Conference Season!

My writing studio during my residency at Ragdale (Illinois) in July 2011.

CONFERENCE TIME!

It's that time of year again. March and April typically signal the launch of the writing conference season. From now until mid-October, you will find writer's conferences and workshops of all sizes and formats to meet your needs and interests as a writer. Is a writer's conference or workshop in your near future? Here are some things to help you decide.

In my experience, there are three basic types of conferences and workshops:

• One-day workshop

• Weekend conference

• Writer's retreat/residency 

Which one is right for you?

One-day workshop. This is probably the least expensive type of conference. Fees can range from as low as $75.00 to a maximum of approximately $250.00. You may get free coffee and donuts in the morning, but full meals are usually not included. These workshops tend to focus on a single topic, such as getting published, writing non-fiction articles, or the art of copy writing. They are often taught by a single instructor with several assistants. Enrollment can be limited.

Weekend conference. The weekend writing conference is the place to schmooze and network. Fees range from a low of about $250.00 to over $600.00. Most meals are included in the fee, but lodging is often extra. Many weekend conferences are held in large hotels where you can receive a special room rate if you attend the conference.

A typical weekend conference offers classes and workshops on all aspects of writing, including non-fiction, literary fiction, children's writing, commercial fiction, agents, copyright law, etc. You will often find special classes on the craft of writing that cover such topics as writing believable dialogue, creating interesting characters, or drafting query letters.

Some weekend conferences have pitch sessions in which you can make an appointment to meet with an editor or an agent to talk about your book. These are usually an extra fee and require reservations prior to the conference itself. If you should attend a pitch session, please don't try to foist a copy of your manuscript upon the agent or editor. She won't want to take the risk of losing your work while traveling. It's best to make arrangements to send the requested material to the agent or editor after she returns to her home office.

Writer's retreat/residency. The writer's retreat, or residency, can last anywhere from one week to six months, depending upon your funds and available time. The cost for these can range to over a thousand dollars, but many retreats offer subsidized funding through grants and awards. Most retreats have application deadlines several months before the requested dates. Be sure to check the application requirements long before you want to attend, as these are very competitive and may require a lot of advance preparation.

You will find writer's retreats and residencies offered at universities, private estates, and writing centers. The advantage to the retreat is that it allows you work uninterrupted for a concentrated span of time--often in a bucolic setting. You can socialize with other writers and artists or remain a hermit. The typical writer's retreat provides lodging only, but some do include limited meal plans. To apply for a residency, you usually need solid publication credits, a sample of your work, an artist's statement, and references.

The one-day workshop, the weekend conference, a residency, or the writer's retreat? The choice is up to you. To find a conference or workshop near you, check out these resources:

AWP has a searchable directory of conferences and writing centers
Poets & Writers lists retreats, conferences and residencies on their website
New Pages maintains an updated online database of conferences, retreats, and programs
The Shaw Guide to Writers Conferences and Writing Workshops allows you to search by date and/or location for conferences and workshops.

Happy Writing!

Call for Submissions with San Francisco Bay Area Themes: Arroyo Literary Review

Arroyo Literary Review is a print-based publication produced annually by students and alumni of California State University, East Bay. Each issue reflects the creative diversity found in the San Francisco Bay Area literary scene, while bringing together material from an international array of poets, writers, and artists.

Arroyo began with an investigation: faculty and students sought to establish a magazine capturing the spirit and diverse voices of the Bay Area while attracting writers from across the country and a national readership. What they discovered, however, was a void. Bigger presses seemed to ignore the dynamics of California culture, while smaller presses had predicated themselves on niches. With the opportunity presenting itself, those same students built the school’s first literary magazine from the ground up, eventually releasing the premiere issue in Spring of 2009.

Since then, that tradition of motivation and commitment has been passed on to each proceeding incarnation of the review. The editorial staff remains dedicated to showcasing both new and established writers from the West Coast and beyond, hoping to connect the magazine’s audience with the unique qualities that make the Bay Area literary and art scene so special. 

We are seeking fiction, flash fiction, poetry, essays, and translation for our eighth issue. Open reading period from December 1 to May 31. No e-mail submissions.

Please see our website for submission guidelines.

Call for Submissions from Community College Students: Painted Cave Literary Journal

Painted Cave Literary Journal is accepting submissions from community college students across the nation for its fifth issue May 2016. Though submissions are accepted on a rolling basis, the deadline for this issue is April 23. 

