Margarita Donnelly Prize for Prose Writing
Prize: $500 cash prize. Winner will be published in CALYX Journal Vol. 35:3, Summer/Fall 2026. Winner and up to two finalists will receive a one-volume subscription to CALYX Journal and publication on CALYX’s website.
Dates: July 1 – September 30, 2025, postmarked
Final Judge: Julia Alvarez
Please submit up to 10,000 words of unpublished fiction or creative nonfiction. One piece of prose per submission. Simultaneous submissions are discouraged. The CALYX editorial collective reads all manuscripts first, then selects 5-10 finalists to send to the final judge.
For postal submissions:
Please send single submission, cover letter with name and contact information, and $20 reading fee (checks payable to CALYX, Inc.).
Send materials to:
CALYX, Inc.
Margarita Donnelly Prize
PO Box B
Corvallis, OR 97339
For online submissions:
Please upload one prose piece (10,000 word maximum) in a single .doc, .docx, .rtf, or .pdx file to our online submission manager. Reading fee ($20 + $1 PayPal processing fee) is payable with Visa or Mastercard through our secure online payment portal. Do not include your name on the submissions—each will be read blind.
Photograph by Corey Hendrickson
Julia Alvarez left the Dominican Republic for the United States in 1960 at the age of ten. She is the author of six novels, three books of nonfiction, three collections of poetry, and eleven books for children and young adults. She has taught and mentored writers in schools and communities across America and, until her retirement in 2016, was a writer in residence at Middlebury College. Her work was included in the New York Public Library’s program “The Hand of the Poet: Original Manuscripts by 100 Masters, from John Donne to Julia Alvarez.” Her novel In the Time of the Butterflies, with over one million copies in print, was selected by the National Endowment for the Arts for its national Big Read program, and in 2013 President Obama awarded Alvarez the National Medal of Arts in recognition of her extraordinary storytelling. In 2024, she was the subject of an American Masters documentary, “Julia Alvarez: A Life Reimagined,” on PBS. Alvarez is one of the founders of Border of Lights, a movement to promote peace and collaboration between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. She lives in Vermont.
About the Contest
Margarita Donnelly was one of the four founders of CALYX, as well as its director, editor, manager, energy, and soul. Her incredible spirit and passion kept the journal running for nearly four decades. Now in its eighth year, the first contest in her honor highlights the love, talent, and skill she brought to the arts, especially in the world of prose.