Dear Keith and Cathy, et al., 

Perhaps our fiction writers can help clarify this. It's my understanding that some novels have chapters (even sometimes many) that had been published, but the work as a whole was "new." I don't know the rules for fiction contests, however. Since a novella is more like a short novel than a book of short stories (obviously), in regard to contests, I'd really like to know how they operate--I never noticed. 

On first reaction, I thought the novella under discussion here was a new, though partly previously published work (ok, 3/4 published) but nonetheless, the logic of Keith's question seems to be that either it's been published in part (thus ineligible), or not at all, as an entity, in terms of our contest eligibility. This doesn't apply to short story collections for contests, I believe, because all the stories could have been published, but the collection (as a new entity is still eligible for all its contents... Please correct me, someone, if I'm wrong. 

I'd hate to lose novellas for consideration that are already somewhat ratified professionally by others if the whole (greater than the sum of the parts, I hope) is a new entity. So, to say none of it should have been published can exclude some maybe significant works. Where to draw the line on this slippery slope is another matter. I can see that less than half the total length is one possible standard, but I, personally, wouldn't even reject the 3/4 published book. This new entity (presumably) is still unpublished, after all. 

Of course, I'm not in charge of this decision for the Press and the possible legal ramifications. I'd hate to exclude works that have been partially published, myself; they may constitute a level of quality and vouchsafe some pre-publication publicity even, depending on where the pieces of it have already appeared. Certainly, this exclusion is the opposite of poetry contest eligibility, and probably short story contests. The best correlative would be novel contests, I think, and I'm just ignorant of the parameters of the eligibility for those. 

Erring on the side, as usual, of liberality.

David  

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From: Miami University Creative Writing Faculty [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Tuma, Keith W. [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Thursday, June 09, 2011 11:46 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Novella query

Hello All,

As you know, one of the rules of our novella contest is that previously published works are not eligible. Today we have an email from someone asking if, given that rule, his novella is eligible for consideration. His novella consists of 4 sections. Three of these have been published as short stories. But the entire novella has not been published.

I think the only answer to this is that it’s not eligible. I think that also means that our rule is really this: “If any part of the novella has been published it cannot be entered in the contest.” Does that make sense? Otherwise we get into making a whole new series of rules about how much and what (or as what) and so on.

We should probably clarify our language.

Do any of you know of precedents in other contests elsewhere that I should be aware of?

Keith