2025 Boudin Flash Fiction Chapbook Contest
Final judge: Roxane Gay
Deadline: May 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 (no more than one piece per page) in a readable font like 12-point Times New Roman. 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 students and faculty. 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.
