The
2025 Prime Number Magazine Awards
Is Open for Entries Jan1-Mar 31!
The Prime Number Magazine Awards for Poetry & Short Fiction is open to writers around the world, ages 18 and older, who write in English. We asked our judges to select from all entries, in their respective categories, a First Prize winner, two Runners-Up, and a short list of Finalists.
The winning poem and short story, and our runners-up, will appear in Issue 277 of Prime Number Magazine on September 1, 2025. First Prize is $1,000 in each category, and $250 for each Runner-Up (new!).
Meet Our Judges
The 2025 Prime Number Magazine Awards
for Poetry and Short Fiction
Open for Entries, January 1-March 31, 2025
Before entering, please read the following guidelines carefully
Entry period: January 1 to March 31, 2025 (midnight EASTERN time)
Judge for Poetry: TBA
Judge for Short Fiction: Dennis McFadden, author of Jimtown Road: A Novel in Stories, winner of the 2016 Press 53 Award for Short Fiction
First Prize in Each Category: $1,000 and publication in Prime Number Magazine, Issue 277, Sept-Dec 2025 (a Press 53 online publication)
Two Runners-Up in each category receive $250 (new!) plus publication
Announcement: Winners, runners-up, and finalists will be announced no later than July 1, 2025 (hopefully sooner)
Reading Fee: $15
How to Enter the Prime Number Magazine Awards
Entries are only accepted online via Submittable
Poetry: Submit one (and only one) unpublished poem, no more than three pages in length in standard 12-pt. type. (Times, Garamond, etc). Make sure your name does not appear on the page with your poem.
Short Fiction: Submit one (and only one) unpublished short story of up to 5,300 words, with title and word count, double spaced with numbered pages in standard 12-pt. type. (Times, Garamond, etc). Make sure your name does not appear on the manuscript.
Multiple entries: Multiple entries are accepted, but you must enter each poem and/or story individually and pay the reading fee for each entry.
Simultaneous submissions: Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but please withdraw your entry via Submittable if it is accepted elsewhere. You may not replace the withdrawn poem or story with another poem or story. Reading fee is not refundable.
Editing entry: If you discover an error before the deadline and wish to replace your entry with a newly edited version, request "Open Editing" via Submittable. Requests made after the deadline will not be honored.
Judging: All entries are read blind. Judge is asked to disqualify any entry that is recognized, so please use your best judgment.
Eligibility: Contest is open to writers anywhere in the world, 18 years of age and older, who write in English.
Note: Press 53 and Prime Number Magazine editors and family members are not eligible. Authors who have published a book-length collection with Press 53 are not eligible. Writers whose work appears in anthologies published by Press 53 or have previously published in Prime Number Magazine are eligible.
Disclaimer: Prime Number Magazine reserves the right to extend the deadline if deemed necessary. Only unpublished works are eligible. Reading fees are non-refundable. Entries with author's name appearing anywhere on the manuscript will not be considered. No refunds will be made. Entries withdrawn from the contest will not receive a refund. All entries must be original to the author.
Questions/Comments should be directed to Kevin Morgan Watson, Publisher & Editor in Chief of Press 53 and Prime Number Magazine.
Results of the 2024 Prime Number Magazine Awards!
POETRY: First Prize
“This Whole Big Machine Like a Ghost Ship” by Fleming Meeks of Montclair, New Jersey is our First Prize winner for Poetry. Our judge, Maya J. Sorini had this to say about her Fleming’s poem:
I chose "This Whole Big Machine Like a Ghost Ship" because it wouldn't get out of my head. The title, the way each line seemed to lilt and lurch, the choice of words felt precise but unlabored. It came back and forth into my head the way water moves, out then in, following some secret moon. The poem left me wanting to re-read, finding new gems each time I revisited. "Fault is a ghost ship that goes nowhere," its second stanza begins, making me want to go back to the first, where a home is a ghost ship too. Is fault a home? Where are we all going? The last line signals phantom limbs, that which no longer exists can burn with pain. I am still thinking about the ghost ship. I am coming back over and over, wondering about every life in this poem, all the objects, which are real and which are imagined. Bravo!
