The Common Review announces its first annual Short Story Prize!

Deadline for manuscripts: Manuscript envelopes may be postmarked no later than January 31, 2010. All manuscripts must be mailed to The Common Review Short Story Prize, The Great Books Foundation, 35 E. Wacker Dr., Suite 400, Chicago IL 60601. Electronic submissions will not be considered. No reading fee. SASE's are optional. Manuscript length: 500 to 5,000 words. Please include a cover letter with your contact information. Manuscripts will be judged blindly, so no names on the story itself. Contact Molly Benningfield, project manager of The Common Review, at tcr(at)greatbooks.org for more information.

All prize winners, plus two Honorable Mentions, will receive a free copy of The Great Books Foundation Short Story Omnibus and a one-year subscription to The Common Review. The first prize winner will be published in the magazine during 2010.

Contest judges for the finalists in the competition are novelist Achy Obejas, former Poetry magazine editor Joe Parisi, and Chicago journalist Danny Postel. All three serve on the editorial advisory board of The Common Review. •