Submission Guidelines

We only accept submissions to our two annual contests in March/April and September/October. The following are guidelines for the contests.

Our next contest dates: Late August, 2022 to October 31, 2022 at midnight,
Eastern Time (GMT -4:00). 

Enter the Novel Slices contest for a chance to be one of the 5 winners published in the third issue of Novel Slices. Each winner will receive $150, a copy of the winning print issue, and prime literary agent & publisher exposure.

Entry fee: $20 — includes a digital copy of the winning issue.

To be judged by Santiago Vaquera-Vásquez
Santiago Vaquera-Vásquez is an unrepentant border crosser, ex-dj, writer, painter, and academic. An Associate Professor of Creative Writing and Hispanic Southwest Literatures and Cultures in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of New Mexico, he has also taught and lectured at universities across the United States and in Spain. Author of Algún día te cuento las cosas que he visto (2012), Luego el silencio (2014), One Day I’ll Tell You the Things I’ve Seen (2015), and En el Lost y Found (2016), his literary work has been published in anthologies in Spain, Italy, Latin America and the United States, including Malos elementos. Relatos sobre la corrupción social (2012); En la frontera: i migliori raconti della letteratura chicana (2008); Pequeñas resistencias 4 (2005); Se habla español (2000); and Líneas aéreas (1998).  His stories have also appeared in literary journals including Make Literary Magazine, Etiqueta Negra, Los noveles, Paralelo Sur, Revista 0, Camino Real, and Ventana abierta. His academic work focuses on US Latino cultural expression, and US/Mexico border cultures. He has presented at international conferences in Turkey, Spain, Colombia, Peru, the United States, Mexico, the Netherlands and Norway.

Contest Guidelines:

• All novel genres welcome
• Excerpts should be approximately 4,000 to 6,000 words in length (do not send us your entire manuscript)
• We recommend you buy a copy of the current issue for a sense of the types of excerpts published (although this will obviously change with different judges)
• Do not put your name on the submission
• Title your file with the name of your novel
• Word documents are preferred, PDF documents are accepted (docx, .doc, .pdf)
• Standard formatting: Double-spaced, 12 point font
• Excerpts don't have to be from the beginning of a manuscript
• If needed, an introductory paragraph can be added giving any necessary background information (for excerpts not taken from the beginning)
• Excerpts need not feel complete, stand alone, or read like a short story
• Previously unpublished work only
• Simultaneous submissions accepted as long as you contact us to withdraw your submission if it is accepted elsewhere
• Multiple submissions allowed
• ​Excerpts must be in English but can come from anywhere in the world; translations are allowed if the original has not been previously published
• All rights revert to the author on publication
• Novel Slices staff and their families cannot enter​
• We follow the contest code of ethics published by the Council of Literary Magazines & Presses

Photo by Berk Özdemir.

Photo by Pixabay.

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Why enter this contest?

Your chances of winning are higher, because there are six winners. Moreover, we do not expect you to carve your novel excerpt into the format of a short story, and so you are not starting out on uneven footing. In the first issue, we published 3 excerpts that started with Chapter One and two that started in the middle of the book. Last but certainly not least, our publication is marketed directly to literary agents as well as both small and large publishers, in order to give winning entries the greatest possible exposure.

Photo by Martin Vorel.