Congratulations to our 2024 longlisted writers!



From the 335 submissions we received this year,
our readers selected a longlist of 24 stories.

These stories have been sent to our 2024 judge, Kyo Maclear,
whose shortlist will be released in mid-October.

The winner of the 2024 International Amy MacRae Award for Memoir will be announced in late October.

We have also created a new category this year—Honourable Mention—for a number of stories that were very close to being on the longlist! (See below.)

To learn more about the award, click HERE.


THE 2024 AMY AWARD LONGLIST

*PLEASE NOTE: The longlisted stories are not available to read, but you will be able to read the shortlisted stories in October.


Casey O'Connell - Let's Cross Over

Kristine Oller - The Healthy One

Rory O'Sullivan - Rapids

Valérie Ouellet - Water Weight

Alena Papayanis - The Clock on the Wall

Anna Rumin - Babushka Had Pluck

John Scott Scherer - Right Up to the Gate

Erica Sher - Ginger Pudding

Erica Sher - Gumption

Joy Underhill - What We Need, What We Don't

Jane Usher - My Mother Wore a Pink Coat

Kayla Xu - Silhouette

Sally Basmajian - The Electric Eye

Rebecca Dyer - Taking A Rain Check

Heidi Fedak - If Only

Gemma Green - The Optician

Betsy Hall - The Mansion

Elizabeth Jeha - Cows and Country

Lucie Kybal-Syrovy - Of Course I'll Remember You

Ceridwen Lee - Things We Should Not Say

Linda Lonnqvist - Low Centre of Gravity

Julie Mayhew - The Consolation of Things

Jennie McBride - A Normal Life

Annie Newton - Broomstick Bicycles


HONOURABLE MENTION
* New category for stories that were so close to making the longlist!
Congratulations to all of you, too!

Mary Black - The Senjak Chicken Society

Serena Burman - The Conspicuous Orchard

Karel Fontaine - Revealed

Karen Moore - Her Head in the Clouds

Camilla Morrison - Tiffany

Gail Purdy - The Descent of Hope

Donna Smith - Little Pots Of Gold

Mary Tillinghast - One Last Glass of Wine

Elesa Willies - "Who Do You Think You Are?”

Lillian Salchner - The Long Drive


If you submitted a story to this year’s contest but do not see your name anywhere on this page, please don’t despair! While we do our best to give every story a fair chance, wonderful stories can still fall through the cracks. In the end, it is difficult (impossible?) to ‘rank art,’ so please know that this is not a judgement on your ability as a writer. In fact, two of the previous winners of the Amy Award had been rejected by other magazines or contests first. In every case, the writer did more revisions, sought more feedback, tightened the writing even more, submitted the story again.

Last year’s Runner-Up, Sophie Kohn, also has a beautiful approach to dealing with disappointment. Here’s to curiosity!

CONTEST ENTRANTS: If your story is not on the longlist, your story will be ‘released’ back to you from Submittable in the coming days. There is no need to formally ‘withdraw’ it.

PLEASE NOTE: Owing to the volume of submissions we received, we cannot offer editorial comments on individual stories. Sorry!