Painted Cave is the online, student-run, faculty-guided literary journal of Santa Barbara City College. The journal has been recognized by the English Council of California for Two-Year Colleges as an outstanding literary magazine.

We publish the work of community college student writers in fiction, poetry and creative nonfiction. Painted Cave reserves First North American Serial Rights. We accept simultaneous submissions, but please notify us immediately if your work is accepted elsewhere.

Paste your submission in the body of the email to:

paintedcavesubmissions[at] gmail[dot]com (Change [at] to @ and [dot] to . )

Also include a short biography and the community college attending.

In the subject line include the genre of the submission, title(s) and your name (Creative Nonfiction, “Negative Space,” Jenny Ramirez)

We accept the following genres:

Flash Fiction: 1-3 pieces, no more than 750 words each.

Fiction: 1 piece, no more than 5000 words.

Poetry: 3-5 poems, no more then 50 lines each.

Creative Nonfiction: 1 piece, no more than 5000 words.

Flash Creative Nonfiction: 1-3 pieces, no more than 750 words each.

Writing Competition: Prairie Schooner Book Prize Series

PRAIRIE SCHOONER BOOK PRIZE

The Prairie Schooner Book Prize Series awards $3,000 and publication through the University of Nebraska Press to the winning writers of one short fiction and one poetry manuscript each year. 

We welcome submissions from all living writers, including non-US citizens, writing in English. Both unpublished and published writers are eligible to submit, but, we cannot consider previously published manuscripts, which includes self-publication. 

Fiction manuscripts should be at least 150 pages and poetry at least 50 pages long. 

A $25 reading fee must accompany each submission. 

Manuscripts will be accepted between January 15 and March 15, 2016.

Entry portal.

Writing Competition: Tom Howard/John H. Reid Fiction and Essay Contest

Tom Howard/John H.Reid Fiction and Essay Contest 

An award $1,500 each for the top story and the top essay. Ten Honorable Mentions will receive $100 each (any category). The top 12 entries will be published online. 

Contest submission period: October 15, 2015-April 30, 2016. 

Entry link.

Results announced on October 15, 2016. 

Please submit as many stories and essays as you like. All themes accepted. Entries may be published or unpublished.

Length limit: 6,000 words.

Fee: $18 per entry.

Call for Submissions: Raleigh Review

Raleigh Review is accepting poetry, flash fiction, and short fiction submissions through April 30 for the Fall 2016 issue. Raleigh Review is a biannual print publication with beautiful cover art, high-quality paper, full-color interior art, and stunning writing. We are looking for work that is emotionally and intellectually complex without being overly difficult for readers to access.

 

We pay $10 per piece plus one free contributor’s copy and a discount on additional copies. See full guidelines at our website, and browse the archives while you’re there to find samples from Dorianne Laux, Sherman Alexi, Ellen Bass, and more of our past contributors!

Poetry Competition: 2016 Crab Creek Poetry Prize

The 2016 Crab Creek Review Poetry Prize is open for submissions. 

$500 award, all entries considered for publication. Send up to 4 poems, electronic submissions only.

Submit your work here. 

Entry fee $16. Oliver de la Paz will judge.

Oliver de la Paz is the author of four collections of poetry, Names Above Houses, Furious Lullaby (SIU Press 2001, 2007), and Requiem for the Orchard (U. of Akron Press 2010), winner of the Akron Prize for poetry chosen by Martìn Espada, and Post Subject: A Fable (U. of Akron Press 2014). He is co-editor with Stacey Lynn Brown of A Face to Meet the Faces: An Anthology of Contemporary Persona Poetry (U. of Akron Press 2012). A 2015 Pushcart Prize recipient, Oliver co-chairs the advisory board of Kundiman, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the promotion of Asian American Poetry and serves on the Association of Writers and Writing Programs Board.

Deadline May 15th. 

Full guidelines at our website.

Call for Submissions to Anthology: Precipice: Writing at the Edge

Today, the Precipice Collective invites you, dear reader, to personally submit a previously-unpublished critical or creative word-work to our debut anthology Precipice: Writing at the Edge. Your submission should fit the theme and specifications outlined below, and may include prose (both fiction and creative non-fiction), poems, experimental forms, and/or anything in between. Compensation will be two author copies of the anthology in which your work appears [estimated publication 2017].

