The Breakout! Prize brings visibility to and supports outstanding undergraduate and graduate student writers. Winners have gone on to win prizes like the PEN/Dau, receive fellowships, sign with agents, publish books, and develop rich and rewarding literary careers.

Two writers, one in prose and one in poetry, will each receive: 

• A $1000 cash prize
• Publication in the Summer 2025 issue of Epiphany
• A one-year print subscription to Epiphany
  

Eligibility: To apply you must have been enrolled in an accredited university, at least part-time, for the academic years 2024 or 2025. The prize is open to both undergraduate students and graduate students receiving a Masters degree. PhD candidates are not eligible. Students need not be enrolled in MFA programs or creative writing programs.

Submission: Applications are to be submitted by individual writers. Interested applicants must submit a creative manuscript and a “Statement of Interest,” which includes the author’s enrollment status and the name of college or university attended, and an email address and telephone number for the department head of the student’s program of study or academic advisor (if applicable). Prose manuscripts may consist of one short story, a novel excerpt, or a work of creative nonfiction not to exceed 2000 words. Poetry manuscripts may include up to five poems of up to 10 pages, with each poem beginning on a new page, and using a 12-point font, unless deviation from this form is necessary for the integrity of the project. We are not currently accepting co-written works or works in translation. Submissions must be written primarily in English.

Judging: Honorees will be selected on the basis of the work’s creative merit by the editorial team of Epiphany, and from the finalists two winners will be chosen by our judges, Victoria Chang in poetry and Hilary Leichter in prose.

About our judges:

Victoria Chang’s latest book of poems, With My Back to the World was published in 2024 by Farrar, Straus & Giroux and Corsair Books in the U.K., and received the Forward Prize for Best Collection of Poetry, and was named a Best Book of the Year by NPR, The Guardian, Lithub, and Electric Literature. Her most recent book of poetry, The Trees Witness Everything was published by Copper Canyon Press and Corsair Books in the U.K. in 2022, and was named one of the Best Books of 2022 by the New Yorker and The Guardian.

Her nonfiction book, Dear Memory (Milkweed Editions), was published in 2021 and was named a favorite nonfiction book of 2021 by Electric Literature and Kirkus. OBIT (Copper Canyon Press, 2020), her book of poems, was named a New York Times Notable Book, a Time Must-Read Book, and received the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award in Poetry, and the PEN/Voelcker Award. It was also longlisted for a National Book Award and named a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Griffin International Poetry Prize. She has also received a Guggenheim Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and the Chowdhury Prize in Literature. She serves as the Bourne Chair in Poetry at Georgia Tech and as the Director of Poetry@Tech. Her poems have been translated into many languages including Italian, Chinese, Spanish, Romanian, and Dutch.

Hilary Leichter is the author of the novel Temporary (Coffee House Press/Emily Books), which was a finalist for The Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and the NYPL Young Lions Fiction Prize, and was longlisted for the PEN/Hemingway Award. Temporary was named a best book of 2020 by NPR, Elle, Vulture, and Publishers Weekly. Her new novel, Terrace Story (Ecco), was named a best book of 2023 by Time Magazine, The New Yorker, and the LA Times. Terrace Story is now available in paperback. 

Hilary’s reviews, essays, and short stories have appeared in The New Yorker, n+1, The New York Times, Conjunctions and elsewhere. Her work in Harper’s Magazine won the 2021 National Magazine Award in Fiction. She has been awarded fellowships from Yaddo, the Folger Shakespeare Library, and the New York Foundation for the Arts, and was the summer 2022 Picador Guest Professor for Literature at the University of Leipzig. She was named one of Crain’s 2023 40 Under 40. 

Hilary teaches at Columbia University where she is a Lecturer and the Interim Director of Undergraduate Studies in Creative Writing. She lives with her husband and daughter in Brooklyn, NY. 

Fee: The entry fee of $10 can be paid via Submittable to subsidize administrative costs associated with the application review.

Deadline: Entries must be received by April 15th, 2025.

Epiphany is a semiannual literary journal and independent nonprofit 501(c)(3) that supports practicing writers at every stage of their careers. During our open reading periods we consider every submission seriously. We also publish online essays, fiction, and poetry on a rolling basis. For 18+ years we have published work that transcends convention and demonstrates literary mastery. Our name derives from the Joycean idea that an epiphany is the moment when “the soul of the commonest object… seems to us radiant.” Like the semicolon in our logo, an epiphany is a pause in time followed by a shift in thinking.
 

All applicants will receive a complimentary 1-year digital subscription to Epiphany. The code to access this subscription will be found in the receipt email for each submission.