To all the poets who entered: thank you for writing urgently about what obsesses you, what grips you, and for being brave enough to share that with me. It was a pleasure to read these poems, and all those that became finalists are an extra treat to read.
Fleming Meeks is a poet and former journalist. His work has appeared in American Poetry Review, Brevity, Kenyon Review, New Ohio Review, Yale Review. His interviews with actress Hedy Lamarr for a feature story in Forbes, formed the backbone of the 2017 documentary Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story, which was broadcast on PBS in the American Masters series. He lives in Montclair, New Jersey.
Runners-Up
(published in Issue 263 of Prime Number Magazine)
“I Drink Rivers” by Dante Novario
“Sightlines” by Ilona Popper
Finalists
(receive a free copy of The Boneheap in the Lion’s Den by Maya J. Sorini)
“To Meet in Particulate Form” by Brenda Botitta
“Death Sentence Sentence” by David Groff
“The Calculation of Things” by George Harvilla
“The Doe's Desiccated Remains” by George Harvilla
“Bonnie” by Emily King
“Night Fishing the Inlet” by Michael Loderstedt
“Out of Many, One People” by Nancy L. Meyer
“Can’t Be Far” by Jed Myers
“Peace for James Byrd, Jr.” by Ilona Popper
“Carapace” by Catherine Turnbull
“Marking Territory” by Emma Wynn
SHORT FICTION:
First Prize
"Jumping Off" by Ginger Pinholster of Port Orange, Florida, was selected by Dennis McFadden as the First Prize winner for Short Fiction. Our judge, Dennis McFadden, has this to say about the winner story:
Fenix, the young narrator of "Jumping Off," is up the proverbial creek without a paddle, adrift in a rowboat with nothing between her and a venomous snake but a disconnected landline telephone. No spoiler alert; it's in the first paragraph. How she got there, however, and what she's going to do about it, is a hell of a ride that will leave you laughing like crazy, maybe tearing up a bit, and rooting for her more than a bit. "Jumping Off" is a wonderfully written, wacky, unforgettable gem of a story.
About of winner: Ginger Pinholster’s second novel, Snakes of St. Augustine—a love story about neurodiversity, stigma, and community—was released by Regal House Publishing in 2023. Regal House plans to release Ginger’s next novel, The Train to Santa Fe, in summer 2026. Her first novel, City in a Forest, earned a gold medal from the Florida Writers Association in 2020. Her short fiction has appeared in Pangyrus, Eckerd Review, Northern Virginia Review, Atticus Review, and elsewhere. She holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from Queens University of Charlotte and a B.A. from Eckerd College. She lives in Ponce Inlet, Florida, where she writes for Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and volunteers with the Volusia Sea Turtle Patrol.
Runners-Up
(published in Issue 263 of Prime Number Magazine)
"Ranger Danger" by Gary V. Powell
"The Thin Line" by Jeremy Stelzner
Finalists
(receive a free copy of Jimtown Road: A Novel in Stories, by Dennis McFadden, winner of the 2016 Press 53 Award for Short Fiction)
"Clamence" by Mark Connelly
"Daddy's Girl" by Susanne Rubenstein
"Fourth of July" by Lesley Bannatyne
"Hardly Nothing" by Virginia Ewing Hudson
"Necropants" by Colton Huelle
"Parents Weekend" by David W. Berner
"Private Property" by Simone Martel
"Rabbit, Rabbit" by Aimee LaBrie
"Shoes" by Lorrie Gault
"We Used to Hunt Whales" by Victor McConnell
~ ~ ~
To everyone who entered the 2024 Prime Number Magazine Awards for Poetry & Short Fiction: THANK YOU! We look forward to reading your stories each year. The quality of the writing is challenging to judge, and the results are always impressive. Please keep sending us your poems and stories, and please come back on September 1 to help us celebrate this year’s First Prize winners and Runners-Up by reading their poems and stories when they appear in Issue 263 of Prime Number Magazine.