THEMES: ZONES, LEDGES, BORDERS, MEDIUMS (includes ghosts), BOUNDARIES, EXCHANGES, PLACE, HOME, BODY/SOMATICS, ECOLOGY/SYSTEMS (see website for more specific prompts)

SPECS:
1-10 pages (prose should be 12-pt, Times New Roman, 1” margins, double-spaced)
Editable Word document (along with a PDF if special formatting is pertinent to your work)
Include author name and contact information in document
Submit through the Precipice website.
 
Deadline: April 1, 2016

This is a transmission from the Precipice Collective, formerly the Inukshuk Collective. Precipice is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to the creation and proliferation of eco-somatic critical and creative writing, with an emphasis on the voices of self-identified women and minorities. Offering alternative models of investigative, sustainable research; collaborative, integrative publishing; and engaged, embodied outreach, Precipice is helmed by four graduates of Naropa University’s Jack Kerouac School, now stationed variously in Andover, MA, Austin, TX, Boulder, CO, and Wickford, RI, but meeting in the shared spaces of body, earth, and word. Collectively, we are professors, printers, editors, ghostwriters, mothers, and professional researchers.

Call for Submissions: Palaver

Palaver is UNCW’s online interdisciplinary journal housed in the Graduate Liberal Studies Program. Palaver seeks creative and academic submissions that defy the confines of a single discipline. We accept art submissions in any medium, including video, still image, and multimedia.

Submit your work here.

Visit our website to peruse our past issues and to submit your work!

Email us at:

adminATpalaverjournalDOTcom (Change AT to @ and DOT to . ) 

with any questions. Please make sure you follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook. We look forward to reading your work!

Call for Submissions and Writing Competition: Barely South Review

Barely South Review, Old Dominion University's literary journal, is open for regular free submissions, as well as our annual 2016 Norton Girault Prize in Fiction ($500!), judged by our very own John McManus.

The entry fee is only $10. The winning story will be published in our Fall 2016 Issue. One runner up will receive publication as well.

The deadline for regular submissions is April 1, 2016. The Deadline for Norton Girault Contest Submissions is April 15, 2016.

Please visit our submissions page and (scroll down) for more information on the contest.

Writing Competition: William Faulkner--William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition

The William Faulkner – William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition is sponsored annually by The Pirate’s Alley Faulkner Society, Inc, a non-profit literary and educational organization.

The 2016 deadline is May 1. Winners will be formally presented at the annual meeting of the Society, Faulkner for All, during Words & Music, A Literary Feast in New Orleans, taking place this year November 9-13, 2016.

A list of manuscripts which have been designated finalists and semi-finalists will be posted on the website on or about August 1, 2016. Winners will be notified on September 25th, William Faulkner’s birthday, leaving plenty of time for winners to make plans to be present to receive their awards.

Please note: Substantial changes have been made throughout the previously published Guidelines which follow so please be advised that you cannot rely on the 2015 Guidelines for entry purposes. Please review the guidelines below before entering. Click here for a 2016 Entry Form.

• The competition is for previously unpublished work only. Self-published and print-on-demand books are considered published, unless authors can present documentation that less than 500 copies have sold.

• Also considered as published and not eligible are books, stories, essays, and poetry previously published in their entirety on the Internet.

• Please pay special attention to labeling your entries. We do not read entries in any category without proper labeling.

• Any entries submitted which show mark-ups of revisions in red or blue from previous drafts will be rejected automatically. No judge wants to review your corrections!

Novel Competition: 25th Annual James Jones First Novel Fellowship

The 25th Annual James Jones First Novel Fellowship will be awarded to an American author of a first novel-in-progress, in 2016, by the James Jones Literary Society.

Online submission form.

The award is intended to honor the spirit of unblinking honesty, determination, and insight into modern culture exemplified by the late James Jones, author of From Here to Eternity and other prose narratives of distinction. Jones himself was the recipient of aid from many supporters as a young writer and his family, friends, and admirers have established this award of $10,000 to continue the tradition in his name. Two runners up awards of $1000 each may be given by the Jones Literary Society. All selections are at the discretion of the judges.

