Thursday, December 22, 2011

Call for Science Fiction Submissions: LQQK

LQQK Magazine is a new science fiction magazine currently looking for new writers. We are interested in stories that speculate about the future of contemporary phenomena like social networking, mobile devices, filesharing, hacking, and online lifestyles. We are also interested in far-out, surrealist, or anarchic stories in general, with or without lulz. Full submission guidelines can be found here.

Short Story Competition: Gemini Magazine

Gemini Magazine is pleased to announce its 2012 Short Story Contest featuring a grand prize of $1,000.

Absolutely no restrictions on content, style, genre or length--just send your best. Second place wins $100 and there will also be three honorable mentions. All five finalists will be published online in the June 2012 issue of Gemini.

Entry fee: $4. Deadline: March 31, 2012. Full details here.

Fiction, Nonfiction, and Poetry Competition: Cutbank

CutBank is proud to announce our call for submissions to our annual Montana Prize in Fiction, Montana Prize in Creative Non-Fiction, and the Patricia Goedicke Prize in Poetry!

Submissions have already begun, but the contests run through Feb 29, 2012. Winners receive $500 and publication in CutBank 77. All submissions will be considered for publication in CutBank. The contests' $17 entry fee includes a one-year, two-issue subscription to CutBank, beginning with the prize issue, CutBank 77.

Please send only your best work. With all three of these awards, we are seeking to highlight work that showcases an authentic voice, a boldness of form, and a rejection of functional fixedness. For more information, guidelines, and to apply, visit our website.

Our judges this year are the following:

Montana Prize in Fiction: Benjamin Percy
Montana Prize in Creative Non-Fiction: Eula Biss
Patricia Goedicke Prize in Poetry: Bhanu Kapil

Judges' bios as follows!

2012 Montana Prize in Fiction, Montana Prize in Creative Nonfiction, and Patricia Goedicke Prize in Poetry

Montana Prize in Fiction Judge – Benjamin Percy

Ben teaches in the MFA program at Iowa State University and at the Low-Res MFA program at Pacific University. He has also taught as guest faculty at the Iowa Writers' Workshop and regularly lectures at conferences and universities around the country. He is the author of two novels, Red Moon (forthcoming from Grand Central / Hachette in 2012), The Wilding (Graywolf, 2010), and two books of short stories, Refresh, Refresh (Graywolf, 2007) and The Language of Elk (Carnegie Mellon, 2006). His fiction and nonfiction have been read on National Public Radio, performed at Symphony Space, and published by Esquire, GQ, Men's Journal, Outside, Paris Review, Chicago Tribune, Glimmer Train, The Wall Street Journal, and many other publications. When he isn't hunched over the keyboard, hammering out stories, Ben enjoys hiking, canoeing, fishing, skiing, and throwing back a few pints with friends and family. He lives in Ames, Iowa, with his wife and two children.

Montana Prize in Creative Nonfiction Judge – Eula Biss

Eula Biss holds a BA in nonfiction writing from Hampshire College and an MFA in nonfiction writing from the University of Iowa. Her second book, Notes from No Man's Land, received the Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award for criticism. Her work has also been recognized by a Pushcart Prize, a Jaffe Writers' Award, and a 21st Century Award from the Chicago Public Library. She teaches writing at Northwestern University and is working on a new book about myth and metaphor in medicine with the support of a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Howard Foundation Fellowship. Her essays have recently appeared in The Best American Nonrequired Reading, The Best Creative Nonfiction and the Touchstone Anthology of Contemporary Nonfiction as well as in The Believer, Gulf Coast, Columbia, Ninth Letter, the North American Review, the Bellingham Review, the Seneca Review, and Harper's.

Patricia Goedicke Prize in Poetry Judge – Bhanu Kapil

Bhanu Kapil lives in Colorado where she teaches writing and thinking at Naropa University’s Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, as well as Goddard College’s low-residency MFA. She has written four full-length cross-genre works--The Vertical Interrogation of Strangers (Kelsey Street Press, 2001), Incubation: a space for monsters (Leon Works, 2006), humanimal [a project for future children] (Kelsey Street Press, 2009), and Schizophrene (forthcoming, Nightboat Books).

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Fiction Competition: 2012 Ohio State University Prize in Short Fiction

2012 The Ohio State University Prize in Short Fiction
Sponsored by The Ohio State University Press and the MFA Program in Creative Writing at The Ohio State University

Rules
This annual award is given to the manuscript collection of short fiction selected by an independent judge to be the best submitted. The winning author will receive publication under a standard book contract that includes a cash prize of $1,500 as an advance against royalties. The winner and finalists will be announced before June 30, 2012.

