We’re pleased to announce the tenth annual Larry Brown Short Story Award. The winners will receive the following prizes: 1st $500 USD, 2nd $50 USD, 3rd $50 USD, and 4th and 5th will receive a copy of the book Tiny Love: The Complete Stories by Larry Brown. Each prize winner will be published in the January 2026 issue of Pithead Chapel.
2025 Guest Judge: Andrew Porter
Contest Guidelines
Please read the guidelines carefully before submitting
- The contest is open from August 1st to October 31st of each year
- The submitted story must be less than 4,000 words
- No previously published work will be considered
- The writer’s name and contact information should only appear within the cover letter box in Submittable; submissions will be judged blindly by our guest judge
- Again, no identifying information should appear on the submitted manuscript pages
- There’s a $10 entry fee for each story submission. A discounted submission category, with a $5 entry fee, is open to BIPOC writers.
- Writers can submit multiple entries; however, each entry must be submitted separately and each entry requires an entry fee and cover letter with an address and phone number
- Simultaneous submissions are fine; however, please withdraw the story immediately if it’s accepted elsewhere
- The winners and honorable mentions will be notified by December 15th, 2025, and the prize money will be awarded the day after publication on January 2nd, 2026
- Those selected as honorable mentions will have the chance to be published alongside the winning selections in the January 2026 issue of Pithead Chapel
2025 Guest Judge: Andrew Porter
ANDREW PORTER is the author of four books, including the story collections The Disappeared (Knopf) and The Theory of Light and Matter (Vintage) and the novels In Between Days (Knopf) and The Imagined Life (Knopf). A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, he has received a Pushcart Prize, a James Michener/Copernicus Fellowship, and the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction. His work has appeared in One Story, Ploughshares, American Short Fiction, Narrative, The Southern Review, The Missouri Review, and on Public Radio’s Selected Shorts. Currently, he teaches fiction writing and directs the creative writing program at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas.
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