Book Contests
2024/2025 Fiction and Memoir Contest
As of October 15, 2024, high-quality “unpublished” manuscripts submitted in the following categories of memoir, fiction and non-fiction have been entrusted to IML to be read, sorted and pondered by our esteemed author, Jacqueline Gay Walley. On December 15, 2024, finalists were chosen:
FICTION: Maria Clarizio, Osman Njai, Natalie Pilard, Patricia Rohner, Helen Kweskin
NON-FICTION: Shirley Glaettli, Terese Svoboda, Wally Swist, Ron Talarico
MEMOIR: Nicolle Goldman, Wheston Chancellor Grove, Sarah Hewitt, Maxine Meju, Chinwe Mary Okoye
The winner will be announced on March 31, 2025.
2026 Fiction, Non-Fiction & Memoir Contest
Memoir and Fiction Contest featured on Reedsy.com, in Poets & Writers Magazine, in New York Review of Books, and in Writer’s Digest.
We are a boutique publishing company that is dedicated to amplifying the voices of contemporary writers who are nomads and explorers of language, form, and the psyche. High-quality “unpublished” manuscript submissions of memoir, fiction and non-fiction entrusted to us will be read, sorted and pondered by our esteemed author, Jacqueline Gay Walley
Entry Requirements for 2026 Contests: 50 pages double spaced + a 1-page synopsis of story via email at “Enter here:”
Begin submission: December 1, 2025 (no early submissions please)
Deadline: January 1, 2026
Fee for Entry: $40
Award: $1000 + *possible book publication/distribution in ebook and paperback formats (can apply award to publication)
or Send your document to hello@imlpublications.com
or Pay through ZELLE to hello@imlpublications.com
or mail check to:
IML Publications c/o Gay Walley, 182 Second Avenue, NY NY 10003 USA
Announcing 2023/2024
Winner of
Fiction and Memoir Contest
WINNER: Bromme Cole’s When Soft Voices Die, (due to be published Fall 2025).
HONORABLE MENTION: Dawn Yackzan, Precious Crazy (due to be published Winter 2026).
FINALISTS: (in alphabetical order)
NOVEL: Barbara de la Cuesta’s The Twenty and One Nights; Lisa Friedlander’s The Bird Lover; James Makor’s Lightning in the Draught; Eliza Mood’s Under the Forbidden Tree; Osman Njai’s Before We Became Men; and Dawn Yackzan’s The Grasshopper Girls
MEMOIR: Michael Bauer’s Born Without a Race; Molly Gandour’s Vertigo: Sexual Assault Aftermath; Alyssa Osvog’s Stay: Connecting with Energy in Recovery; Dawn Service’s Not My Shame; Mike Shangkuan’s The Good Chinese Son: from the Ivy League to the Berlin Dungeons; and Dawn Yackzan’s Precious Crazy
Announcing:
Memoir and Fiction Winners and Finalists 2022
We are a boutique publishing company that is dedicated to amplifying the voices of contemporary writers who are nomads and explorers of language, form, and the psyche. High-quality manuscript submissions of memoir and fiction entrusted to us have been read, sorted and pondered by our esteemed author, Jacqueline Gay Walley, and are now aligned into the winners and finalists. Thank you to all the contestants for joining us!
Memoir Winners:
IML’s Nomad Motif: Sandra Botnen’s Body Unfolding, (to be published Fall 2025).
Grace in Writing Style: Victoria Adler’s When We Knew Nothing
Finalists in Alphabetical Order: Demetrius Butler’s Hoes Don’t Exist Monsters Do; Barbara de la Cuesta’s A Certain Height Above the Earth; Olivia Harris’s I’m Not Ready Yet; Jacqueline Monteath’s America Unmapped; Alysa Osvog’s Traipsing Down a Warpath of Addiction; and Dawn Yackzan’s Precious Crazy (First Alternate)
Fiction Winner:
Khaak by Mahdi (due to it’s indigenous content, published jointly in 2024 with IML and Global Voice Foundation)
Finalists: Eliza Mood’sVolcano Letters; Alysa Osvog’s Unforgettables; Katarzyna Janicka’s Maya; Annie Dawd’s Paradise Undone; Martha Novak Burgess’s Blood Mountain; and Marcia Peck’s The Unattended Moment (First Alternate)