Red Hen Press Awards


Red Hen Press would like to thank all who submitted work for the awards and congratulate the following winners!

Benjamin Saltman Poetry Award 2022 winner: Ulrich Jesse K. Baer’s Deer Black Out

Ann Petry Award 2022 winner: Esinam Bediako’s Blood on the Brain

Red Hen Press Fiction Award 2022 winner: Khanh Ha’s The Afterlife of a Threadbare Jester

Quill Prose Award 2021 winner: Cherry Potts’ The Bog Mermaid

Red Hen Press Nonfiction Award 2020 winner: Alyssa Graybeal’s Floppy: Tales of a Genetic Freak of Nature at the End of the World

Red Hen Press Women’s Prose Prize 2023 winner: Malia Márquez’s City of Smoke and Sea

Red Hen Press Novella Award 2020 winner: Ruyan Meng’s Only the Cat Knows


General Awards

Red Hen Press is proud to confer five literary awards: the Benjamin Saltman Poetry Award and the Ann Petry Award for $3,000 each and the publication of a full manuscript; the Cai Emmons Fiction Award for $5,000 and the publication of a full manuscript; the Quill Prose Award, and the Red Red Hen Press Women’s Prose Prize, each for $1000 and publication by Red Hen Press.

For more information on each award, including how to enter, please check out the links below.

Given the high volume of submissions we receive, please expect a response time of three to twelve months. We appreciate your patience. Phone calls, emails, and letters will not speed up the process and are strongly discouraged.


Partnership Awards with Book Publication by Red Hen Press

Red Hen Press partners with the following organizations who award or hand-select manuscripts for publication by Red Hen Press. For more information on each partnership, including how to submit your manuscript, please check out the links below. 


Los Angeles Review Awards

Additionally, Red Hen Press is pleased to present four annual awards from the Los Angeles Review! The contests are: the Short Fiction Award, judged by Reema Rajbanshi; the Flash Fiction Award, judged by Lara Ehrlich; the Creative Nonfiction Award, judged by Beth Gilstrap; and the Poetry Award, judged by Francesca Bell. A prize of $1,000 and publication in the Los Angeles Review will be given to four authors each season for exceptional writing in each genre.