Every month, Terror House Magazine will name one submission as the “Best of the Month” and award the author paperback copies of any two Terror House Press books they want. Winners will be determined solely by Terror House’s editors, and our evaluation will be based on which submission we think was the most entertaining, compelling, and well-written. Additionally, the winners from each month will be featured in a “Best of Terror House” list accessible at the top of every page. You can view this list by clicking here. For general submission guidelines, click here. For Terror House Press’ catalog, click here.
Note that analysis/criticism articles and art submissions are not eligible for the prize. Comparing literary and nonliterary writing—or comparing visual art to any writing—is like comparing apples to oranges, so we cannot reward these submissions at this time.
Additionally, submissions from Terror House’s own editorial staff are ineligible for the prize.
Past winners:
- May/June 2018: “Standing Arrow Straight” by Brian Eckert
- July 2018: “The Elves and the Witch” by Gregory Yelnish
- August 2018: “Alcohol Drought” by Daniel Hammarberg
- September 2018: “Live Mas” by Yungpec
- October 2018: “A Lesson in Justice” by Richard Greenhorn
- November 2018: “Vamp on E” by Manuel Marrero
- December 2018: “Geisha in the City of Death” by Meeah Williams
- January 2019: “Japanese GF” by DJ AuditTheFed
- February 2019: “Middle/Post II” by Kai Edward Warmoth
- March 2019: “Lightning” by Blaisewell
- April 2019: “Date Night” by Rachael J. Llewellyn
- May 2019: “Our Lady’s Bees” by Proteus Juvenalis
- June 2019: “Wavelength” by Jakob Zaaiman
- July 2019: “The Tree of Liberty” by Delmo Latchkey
- August 2019: “Cheap Date” by Giovanni DeJaneiro
- September 2019: “Sable Constantine and the Case of the Kuluak-Tu Statues” by Elton Mesquita
- October 2019: “Karma” by Mia Lovash
- November 2019: “D-Day E-Girl” by Ax Superstar
- December 2019: “Fun with Pedro” by Michael J. Moore
- January 2020: “Remarks on Cunt” by Neil Cypress
- February 2020: “Lina” by Patrick Kilgore
- March 2020: “Charlie” by Adam Matson
- April 2020: “The Lady in White” by Florian Elwood
- May 2020: “Midnight Garage Sale” by Lucio H. Cooper
- June 2020: “Ensnared” by Warren Lyons
- July 2020: “Don’t Make the World Worse” by Smalcrime
- August 2020: “Field Recording” by Holly Sargis
- September 2020: “Meth and Honey Jar” by Elizabeth Victoria Aldrich
- October 2020: “I Wrote My Phone Number on a Telephone Pole,” “Raining Since Yesterday Afternoon and it’s Still Raining,” “Father,” and Other Poems by Fish Lu
- November 2020: “Malee” by James Samizdat (temporarily withdrawn by author request)
- December 2020: “Chin Check” by R.O. Burnwell
- January 2021: “No Return” by Benjamin Welton
- February 2021: “World of White” by Vaughan Hull
- March 2021: Three Autobiographical Poems by Nick DeForest
- April 2021: “Erotic Cake Alone; or, One Fat Man’s Rock Bottom” by Joseph Hirsch
- May 2021: “Ode to Timbuktu,” “Classical Allusions,” and “Lightning Strikes Twice” by David Lohrey
- June 2021: “Poem for Bearded Wizard 231,” “After Listening to an Interview with Amy King in Which She Read Her Poem ‘Wings of Desire’ and Nearly Sprained Her Arm Patting Herself on the Back,” “A Poem Written by a Cranky Old Fart,” and Other Poems by Mather Schneider
- July 2021: “School Sucks” by Ben Newell
- August 2021: “The Maid and the Maidens” by Gabriel Hart
- September 2021: “Fuck Me Like You’re Joe Biden” by Ewan C. Forbes
- October 2021: “Of Beehives and Barlight” by Dan Thrall
- November 2021: “Ketchup” and “Not Good Enough” by Courtenay S. Gray
- December 2021: “The Empathy Protocol” by Sebastian Vice
Terror House Magazine will publicly announce each month’s winner on our Twitter and Telegram accounts on the second Sunday of the following month. (On months that begin on a Sunday, the announcement will be on the third Sunday of the month.) We will also contact the winner via email on or before that date to work out the details.
If you have any questions about any of this, don’t hesitate to email us at admin [at] terrorhousemag [dot] com.
Good luck!