Eligible writers:
--Have never published a novel
--Are U.S. citizens
--May have published any other type of work including non-fiction articles and short stories

Non eligible writers:
--Officers of the James Jones Literary Society
--Writers who have published previous novels

Eligible submissions:
--Unpublished novels
--Novels in which one or more chapters have been published

Non eligible submissions:
--Collections of short stories
--Linked short stories
--Self-published novels

Note: Manuscripts may be simultaneously submitted for the First Novel Contest and to a publisher for publication. If the work is accepted by a publisher at any time up to the announcement of the First Novel winner, the Society must be notified and the selection will be withdrawn from the contest. 

Entry Fee: A $30 check/money order, payable to Wilkes University, not to James Jones First Novel Fellowship, must accompany each entry. For online submissions there is an additional $3.00 processing fee. 

Manuscript Guidelines: A two-page (maximum) outline or synopsis of the entire novel and the first 50 pages of the novel-in-progress are to be submitted. A specific format for the outline or synopsis is not required.

The manuscript must be typed and double-spaced; outline may be single-spaced. Entrants should include their name, address, telephone number and e-mail address (if available) ONLY on the cover letter, but nowhere else on the manuscript. Pages should be numbered. For online entries put your cover letter in the cover letter box, and attach you outline/synopsis and the first 50 pages of you novel as one document.

If a manuscript is selected for the final round, the author will be asked to send another copy of the originally submitted first 50 pages. Submissions will be acknowledged only if accompanied by a self-addressed, stamped postcard. No manuscripts will be returned. Failure to comply with manuscript guidelines may disqualify entries.

For a copy of the press release on the winners, please submit a SASE (to the address listed in the next paragraph) marked "Winners 2016 Contest." The press release will be available in late Fall 2016.

DEADLINES: Entries can be mailed via SNAILMAIL or our ONLINE SUBMISSION FORM. Hard Copy entries should be sent to:

James Jones First Novel Fellowship
c/o M.A./M.F.A. in Creative Writing
Wilkes University
84 West South Street
Wilkes-Barre, PA 18766

and postmarked no later than March 15, 2016 midnight Eastern Standard time. 

ELECTRONIC ENTRIES should be sent no later than midnight, March 15, 2016 Eastern Standard time. 

The winner will be notified in September 2016. The first-prize winner must accept the award at the James Jones Literary Society Conference held each fall, usually in early November. Transportation funding will be provided. An excerpt from the winning manuscript will be published in Provincetown Arts (July 2017.)

Fiction Competition: The Moth Short Story Prize 2016

This year’s judge, John Boyne, is the author of a collection of short stories, nine novels for adults and five for younger readers, including The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, a New York Times no. 1 Bestseller that has sold over 6 million copies. 

The Prize is for a single unpublished story of no more than 6,000 words. The competition is open to anyone, and you can enter as many stories as you like.

The entry fee is €12 per story.

Enter here.

Or you can send your story along with a cheque or postal order (bank drafts not acceptable, we're afraid) made payable to The Moth Magazine Ltd. and an entry form (downloadable HERE) or a cover letter with your name and contact details and the title of stories attached to: The Moth, Ardan Grange, Milltown, Belturbet, Co. Cavan, Ireland.

Please do read the rules before you enter!

Writers Conference and Scholarships: Minnesota Northwoods Writers Conference

Minnesota Northwoods Writers Conference
Scholarships available!
Scholarship Application Deadline: March 1, 2016
June 20-26, 2016

This summer, the Minnesota Northwoods Writers Conference, which prides itself on its award-winning teaching faculty, will offer intense weeklong workshops in an intimate lakeside setting. Rebecca Brown will lead our creative nonfiction workshop, Lorraine Lopez our fiction workshop, and LeAnne Howe our multigenre workshop. We’re offering two poetry workshops—one led by Jericho Brown, and another led by Natalie Diaz. Our Distinguished Visiting Writer is Joy Harjo.

The conference takes place at Bemidji State University—a small university on a big lake in a small town in northern Minnesota—the perfect place to write and be in the company of others committed to learning and teaching the craft of writing.

Join us. Find more information at our website.

The Conference Fee is $550 before April 15, 2016 and includes a daily workshop limited to 13 writers, daily craft talks, publishing and editor Q&As, afternoon events, and five conference meals. An Auditor Option is available for $150 and includes all conference amenities and events offered during the week, but does not include participation in a workshop.

