Although our deadline is November 30, 2026 (postmarked, if mailed), you may submit anytime. By entering our contests you have a chance to win:
- One cash prize of $1250 is awarded in each of the three categories, as well as one Honourable Mention per category.
- Winning pieces are published in Prairie Fire’s summer issue.
- With your contest submission you’ll receive a one-year subscription to Prairie Fire, so if you would like to start reading Prairie Fire as soon as possible, you can send in your entry today!
Entries by email are accepted.
Please email submission to prfire@prairiefire.ca and pay via PayPal or by phoning in a credit card immediately before or after submitting your entry.
Entry Fee: $34 (comes with a 1-year subscription to Prairie Fire for Canadian addresses, a 1 issue subscription for international addresses, a two issue subscription for US addresses)
Contest Rules
- Entry fee: $34. This entitles you to a one-year (4 issues) subscription to Prairie Fire magazine (Canadian addresses only. Due to high shipping costs, international entrants will receive 1 issue and US entrants will receive 2 issues).
- If you are emailing your submission, please send to prfire@prairiefire.ca and pay via PayPal or by phoning in a credit card immediately before or after submitting your entry.
- One fiction entry consists of one story, maximum 5,000 words.
- One poetry entry consists of up to three poems, maximum length of your poetry submission should not exceed 150 lines, regardless of whether you are sending 1, 2 or 3 poems.
- One creative non-fiction entry consists of one piece, maximum 5,000 words.
- Submitting Fiction or Creative Non-Fiction? Please state which category you are entering.
- Enclose a cover sheet with your name, pronouns, address, telephone number, email address, the title(s) of your piece(s) and word count (prose) or line count (poetry). Please do not identify yourself on the actual piece(s) you are entering.
- Your entry must be typed on 8 1/2″ x 11″ white paper and clipped, not stapled. Prose must be double-spaced. No faxed submissions, please. Emailed submissions accepted. See “Emailed Submission Info” in “Payment & Submission Info” section.
- Please include page numbers and the title of your piece on every page of your submission.
- Only winning entrants will be individually notified of results. Results will be posted on the Prairie Fire website and social media in mid-late January.
- Each piece must be unpublished, not submitted elsewhere for publication or broadcast, nor accepted elsewhere for publication or broadcast, nor entered simultaneously in any other contest or competition for which it is also eligible to win a prize.
- You may enter as often as you like; only your first entry in each category will be eligible for a subscription.
- On occasion, Prairie Fire Press makes subscriber names and addresses available to external organizations. If you do not wish to receive such mailings, please state this clearly on your cover sheet.
- Winning pieces will be published in the summer issue of Prairie Fire, with authors paid for publication.
- Young writers: While the contest does not have a minimum age, please be advised you will be in competition with older and/or established writers. Please keep this in mind when submitting.
Payment & Submission Info
If paying by cheque or money order: Please send a hard copy, along with payment to:
Prairie Fire Contests
423-100 Arthur St.
Winnipeg, MB R3B 1H3
If paying by credit card or PayPal:
Please email submission to prfire@prairiefire.ca and pay via on our website (via PayPal) by clicking the orange circle below or by phoning in a credit card immediately before or after submitting your entry. (Please don’t make us have to track down payment or work from you.)
Emailed Submission Info:
- Please have “Contest Entry: [Category] [Name]” as your subject line. Example: Contest Entry: Poetry Joe Smith.
- You must follow all applicable contest rules when submitting your entry via email.
- Please state in the order notes field on the Checkout page the name of your piece and the author name (if name differs from the name on the payment).
2026 Judges
Patrick Friesen
McNally Robinson Booksellers Poetry Award
Patrick Friesen is a former Manitoban, now living in Victoria, who has published poetry, essays, co-translations and stage and radio plays. He has produced the videos Maria and Margaret, Walking, and the CDs O’Keeffe Bones and Poems: A Selected Reading in 2023. Sightings (2026) is his most recent book.
tonia laird
McNally Robinson Booksellers Short Fiction Contest
tonia laird is a Michif author hailing from Treaty 6 territory, Canada. A writer who contributes to multiple mediums, her work includes the fantasy novel, Seventhblade, credits on AAA video games, Dragon Age 2 and Dragon Age: Inquisition, mobile game, Everlove: Rose, and the interactive novel, Poster Girl. Her writing can also be found in multiple literary magazines and anthologies. In their spare time, tonia and her teen son volunteer as land stewards, clearing invasive species to aid in the revival of native prairie plant life. She is currently working on “Black Dog,” the first book in a supernatural climate-dystopia YA trilogy set in the Canadian prairies. Find out more about her at: https://tonialaird.com/
Rowan McCandless
McNally Robinson Booksellers Creative Non-Fiction Contest
Rowan McCandless is the Black and biracial author of Persephone’s Children: A Life in Fragments (Dundurn Press 2021), finalist for the Governor General’s nonfiction category. She writes from Winnipeg, Treaty One territory. Her award-winning fiction and creative nonfiction appear in print, online journals, and anthologies. She is the creative nonfiction editor with The Fiddlehead and first vice-chair with The Writers’ Union of Canada. Rowan is near completion of a short story collection of Black Speculative Fiction and a novel. Follow at https://www.rowanmccandless.com/
Contest Sponsors & Supporters
MCNALLY ROBINSON BOOKSELLERS
Soon after McNally Robinson Booksellers opened its store in Winnipeg’s Osborne Village in the mid-eighties, Prairie Fire began to hold launches and readings there. McNally Robinson sold Prairie Fire on its newsstand and, occasionally, advertised in PF’s pages. Over the next several years, Holly and Paul McNally showed themselves to be great friends of local writing by establishing the Award for Manitoba Book of the Year, which was the precursor to the many awards that today comprise the Manitoba Book Awards.
The current owners, Chris Hall and Lori Baker have generously kept up the tradition. McNally Robinson Booksellers Writing Contests were launched in 2004 and have continued successfully ever since.
Moving forward from 2022 onwards, McNally Robinson Booksellers will be the official sponsor of all three of our yearly writing contests, for which we are deeply grateful.
Manitoba Arts Council
Prairie Fire Press acknowledges the financial assistance of the Manitoba Arts Council and the Sustainability Grant for providing the prize money for the 2021 contests. We give our thanks to MAC and the Sustainability Grant for providing assistance during this time of financial uncertainty.