Boudin Chapbook Contest
2026 Boudin Novelette Chapbook Contest
Final judge: Robert Olen Butler
Deadline: September 15th, 2026
Prizes: The winner will receive $1,000, 25 author copies, an author-signing at AWP 2027, promotion in Boudin (“the spicy online cousin of The McNeese Review”), and a three-year subscription to The McNeese Review. The winning manuscript will be published as a special issue of The McNeese Review and distributed by TRP: The University Press of SHSU.
Two runners-up will be offered publication of individual pieces in Boudin.
Fee: $20
Manuscript details: 25-40 manuscript pages of a single story in a readable font like 12-point Times New Roman. Unpublished and original work only. Include only a title page.
Your name and contact info should NOT appear anywhere on the manuscript. Please include a cover letter and third-person bio on the Submittable submission form.
Judging: The first rounds will be read anonymously by McNeese State University’s MFA faculty and students. The final round will be read anonymously by Robert Olen Butler, who will determine the winner and two runners-up.
Robert Olen Butler‘s short-story collection A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1993. His most recent novel is Twice Around a Marriage.
Other: Co-authored manuscripts are fine. Submitting multiple manuscripts is fine with entry fees for each. Simultaneous submissions are fine; please withdraw immediately through Submittable if your work is accepted elsewhere. Please note that the AWP author signing will take place at the Boudin/McNeese Review booth, and does not include travel expenses. Current McNeese State University students and employees are not eligible to submit. McNeese alumni are welcome to submit if it has been at least three years since they graduated.
We, unfortunately, cannot award the prize money to international submissions, though can still offer publication and subscription prizes.
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Boudin fine print
Please only submit original work. If your work borrows from or quotes another writer, please make explicit mention of this with your submission, giving full attribution to any material you’re using from another source. We do not accept any work that was written with the assistance of AI.
Please only submit new, previously-unpublished work.
Please limit your submissions to four issues per calendar year.
In all genres, we are particularly interested in seeing work from women, people of color, LGBTQ writers, non-binary writers, people with disabilities, and other underrepresented groups.
No material published in Boudin may be reprinted or reproduced, in whole or in part, without the permission of the authors. Writers retain all rights to their work. We ask for ourselves only that Boudin be credited with first publication. Unfortunately, we are not a paying market; contributors to Boudin will receive our thanks and the promise that we’ll promote your work.
We encourage you to simultaneously submit your work while it’s under consideration at Boudin. If your submission is accepted by another publication, please withdraw immediately through Submittable.
We look forward to seeing your work! Surprise us. Spice it up!
Submissions close September 15th, 2026.
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SUBMISSIONS NOW CLOSED for the 2025 Flash Fiction Chapbook Contest!
2025 Boudin Flash Fiction Chapbook Contest
Final judge: Roxane Gay
Deadline: June 15th, 2025
Prizes: The winner will receive $1,000, 25 author copies, an author-signing at AWP 2026, inclusion of one or more pieces in The McNeese Review’s 2026 issue, promotion in monthly issues of Boudin (“the spicy online cousin of The McNeese Review”), and a three-year subscription to The McNeese Review. The winning manuscript will be published as a special issue of The McNeese Review and distributed by TRP: The University Press of SHSU.
Two runners-up will be offered publication of individual pieces in a monthly issue of Boudin, and will receive a three-year subscription to The McNeese Review.
Fee: $15
Manuscript details: 25-40 manuscript pages of flash fiction in a readable font like 12-point Times New Roman. Please start individual pieces on their own page. It’s fine if some of the individual works have been published elsewhere (aside from Boudin or The McNeese Review), but the manuscript can’t have been published as a whole. Please acknowledge these publications in your cover letter, but not in your manuscript. Include only a title page and a table of contents.
Your name and contact info should NOT appear anywhere on the manuscript. Please include a cover letter and third-person bio on the Submittable submission form, and acknowledge any individual pieces of the chapbook that have been published elsewhere.
Judging: The first round will be read anonymously by McNeese State University’s MFA faculty and students. The final round will be read anonymously by Roxane Gay, who will determine the winner and two runners-up.
Roxane Gay is an American writer, professor, editor, and social commentator. Gay is the author of The New York Times best-selling essay collection Bad Feminist (2014), as well as the short story collection Ayiti (2011), the novel An Untamed State (2014), the short story collection Difficult Women (2017), and the memoir Hunger (2017).
Other: Co-authored manuscripts are fine. Submitting multiple manuscripts is fine with entry fees for each. Simultaneous submissions are fine; please withdraw immediately through Submittable if your work is accepted elsewhere. Please note that the AWP author signing will take place at the Boudin/McNeese Review booth, and does not include travel expenses. Current McNeese State University students and employees are not eligible to submit. McNeese alumni are welcome to submit if it has been at least three years since they graduated.
We, unfortunately, cannot award the prize money to international submissions, though can still offer publication and subscription prizes.
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To learn more about submitting your work to Boudin or applying to McNeese State University’s Creative Writing MFA program, please visit Submissions for details