$300 scholarships will be awarded toward the conference fee. Scholarship awards in poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction and multigenre are based on need and literary merit and intended to lower financial barriers for writers. There is also a scholarship for Minnesota residents and scholarships for Native American writers who partner with an educational or tribal institution. Apply here at by March 1, 2016.

Recreational activities include biking, kayaking, sailing, hiking, and the campus fitness center, or relax at the beach and picnic among the pines in Diamond Point Park. Explore scenic Lake Bemidji and visit the headwaters of the Mississippi.

Stay within walking distance to the beach and all conference activities in modern and air-conditioned Linden Suites on campus for only $28 per night (housing options begin at $21/night). WiFi and high speed Internet are standard. This is a great opportunity for writers to study their craft and come together in a supportive and enthusiastic community!

For more information, contact: 

writersconferenceATbemidjistateDOTedu (Change AT to @ and DOT to . )

or phone: (218) 755-2068

 

Call for Submissions: GAMBA Zine

GAMBA Zine is a provocative literary magazine created to inspire passion and thoughtfulness outside the politics of mainstream publication. We are looking for writers and visual artists to submit work that pushes the limits of their craft and adds to an exhibition of progressive ideas from all over the world. Every issue is designed around a specific theme so artists will create new work directly connected to that theme. Please see details below:

The theme for Issue #6 is: Control 

We are looking for writers and artists willing to explore ideas of order, chaos, autonomy, power, predestination and ultimately control. Questions to ruminate on:

• How are power and control related?

• How is autonomy related to giving up control?

• Is power given or taken?

• How are control and power exerted and expressed? 

 
Please see our website to familiarize yourself with previous issues and who we are in general.


Submission Requirements: 

~ Send by March 5, 2016
~ Writers: No more than two single spaced, typed pages (1500 words)
~ Visual artists: Submissions must be 150 to 300 dpi if accepted
~ Include a 3-5 sentence Artists Bio (website, blog address, email, etc....)
~ All languages accepted - translations preferred
~ Email to:

 huntergraham18ATyahooDOTcom (Change AT to @ and DOT to . ) with the subject "GAMBA Submission: Control"

~ In your note please let us know how you came across the calling

Poetry and Fiction Competitions: Breakwater Review

Submissions link.

The Peseroff Prize Poetry Contest:

“Whenever something new develops in poetry, many will argue, ‘That’s not poetry.’ Think of the reception of William Carlos Williams . . . spoken word poets, poets who incorporate graphics, poets who write in code so robots can read them. It’s all poetry.” –Joyce Peseroff 

Breakwater Review is proud to announce The Second Annual Peseroff Prize: publication and $1,000 for a single poem. The Peseroff Prize honors Joyce Peseroff’s work as a poet, teacher, editor, innovator, and mentor. She helped found the MFA Program in Creative Writing at the University of Massachusetts Boston, served as its first director, and retired from teaching in 2014.

Submit up to three poems and a $10 entry fee from September 1 to May 15. There are no restrictions on length, content or form: “it’s all poetry.” Submit through our online submission manager; all submissions will be considered for publication. Winners will be announced in September 2016. 

The Breakwater Review Fiction Contest:

Breakwater Review is excited to announce the first annual Breakwater Review Fiction Contest. The winner will be published and receive $1,000 for a piece of short fiction. Submit up to 5,000 words with a $10 entry fee from September 1 to May 15 through our online submission manager. All submissions will be considered for publication. Winners will be announced in September 2016.

Call for Submissions: concis

concīs is accepting submissions for its second Season with updated guidelines and increased pay!

concīs is an online and e-pub journal devoted to brevity: the succinct, pithy, condensed, laconic, crisp, compressed and compendious. It’s simple in approach and simple in design…but not simple-minded. Genre—if you believe in such labels—is unimportant: poems, prose poems, flash fictions, micro-essays, reviews in miniature, sudden fictions, haiku, tanka, American Sentences, insights, epigrams, the unclassifiable…they’re all good.

Brevity is subjective. We’ve read 8-line poems that are 7-lines too long and 30-line poems that flash and fire quicker than a haiku. 20 lines of poetry/250 words of prose or less—even significantly less—feels right, but that feeling’s not a rule. We do feel safe specifying a minimum length of one character, glyph, symbol or visual.

concīs pays $12.50 per piece for publication on the web site and as part of a seasonal collection (PDF). Upon acceptance, authors will be given an option to donate their payments to Room to Read (a 4-star charity promoting literacy and gender equality in education across Asia and Africa). Donations will be matched by concīs.

