Creative Nonfiction is seeking new essays about WAITING. - Deadline September 22, 2014

Creative Nonfiction is seeking new essays about WAITING. We’re looking for well-crafted true stories of delays, postponements, and pauses that explore and examine our relationship with time.

The theme is open to interpretation. Maybe you’re waiting tables or you’re on a waiting list; you could be waiting for the bus or the bell or a friend or a phone call. Maybe you’re waiting for a diagnosis, or for your ship to come in, or for Godot. Maybe you’re expecting. Maybe your story isn’t about you at all; maybe it’s a true story about a town under siege, or a scientific experiment, or a lady-in-waiting … However you approach the subject, we can’t wait to read your work.

Submissions must be vivid and dramatic; they should feature a strong and compelling narrative and reach beyond a strictly personal or anecdotal experience for some universal or deeper meaning. (Put another way: something should happen, and it should matter to readers.) Our readers also like to learn new things: tell us something, whether it’s about the history of clocks or how the mind processes time, or maybe about how waiting-period laws vary from state to state. We’re looking for well-written prose, rich with detail and a distinctive voice; all essays must tell true stories and be factual accurate.

Creative Nonfiction editors will award $1000 for Best Essay and $500 for runner-up. All submissions will be considered for publication in a special “Waiting” issue of the magazine.

Guidelines: Essays must be previously unpublished and no longer than 4,000 words. There is a $20 reading fee (or send a reading fee of $25 to include a 4-issue subscription to Creative Nonfiction—US submitters only); multiple entries are welcome ($20/essay) as are entries from outside the United States (though due to shipping costs we cannot offer the subscription deal).

You may submit essays online or by regular mail:

By regular mail Postmark deadline September 22, 2014
Please send manuscript, accompanied by cover letter with complete contact information including the title of the essay and word count; SASE or email for response; and payment to:

Creative Nonfiction
Attn: WAITING
5501 Walnut Street, Suite 202
Pittsburgh, PA 15232

Online Deadline to upload files: 11:59 pm EST September 22, 2014
To submit, please click the appropriate link:

Reading fee + 4-issue subscription ($25; US submitters only)
Reading fee only ($20)