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Our William Van Dyke Short Story Prize is closed.
Each year we award $1500 and publication to the winner author.
You can also sign up for our emails, and we'll send you deadline reminders and updates:
Short story must be 
5,500 words or less
Entry fee is $20 
(includes a digital copy of Ruminate) 
Deadline is Feb. 1st 
(plus a 3-day grace period)

Kelli Jo Ford’s debut novel in stories, Crooked Hallelujah (Grove Press), was longlisted for The Center for Fiction's 2020 First Novel Prize. She is the recipient of awards and fellowships, such as The Paris Review’s 2019 Plimpton Prize, the Everett Southwest Literary Award, a Native Arts & Cultures Foundation National Artist Fellowship, and a Dobie Paisano Fellowship. She teaches writing at Santa Fe’s Institute of American Indian Arts and lives in Richmond, Virginia, with her husband and daughter. She is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation.

As with all our submissions, we highly recommend reading a copy of the magazine to better understand the type of work we are looking for.

Download a free excerpt from Issue No. 38 featuring some of our favorite short stories
Want to read a full issue?
Purchase issues featuring past Ruminate Short Story Prize recipients here:
"Stories have a way of percolating in people. They land, they ripple outward, they settle. Over time they become a part of us through their telling and retelling, a new limb through which we feel the world. Their lessons latch on to our senses and color anew everything we experience."
—Jason Villemez, winner of Ruminate's 2018 William Van Dyke Short Story Prize. His story, "Coda" appears in Issue 48: Exposure.