More about concīs, publication schedule and submissions here.

Read our Winter Season compilation to get a feel for what we are looking for. Still have questions? Let us know: 

chrisATconcisDOTio (Change AT to @ and DOT to . )

Call for Poetry Submissions from Adjunct Instructors: RATTLE

RATTLE is currently seeking poems by Adjunct Instructors for the fall issue. The goal is to raise awareness about the problems with this practice in higher education, while also showing off the great creative work adjuncts are doing at the same time—and I need your help!

First of all, you can share this link with any adjunct poets you know. Deadline is April 15th. No fee to submit; we pay $100 per poem accepted. 

More importantly, though, I need some suggestions for who to interview for the issue. Who's the best poet out there currently working as an adjunct instructor? Or what adjunct poets have been particularly active in the fight for better working conditions?

Submit your work here.

Writing Competition: 2016 Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Fiction and Poetry

Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Fiction & Poetry

Deadline: March 15, 2016

Prizes
Winners will receive $3000 and publication through the University of Nebraska Press.

Entry fee: $25.00

Eligibility
The Prairie Schooner Book Prize Series welcomes manuscripts from all living writers, including non-US citizens, writing in English. Both unpublished and published writers are welcome to submit manuscripts. However, we will not consider manuscripts that have previously been published, which includes self-publication. Writers may enter both contests. Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but we ask that you notify us immediately if your manuscript is accepted for publication somewhere else. No past or present paid employee of Prairie Schooner or the University of Nebraska Press or current faculty or student at the University of Nebraska will be eligible for the prizes.

Read our full guidelines and submit here. 

For questions, email our Book Prize Coordinator at:

psbookprizeATunlDOTedu (Change AT to @ and DOT to . )

Call for Submissions from Community College Students: Painted Cave

Painted Cave Literary Journal is accepting submissions from community college students across the nation for its fifth issue May 2016. Though submissions are accepted on a rolling basis, the deadline for this issue is April 23.

Painted Cave is the online, student-run, faculty-guided literary journal of Santa Barbara City College. The journal has been recognized by the English Council of California for Two-Year Colleges as an outstanding literary magazine.

We publish the work of community college student writers in fiction, poetry and creative nonfiction. Painted Cave reserves First North American Serial Rights. We accept simultaneous submissions, but please notify us immediately if your work is accepted elsewhere.

Paste your submission in the body of the email to:

paintedcavesubmissions[at] gmail[dot]com (Change [at] to @ and [dot] to . ) Also include a short biography and the community college attending.

In the subject line include the genre of the submission, title(s) and your name (Creative Nonfiction, “Negative Space,” Jenny Ramirez)

We accept the following genres:

Flash Fiction: 1-3 pieces, no more than 750 words each.

Fiction: 1 piece, no more than 5000 words.

Poetry: 3-5 poems, no more then 50 lines each.

Creative Nonfiction: 1 piece, no more than 5000 words.

Flash Creative Nonfiction: 1-3 pieces, no more than 750 words each.

Call for Essay Submissions: Anthology on Prejudice in Academia

Anthology on prejudice in academia seeks essays (deadline extended)

Collection on identity and prejudice in academia  

Academics considered “other” have had to fight their way into the university, first as students and then as faculty and staff members. This collection of personal essays will disclose experiences of dealing with prejudice (of any kind) at colleges and universities.

Contributors should describe and analyze their experiences and may choose formats that feel the most natural to their expression of those experiences. Hybrids are welcome, but all stories must be true.

Latin@s, African Americans, Asian Americans and Native Americans, transnationals, LGBTs, disabled or anyone labeled as “other” are encouraged to submit.

Through self-representation and the role of writing as agency, this collection will demonstrate how othered academics fight back — by representing their identities while simultaneously subverting the dominant culture’s power to label them as inferior.

We've extended the deadline to March 1, 2016. Please email submissions for consideration to:  

Michael Moreno (michael.moreno[at]american[dot]edu), 
Michele Shaul (shaulm[at]queens[dot]edu) 
and Kathryn Quinn-Sánchez (ksanchez[at]georgian[dot]edu) (Change [at] to @ and [dot] to . )

While selected authors may choose to remain anonymous in the publication, please send at the time of submission your email, address and phone number.

