Submitting to Boudin
Please note that current McNeese State University students and employees are not eligible to submit. McNeese alumni are welcome to submit if it has been at least three years since they graduated.
2025 Boudin Flash Fiction Chapbook Contest
Final judge: Roxane Gay
Deadline: June 15th, 2025
Prizes: The winner will receive $1,000, 25 author copies, an author-signing at AWP 2026, inclusion of one or more pieces in The McNeese Review’s 2026 issue, promotion in monthly issues of Boudin (“the spicy online cousin of The McNeese Review”), and a three-year subscription to The McNeese Review. The winning manuscript will be published as a special issue of The McNeese Review and distributed by TRP: The University Press of SHSU.
Two runners-up will be offered publication of individual pieces in a monthly issue of Boudin, and will receive a three-year subscription to The McNeese Review.
Fee: $15
Manuscript details: 25-40 manuscript pages of flash fiction (no more than one piece per page) in a readable font like 12-point Times New Roman. It’s fine if some of the individual works have been published elsewhere (aside from Boudin or The McNeese Review), but the manuscript can’t have been published as a whole. Please acknowledge these publications in your cover letter, but not in your manuscript. Include only a title page and a table of contents.
Your name and contact info should NOT appear anywhere on the manuscript. Please include a cover letter and third-person bio on the Submittable submission form, and acknowledge any individual pieces of the chapbook that have been published elsewhere.
Judging: The first round will be read anonymously by McNeese State University’s MFA students and faculty. The final round will be read anonymously by Roxane Gay, who will determine the winner and two runners-up.
Roxane Gay is an American writer, professor, editor, and social commentator. Gay is the author of The New York Times best-selling essay collection Bad Feminist (2014), as well as the short story collection Ayiti (2011), the novel An Untamed State (2014), the short story collection Difficult Women (2017), and the memoir Hunger (2017).
Other: Co-authored manuscripts are fine. Submitting multiple manuscripts is fine with entry fees for each. Simultaneous submissions are fine; please withdraw immediately through Submittable if your work is accepted elsewhere. Please note that the AWP author signing will take place at the Boudin/McNeese Review booth, and does not include travel expenses.
Pride–June (Guest Editor: Robbie Hess)
Once again, we are living through a pivotal moment in history. Queer lives, specifically our trans siblings, are under attack. The current presidential administration has removed LGBTQ+ and HIV resources from government websites. Google has removed Pride month and several other diversity holidays from their calendar. The National Park Service has removed “transgender” and “queer” from the Stonewall Monument website. All of these attacks are meant to do one thing: erase queer people.
Boudin is currently looking for creative work that speaks to queer existence and experience. We are looking for fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and visual art that speaks on the beautiful moments of queer life, the not-so-beautiful moments, and even the everyday uneventful moments. The goal of this issue if to remind everyone that queer people have always been here and will always be here. We cannot be erased.
No fee! Aim to keep the fiction/CNF/hybrids under 5,000 or so words. You may submit up to three poems/microfictions (under 500 words). We are also open for visual art.
Boudin fine print
Please only submit original work. If your work borrows from or quotes another writer, please make explicit mention of this with your submission, giving full attribution to any material you’re using from another source.
Please limit your submissions to four issues per calendar year.
In all genres, we are particularly interested in seeing work from women, people of color, LGBTQ writers, non-binary writers, people with disabilities, and other underrepresented groups.
No material published in Boudin may be reprinted or reproduced, in whole or in part, without the permission of the authors. Writers retain all rights to their work. We ask for ourselves only that Boudin be credited with first publication. Unfortunately, we are not a paying market; contributors to Boudin will receive our thanks and the promise that we’ll promote your work.
We encourage you to simultaneously submit your work while it’s under consideration at Boudin. If your submission is accepted by another publication, please withdraw immediately through Submittable.
We look forward to seeing your work! Surprise us. Spice it up!
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To learn more about applying to McNeese State University’s Creative Writing MFA program, please visit Submissions for details.