aLiterature Submissions

Trafika Europe publishes original and translated literature from contemporary Europe. For these submissions, we are looking for pieces translated into English from any language or original pieces written in English language. The author of a submitted piece must have some connection to Europe—i.e. the author must be European, in Europe, or primarily based in Europe even if they are not a citizen or born-native of a European country.  In the past, we have published European authors who now live outside of Europe as well as non-European authors who live or publish in Europe.

Furthermore, we have begun altering our view of contemporary. All submissions must have never been published prior to being submitted to the contest. For translations, if the original language was published further in the past but a translation was never published, the original can be from the 1400s or from 2024. For any original pieces written in English, our sole condition is that they have not been previously published whether on a blog, in a journal, or in physical print.

Two Prizes

We are offering two prizes: Trafika Europe’s Prize for Prose and Trafika Europe’s Andrew Singer Prize for Verse.  The latter honors our former director and founder of the project who was also a poet himself. We do not restrict on genre whatsoever; however, these two categories form the basis for our two prizes. If you write graphic novels in verse, then your submission is considered verse, for example. Our judges panel will select a first-place winner as well as two runners-up for each prize. Winners receive $500 and runners-up are each awarded $250.

Excerpt Length

  • Prose submissions should be between 3,000 and 5,000 words. Exceptions can made for micro fictions or pieces of shorter prose if the author/translator finds that the piece can stand alone and truly represents their style. An option is to submit multiple micro fictions/shorter prose pieces that may or may not connect.
  • Poetry submissions should consist of ten poems, or 10–20 pages if the poem(s) is/are long.
  • Drama pieces and graphic literature (whether verse or prose) should not exceed 20 pages.

General Guidelines

For your submission to the prize, we ask that you send the following in a .docx (Word Doc) or PDF (.docx/Word Doc is preferred):

  • Submission must be in English (either translation or original language)
  • For any translations, you should include the corresponding excerpt in original language
    • NOTE: We will not be publishing this issue bilingually as we will not be awarding prizes to both translators and authors.
  • An email or permission form from the original author or publisher granting permission to submit the translated excerpt.
  • A photo and a bio for the translator and/or the author. Bios should be written in the third person and no more than 150 words.
  • Links to social media of the author and/or the translator (if applicable).

 

Once you have everything put together, do the following:

What Next?

Submissions will be accepted until December 20, 2024 at 11:59pm. Our judges panel will then meet with the goal of creating a short list at the beginning of 2025 before deciding on a winner and runners-up. All ten authors/translators on the short list will be published in our first issue of 2025. Once short listed authors/translators are selected, an initial announcement will be made and the TE Editing Team will be in touch to finalize permissions and discuss participation on TE Radio. 

 

Trafika Europe