ballad of Trolley-Girl Betty
Here lies Trolley-Girl Betty ‘neath a belly of dirt. When Betty was livin’ she sure liked to flirt. But men didn’t move her, she wanted
Emergency
if poetry’s in a state of emergency and you are the self-appointed medic does this make me the patient suffering from the general malaise? should
Winter 2004
Closure
It starts with a crash. You wonder what it could have been that made you jump. You look around the apartment; maybe your dog knocked something over. The
Late Last Night
Late, late last night a boy shot off on my thigh. We were two gay brothas sandwiched in between the church on Park Avenue and The Blonde Iguana. I couldn’t
Summer 2004
Games
Some relationships are built on love and trust. Ours was a house of cards, made with a deck stolen from The Mirage. You can still see the holes punched
Lovable Junkie Scum and Dodgy Neighbors
yesterday i got so bored, i kept downing glasses of white wine, until i was too drunk to pour and started drinking from the bottle, getting all maudlin
More Rebellion
8/9 – Memoir (and) Prize for Memoir in Poetry or Prose
Been working on your memoirs? This week’s contest is for all you autobiographers out there, and features some sweet prize money from the Memoir (and) peeps. With no entry fee, it’s a great
Secret Girlfriend
You see a girl at a bar. She’s a pretty girl with dark curls and pale skin. She has cupid bow lips. Her eyes are big. Her lashes are long and black. She has narrow shoulders and a narrower waist. She’s
8/2 – Jerry Jazz Musician New Short Fiction Contest
If you like jazz and short fiction, then this week’s contest is beboppin’ down your door. Jerry Jazz Musician, an online magazine dedicated to
First and Last Scene
“I loved her, you know that.” But the wind was a vacuum, dragging the sincerity away with the leaves in a whisper across his feet and over the hill. Tumbling, rolling, tiny bodies caught in
7/26 – H.G. Wells Short Story Competition + WOW Summer Flash Fiction Contest
This week’s first writing contest seems to have a spot of science fiction to its rules and regulations, but as it has recently extended its deadlines, we wanted to include it in our list. Additionally,
The Cockroaches
It was the last shift I ever worked in that shit-hole. It all fell apart smack dab in the dinner rush when I looked up from the sink and saw a forkful of Dale’s middle finger on the counter and blood
7/19 – Claudia Del Balso’s Summer Writing Contest and 9th Annual FundsforWriters Essay Contest
This week we’ve got a summer writing contest that will keep you cool with free entry, and a nice (but non-monetary) compensation, plus a contest whose deadline is far enough off in the hazy distance
Charity
Rob’s wife conveniently discovered irreconcilable differences after they won the lottery. Then this was what he learned: 20 years of “yours, mine and ours” were really hers. What he got
No Hope for Gomez! by Graham Parke
Graham Parke’s novel, No Hope For Gomez!, is an unusual read, and we’d expect nothing less from the 2008 winner of Broken Pencil’s Indie Deathmatch writing competition (his short story,
7/12 – WritersWeekly 24-Hour Short Story Contest
Our Writing Contest of the Week features contests that are: Inexpensive for the broke-ass artist to enter. We look for contests that cost $20 or less and prefer no-fee contests. Offering decent cash-money
The Notebook
Before his name showed up in the tabloids, I knew Jeremy Fry. None of the other waiters noticed him. They cared more about the celebrity bodyguards who came to Club Dredd to unwind and the occasional female
7/5 – Travel Writing Contests: Trazzler and Road Junky
Our Writing Contest of the Week features contests that are: Inexpensive for the broke-ass artist to enter. We look for contests that cost $20 or less and prefer no-fee contests. Offering decent cash-money
The Life Eternal Version 2.2
Has death got you down? Afraid of leaving loved ones behind? Wondering what the point of it all is? Fear no more; with the new “Life Eternal Version 2.2″ from EBBBCO Ltd you’ll be able to
Birds of America by Lorrie Moore
If I ever take it upon myself to do something insane like spending another 30 grand to get an MFA in Creative Writing, I’d want Lorrie Moore to be my thesis advisor and writing mentor. Ever since
6/28: Glimmer Train & Zombie Luv
Not much time left on the first of our contests this week, so we’ve decided to include a two-fer to get your writing motors running full-speed. First up, the almighty Glimmer
Son of Superman
The first time I saw my father fly was the Christmas of ’75. He was standing on a retractable ladder, hanging lights along our eaves. I was twisting a carrot into a snowman’s face when I heard
6/21: Spinetingler’s Pay the Bitch Back
We here at Black Heart have a soft spot in our blackened aortas for an old-fashioned revenge story. A truly good one is hard to pull off, without simply sounding like therapy for the writer, but the really
Brief Speeches
“Negro spirituals are outdated.” Maser was always giving his opinions on American life. This was the main reason he had no friends. It was to the point now where he would hang out at Joe’s Coffee
Peter Jones and Tisha Box
7 AM: The shrill alarm rings and demands that I rise. My eyes are heavy with denied sleep. My tongue is a matted carpet of cheap booze and vomit, and the film that covers my teeth is thick and greasy.
Rifts in a River
A waterfall tumbled down over a steep cliff into a circular pool carved out of the ancient rock over millennia of erosion. It was a perfect day, the sun high in the sky, the spray from the waterfall glistening
The Thing About His Eyes
The thing about his eyes is that they were never the same twice. I’d stared into his so long and so intently, I ought to have learned them, but I hadn’t. I was constantly caught off guard. The way
Hotel Honolulu by Paul Theroux
Read mainly during a stint scoring Hawaii Math at one of the country’s top education testing facilities, Paul Theroux’s Hotel Honolulu provided a nice counterpoint to the terribly misguided
Manners
Ma witnessed us fighting at Easter dinner, a small argument over how to cook candied yams, but it wasn’t just a fight to Ma, she must’ve seen a way to exorcise her own ghosts from her relationship
The Lodger
While Peter was working I would go down the stairs and do his wife. I could not help myself. I tried to stop. I locked myself in my room. I even insulted her. I called her terrible names. I tried sleep,
On the Couch
On the couch you sit and read the paper. The paper tells you the news. The news says someone gunned down the family who sat together into the night talking drinking smoking and laughing on the front porch. The
