Submission Guidelines for the 2024 Memoir Showcase

Please follow the submission guidelines. Pieces that are too long will not be considered.

IMPORTANT: Give your piece a unique title. DO NOT title it with the theme. The judging process is blind, and we use your unique title to identify your piece.

Submissions are open: June 12

Submissions are closed:  EXTENDED to AUG. 25th!

The theme for 2024: But I Did It Anyway

Note: Feel free to interpret this theme in any way that sparks your interest.

Length:  Pieces should be FIVE pages or less.  Double-spaced, 12-point font. (Can be less than five pages.) 

Fee:  Submission Fees for IMWA members and nonmembers: 

1 submission:  $50 members/$60 for nonmembers

2 submissions: $85 for members/$95 for nonmembers

3 submissions: $125 for members/$135 for nonmembers 

4 submissions: $160 for members/$170 for nonmembers

To Become a Member: https://sdmwa.org/join/

 (Do it! You will get discounts, opportunities like our Memoir Mondays room to write on Zoom, monthly programming galore, and it’s only $50/year!)

We have a limited number of scholarships to cover submission costs for writers experiencing financial hardship. Please email us at Marnifreedman18@gmail.com

How the Memoir Showcase Works:

Eight to ten winning pieces will be selected (top eight to ten submissions) and notified by October that they will be in the Memoir Showcase. These eight to ten stories plus an additional twenty pieces will be featured in the Showcase anthology, Shaking the Tree: Brazen. Short. Memoir, Volume VIII.

Submissions will be read and judged by a panel of judges. 

Winning Showcase writers will be assigned a writing coach. Writers will work with their writing coach to refine their theme and then cut or polish their piece for approximately one month. Note: If you do not want to refine, cut, or polish your piece with a writing coach, then this is not a good contest for you to enter.  

The directors will hold auditions and select actors. Writers will then meet for a roundtable read of their pieces with their selected professional actors and their director. Writers will have the opportunity to hear their pieces read and offer input during a collaborative discussion.

The directors will take notes from the collaborative roundtable and work with the actors.  

The pieces will be performed live, on stage.  Show Date and Location to be announced. Winning Showcase authors must commit to being present at the Show. 

If you have questions or would like to receive a scholarship, please contact Marni at: Marnifreedman18@gmail.com.  

Please put Memoir Showcase 2024 in the subject line. Best of Luck!