The 1729 Book Prize in Prose, judged by Diane Zinna, is a new award offered by Mason Jar Press with support from The Ivy Bookshop. Mason Jar is a Baltimore-based, nationally- and internationally-focused independent press of accessible, experimental fiction. The Prize seeks challenging, engaging works of fiction and nonfiction, utilizing a patron-based economic model--funded by the Ivy Bookshop—that is free to all. The Ivy is always eager to celebrate and support book culture, and is excited to collaborate with a press that is local in its base, national in its reach, and expansive in its sensibility.

Submission Guidelines:

CALL
Submissions are now closed.

WHAT WE WANT
Novels
Novellas
Story collections
Memoirs
Auto/Biographies
Essay collections

WHAT WE DON'T WANT
Poetry Collections
Graphic novels (someday)
Anything below a novella in size
Poetry (seriously, poets)
Chapbooks

Diane Zinna

Diane Zinna is the author of THE ALL-NIGHT SUN (Random House, 2020) which was longlisted for The Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize and the Cabell First Novelist Award. She received her MFA from the University of Florida and was the longtime membership director for AWP, The Association of Writers & Writing Programs. There, she created the Writer to Writer Mentorship Program, helping to match more than six hundred writers over twelve seasons. She is also the creator of Grief Writing Sundays, a popular writing class on telling difficult stories that has met every week since the start of the pandemic. Diane is the recipient of an ArtsFairfax Artist Grant, and beginning Fall 2022, she will be the Darden Professor of Creative Writing at Old Dominion University. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming at Electric Literature, LiteraryHub, Brevity, Monkeybicycle, and Eat, Darling, Eat. She lives in Fairfax, Virginia, with her husband, daughter, and doodle.

Meet Our Readers:

We are a team and most of the MJP editors will dip a toe in this reading period (see masthead). In addition to our Staff Readers, we also recruit to give us more voices and different tastes. Below, read a little about our guest readers. Maybe it will help you decide to submit or not.

Jacob Budenz is a queer writer of poetry and fiction, a multi-disciplinary performer, and a bona fide witch with a love for weird work, especially socially conscious work that maintains a literary focus while pushing the boundaries of genre. Some favorites on Jake's shelf include Isabel Allende's The House of the Spirits, N.K. Jemisin's Broken Earth trilogy, and José Saramago's Blindness.
Shiksha Dheda uses writing to express her OCD and depression roller coaster ventures, but mostly to avoid doing her master's degree. Some of her favorite books are: Kafka on the shore, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, and Watchmen.
Bola King-Rushing is a parent, English teacher, writer, reader, editor, musician, and gamer. He lives at the intersection of text, technology, and Southern California. A few of his favorite texts: Kage Baker’s The Empress of Mars, Shelley Jackson’s Patchwork Girl, Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower, and Sega’s Valkyria Chronicles.
Jon Lehr is the current intern for Mason Jar Press and a senior at York College of Pennsylvania. Some of his favorite books include To Hell on a Fast Horse by Mark Lee Gardner, Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism by Amanda Montell, and Deviant by Harold Schechter.
K.C. Mead-Brewer writes weird dark stories in Baltimore, MD. A couple of her favorite books are Kelly Link's Magic for Beginners, and Yoko Ogawa's Revenge.
August Thompson is a bookseller at the Ivy Bookshop, working on his Master's in Library Science from the University of Maryland. His taste is eclectic but his favorite books include Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin, Chouette by Claire Oshetsky, and Heaven by Mieko Kawakami.
Addie Tsai (any/all) is a queer non-binary writer and artist, author of the novels Dear Twin and Unwieldy Creatures (forthcoming Fall 2022). They stan hard for Marguerite Duras, James Baldwin, and Anne Carson.

PRIZE AND PAYMENT
The winner will receive a $1,000 award, contributor copies, and quarterly profit-sharing. The contract will stipulate all further details.

TIMELINE
Due to the nature of contests, we will provide an outline of how we expect this to progress. Note that is a good faith estimate and we may have to alter the time accordingly, particularly if we receive significantly more submissions than we expect. More details to come closer to start of contest.

July 15, 2022: Submissions close.
August, 2022: First round of reading completed and status updates.
November, 2022: Second round of reading completed and status updates.
December, 2022: Third round of reading completed and status updates. Semi-finalists announced.
March, 2023: Final round of reading completed, status updates and Winner Announcement.
March, 2024: Publication.