The Inaugural Writing Contest — Rules & Guidelines

Presented by Sun Hit Review, a literary magazine founded and edited by Eboni Ferguson, author of Some Real Sugar Honey Ice Tea: A Philly Jawn and Urban Chronicles of the Ghetto.

Sun Hit Review is rooted in Philadelphia and open to the world. Every race, every face, every place — if you wrote it, we want to read it.

The Prize

• $500 Grand Prize — one winner, chosen across all categories.
• The winner and up to nine finalists will be published in Issue 1 of Sun Hit Review (April 2027).
• The winner will be paid within 30 days of the public announcement.

Categories

Enter one piece (or set) per entry, in one category:

• Poetry — up to 3 poems per entry, 10 pages maximum.
• Short Fiction — one story per entry, up to 3,000 words.
• Personal Essay / Article — one piece per entry, up to 2,500 words. Memoir, craft essays, and pieces on the writing life, family, faith, and place are all welcome.

Lengths are maximums only — there is no minimum. A short piece is welcome; what matters is the work, not the word count.

You may enter as many times as you like, in as many categories as you like. Each entry is a separate $23 entry.

Entry Fee

• $23 per entry — $20 contest entry plus a $3 submission processing portion — paid at the time of submission through our submission platform. The $3 processing portion is non-refundable (see The Refund Promise below).
• Fee waivers: A limited number of waivers (5) are available for writers who need one. Email us before submitting to request one — no explanation beyond the ask is required. A waiver covers the full $23.

Dates

• Entries open: January 2, 2027
• Entries close: February 27, 2027, at 11:59 PM Eastern
• Winner and finalists announced: Late March 2027
• Issue 1 published: April 2027

Who Can Enter

• Writers 18 and older, anywhere in the world.
• Work must be in English.

The Work

• Unpublished work only. Work that has appeared anywhere — in print, online, or on social media — is not eligible.
• Simultaneous submissions are welcome. If your piece is accepted elsewhere, tell us right away so we can withdraw it.
• No AI-generated or AI-assisted work. Every entry must be the entrant's own original writing. Entries found to be AI-generated will be disqualified.

How Judging Works

Blind judging — strict. Your name goes on the submission form only. Do not put your name or any identifying information anywhere in your manuscript file — including the file name and the document's properties. This rule has no exceptions: any file that carries a name is automatically disqualified and will not be read. Judging is fully blind, so no entry can be helped or hurt by who wrote it. Entry fees are not refunded for entries disqualified under this rule.

• The sole judge for the inaugural contest is Eboni Ferguson. All decisions are final.
• Manuscript format: a single .doc, .docx, or .pdf file, typed in a readable font, with the title on the first page.

Rights

• You keep your copyright. Always.
• By entering, published entrants (winner and finalists) grant Sun Hit Review one-time, non-exclusive rights to publish the piece in Issue 1 (online and in any print edition of that issue) and to keep it in the issue's archive. After Issue 1, all rights are yours alone.
• Entrants who are not selected grant no rights at all.
• Cover feature: the grand-prize winner will be featured on the cover of the next issue, and agrees to provide a photo and a short bio for that feature. If the winner prefers not to appear, artwork tied to the winning piece will be used in their place.

The Refund Promise (read this — it matters)

This is a new magazine, and we run it honestly: if fewer than 30 paid entries are received by the deadline, the contest may be cancelled. If that happens, the $20 contest portion of every entry fee will be refunded in full. The $3 processing portion is non-refundable — it covers the real cost of processing each submission, and anything left of it goes toward producing Issue 1 of this magazine. You will always know exactly where every dollar went.

Notifications

• Winner and finalists will be notified by email before the public announcement.
• If your email changes after you enter, write to us so your news can reach you.

Questions

Email: [email protected]

Sun Hit Review — born in Philly. Open to everybody.