$3000 Winner Laura Cody: Elegant Literature Award For New Writers (Message Received)

Elegant Literature is a short fiction magazine, award, and school exclusively for upcoming writers to start their career.

Laura Cody's story "Dread" won the Message Received theme in August of 2025. Read her and hundreds of other great short stories for free:
https://www.elegantliterature.com/mag...

To enter the current contest go here:
https://www.elegantliterature.com/con...

About Elegant Literature
Elegant Literature is the first short fiction magazine to pay professional rates but not accept submissions from pros. Our mission is to help new writers earn their first publishing credits—and their first dollar—from writing stories.

To date, we have published over 300 new authors across 43 issues, and put more than $200,000 into the hands of writers around the globe. It’s free to submit to the magazine, and we publish monthly.

Elegant Literature’s Award For New Writers provides $42,000 in monetary prizes each year. Every month one story is selected for the $3000 award. Together, the award and magazine serve to give the next generation of authors easier access to paid publishing opportunities and highlight some of the best emerging talent in the industry.

Elegant Literature is also much more than a magazine. We are a supportive community of new writers, and our education hub, AuthorHQ, provides a place where even those brand new to storytelling can learn and practice their craft. Each week an award-winning author or industry professional joins us in live, small group trainings to share their experience with the next generation of emerging talent. Over 50 hours of recorded lessons are available to members. With stand-alone workshops and multi-lesson courses, writers will learn the craft and business of storytelling directly from those who have come before.

The AuthorHQ provides accessible and affordable writing education, from the basics through advanced material, and the varied roster of educators allows students to gain a breadth and depth of knowledge traditional high-ticket courses often lack.

Education, community, and publication, all under one roof. It’s a one-stop shop to turn new writers into professional authors.

About Award-Winning Author Laura Cody
Laura Cody is a forensic psychiatrist, fiction writer, and lover of books. Her short fiction has appeared in journals, online lit sites, and anthologies. She lives in New York with some kids, some cats, and a very patient husband. Her first novel, co-written with a partner, is a medical thriller called Call Game coming in October 2025.

About Judge TJ Price
TJ Price’s corporeal being is currently located in Raleigh, NC, with his handsome partner of many years, but his ghosts live in north-eastern Connecticut, southern Maine and north Brooklyn. He either is or has been a wine-seller; a wine-drinker; an avid reader, an obsessive writer; a pen-and ink artist; a dishwasher; a neurosurgical technologist; a proof-reader; a storm-watcher; music-maker, and other sundry avocations. His work has been published in Coffin Bell Journal, Complete Sentence Journal, and The Bear Creek Gazette.

Other Authors In Message Received Issue:
Brandon Lewis, "Mom's Trail Angel"
R. Skarritt, "Wings For Hire"
Maddie Logemann, "Gilded Sheep"
Amanda Bell, "Message Received"
Steve Lance, "Help Wanted"
Caro Robson, "Bill"
Sara Jane O'Neill, "The Life Print"
Beth Watts, "I Don't Think I Could"
Hannah Andrews, "Self-Reflection"

For more information about Elegant Literature, the award, or fiction writing education content, check out:
https://www.elegantliterature.com/