Announcements
We have a judge for the 2025 Best in Rural Writing Contest!
Jamie Guiney, author of short story collection The Wooden Hill and the forthcoming novel The Lightning, is the judging the 2025 Best in Rural Writing Contest.
Learn more about Jamie here.
2025 Best in Rural Writing Contest submissions are already open!
The Brief Version / Changes in 2025
Contest submissions may be previously published (as long as published no later than January 2024), and will also be read within 2-3 months of submitting with an eye towards publication on the site, as well as the forthcoming 2026 Best in Rural Writing print anthology. Go to our submit page for more details.
Submissions may be up to 7,000 words.
2025 Best in Rural Writing Contest deadline: September 15th, 2025
Enter your prose piece by selecting “contest-fiction” or “contest-nonfiction” in the genre dropdown menu in our submission manager.
Contest fee: $10
First place: $500, Second place: $200
Note: WRITER or SUPPORTER subscribers to The Milk House may enter one contest submission for free by selecting “Subscriber-Contest” in the genre menu. Click here to subscribe.
Email questions to RyanDennis@themilkhouse.org.
The Longer Version
How it Works
Ten shortlisted entries will be selected by the judge after the contest deadline. Shortlisted submissions have come from the US, Canada, Scotland, Ireland and Northern Ireland. Shortlisted authors may elect to have their submission published by The Milk House in 2026.
Afterwards, the judge will select the best short story and best essay. In the event the judge feels strongly that the two best entries are of the same genre, the top two winners may be both fiction or nonfiction submissions.
Finally, a small panel, as well as the audience, will vote to crown which piece is the Best in Rural Writing. The voting power will be divided by the audience (2/5), the judge (1/5), The Co-Sponsor (1/5) and a member of The Milk House Staff (1/5). The overall winner of the Best in Rural Writing Contest will receive $500, and the runnerup $200. The winner will be announced late 2025.
All submissions will be sent to the judge without the author’s name.
Eligibility
The Best in Rural Writing contest is open to everyone in the world. The work can have already been published (or scheduled to be published), as long as it was published no later than January 2024. By submitting, the author is agreeing to the possibility of The Milk House or the co-sponsor publishing or promoting their submission if it is selected as the top two. After publication, all rights revert back to the author.
Submissions should, in some way, be connected to “the rural.” The manner and extent to which this is done is open to the author and not necessarily limited to rural characters or rural topics.
How to Enter
Please read the following carefully to ensure your entry is successfully submitted.
Fill out the relevant details in our Submission Manager. Important: When selecting the genre of the submission be sure to choose “contest-fiction” for a short story or “contest-nonfiction” for a creative essay. You may also choose “Contest-Subscriber” to avail of the free submission if you are a WRITER or SUPPORTER subscriber to The Milk House. You find information about subscriptions to The Milk House here.
Non-subscribers will be directed to pay the $10 entry fee. The submission is not yet eligible if payment has not been received (unless a WRITER or SUPPORTER subscriber.)
You may still enter a “regular submission,” seeking to be published on The Milk House site but not a part of the contest. Any entries without “contest” in the genre will be considered as such. Any questions or problems please email RyanDennis@themilkhouse.org.
To submit a short story or essay to the contest, please click here.
The Milk House and The Daily Yonder present the
2024 Best in Rural Writing Contest
The Winner
As the decision was split between the judge, the volunteer staff member of The Milk House and the co-sponsor, the overall winner of the 2024 Best in Rural Writing Contest and recipient of $500 was once again chosen by audience vote.
Congratulations to Jeremy Haworth and his short story “Blood Brother.”
You can read “Blood Brother” here or listen to it below.
The Finalists
In mid-December, Judge Dr. Chea Parton announced her selection for Best Essay and Best Short Story for the 2024 Best in Rural Writing Contest.
The decision for the overall winner, and recipient of the top prize of $500, was be split between the judge (1/5th), The Daily Yonder (1/5th), The Milk House (1/5th) and the Audience Vote (2/5th).
Last year the winner was decided by the Audience Vote. Click on the links below to read, or have the finalists read for you, their submissions.
Voting was open until January 7th, 2025 midnight GMT.
The Shortlist
Nonfiction
- “A Labor of Love” by Brooks Lamb
- “Haying Season” by Bill Conlogue
- “Rebounders” by Don Stewart
- “Milking Cows and Throwing Curves” by Randy Hisner
Fiction
- “The Birth” by Pearl Benjamin
- “Blood Brother” by Jeremy Haworth
- “Bucolia” by Danielle Barr
- “Flystrike” by Pearl Benjamin
- “Johnny’s Coming” by Gwyl Weatherford
- “Agata and the Mice” by Peyton Ellas
Biographies of the shortlisted entries will be forthcoming soon. Check back here on December 15th for the announcement of the Best Short Story and Best Essay winners.
Meet the 2024 Judge
The judge for the 2024 Best in Rural Writing Contest is Dr. Chea Parton. Dr. Parton currently runs Literacy In Place, where she seeks to catalogue rural YA books and provides teaching resources, hosts the Reading Rural YAL podcast where she gives book talks and interviews rural YA authors, runs the Rural Teen Writing Contest and is co-chair of the Whippoorwill Book Award for Rural YA Literature selection committee. Learn more about Chea here!
Meet the Sponsor
The Daily Yonder offers news, analysis and stories from Rural America, free for readers to enjoy. From agriculture to arts and culture, The Daily Yonder covers the topics that affect those in small towns and the diverse countryside around them. Visit dailyyonder.com to get more great rural stories, or sign up to their newsletter to receive rural reporting directly in your inbox. Alternatively, you can listen and subscribe to their podcast, Rural Remix, wherever you get your podcasts.
2023 Best in Rural Writing Contest
The inaugural Best in Rural Writing Contest was cosponsored by AcresUSA and judged by Irish novelist Gráinne Murphy.
The contest received entries from all over the world, with shortlisted authors coming from the US, Canada, Scotland, Ireland and Northern Ireland.
The shortlist of the 2023 Best in Rural Writing Contest, as well as the judge’s comments, can be found here.
You can also purchase the eBook or PDF of the ten shortlisted authors.
Congratulations to Laura Lewis. Her essay “Leaving” won the honor of 2023 Best in Rural Writing.
Barbara Schmidt was runner-up with her short story “Rural Route One.”