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Tobias Wolff Award for Fiction

Born in 1945 in Alabama, Wolff has been regarded as the master of memoir and short stories. His best known work, This Boy's Life, recounts the story of his early childhood years in the Northwest and was the basis for a 1993 motion picture starring Robert DeNiro and Leonardo DiCaprio. A three-time winner of the O. Henry Award, Tobias Wolff is celebrated for his collections of short stories, novels, and memoirs. Wolff's second collection of short stories, Back in the World (1985), was hailed as a sensitive work of fiction focusing primarily on the experiences of returning Vietnam veterans. In literary circles, Wolff is revered as much as a teacher as he is as a writer. After completing a Stegner Fellowship at Stanford University, Wolff served as the Jones Lecturer in Creative Writing at that institution (1975-1978). He later spent 17 years leading the Creative Writing Program at Syracuse University (1980-97). In 1997, he returned to Stanford where he currently resides and teaches.

Wolff is the past editor of various anthologies, including The Picador Book of Contemporary American Short Stories (1993), The Vintage Book of Contemporary American Short Stories (1994), Best American Short Stories (1994), Best New American Voices (2000), and Writers Harvest 3 (2000). His writings have appeared in the Washington Post, New Yorker, Granta, and Esquire.


1st Prize --- $1,000
Final Judge: Peter Rock

First place winners will be published in the Bellingham Review. Second and third place winners and finalists may be considered for publication.

Submission Guidelines

1. Entry Fees:

• $18 for the first entry (one short story).
• Each additional entry is $10.
• Please make checks payable to: The Bellingham Review.
• Everyone entering the competition will receive a complimentary two-issue subscription to Bellingham Review.
• International Submissions: The Bellingham Review is only able to process international money orders made out in US dollars. Please include an extra $10 to cover the cost of mailing a subscription overseas. If you would like to enter the contest without receiving an international subscription, let us know, and you will owe only the $18 entry fee.

2. Deadline: Submissions must be postmarked between December 1, 2007, and March 15, 2008.

3. For each entry, submit the following:

• 3" x 5" index card stating the title of the work, the category (fiction), the author's name, phone number, address and email. Please make sure the writing is legible on this card. The author's name must not appear anywhere on the manuscript; the index card will serve as the only record of your entry.
• A check made out to The Bellingham Review.
• A self-addressed stamped envelope for announcement of winners. The author's name must not appear anywhere on the manuscript.

4. Maximum length for prose is 8,000 words. Novel excerpts up to 8,000 words are accepted.

5. No previously published works, or works accepted for publication, are eligible. Work may be under consideration elsewhere, but must be withdrawn from the competition if accepted for publication. Current students, faculty, or staff of WWU are not eligible to enter the contest.

6. Send entries to:
Tobias Wolff
Bellingham Review
Mail Stop 9053
Western Washington University
Bellingham, WA 98225

7. Manuscripts will not be returned. Winners will be announced by July 2008.

8. To download a printer friendly, Microsoft Word version of the submision guidlines click here.