Onyx Publications — Winter 2026 Contest Edition

Overview
Onyx Publications operates a contest edition with a deliberately narrow aperture: unpublished fiction, nonfiction, flash fiction, and poetry, read without cover letters or identifying information. The structure is two-track—one award series for prose, one for poetry—with first, second, and third places in each. The prize amounts are modest and fixed: $500, $100, and $50 respectively. The entry fee is $12.50 USD. There is no stated venue, residency, or exhibition component; the award is monetary and publication-adjacent by implication of the contest edition format. The contest's most consequential constraint is its prohibition on simultaneous submissions. Onyx states that because of the longer read time for contest editions, work under consideration must not be submitted elsewhere until the author hears back. This is a material condition, not a formality. It asks the writer to hold a piece in reserve for the duration of the reading period, and it should be weighed against the award scale before submitting. The judging protocol is blind: no cover letter, no identifying information on the submission document. Poetry submissions must contain at least three and no more than five poems in a single document. Prose categories include fiction, nonfiction, and flash fiction. The curatorial logic is consistent—remove biography, remove the pitch, and let the writing carry the decision. For writers whose work depends on context or hybrid framing, that constraint is worth noting in advance.