Hunger Mountain Process for Judging Contests

Hunger Mountain uses a blind process for selecting the winners of our prizes, which means that no readers are ever provided names to go along with the manuscripts they’re judging. Here’s how the process works:

Manuscript arrives. An entrant sends a manuscript with no name or contact information anywhere on the pages; this information is instead recorded on an index card. We assign a number to the manuscript and the corresponding card. The card and manuscript are separated and filed in different locations. Occasionally an entrant forgets to keep the manuscript free of identifying information, and when this happens, we black out the writer’s name. If a writer forgets to include a card with contact information, a card is created here at our office.

Early sorting. A group of readers or “panelists” does a first read of the manuscripts. Each reader receives about 20 manuscripts at a time. Readers mark each manuscript as a “Yes” if the entry is a definite contender, a “Maybe” if the entry deserves a second read, or a “No” if the entry is not a contender for the prize. We evaluate entries using the same standards of excellence we use to evaluate general submissions. On the rare occasion that a reader realizes she knows who authored a manuscript (because she’s familiar with this writer’s style or because she knows the author personally, for example) she returns the manuscript to the editor, who assigns that manuscript to another reader.

Semi-finalists. All manuscripts marked “Yes” and “Maybe” are sent along to a group of second readers or panelists, who choose the real standouts from their batch and pass these back to the Hunger Mountain editors.

The finalists. Hunger Mountain’s editors read the “standouts” from the second group of readers. From among these they select the ten finalists to be evaluated by our contest judge. The Hunger Mountain editors don’t rank the finalists or provide accompanying notes on the content or quality of the manuscripts.

The winners! Our judge chooses from the ten finalists a first place winner and two or three honorable mentions. The judge provides these winning titles along with their assigned numbers to the editor, who then pulls the corresponding index cards. That’s the moment we know the names of our winners! Until this final step, when the winner and honorees have been chosen, no readers have any idea who wrote the manuscripts.

Hunger Mountain now hosts four annual contests in poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and writing for children. Recent judges have included Mary Ruefle, David Jauss, Wally Lamb, Larry Sutin, Sue William Silverman, Major Jackson, Andre Dubus III, and Katherine Paterson. In the past five years, Hunger Mountain has awarded over $15,000 in prizes. Literary agents regularly contact our editorial offices looking for contact information for prize winners. We consider offering prizes one of the most important things Hunger Mountain does because of the opportunity we provide for new voices to be judged solely on their own merit.