Left: Diane Seuss, judge of the 2025 Elinor Benedict Poetry Prize
Right: Sarah Minor, judge of the 2025 Ray Ventre Memorial Nonfiction Prize
Our biennial nonfiction and poetry contests will open February 15, 2025, and close April 15, 2025.
Ray Ventre Memorial Nonfiction Prize
Send us your well-written, innovative creative nonfiction up to 6,500 words. We are open but not limited lyric essays, personal essays, memoir, and literary journalism. Submissions are $15 per essay and are open from February 15 to April 15.
Judge: Sarah Minor
Sarah Minor is a writer and interdisciplinary artist. She's the author of Carousel, forthcoming from Yale University Press in 2026, Slim Confessions: The Universe as a Spider or Spit (Noemi Press 2021), Bright Archive (Rescue Press, 2020), and the chapbook The Persistence of The Bonyleg: Annotated (Essay Press, 2016). Learn more about Sarah on her website.
Elinor Benedict Poetry Prize
Send 1-3 of your best poems in a single packet. Submissions are $15 per packet and are open from February 15 to April 15.
Judge: Diane Seuss
Diane Seuss is the author of six poetry collections, including Modern Poetry, a finalist for the National Book Award in Poetry, and frank: sonnets, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the PEN/Voelcker Award. She lives in rural Michigan.
Info for Both Contests
The winner in each category receives a $1,000 prize and publication in the print issue of Passages North. $15 entry fee. All paid entrants receive a copy of the contest issue. Deadline: April 15, 2025. (We will open to free submissions for writers in need closer to the deadline.)
Submissions must be previously unpublished. Simultaneous submissions are allowed, but please let us know if the piece is accepted elsewhere (refunds are not available). Students of Northern Michigan University and close friends of the Passages North staff or contest judge are not eligible.
To submit a hard copy, send paper manuscripts to Passages North, Northern Michigan University, 1401 Presque Isle Ave., Marquette, MI 49855. Please indicate the contest name on the envelope, and make checks payable to “Northern Michigan University.”
Contact passages@nmu.edu with any questions.
Our Contest Schedule
During odd-numbered years, we hold our poetry and creative nonfiction contests, and during even-numbered years, we hold our fiction and short-short prose contests. Contests open February 15 and close April 15 each year.