Eligibility Requirements
Submissions may include short stories, novellas, or a combination of both (but a single novella is not an eligible submission).
The competition is open to all writers in English.
Previously published stories or novellas may be included in the manuscript.
Current students and employees of The Ohio State University are ineligible.
Manuscripts must be between 150 and 300 typed pages (approx. 40,000 to 80,000 words).
Individual stories or novellas in the collection may not exceed 125 pages (approx. 35,000 words).
No translations unless done entirely by the author.

Submission Format
Manuscripts must be typed, double-spaced, on quality white 8 1/2" x 11" paper, 250-300 words per page, one side only, pages numbered consecutively.
Crisp photocopies are acceptable.
Your identity is not revealed to the judges, so your name should not appear anywhere on the manuscript.

Instead, please include the following with your submission:

a cover sheet with name, street and email address, and phone numbers
an acknowledgement page with publication history for any previously published work
a title page listing title and approx. word count
a table of contents page listing only the stories and/or novellas and page numbers

Include a self-addressed stamped envelope so we can notify you of the contest results.
Include a self-addressed stamped postcard if you wish to receive confirmation of receipt of your manuscript.
OSU Press assumes no responsibility for lost or damaged manuscripts.
Do not send your only copy. Manuscripts will not be returned.
Deadline information
Manuscripts must be postmarked in the month of January and be accompanied by a nonrefundable fee of $20 (U.S. dollars). Send check or money order (no cash) made payable to The Ohio State University.

Mail to:
Fiction Editor
The Ohio State University Press
180 Pressey Hall
1070 Carmack Road
Columbus, OH 43210-1002

Call for Submissions: 2012 Holiday Anthology

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS FOR A HOLIDAY ANTHOLOGY

Imagine your favorite holiday stories. Chances are good the protagonists are a man and a woman, possibly even with children. But where are the stories that feature men together, or women together, that will also warm our hearts at this special season?

That’s where you come in. We’re collecting holiday stories for two anthologies, one featuring male protagonists/couples/families, the other featuring female protagonists/couples/families, and we’d like to hear from you!

Your story should run between 2,000 and 4,000 words, contain no erotica, and be in a winter holiday setting. The only requirement is that it be historical fiction. We’re looking for tomorrow’s classics in time for next year’s holiday season!

Pay will depend on securing a publisher and will be negotiated at that time for accepted stories. Deadline is June 15, 2012, but the earlier, the better. 

Send Word docs to Jeannette de Beauvoir.

E-mail:
angevine(at)aya.yale.edu (replace (at) with @ in sending e-mail)

Call for Submissions: Kweli Journal

Kweli Journal, an online literary journal that celebrates the shared cultural experience of people of color, is currently seeking literature of occupation for its January 2012 social justice issue. The Occupy Movement is a national movement of men and women from all races, backgrounds, and religions with the shared goal of ending corporate greed from the wealthiest 1%. Kweli Journal invites submissions of short stories, poetry, and essays that bear witness to the day to day realities and frustrations of the 99%, poor working class and middle class folks living on the edge.

Recent issues of Kweli have featured the work of Jennine CapĆ³ Crucet and Amaud Jamaul Johnson. Upcoming issues of the journal will feature Camille Dungy, Aaron Michael Morales and Neela Vaswani.

Kweli will accept submissions for the Literature of Occupation Call from November 19, 2011 to January 7, 2012. Any submissions received after this deadline will not be considered and will be discarded.

For prose submissions, submit one (1) short story or one (1) self-contained novel excerpt or creative non-fiction piece of no more than 7,000 words in one single file in doc., rtf, or .pdf format.

For poetry submissions, submit up to three poems totaling no more than 6 pages in one single file in doc., rtf, or .pdf format.

Submit your work here.

Payment is upon publication.
Sincerely,Kweli Journal

Friday, December 16, 2011

Call for Submissions: Rio Grande Review

Last issue’s themed was The Apocalypse. Our purpose was to examine the meaning of the word in relation to what is happening in the world today. We received many magnificent submissions.

For the Spring 2012 issue we are extending that idea to include the aftermath that occurs after this great change. Entitled the Rebirth Issue, it will explore the rebuilding of the material, mental and literary landscape.

The DEADLINE for submissions for the Spring 2012 Rio Grande Review issue is Friday February 10th 2012.

Submission Guidelines:

Rio Grande Review is a Bilingual Journal and accepts submissions in both English and Spanish.

Only 3 submissions per person. We accept POETRY, SHORT STORIES, NONFICTION, and ORIGINAL ARTWORK.

SHORT STORIES, NONFICTION should be no longer than 4,000 words.

Please include a brief biography with your submission (1-4 sentences maximum).

We do not accept simultaneous submissions.

