long con magazine’s annual Mountebank Prize is the most prestigious-sounding art & literary prize for a single artwork by an artist currently living in canada.

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Theme for 2026:

artistic replies to the works of Alex Colville

New entry deadline:

September 30

closing at 11:59pm Pacific

Mountebank Prize theme

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 produced during their creative career. The entry may reply to multiple creations by the current Mountebank artist, but prize entrants must identify one or more specific creations that most strongly influence their reply.

Prizes entries are considered, and recipients selected, by the long con magazine editorial board.

Still unsure whether your entry would fit our prize?
Ask us at longconmag@gmail.com

Skip to entry form

what to submit

Please note that entry quantity and max length differ from general long con submissions.

Literary entries must be unpublished in any print or digital form. Standalone excerpts from longer works are welcome.
• Creative nonfiction (a single piece up to 1500 words)
• Fiction & scripts for stage or screen (a single piece up to 3000 words)
• Poetry & prose poetry (a single poem up to 4 pages)

Visual, video, and audio entries (a single work of any size or duration) must be unpublished in any print or digital magazine, anthology, or book but may have been otherwise already exhibited, performed, released, or circulated.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 entries that include elements of multiple art forms. The formal elements must be integrated into a single work and should respect the above limits on length and previous publication. We will ask that you identify a ‘primary’ art form during entry, which will inform which long con editors first consider your entry.

For us to consider your entry, you must also identify⁠ which of the current Mountebank artist’s creation(s) have prompted your reply, specifying titles, relevant collaborator names, and years of creation or publication whenever it’s possible to provide that information⁠. See any of our past issues for examples of this “artist’s statement.”

details

Each Mountebank Prize recipient is awarded CAD$100 + publication of the winning entry (with $20 contributor compensation) in the issue of long con following the prize deadline + digital publication of a short-form interview conducted with a long con editor.

All entries are also considered for regular publication (with $20 contributor compensation) in the issue of long con following the prize deadline.

We encourage simultaneous entries. If your entry is accepted for publication or selected for a prize elsewhere, please withdraw it from our consideration as soon as possible.

We encourage collective entries, meaning entries through which two or more artists create a shared reply to a creation by the current Mountebank artist. You’ll find additional instructions for collectives throughout the entry form below.

We encourage multiple entries. You may submit any number of entries in any number of artistic forms to a single prize deadline. Each entry must be submitted through a separate form and accompanied by a separate entry fee.

Response time is within 8 weeks of the prize deadline. We will notify all entrants of the prize results by email.

You may enter the Mountebank Prize even if we’ve recently published your work in long con magazine. Generally, we do not publish past contributors again for one year, but entries to the Mountebank Prize are exempt from this waiting period.

Copyright always remains with you, the artist(s). Through prize payment and/or contributor compensation, long con licenses the right to publish your entry for the first time in periodical form and to maintain publication of your entry in our issue archive. You don’t need our permission to re-publish or otherwise present your entry after its inclusion in a long con issue. Full publication agreement

A selection of works by 2026 Mountebank artist Alex Colville

Alex Colville (1920 – 2013) was an Ontario-born, Nova Scotia-raised painter.

Artist website

“Alex Colville” (Wikipedia)

“Alex Colville: Life & Work” by Ray Cronin

“The Shining and Alex Colville” by Matt Marrone

Alex Colville, To Prince Edward Island (1965)
Alex Colville, Studio (2000)
Alex Colville, Woman with Revolver (1987)
Alex Colville, Waterville (2003)
Alex Colville, Seven Crows (1980)
Alex Colville, Study for Kiss with Honda (1989)
Alex Colville, Horse and Train (1954)
Alex Colville, Dog and Priest (1978)

Having trouble with this entry form? Email us at longconmag@gmail.com

Mountebank Prize entry form

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Collectives: At least one member currently living in Canada is sufficient.

1. Artist Info

Collectives: Enter the name of each member or the name of the collective.
Collectives: Enter the email address of one member or the best email address for contacting all collaborators.
Separate multiple emails with commas.
Write your biographical statement in the 3rd person (not using "I"/"we") and include your pronouns ("they"/"she"/"he" or similar).

Collectives: Enter short bios for each member or the description of the collective (ideally with list of members).
We publish only artists currently living in Canada and collectives with at least one member currently living in Canada.

Your location(s) will not be published unless included in your biographical statement.

Collectives: Enter the location of each member.
Your additional notes will not be published, but your backgrounds and experiences (especially those of particular relevance to your entry or those posing barriers to artistic creation or recognition) may help our editors make more informed decisions when curating an issue.
Collectives: enter up to one website for each member (separated by commas) or the website of the collective.
Collectives: enter up to one account for each member (separated by commas) or the account of the collective.
Collectives: enter up to one account for each member (separated by commas) or the account of the collective.
Enter any number of social media accounts (separated by commas). Please note that we will not link to X-formerly-Twitter accounts.
Because long con magazine is a digital publication, our ability to tag contributors in promotional social media posts is crucial to sharing the work in each issue. If you use Instagram or Bluesky to share your writing or artwork or to connect with others, please consider entering your profile URL(s) and following us (@longconmagazine).

2. Entry

A submission method will appear once you select your entry's primary art form.
For visual & other applicable artworks, please include relevant gallery label information (such as year of creation/release, medium of creation, and artwork dimensions) in parentheses.
By "algorithmic tools," we mean large language models (or LLMs; i.e., automated text-generating and -editing tools); diffusion models (i.e., automated image-generating and -editing tools); and other tools marketed as "AI"/"artificial intelligence" or premised on automated plagiarism.

Anyone who submits "AI"-generated content, under the guise of it being human-created artwork, will be permanently banned from publication in long con magazine. Any of their previous long con publications will be replaced with a notice of their ban.

3. Artist's Statement

The artist's statement for the winning entry—and for each other entry accepted for regular publication in long con magazine—will be published alongside that entry.

This statement should clearly identify the current Mountebank artist's text(s), object(s), artifact(s), exhibition(s), or performance(s) to which your entry replies, specifying titles, relevant collaborator names, and years of creation or publication whenever possible.

• If your piece replies to many works by the current Mountebank artist (e.g., 'the way Alex Colville represented animals'), you must identify one or more works of special significance to your reply. This specificity plays a large role in how we consider entries for the Mountebank Prize and for regular publication.
• If your entry replies in an obvious way (e.g., lifting words or images from another artwork), then your artist's statement could be very short.
• If the way your entry replies is not obvious, your artist's statement may need to be longer, explaining exactly how your piece replies by describing your creative process. You may also describe the historical contexts of, your personal encounters with, or your reflections on the other artwork(s).
Write your artist's statement in 1st person (using "I"/"we").

4. Entry fee

The fee per entry is $8 Canadian. All fees are used to compensate long con contributors.