Contest is open to current University of Alabama Undergraduate Students. 1st place prize of $300 and a $100 prize for finalists will be awarded for each category.

Please submit all work as a PDF file. Use 12-pt, standard fonts. All prose should be double spaced. Please number pages. Only one entry per category per person. Previously published material is permissible. All identifying information (last names, CWIDs, addresses, etc.) must be removed from submissions.

Michael Dalton Goodson Memorial Prize in Poetry: Submit 3 poems, one poem per page. 10 page maximum. (Judged by Diamond Forde)

Greer Marechal Memorial Prize in Fiction: Submit 1 short story or 3 flash fiction pieces. 20 pages (double spaced) max. (Judged by Maggie Nye Smith)

Greer Marechal Memorial Prize in Creative Nonfiction: Submit 1 essay or 3 micro essays. 20 pages (double spaced) max. (Judged by MC Hyland)

Contest is open to current University of Alabama MFA Students. 1st place prize of $300 and a $100 prize for finalists will be awarded for each category.

Please submit all work as a PDF file. Use 12-pt, standard fonts. All prose should be double spaced. Please number pages. Only one entry per category per person. Previously published material is permissible. All identifying information (last names, CWIDs, addresses, etc.) must be removed from submissions.

Jerome K. Phipps Prize in Poetry: Submit 3 poems, one poem per page. 12 page maximum. (Judged by Diamond Forde)

Don F. Hendrie Jr. Prize in Fiction: Submit 1 short story or 3 flash fiction pieces. 25 pages (double spaced) max. (Judged by Maggie Nye Smith)

Elizabeth Meese Prize in Creative Nonfiction: Submit 1 essay or 3 micro essays. 25 pages (double spaced) max. (Judged by MC Hyland)

Red Rook Press is currently accepting submissions of picture book manuscripts, both illustrated and unillustrated. If your manuscript includes illustrations, please indicate whether you would be open to working with a staff illustrator. Red Rook’s design team is excited to work with any writer whose manuscript comes our way unillustrated—we are not actively looking for illustrators at this time.

We are most excited to read picture books that tell original stories with unique characters. We are eager to read your fantasy, sci-fi, or coming-of-age story for readers between the ages of 5 and 8 who are beginning to explore getting lost in stories on their own, or who love having a long story read to them before bedtime.

We are committed to publishing a wide array of voices. We strongly encourage creators with underrepresented and unique perspectives to submit their manuscript for consideration.

At Red Rook, we work with writers and creators who are enrolled as undergraduate or graduate students anywhere in the world at the time of submission. Please let us know where you go to school when you submit your work!

 Red Rook Press requires all writers to disclose any AI usage at the time of submission.

 To be considered for publication, picture books must be a minimum of 32 pages in length and fall somewhere within the range of 800 and 3,500 words. 

Submissions are open until March 1st, 2026.

Red Rook Press is a growing publishing press dedicated to celebrating the work of undergraduate writers. As we expand, we're continuing to explore new mediums to promote fresh and exciting works, and we're happy to announce that we're now accepting digital content for publication on our website! Whether there's a piece of media you can't stop talking about, a viewpoint you feel like sharing, or a written piece you're ready to show the world, we're burning the midnight oil to see what you've been working on! 

Our digital content consists of three sections, each of which you can submit to through the google form linked here: 

Reviews: If you're like us, sometimes there's a story you just can't stop thinking about! Whether it's about a book, movie, tv show, video game, or piece of music, we want to your thoughts. Reviews should be between 350 and 1000 words. 

Rhetoric: Our rhetoric section contains more formal essays on a wide range of topics, including literary analyses. Essays should be no more than 3000 words. 

Writes: This section includes fiction, non-fiction, and poetry pieces. As with our publication submissions, we happily accept pieces from a wide variety of genres and styles. For prose, we request submissions be between 250 and 2500 words, and for poetry no more than 2 pages. 

Simultaneous Submissions: Perfectly fine - just make sure you let us know if your work is selected elsewhere. 

Payment: Our digital submissions are unpaid.