We believe in writers.
Blind Judging
We believe in the creative potential of every writer, regardless of experience. Our blind and anonymous judging system ensures equality to writers of every level. All writers are welcome.
NMW was launched in 1996 with a 15-word classified ad. From those humble beginnings, NMW has exploded into an internationally recognized and highly sought-after literary award and journal.
New & Emerging
Submitted to by poets and writers from nearly 50 countries, "first-time-awarded" and "first-time published-in-print" distinctions remain in the majority here.
Stress-Free
NMW's Stress-Free Submission Guarantee ensures fair and equal judging of all entries.
Additionally, typos and minor grammatical errors are never penalized and will not affect judging.
No Restrictions
Follow your muse without hesitation. There are no restrictions on style or subject matter here at NMW.
Basic submission guidelines can be found on our Submittable page.
ABOUT NMW
For the past 22 years, we’ve made it our business to encourage, award, and publish writers and poets. Started by Don Williams in 1996, New Millennium Writings has now published more than 2,000 emerging and established writers, alongside interviews and profiles of the greatest writers of our time, including Ken Kesey, John Updike, Nikki Giovanni, Norman Mailer, and many others.
Winning works have received publication in the O. Henry Prize Anthology, Best New Stories from the South, and the Pushcart Prize collection, among others. NMW has launched careers by awarding more than $350,000 to writers of fiction, poetry, non-fiction, and flash fiction.
NMW is one of the longest-running literary magazines in Tennessee, and our writers come from all over the globe. We believe in the
creative potential of every writer, regardless of experience. “First time award winner” and “First time published” are common here at NMW, and blind and anonymous judging ensures equality to writers of every level. All writers are welcome, and no subject is off-limits.
Recognizing and rewarding the voices of our time is an honor and a joy, one we look forward to continuing for decades to come. So remember, you and your writings are always welcomed and appreciated here at NMW. We hope to read you soon.
Write on,
Alexis and Team
WHO WE ARE
Founder and Editor Emeritus
Don Williams
Don Williams, award-winning journalist, Writers Hall of Fame inductee, seeker of truth, speaker of truth, and teacher to many, founded NMW in the spring of 1996.
Don founded New Millennium Writings literary journal in 1996. He was inducted into the East Tennessee Writers Hall of Fame in 2011 for his prize-winning columns, features, blogs, short stories, and much else. For 22 years, he wrote for the Knoxville News-Sentinel, and his articles and short stories have also appeared in Poets & Writers, Writer’s Digest, The Crescent Review, The Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Chattahoochee Review, Smokies Life, and many other papers, periodicals, and anthologies. He is a founder of the Knoxville Writers Guild.
Don has won dozens of writing awards, including a Golden Presscard, the Malcolm Law Journalism Prize, several Scripps Howard Newspaper awards, several Best in State from the AP, UPI, etc., and a National Endowment for the Humanities award.
In 2010, he was awarded the Peacemaker Award from the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance for his commentary, and in 2011 recevied the Best Novel Excerpt Award from the Knoxville Writers Guild.
He is currently at work finishing a book about the White Caps—a vigilante group that terrorized inhabitants of the Smoky Mountain foothills in the late 1890s—and the amazing heroes, heroines, “lewd women,” and rogues who fought back.
Editor-in-Chief
Alexis Williams
Alexis has been a part of NMW since its founding in 1996, first as a humble envelope-stuffer and errand-runner, before working her way up to screener, then assistant editor.
She went on to graduate Magna Cum Laude with a B.A. in English Literature. After several years working in higher education and in corporate communications and publishing, Alexis was honored (and thrilled) to take over as Editor of New Millennium Writings in 2012.
She has now published hundreds of writers within the pages of NMW, as well as four acclaimed collections with Sunshot Press (our new imprint/book awards), and looks forward to many more years of awarding and publishing members of the writing community.
Recent Work
