Subito Innovative Writing Contest

Subito Innovative Writing Contest

Subito Press of the University of Colorado announces the Subito Innovative Writing contest. We will publish two perfect bound books of innovative writing.  We will consider fiction, poetry and hybrid modes. Submissions will be accepted from October 24th 2025 to January 5th 2026.

Manuscripts should fall between 48 and 120 pages.

Submitted fiction manuscripts should be formatted in double-spaced, size 12 font.  Poetry and hybrid manuscripts should be formatted in whatever form is most representative of how the work would appear in its final, published form. 

Manuscripts that have been previously published in full—either in print or online—will be disqualified. 

No images, please.

Submission fee: $25.  A limited number of submission fee waivers are available for those experiencing financial precarity.  If you believe you qualify for a waiver, contact us at subito@colorado.edu.

Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but we ask that you notify us via email to subito@colorado.edu immediately if your manuscript is accepted for publication elsewhere.

With your manuscript, please include a brief cover letter, a short bio and a list of any excerpted portions from the manuscript that have been published elsewhere.  Your name should not appear anywhere on the manuscript itself.

All manuscripts will be carefully read and ranked by a team of graduate student editors and then judged by the Creative Writing faculty at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Winners will recieve 500 dollars and 20 author copies, each.

Past or present faculty, staff and students at the University of Colorado are ineligible.

Contest closes on January 5th, 2026 or upon receipt of 200 submissions.

Should you withdraw your submission, your submission fee will not be refunded.

In the event that no manuscript is selected as prize-winner, Subito Press will refund submission fees to all submitters.

On the following page, please provide the name of your manuscript, a brief cover letter, a short bio, and a list of acknowledgements of past publications. After submitting this form, please email subito@colorado.edu with the following :

1. Copy of your manuscript (as a .pdf or .doc/.docx)
2. The name of your manuscript
3. Your full name
4. The order ID number from this submission (your order ID will appear on your reciept).