L'Esprit Literary Review

2026 Clarissa Dalloway Prize for Short Prose

L’Esprit Literary Review

Judged by Lucy Ives

As I write in the introduction to my forthcoming book, three six five, “We must make writing more prismatic and multisensory, combinatory and irreducible, porous and deep, vibratory and timely, young and old, all at once.” So, if you can manage it, do something like that.

–Lucy Ives

L’Esprit seeks short prose of exceptional vision and skill.

The 2026 Clarissa Dalloway Prize for Short Prose will be awarded to the best piece of fiction, nonfiction, or hybrid work under 5,000 words. There are no other requirements; we’ll simply be looking for the best work we can find, true to the journal’s mission of publishing risk-adept, language-driven writing crafted in a revolutionary spirit. We welcome pieces that challenge convention in form, style, and/or content, and which invite us to think differently about the world.

Submissions open from February 21-May 10 || Submit via Submittable

$500 and publication to the Grand Prize winner; $150 and publication to Second Place; $50 and publication to three (3) Finalists. Shortlist, Finalists, and any Honorable Mentions will be announced permanently on the journal website. See the previous results–and read all five Finalist stories in the 2025 Prize–here.

All entries receive a digital copy of Issue Eight and are considered for paid publication in the journal.

Procedure
In the first round of judging, the L’Esprit editorial and reader team will assemble a shortlist and potentially a longlist–based on technical-mechanical skill, acuity in crafting narrative architecture, and prosody. These announcements will be made on a rolling basis. From there the team individually ranks the shortlist pieces and meet to determine five Finalists. Our most recent contest received 315 total submissions.

The Grand Prize Winner and Second Place Award will be selected, via blind read, from this pool of finalists by Guest Judge Lucy Ives.

We expect to have full results in September 2026.

Rules
We have two options for entrance. A $10 fee includes a complimentary digital copy of L’Esprit Issue Eight, featuring writing from Maggie Armstrong, Jennifer McMahon, Miah Jeffra, and more. Issue Eight also features the Grand Prize Winner, Second Place Award, and Finalists from the 2026 Leopold Bloom Prize for Innovative Narration. This high-resolution version is optimized for reading on tablets and other devices, allowing the issue to be experienced as designed, immersive and rich.

A $15 fee includes the digital copy of I8 plus an Expedited Response; we will prioritize your submission and reply with a decision about the shortlist phase within three days. This option may be ideal for those who are planning to submit their piece elsewhere and would especially benefit from a quick response. If the fee presents a genuine difficulty, please email us about a waiver.

We accept simultaneous submissions; please let us know right away if a piece has been offered elsewhere. Likewise multiple submissions are welcome, with individual payment for each piece.

All proceeds directly help support the journal and pay writers; contests are vital to help us offset costs such as promoting our contributors at AWP, hosting live and virtual reading events, and running print copies of each issue. These expenses are never fully covered by submissions, but are a significant help. We are pleased to have been able to raise the total cash award amount for every new contest we’ve run, and plan to continue doing so.

Please include the following with each submission:

  • A third-person bio, to be used as the contributor’s note should your work be accepted.
  • Social media handles (Bluesky and Instagram), if you’d like to be promoted online.
  • An optional cover letter to introduce the work, yourself, provide some context to your submission; please note that this in no way impacts the likelihood of publication.
  • Finally, we would appreciate knowing how you found the journal (social, ad listing, database search, reference, etc).
  • See our complete submission guidelines for more. Submit your work to the contest on Submittable.

Thank you for your support of fearless writing.

Lucy Ives is a novelist and critic.

Her most recent books, both from Graywolf Press, are Life Is Everywhere: A Novel and An Image of My Name Enters America: Essays, winner of the 2024 Vermont Book Award in Creative Nonfiction. Her work has appeared in Harper’s, The New York Times Book Review, The Paris Review, and Vogue, among other publications.

A recipient of an Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant, she has taught at Brown, Cornell, and New York Universities. In May 2026, siglio press will release Ives’s three six five: prompts, acts, divinations, a year-long daybook of philosophical exercises for writing and other forms of creative practice.

in mediam mentem // Clarissa Dalloway Prize