The Elizabeth Alexander Creative Writing Award celebrates an author whose work embodies the lyrically powerful and historically engaged nature of Dr. Alexander’s writing. We aim for this award to highlight different forms of knowledge production that emerge from the artistic, political, and cultural advocacy undertaken by women of color nationally, transnationally, and globally. The award is open to all genres, including poetry, fiction, play scripts, and creative non-fiction. Works engaging with feminism, race, and transnationalism will be prioritized. Translated works and manuscripts in languages other than English are encouraged as well. For more specific details on eligibility and submission guidelines, please visit our website.

All submissions for the award must be sent through our submission portal on ScholarOne and designated “Elizabeth Alexander Award Submission” as the article type. Submissions that are misidentified in Scholar One and/or emailed outside of the submission portal will not be considered for the award.

We are keen to encourage quality, so suggest writers to check their stories before submitting using Prowritingaid. They have free and paid versions and are the best writing software we know to help improve grammar, readability and check for repetition, ‘sticky’ sentences and suggest alternatives.