Submissions are closed for Issue 10.2.

The Seventh Annual 10:4:Tenn Playwright Contest is OPEN! See details below. 

Ponder Review welcomes:

• Fiction
• Flash Fiction
• Creative Nonfiction
• Poetry
• Short plays
• New media
• Visual art

Required Format: Times Roman 12pt. All prose should be double-spaced. Poetry should be single-spaced. Include a brief (100 word) bio with your submission.

Ponder Review does not accept previously published material nor does it accept multiple submissions per issue. Ponder Review does not accept AI-generated or produced work. Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but contact Ponder Review immediately if your work has been accepted for publication elsewhere. Do not withdraw your entire submission unless you no longer want Ponder Review to consider it; instead send us an edit request if part of your submission was accepted elsewhere. Failure to follow these guidelines will result in your submission being denied. Please make all submissions through Submittable.

Ponder Review will notify writers and artists of their submission status via email. The reading and acceptance process can take up to 4 months. By submitting, writers grant Ponder Review permission to publish their work and acknowledge that Ponder Review is currently a non-paying market. Ponder Review requires first-time North American publishing rights and retains the right to reprint accepted submissions in subsequent anthologies even after publication rights have reverted back to author.

Accepted work is subject for use in any future anthologies, both digital and print, and Ponder Review asks that any reprints give first publication credit to Ponder Review.

Students and alumni of Mississippi University for Women may not submit to Ponder Review for at least 5 years post graduation or last enrollment. 

While we accept past contributors in each reading period, Ponder Review asks that  contributors wait one year post publication to submit to us again.

10:4 TENN

Ponder Review, in partnership with the Tennessee Williams Tribute Festival, is launching our annual 10:4 Tenn Playwright Contest! This competition seeks to recognize and honor the Southern experience and the legacy of Columbus’s native son, Tennessee Williams through the craft of playwriting.

The top three playwrights will receive a cash prize, a festival pass, and have their 10-minute plays produced and performed in front of a live audience at the Tennessee Williams Tribute Festival. Directors and actors will be students from the Mississippi University for Women theatre department. 

Each play will be read by the staff of Ponder Review for the first round, then after carefully making their selections, the finalists will be sent off to the final judge who will decide the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners. 

The guest judge this year is Kira Obolensky, an award-winning writer who lives in Minneapolis. Her plays have been produced Off Broadway, in Los Angeles, in Prague and Terezin, and in many non-traditional theater spaces. She has received the Kesselring Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Mellon Playwright Fellowship, which put her in residence with Ten Thousand Things for six years. Most recently, she worked with Mixed Blood Theater and Riverplace in Warroad to create a community play called Warroad Community Potluck, that was performed by the community and directed by Michael John Garcés. Her newest play, Willa Cather Is Dying, was part of Illusion Theater’s 2026 Fresh Ink series. She co-wrote a national bestseller about architecture, The Not So Big House, and has published two other books about architecture. Her short fiction has appeared in The Brooklyn Review, in hive literary, in Rollick, and in Quarterly West, where her novella, The Anarchists Float to St. Louis, won the novella prize. She attended Juilliard’s Playwriting Program, Williams College, and received an MFA in Fiction Writing from Warren Wilson. She teaches at Spalding University’s Naslund Mann Graduate School of Writing. Kira is a proud member of the Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis and The Tent in NYC. 

Winners of the seventh annual 10:4 Tenn Playwright Contest will be announced Spring 2027.

1st place winner will be awarded a $200 cash prize as well as publication in the Fall Ponder Review issue.2nd place will be awarded a $150 cash prize, and 3rd place will be awarded a $100 cash prize.

10:4 TENN 10-Minute Play Contest Submission Guidelines

• Plays must be at maximum 10 minutes long and inspired by the work of Tennessee Williams
• Maximum cast of 5 characters
• Play must include character and set descriptions
• Submissions should be Times New Roman 12pt font, double-spaced, in standard playwriting format
• Limit 1 play per playwright
• Along with submission, include a bio and brief synopsis of the play
• Musicals will not be accepted
• Plays should be unpublished. Ponder Review requires first-time North American publishing rights and retains the right to reprint accepted submissions in subsequent anthologies even after publication rights have reverted back to author.
• By entering this contest, the playwright claims sole ownership of work submitted and accepts responsibility for any appropriated material. Mississippi University for Women and Ponder Review accept no liability for any work used without permission.
• Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but please contact Ponder Review if your work has been accepted for publication elsewhere.
• Manuscripts should contain no identifying information and must be submitted through Submittable only.
• Students and alumni of Mississippi University for Women’s MFA program in creative writing may not submit to Ponder Review for at least 5 years from their time in the program.
• Submissions will be accepted from September 16, 2026 until December 14, 2026.