The Clay Reynolds Novella Prize

Established in 2001, The Clay Reynolds Novella Prize highlights one book a year that excels in the novella format. Since 2024, the Prize comes with a $1,000 advance, a standard royalty contract, and 10 copies of the published book.

Recent judges include Steven Dunn, Michael Martone, Renee Gladman, Leslie Jill Patterson, Hannah Pittard, and Rita Bullwinkel.

Open to anyone writing in English. Submitters must be 18+ years of age.

Novella manuscripts should have a total word count of between 20,000 and 50,000 words.

FAQ
If you are curious how writing competitions work, or it’s your first time entering one, we recommend reading our Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page first.

ProWritingAid
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. Visit their website and try ProWritingAid for free.