FC2, a nonprofit publisher affiliated with the University of Alabama Press, has long positioned itself at the vanguard of experimental American fiction. The Catherine Doctorow Innovative Fiction Prize is one of its flagship awards, designed to recognize a writer whose work extends the possibilities of the form. The prize carries a $2,500 cash award and publication by FC2, placing the winning manuscript within a catalog that has historically championed formally daring and intellectually rigorous fiction. The award is open to writers of, from, or in the United States writing in English who have published at least three books. Submissions may take the shape of a novel, a collection of short stories, or one or more novellas; there is no length requirement. Translations and previously published or self-published works are ineligible, though individual pieces that have appeared in magazines or anthologies may be included in a collection, provided the collection as a whole is unpublished. FC2 authors and employees, as well as former or current students or close friends of the final judge, are excluded to avoid conflicts of interest. FC2 explicitly states its dedication to recruiting new and diverse makers of the images of tomorrow and to forging a more representative and provocative collective. The prize particularly encourages submissions from writers who dismantle conventional narratives, aligning with FC2's broader mission to challenge and overwrite the brutal conventions of our insufficient now. The winning manuscript will be selected by a final judge and will join a lineage of works that prioritize innovation over market conformity.