Porter House Review
2022 – 2023 Editor’s Prize

The Porter House Review staff is excited to announce our 2022 – 2023 Editor’s Prizes in Nonfiction, Fiction, and Poetry. This year’s contest will be judged by Edgar Gomez, Sterling HolyWhiteMountain, and Shayla Lawson. This contest will open on November 15, 2022 and will close on December 31, 2022. Winners and Finalists will be announced in March 2023. Please see below for full submission guidelines and more information on our brilliant guest judges.

Edgar Gomez
Nonfiction Judge

Edgar Gomez (all pronouns) is a Florida-born writer with roots in Nicaragua and Puerto Rico. A graduate of University of California, Riverside’s MFA program, their words have appeared in Poets & Writers, Narratively, Lithub, Electric Literature, and elsewhere online and in print. Their debut memoir, High-Risk Homosexual, was called a “breath of fresh air” by The New York Times. They live in New York and Puerto Rico.

Sterling HolyWhiteMountain
Fiction Judge

Sterling HolyWhiteMountain grew up on the Blackfeet Reservation. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, The Atlantic, ESPN.com, and Montana Quarterly. In 2020, HolyWhiteMountain was named a Jones Lecturer at Stanford University, where he was previously a Wallace Stegner fellow. A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, he has held fellowships at the University of Wisconsin and at the Fine Arts Work Center. He is an unrecognized citizen of the Blackfeet Nation.

Shayla Lawson
Poetry Judge

Shayla Lawson is the author of A SPEED EDUCATION IN HUMAN BEING, PANTONE, I THINK I’M READY TO SEE FRANK OCEAN, THIS IS MAJOR: NOTES ON DIANA ROSS, DARK GIRLS & BEING DOPE (Harper Perennial, 2020) and the forthcoming decolonial travel memoir IT’S ON (Tiny Reparations/ Penguin RandomHouse). They have written for Bustle, Romper, Salon, Tin House, PAPER, ESPN, Salon, Guernica, Vulture, The Cut and New York Magazine, been awarded fellowships from Yaddo and the MacDowell Artist Colony, and been recognized by the National Book Critics’ Circle and LAMBA foundation for achievements in literature. They currently live in Los Angeles.

Contest Rules & Submission Guidelines

Nonfiction

We seek nonfiction that involves discovery for the reader and the writer, work that creates a dynamic of mutual construction through literary dialogue. Personal essays, creative nonfiction flash, memoir, and literary reportage are all welcome.

Fiction

We seek to publish fiction that is emotionally affecting, haunting, bizarre, and in firm control of the machinations of storytelling (e.g. character, scene, plot, and momentum). We welcome both traditional short stories, flash fiction, and other hybrid forms.

Poetry

We seek poetic works that capture experience by reinvigorating the language of the everyday, or surprising readers with novel, rarefied text. We are particularly interested in poetry that champions inventive forms and content.

• • Submit a maximum of 5 poems or fewer.
  • Include the number of poems you are submitting in your submission title.
  • All entries will be read blind. Before you submit, please remove your name and any other identifying information from your manuscript. Texas State University students, alumni, and faculty members are not eligible.
  • All work must be submitted through our Submittable portal. We do not accept paper or emailed submissions.
  • All submitted work must be previously unpublished. Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but please immediately withdraw from our contest if you place your work elsewhere.