Mānoa Journal

Mānoa Journal invites submissions for the first 2025 Mānoa Journal Writing Contest in Fiction and Poetry. The Fiction contest will be judged by Megan Kamalei Kakimoto with the First Prize Fiction Winner receiving $500 and publication, and the Runner Up Fiction receiving $250 and publication. The Poetry contest will be judged by Mai Der Vang with the First Prize Poetry Winner receiving $500 and publication, and the Runner Up Poetry receiving $250 and publication. 

Rules:

Poetry: Writers may submit up to 5 pages of poetry (up to 5 poems total) with a new poem starting on each page. There are no restrictions on form, style, or content. 

Fiction: Writers may submit one fiction piece (from 1500 - 5000 words) double-spaced. There are no restrictions on form, style, or content. 

• Mānoa Journal does not accept work that has been previously curated, in print or online. This means if your work has been published in books, magazines, or blogs to the public then it is ineligible for our contest. 
• Mānoa Journal does not accept work that has been predominantly generated by artificial intelligence. 
• Simultaneous submissions are welcomed, but we ask that you please withdraw your work if it is accepted elsewhere.
• Don't include any identifying information and/or contact information in the file itself nor the file name (i.e. JohnSmith.docx). If any identifying information is present, your submission will be disqualified. 
• Current University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa (UHM) students, recent UHM alumni (graduated in the last two years), UHM English Department faculty, and UHM English Department staff are ineligible to submit. People who are considered one or more of the above are ineligible to submit to Mānoa Journal’s Writing Contest unless they are more than two years removed from their affiliation with the university. 
• Any writers who have previously worked with or have been a student of the judges are ineligible to submit to this contest. 
• If our Submittable page indicates that we are not accepting work that means a cap has been met and submissions are closed.  

How to Enter:

The entry fee is $15. Multiple submissions are welcome. We will accept submissions only through Submittable where you can submit and pay the entry fee. The fee helps to cover submission processing fees, hosting fees, and honorariums for judges and readers. 

Do not include the writer’s name or any identifying information in the manuscript file. Submittable has a form for you to input your entry title, name, mailing address, telephone number, email, and other needed information.

Submission Period:

The 2025 contest will open on February 15, 2025 and close on May 15, 2025 at 11:59 p.m. HST. Results will be announced in September 2025. Winning entries will be published in the Summer 2026 issue, which comes out in June. 

Māhalo for sharing your work with Mānoa Journal!

Notes:

1. For poetry, if you need to withdraw a single poem from a submission, log in to Submittable and send a message with the title of the poem you’d like to withdraw. If you need to withdraw the whole submission, log in to Submittable and click withdraw. Please understand that you will not receive a refund. 
2. For fiction, if you need to withdraw the whole submission, log in to Submittable and click withdraw. Please understand that you will not receive a refund. 
3. Please do not query to ask about the status of your submission. 
4. After submission, submissions cannot be revised. 

CLMP Contest Code of Ethics:

In keeping with the CLMP’s contest code of ethics, we’d like to inform you of the following:

CLMP’s community of independent literary publishers believes that ethical contests serve our shared goal: to connect writers and readers by publishing exceptional writing. We believe that intent to act ethically, clarity of guidelines, and transparency of process form the foundation of an ethical contest. To that end, we agree to 1) conduct our contests as ethically as possible and to address any unethical behavior on the part of our readers, judges, or editors; 2) to provide clear and specific contest guidelines—defining conflict of interest for all parties involved; and 3) to make the mechanics of our selection process available to the public. This Code recognizes that different contest models produce different results, but that each model can be run ethically. We have adopted this Code to reinforce our integrity and dedication as a publishing community and to ensure that our contests contribute to a vibrant literary heritage.

Our selection process:

• We ask all entrants to omit names or other identifying information from their files. If such information is included, that entry will not be read and the entry fee will not be refunded.
• Then, we also use a special feature on our submission manager to remove the author and cover-letter sections from view of our screeners and judges.
• In the first round of judging, the screeners for each of the two contest tracks (poetry and fiction) pick at maximum 20 pieces to send on for the final judges. With names and cover-letter information blocked, Mai Der Vang will judge the poetry contest and Megan Kamalei Kakimoto will judge the fiction contest.
• Our contest submission policy restricts current University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa (UHM) students, recent UHM alumni (graduated in the last two years), UHM English Department faculty, and UHM English Department staff from submitting. People who are considered one or more of the above are ineligible to submit to Mānoa Journal’s Writing Contest unless they are more than two years removed from their affiliation with the university. 

Contact Info:

If you have any questions about the contest or need help with submission, please email manoaeds (at) hawaii (dot) edu or use the contact form on our website.