IR's 2009 '1/2 K' Prize Guidelines
$1000 Honorarium and Publication
Final Judge: Lydia Davis

An American virtuoso, Lydia Davis is an innovator of the short story form. She is the author of four collections of short fiction, including Varieties of Disturbance, a finalist for the 2007 National Book Award; Break It Down; Samuel Johnson Is Indignant; and a novel, The End of the Story. Davis is also the translator of numerous avant-garde French novels; memoirs; and volumes of literary criticism. Her translation of Marcel Proust’s Swann’s Way received the French-American Foundation Annual Translation Prize. Among her other awards and honors, Davis was named a Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French government, and in 2003 received a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellowship. She lives in upstate New York, where she is on the faculty of SUNY Albany and a fellow of the New York State Writers Institute.

POSTMARK DEADLINE: June 1st, 2009
Reading Fee:$15 for US entries, $27 for international entries, $22 for Canadian contestants.
Includes a year’s subscription.

All entries considered for publication.
All entries considered anonymously.
Send no more than 3 pieces, 500 words maximum per piece. (That's 3 short-shorts or prose-poems max per entry fee.)

*Each piece must be either a prose-poem or short-short. Prose-poems should not have any deliberate line breaks (ie no lineated poems). You may send a combination of short-shorts and prose poem pieces, as long as you have no more than 3 pieces per submission.
*No previously published works, or works forthcoming elsewhere.
*Simultaneous submissions acceptable, but fee is non-refundable.Further, IR cannot consider work from anyone currently or recently affiliated with Indiana University. In addition, IR cannot consider work from anyone who is a current or former student of the prize judge. We also will not consider work from anyone who is a personal friend of the judge.
*Entry entitles entrant to one-year subscription, an extension of a current subscription, or a gift subscription. Please indicate your choice and include complete address information for subscriptions.
*Entrant's name should NOT appear on the prose poems/short shorts.

If submitting electronically:

Please click here. For payment instructions, please click here. Electronic submissions will close on June 1st, 2009 at 8 pm EST.

If submitting by post:

***Please click here for our official entry form.***
*Entries must be accompanied by SASE for notification.
*Manuscripts will not be returned.
*We encourage you to pay online. Payment instructions are available here. Please include with your entry a print out of the receipt that is e-mailed to you as confirmation of payment.
*If you need to pay by check, make check payable to Indiana University. Please note that we cannot process either checks or money orders in foreign funds or drawn on foreign banks.

Send entries to:
'1/2 K' Prize/Indiana Review
Ballantine Hall 465
1020 E. Kirkwood Ave.
Bloomington, IN
47405-7103

Please note that, while we attempt to contact entrants whose submissions are not in accord with our guidelines, this is a courtesy. It is ultimately and solely the responsibility of entrants to ensure they have followed the guidelines.

Click here for 2008 1/2K prize results.