Thank you to those who submitted work to our 2024 contest, judged by Dewaine Farria. Please see below for information on our 2026 contest.
This creative writing contest was founded thanks to a gift from the family of Jeff Sharlet (1942–69), a Vietnam veteran and antiwar writer and activist. It has continued to be supported thanks to funding from the National Endowment for the Arts 2016 Art Works Grant and donations from Amy B. Kretkowski Veterans Law Office and donors to One Day for Iowa 2024. The contest is open to veterans and active duty personnel writing in any genre and about any subject matter.
Prizes: First place: $1,000 plus publication in an issue of The Iowa Review. Second place: $750. Three runners-up: $500 each.
2026 Contest Rules
- Submit a manuscript in any genre (poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction) of up to 25 pages for prose and 8 pages for poetry. Prose submissions must be double-spaced. Work must be previously unpublished. Simultaneous submissions are fine, assuming you inform us of acceptance elsewhere.
- The judge will select winners from a group of finalists chosen by Iowa Review editors. All manuscripts, whether selected as finalists or not, are considered for publication.
- Proof of military service is not required when submitting. We request documentation only when a writer's work makes it to the final round of judging.
- To submit online, please visit https://iowareview.submittable.com/submit between May 1 and 31, 2026, and follow the instructions. If using Submittable is not possible, email iowa-review@uiowa.edu for instructions.
There is no entry fee.
Read Sample Submissions
Past winners of the veterans' contest can be found at our Veterans' Writing Gallery.
Eligibility and Conflicts of Interest
Current students, faculty, or staff of the University of Iowa are not eligible to enter the contest.
Work is ineligible to win our contest if it is slated for publication before April 2027, whether in another magazine or as part of a book, or if it has been named winner or runner-up in any other contest. Please withdraw work from our contest immediately if these conditions apply.
The judge has been instructed not to award the prize to entrants with whom he has had a personal or professional relationship. Despite reading the entries with author names removed, the judge may sometimes be able to guess the identity of the entrant. Even if he can't tell during the judging process, he has the right to change his decision if it turns out that the entrant is someone with whom there is any appearance of conflict of interest. Therefore, we advise entrants not to enter the contest if the judge is someone they know personally or have worked with professionally.