Winners of Valentine's Day Giveaway!

Thank you to everyone who entered the Valentine's Day Giveaway for a chance to win a Kindle Fire or a $50 Amazon gift card. We had over 500 entries!

And congratulations to the winners!

ANOUNCEMENT OF WINNERS
Valentine's Giveaway
Kindle Fire HD: Leniah James
Amazon GC $50: Jane Anders

Winners have been notified and confirmed. Prizes will be shipped out Tuesday 02/16/16!!!

Call for Booklength Manuscripts and Chapbooks: Astrophil Press

Deadline: April 5, 2016 

Astrophil Press will be open for submissions for book length manuscripts and chapbooks from January 29th—April 5th, 2016. 

There is no reading fee and all submissions must go through our submittable page. Please visit our submission page for more details.

Call for Submissions: Arroyo Review

Deadline: May 31, 2016 

Arroyo Literary Review is an award-winning national magazine with a West Coast orientation. We are seeking fiction, flash fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, and translations for our ninth issue.

Open reading period from December 1 to May 31. 

No email submissions. Please see our website for submission guidelines.

Writing Competition: Tom Howard/John H. Reid Fiction and Essay Contest

Tom Howard/John H. Reid Fiction and Essay Contest

 

Submission link.

 

We will award $1,500 each for the top story and the top essay. Ten Honorable Mentions will receive $100 each (any category). The top 12 entries will be published online.

 

Contest submission period: October 15, 2015-April 30, 2016.

 

Results announced on October 15, 2016. 

 

Please submit as many stories and essays as you like. All themes accepted. Entries may be published or unpublished. 

 

Length limit: 6,000 words. 

 

Fee: $18 per entry.

Call for Submissions: Driftwood Press

John Updike once said, "Creativity is merely a plus name for regular activity. Any activity becomes creative when the doer cares about doing it right, or better."

 

At Driftwood Press, we are actively searching for artists who care about doing it right, or better. We are excited to receive your submissions and will diligently work to bring you the best in literary criticism, short fiction, poetry, graphic narrative, photography, art, and interviews.

 

We're partial towards prose poetry and stream of consciousness prose, but open to all literary genres and styles.

 

Please submit on our website.

Poetry Chapbook Competition: 2015-2016 Snowbound Chapbook Award

2015-2016 Snowbound Chapbook Award

Submit from December 1, 2015 — February 29, 2016
(postmark or online submission-date)

Final Judge: Brenda Shaughnessy

$1,000 Prize 

The Snowbound Chapbook Award includes a cash award of $1,000 in addition to publication by Tupelo Press, 25 copies of the winning title, a book launch, and national distribution with energetic publicity and promotion. Manuscripts are judged anonymously and all finalists will be considered for publication. Please read the complete guidelines before submitting your manuscript.

Submit your manuscript here.

Call for Submissions: Chicken Soup for the Soul

Chicken Soup for the Soul (CSS) announces a new call for submissions to contribute to a new anthology about “Dreams and Synchronicities." This anthology is encouraging writers to share their dreams or intuitions that have changed their behavior.

A few ideas: 1) You have a dream that exposes a truth or a new belief to you; 2) You have a spine-chilling feeling that alters your behavior and saves you or a loved one from tragedy; 3) You meet someone special at just the right moment and you can’t believe the stroke of “good” luck. The editors accept first-person, experiential stories or stories ghostwritten on somebody’s behalf. Stories can be funny, entertaining, serious or sincere; most importantly, stories must uplift and hearten readers to experience the writer’s full range of emotions.

This anthology is a second edition of the bestseller Chicken Soup for the Soul: Dreams and Premonitions. Contribute your stories about the extraordinary things that you have experienced in your own life.

Word length: up to 1200 words.

Poetry: open line count.

Payment: $200 per story or poem, plus 10 contributor’s copies. Authors retain the copyright to their stories.

Deadline: March 31, 2016. Read full submission guidelines and submit your work here.

Founded in 1993, Chicken Soup for the Soul books have sold more than 100 million copies worldwide. The series is published and distributed by Simon & Schuster, Inc. A typical CSS story is an inspiring, factual story about common people having astounding experiences, opening the hearts of readers and revitalizing their souls with purpose. Each story contains a special, unique element of emotion that makes readers become more confident, more interconnected, more appreciative, more spirited and more fitting about life as a whole.