Please attach a Word document and send to:
rgreditors(at)gmail.com (replace (at) with @ in sending e-mail)

Fiction Competition: Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize

NORTH CAROLINA—The North Carolina Writers' Network is now accepting submissions for the 2012 Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize. This annual award is administered by poet Anthony S. Abbott, the Charles A. Dana Professor Emeritus of English at Davidson College in Davidson, NC.

The Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize honors internationally celebrated North Carolina novelist Thomas Wolfe. on. The winner receives $1,000 and possible publication in The Thomas Wolfe Review. The competition is open to all writers regardless of geographical location or prior publication. The postmark deadline is January 30, 2012.

Acclaimed author Josephine Humphreys will serve as the final judge. Humphreys is a recipient of an Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She is the author of Dreams of Sleep (winner of the 1985 Ernest Hemingway Award for first fiction), Rich in Love, The Fireman's Fair, and Nowhere Else on Earth. She lives with her husband on Sullivan's Island, near Charleston, South Carolina.

The 2012 Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize
Postmark deadline: January 30 (annual)
Submissions accepted: December 1 – January 30


Eligibility and Guidelines:

The competition is open to all writers regardless of geographical location or prior publication. Submit two copies of an unpublished fiction manuscript not to exceed 12 double-spaced pages (1" margins, 12-pt. font).

Author's name should not appear on manuscripts. Instead, include a separate cover sheet with name, address, phone number, e-mail address, word count, and manuscript title.

An entry fee must accompany the manuscript: $15 for NCWN members, $25 for nonmembers. Checks should be made payable to the North Carolina Writers' Network. You may pay the member entry fee if you join the NCWN with your submission. Checks should be made payable to the North Carolina Writers’ Network.

Entries will not be returned.

The winner is announced each April.

Send submission to:

Professor Anthony S. Abbott
PO Box 7096
Davidson College
Davidson, NC 28035

2011 saw the highest number of submissions in the history of the Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize. Winner Kristin Fitzpatrick of Alameda, California, took home the $1,000 purse.

The nonprofit North Carolina Writers’ Network is the state’s oldest and largest literary arts services organization devoted to writers at all stages of development. For additional information, go here.

Fiction Competition: Escape Into Life

Escape Into Life is excited to announce its First Annual Fiction Contest, judged by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Robert Olen Butler.

In addition to cash prizes, five finalists will receive works by Escape Into Life artists and have their stories nominated for at least one nationally recognized award in 2012 (Best American, Pushcart, O'Henry, Story South, or Sundress). This strikes us a great opportunity for both established and emerging author.

You'll find more information here.

Monday, December 5, 2011

Call for anthology submissions: Submitted: Women Finding and Leaving Extreme Religion

The anthology, Submitted: Women Finding and Leaving Extreme Religion (to be published by Seal Press in Spring, 2013), will chronicle the lives of women from a variety of restrictive religious backgrounds who chose a religious path only to eventually reject it or alter it in whole or in part.

We are seeking contributions from women of all faiths, as well as all ages and backgrounds. The book explores, through story, the questions of how and why women choose to get involved in rigid religion, what keeps them invested, and then how and why they leave (and what they miss---or don't---once they're gone).
Each story included should explore one of the following:
--the getting IN
--the staying IN
--the getting OUT
Themes might include food, modesty, religious meetings, holidays, work, children, clothing, secrets, converting others, prayer, or marriage/sex.

The book will be divided into three parts: Conversion, Life Inside, and Leaving.

Submissions should be 2500-3000 words in length.

For more information and to submit your work go to our website.

Call for Submissions: Pegasus

Pegasus, the literary magazine at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in Tifton, Georgia, invites submissions of poetry, short fiction (flash fiction welcome), creative nonfiction, artwork and photography for the upcoming spring 2012 issue. The submission deadline is February 29, 2012.

Pegasus is an award-winning regional journal that publishes writers enrolled in Georgia high schools or Georgia colleges and universities. Submissions by other writers will be ignored.

Pegasus accepts electronic submissions only. Please see our website for full submission guidelines.

Submissions not following stated guidelines will be ignored.


Call for Submissions: Switchback

Each month Switchback will provide a prompt and we want you to send us your best work inspired by that prompt. The winning entry as decided by our editors will be featured on Switchback. Contest submissions can be poetry, fiction, nonfiction, or even art but must be 500 words or under. Please send us only one submission per prompt and only previously unpublished works. We accept simultaneous submissions but please notify us immediately of acceptance elsewhere. Make sure your name DOES NOT appear on the submission itself. The deadline for submissions is 5:00 pm on the last day of the month.

The December prompt is: "They realized they were not alone."

For information on how to submit, please visit our website.