long con magazine’s twice-annual Mountebank Prize is the single most prestigious-sounding art & literary prize for a single artwork by an artist currently living in canada
(or by a collective with at least one member currently living in canada)
Entries are accepted year-round on a rolling basis. For prize calls & announcements, follow us on social media or subscribe to our newsletter.
Entry period closes at 11:59pm Pacific Time.
The Mountebank Prize is awarded twice each year.
The Mountebank Prize honours long con magazine’s permanent theme: “art re. art”—that is, artworks created in direct reply to other creations that can be considered “art,” including texts, objects, artifacts, exhibitions, and performances.
Each Mountebank Prize invites artistic replies to any creation(s) by the current Mountebank artist. These creation(s) may be works in the artist’s chosen media; they may also be artifacts, interviews, memoirs, ephemera, etc. that the artist contributed to the long conversation of art during their creative career.
Any entry may reply to multiple creations by the current Mountebank artist. But an entry cannot be a vibes-based reply to the entirety of that artist’s oeuvre: you will need to identify one or more specific creations that most strongly influence your reply.
Still unsure whether your entry would fit our prize? Ask us at longconmag@gmail.com.
Literary entries (a single work of creative nonfiction up to 1500 words; a single work of fiction or script up to 3000 words; or a single poem up to 4 pages) must be unpublished in any print or digital form. There is no minimum length, but please note that these maximum lengths are shorter than general long con submissions.
Visual, video, and audio entries (a single work of any size or duration) must be unpublished in any print or digital magazine, anthology, or book but may have been otherwise already exhibited, performed, released, or circulated.
We welcome hybrid submissions that include elements of multiple art forms.
The recipient of each Mountebank Prize is awarded $100 cash + publication of the winning entry (with $20 contributor compensation) in the issue of long con following the prize deadline + digital publication of a short interview conducted with a long con editor.
All Mountebank Prize entries are also considered for publication (with $20 contributor compensation) in the issue of long con following the prize deadline.
To enter the current Mountebank Prize, submit each entry through our general submission page by the current prize deadline. While submitting,
You may submit any number of entries in any number of artistic forms to a single Mountebank Prize deadline. Each entry must be accompanied by an entry fee. (We generally discourage multiple submissions to a single issue of long con, asking you to send only one submission in one primary art form. However, entries to the Mountebank Prize are exempt from this one-submission, one-art-form limit.)
You may enter the Mountebank Prize even if we’ve recently published your work. (We generally do not publish past contributors again for one year, but entries to the Mountebank Prize are exempt from this waiting period.)
You must follow all other general submission guidelines.
Alex Colville (b. 1920 – 2013) was an Ontario-born, Nova Scotia-raised painter.
“Alex Colville” (Wikipedia)
“Alex Colville: Life & Work” by Ray Cronin
“The Shining and Alex Colville” by Matt Marrone
