New Plains Review, a literary journal with roots in the Plains region, marks a special anniversary with the establishment of the New Plains Prize in Poetry and Fiction. The fiction category seeks a single short story per submission, capped at 10,000 words, and requires that the work be previously unpublished. The contest is administered with a $3.00 entry fee and a deadline of October 13, 2026. While the prize amount is not specified in the provided materials, the journal's framing positions the award as part of a broader commitment to concerns that directly impact communities, particularly those of the Plains. The thematic prompt for this cycle is water—not as a decorative motif but as a complex, lived reality. The editors note that in the Plains, water is not taken for granted; Oklahoma, for instance, has more man-made lakes than any other state. This is an invitation to consider water in its many registers: scarcity and abundance, infrastructure and memory, the personal and the political. The journal explicitly welcomes all submissions but signals a particular interest in work that engages this theme with seriousness and specificity. In keeping with its regional identity, New Plains Review especially invites writers from traditionally underrepresented communities and voices from the Plains. This is not a restriction but a curatorial leaning—an acknowledgment that the stories most resonant with the prize's concerns often emerge from those closest to them. The journal accepts files in PDF, .doc, .docx, and .rtf, and submissions are managed online. There is no indication of a reading period beyond the fixed deadline, so timely submission is advised.