Category Archives: contests

And the Flood Did Finally Subside

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With the excitement of our print release last month and the rising stress of upcoming finals, we’ve been rather lax in updating noah. Nonetheless, we certainly do plan to continue publishing new work and working to grow our little publication into something larger. Given our recent lack of editor-reader communication, we thought it might be useful to let everyone know what to look forward to starting this week and into the near future.

-Digital publication of material from our print edition
To add suspense and intrigue to our first print release, we kept the selected pieces “print-only.” However, part of our mission at noah is to provide a fluid multi-platform publication, so we’ll be digitally publishing some of our favorite work from the print edition starting this week. Also, keep your eye out for a pdf version of the November print edition to be posted soon on the website; we wouldn’t want to leave folks with tablets, Nooks, Kindles, etc. or limited access to Ithaca, NY (and/or stamps and postage) out in the cold.

-Interviews and Other Cultural Ephemera
Although noah is first and foremost a publication of original creative work, primarily writing, we’re also interested in giving a face and voice to writers and artists outside of their work itself. Instead of being disembodied names, we’d like to get into the heads of people doing creative work to talk about process, theory, projects, and fears. Look for interviews, profiles, or something of a similar nature to start appearing soon.

-A New Contest!
We really enjoyed sponsoring the single sentence story contest in October and reading all of your entries, so we’ll be setting up another open contest soon. We’re finalizing our ideas for the second contest, which will be different but just as fun as the first, and once we know the theme, rules, and awesome prizes, we’ll post a call for contest submissions. Look out for something by the end of December or beginning of January.

-Brand New Work
Contests and interviews are fun and all, but we’re still focused on showcasing the original creative work of writers of any age and qualification, from anywhere and everywhere. Many of the writers featured in noah thus far have been tied to the Ithaca community, but we’re adamant about spreading the word and publishing work from writers both unknown and established. Please submit your best work to noahmagazine@gmail.com and spread the word!

As a final note, we’d like to mention that one primary goal of the editors at noah is to foster a creative and intellectual community of writers and readers; we’re excited by what we’ve done so far, but it’d be wonderful to see the communal aspect of our publication grow. Is there anything you’d like to see in noah? What about writing do you want to discuss? Have any philosophical conundrums that need solving? Please leave a comment on our website or on Facebook, or shoot us an email. We don’t want noah to be just a cold, sterile place for work to be placed on a pedestal, but instead a place to discuss and critique, to learn and to theorize. Discourse is encouraged.


And the single sentence story contest winner is…

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Mariella grinned with secret pride—the sort a rebel must feel, to know of a bomb well planted—when, at 12:01 am, the state of Texas executed her son.

-J.R. DeLara

Mr. DeLara, of Arlington, Virginia, is an Ithaca native and an editor at a large international organization in Washington, D.C. When he’s not writing one-sentence fiction, he’s producing ad copy or marketing materials, which, he says, are much the same thing. For his efforts, Mr. DeLara will receive (1) signed copy of Ten Thousand Saints by Eleanor Henderson, along with featured publication in our special print edition, due out on 11/11/11.

The editors would like to thank everyone who entered our first-ever contest, and we’ll be sure to hold more in the future so you can all try to win again. Since we received so many great single sentence stories, we’re planning to put up a few of the honorable mentions (along with original, multi-sentence creative content!) at a later date, after all our readers have had time to appreciate the winning entry.

Time to board the ark, metaphorically speaking

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With 54 minutes until we reach the deadline for October’ s single sentence story contest, we can’t think of a better moment to offer our readers and writers an outline for what to expect over the next few weeks of noah‘s infancy.

Tomorrow, after the last entries have trickled in and we’ve taken a break to catch up on sleep (all too rare, these days), the judging process will begin to determine who wins the signed copy of Eleanor Henderson’s Ten Thousand Saints and featured publication in both our web and print editions. Keep an eye out for the winner’s publication, which should happen sometime over the next few days. In the meantime, check out our new “Meet the Editors” page, which includes contact info and brief bios of noah’ s intrepid editorial staff.

After publishing the winning sentence, we’ll begin publishing some of the wonderful general (i.e. multiple sentence) submissions we’ve been receiving, and noah will be up and running in its digital format. Nonetheless, please keep submitting your fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, etc., as there are eight days until the final deadline to be eligible for our first print edition and we want to put out the best magazine possible! Contributors published in the print edition will receive a contributor’ s copy of the limited, hand-made journal, so be sure to get your work in early enough for consideration.

Either way, keep submitting. We’d like noah to continue growing and improving, and the only way that will happen is through excellent work and support from writers and readers like you. As editors, we’re merely curators of your most exemplary work, which we cannot curate unless you send it in. So keep writing, keep reading, and keep submitting. In the meantime, check back for stories, poems, and announcements — noah is just getting started!

Important Dates and Deadlines:

Oct. 24 – Last date for print-eligible submissions

Nov. 11- Release of our first, exceedingly rare print edition

October Deadlines!

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Hey writers and readers! Don’t forget to submit by October 24th if you want to be considered for the first print edition of noah. Also, anyone hoping to win a signed copy of Ten Thousand Saints needs to get a single sentence story to us by Oct. 16th. The deadlines are approaching quickly, so get creative!

October Contest: Write a Single Sentence Story

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You could win this with one sentence!

Sometimes the hardest part of writing fiction is figuring out what to say with that second sentence, so we’ve decided to do away with it entirely. For our first ever fiction contest, the author with the most impressive single sentence story, as judged by our editors, will win a signed hardcover copy of Eleanor Henderson’s best-selling, critically acclaimed debut novel Ten Thousand Saints. The winning story will also be featured in noah’s special 11/11/11 print edition.

The rules? Simple. Tell a story in one sentence of any length, about anything. Hemingway did it (“For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”); so can you. Send your story (and your name!) in the body of an email to noahmagazine@gmail.com, with the subject line: “October Contest Submission.” The winner and any others chosen for publication will be contacted after the deadline via email.

To be considered for the prize, submissions must be received by Sunday, October 16th. Though only one writer can win the grand prize, all submissions will be considered for publication on the website and in print.

Time’s already growing short, so get writing and send us your best work!

For more information about Ten Thousand Saints, visit Henderson’s website, or check out these major reviews:

The Onion’s AV Club

The New York Times

NPR (with excerpt)