>Collection

>Since I began writing short stories in the last semester of my MFA program (once the novel was finished–hah!) I’ve been aiming toward a collection of stories set in a small town. Recent work has veered away from that small town setting, but I realized that the stories I finished do make a collection. Eleven stories, five of them published so far, and a total of 198 pages. So I organized them as a collection yesterday and, since I know querying agents with a story collection is tough, began looking for contests to submit them to. In the process, I found CollectedStories which, among other things, includes a contest calendar for both individual stories and collections. I missed the deadline for the Mary McCarthy Prize from Sarabande Books, but the deadline for Prairie Schooner’s Book Prize is March 15, so that’s what I’m going to aim for. My collection is called Savage Source.