I have no excuse for forgetting about this contest yet again. Because the Delacorte Yearling Contest for a First Middle Grade Novel has been around awhile.

So, if you happen to be an unpublished writer, with a manuscript between 96 to 160 double-spaced typewritten pages, and that manuscript is a contemporary or historical novel, AND you can scrape up enough money for the postage, then send that story NOW. ‘Cause you could get a publishing contract if you win. And even if you don’t win, some editor is going to read your manuscript and maybe say to himself or herself, “Hmmmm.  I like this writer.” It could happen.

But, I do have a perfectly good excuse for not remembering the other send-in-your-manuscript-by-the-end-of-June contest. It’s a brand new contest.

Hunger Mountain is sponsoring the Katherine Paterson Prize for Young Adult and Children’s Writing. Hunger Mountain is the arts journal at Vermont College of Fine Arts, and they’ll be starting production this summer. You can read more at this post by Cynthia Leitich Smith from her blog, Cynsations.

What I love about this contest is that you can send a novel excerpt or a short story in YA, Middle Grade or Picture Book.  I mean, who doesn’t have something submittable to this contest? So, gather up your pennies (you’ll need twenty bucks worth) and postmark that entry before the 30th.

Because you can’t win if you don’t play. No excuses.