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Hybrid Grain Contest

Sponsored by the Cheryl & Henry Kloppenburg Foundation 

Contest is now closed.

Have you written a piece that defies genres?

Then submit your most experimental, literary-based work to the Hybrid Grain Contest! We want work that bends rules. Think conceptual, outside the Rubik’s cube, mashups. Think Oulipo and algorithms, graphics and collage, photos, sound work, visual poetry (vispo), found poems, erasure, bio poetry, neural fiction, constraint-based writing.

 

View Entry Guidelines Payments

Contest runs from August 1 to October 15, 2025.

1st prize

$1000 Cash Prize and Publication

2nd prize

$750 Cash Prize and Publication

3rd prize

$500 Cash Prize and Publication

Some writers and examples to inspire you: Sue Howe, Paul Dutton, Lily Hoang, Renee Gladman, Charles Bernstein and A.E. Stallings, Jason Huff,  Adam Dickinson, Sylvia Legris, Bhanu Kapil, Steven Ross Smith, Sacha Archer, and Jordan Abel. 

 

Please keep in mind when submitting hybrid/experimental pieces that Grain is a print publication. Video or audio can't be accepted. The page size is 6 inches by 9 inches with a ½ inch margin from text to centre fold and a ¾ inch margin from text to outside edge of page; text or images that spill into these margins run the risk of being cut off or not visible. We only print in black and white, so coloured text/images will need to be converted to greyscale.

Each entrant receives a free subscription to Grain magazine.

2025 Judges

Sacha Archer

Sacha Archer is a Canadian concrete poet. His most recent book is Second Sight published by Redfox Press. Some of Archer’s other publications include Havana Syndrome (The Blasted Tree), Sweet Sixteen (Zimzalla), cellsea (Timglaset), Empty Building (Penteract Press), Mother’s Milk (Timglaset), which was included on CBC’s best poetry books of 2020 list, Perverse Density (above/ground press) and In Remembrance of Lost Children (Paper View Books). Find him on Facebook and Instagram @sachaarcher.

Read more about Sacha here. 

 

Photo Credit: Sandro Pehar

Eric Schmaltz

Eric Schmaltz is the author of Borderblur Poetics: Intermedia and Avant-Gardism in Canada, 1963-1988 (University of Calgary Press), Surfaces (Invisible Publishing), and I Confess (Coach House Books). He is the editor of Another Order: Selected Works of Judith Copithorne (Talonbooks) and co-editor of I Want to Tell You Love by bill bissett and Milton Acorn. Working in both critical and creative contexts, his work has been published in Jacket2, Canadian Literature, The Capilano Review, Best American Experimental Writing: 2020, Arc Poetry, The Globe and Mail, and elsewhere. He lives in Kjipuktuk/Halifax.

Read more about Eric here. 

Entry Guidelines 

  1. The fee for Canadian entrants is $40 (includes GST) for a maximum of five pages.
     
  2. The fee for US entrants is $50 and the fee for international entrants is $60, payable in US or Canadian funds.

Please make your cheque or money order payable to the Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild (SWG). You may also pay online via Stripe (see below). Every entrant receives a one-year (four-issue) subscription to Grain Magazine, starting after payment is received.

  1. Each entry must be original, unpublished, not submitted or accepted elsewhere for publication or broadcast, nor entered simultaneously in any other contest or competition. Work that has appeared online is considered published and is not eligible.
     
  2. All entries in this contest will be judged anonymously, on merit alone. The judges' decisions are final. Judging is anonymous. Do not print, type, or write your name on the text pages of your entry.
     
  3. Entries must be accompanied by one cover page, regardless of the number of entries submitted, and must provide the following information. If you are submitting via email, include this information in the body of your email.
    • Your name, complete mailing address, telephone number, and email address.
    • Title of your entry or entries.
    • Method of Payment (if submitting by email).
       
  4. Entries must be printable on 8 1/2 x 11-inch pages and must be sent as individual files if emailed.
     
  5. Names of the winners and titles of the winning entries of the Kloppenburg Hybrid Grain Contest will be posted on the Grain website in February. Contest winners will be notified directly either by telephone or by email.
     
  6. MAIL: Send your entry or entries to:

Kloppenburg Hyprid Contest
PO Box 3986
Regina, SK  S4P 3R9
Canada

Mailed entries will not be returned. Keep a copy of your entry.

  1. EMAIL: Send your entry or entries as individual files to grainmag@skwriter.com with a subject line that contains the author’s full name, contest name, and payment method (cheque, money order, or Stripe). For example, Jane Doe, Hybrid Grain, Cheque OR Stripe. REMEMBER: Judging is anonymous. Do not put your name on your entry. Acceptable file formats are Word (.doc or .docx) or PDF.
     
  2. Make your cheque or money order payable to the Saskatchewan Writers’ Guild (SWG). If you want to pay online, use the Stripe order form below. If payment is from a name other than that which is on your submission, please let us know.
     
  3. All entries must be POSTMARKED or EMAILED by the deadline. Entries postmarked or received by email after this date will not be accepted.
     
  4. Entries by fax will not be accepted.
 

FAQ's

You may enter as many times as you like, provided you include another entry fee for each entry beyond the first; therefore, two Canadian entries would cost $80.

No. If you are sending more than one piece per submission, send only one cover page that includes all the information for every piece of hybrid writing you are entering up to five pages. [Example, a one-page piece could be mostly visual and another four-page piece mostly text]. Don't forget to include your complete contact information!

Your Grain subscription will be increased by four issues for each entry fee received beyond the first. So, if you enter twice, you will receive a two-year (eight-issue) subscription to Grain Magazine. If you already have a subscription to Grain, we'll simply add another four issues to your current subscription for each entry fee received. If you’d rather your additional entry fee go towards a subscription for someone else, please indicate this on your cover letter, and provide your friend’s name and mailing address.

No. Winners and the names of the winning pieces will be posted on our website in February.

Because we are using a postmarked deadline, if the deadline falls on a day when the post offices are closed, we will accept entries postmarked on the next business day.

 

Payment

Pay Online!

You may pay for your online entry by paper means (cheque or money order) or online via Stripe. Use the form below to submit your online payment. Remember: each entry of UP TO five pages is one entry fee. If you submit an additional entry of UP TO fives pages that’s two entry fees. All fees are subject to GST (5 %). 

After paying, please print a copy of the Stripe receipt for your records. We will match your payment with your entry by your name. If there is any doubt, we will contact you to confirm your receipt number.


Our Funders

Grain is grateful to its funders: Sask Lotteries, Canada Council for the Arts, and the financial support from its private donors.
Grain is published by the Saskatchewan Writers' Guild.