Writing Competition: The Southeast Review

The Southeast Review welcomes submissions to its 2016 contests in three categories:

Narrative Nonfiction Contest, judged by Elizabeth Stuckey-French
Gearhart Poetry Contest, judged by Virgil Suárez
World's Best Short-Short Story Contest, judged by Robert Olen Butler

One winner will be chosen in each category and awarded $500. All winners and finalists will be published in the Spring 2017 issue of The Southeast Review.

The deadline for mailed and electronic submissions (with $16 contest fee) is March 15, 2016.

Details on how to submit can be found here.

Short Fiction Competition: 2016 Nelligan Prize for Short Fiction

2016 Nelligan Prize for Short Fiction

Deadline: March 14, 2016

$2,000 awarded for the winning short story, plus publication in the Fall 2016 issue of Colorado Review.

Deadline: postmark of March 14, 2016. Entry fee: $15.

Final judge is Gish Jen. Stories must be unpublished and between 10 and 50 pages.

Obtain complete guidelines at our website or send your request with an SASE to:

Nelligan Prize, Colorado Review
9105 Campus Delivery
Colorado State University
Fort Collins, CO 80523-9105

Call for Submissions: Ragazine

Ragazine.cc is seeking submissions of poetry, photography, reviews, interviews, art, travel stories, creative nonfiction, memoir, informed political commentary, current events, dance, entertainment, cartoons & illustrations, Letters to the Editor, and more.

You believe in making the Arts a necessity, a part of life that matters. You write, you make music, you draw, you paint, you observe, you think, you pull things out of the air and turn them into something palpable. We’re here to help you get “that” — whatever “that” is — into the wider world.

Please visit our website for submission guidelines. ​

Call for Submissions: Nebo

Going strong since 1971, Nebo, the literary journal of Arkansas Tech University, is looking for your best fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and comics. 

 

Previously a print-only journal, we're expanding our online footprint with a new website showcasing monthly narrative and verse features.

 

Simultaneous, multiple, and reprint submissions are welcome.

 

Find out more at our website.

Call for Children's Stories on Theme of Adventure: Ladybug

Call for Submissions: Adventure

Deadline: March 23, 2016

Ladybug is looking for remarkable tales to thrill very young children. For this audience, an exciting story could explore an experience as common as starting out at a new childcare center or as wild as setting sail in a magical ship. Wherever your sense of adventure takes you, we are interested in simple yet strong plots, memorable characters, lively language, and humor.

Submit here to Ladybug (for ages 3–6).

Writing Competition: Fugue's 2016 Poetry and Prose Contest

Fugue's 2016 Annual Poetry and Prose Contests

 

Deadline: March 15th, 2016 

 

Judged by Megan Kruse (prose) and Rose McLarney (poetry). We accept between 1-3 poems and no more than one story or one essay.

 

Entry fee: $15. Multiple submissions are accepted as long as separate fees are paid.

 

Winners in each genre receive $1,000 and will be published in the 50th issue of Fugue. 

 

Entries can be submitted here.

Call for Poetry and Fiction Submissions: Postcard Poems and Prose Magazine.

Postcard Poems and Prose Magazine publishes 150 features annually. We regularly call for tight, gripping fiction and poetry submissions.

Our guidelines.

Call for Poetry Submissions: Really System

Really System, the journal of poetry and extensible poetics, will publish its tenth issue in Spring 2016. We are looking for vibrant poems inflected by our shared technocultural moment and the ways it envelops us, fascinates us, dances with us, ignores us, and fails us.  

Submissions for issue three are open until March 15, 2016. 

More information at our website.

Read our submission guidelines here.

Call for Submissions from MG and YA Authors: The Crawl Space Journal

We are calling for Submissions from those who write for Middle Grade and Young Adult!

The Crawl Space Journal, a small place for big imaginations, is looking for great writing, especially short forms: poems, prose, and flash fiction, within the realms of magical realism, fabulism, and fantasy, for our Spring Issue.We do accept novel excerpts if they stand alone. Our readers are mainly between the ages of 11 and 14. 

To submit, please send a Microsoft Word document with your name and address in the left hand corner to:

thecrawlspacejournalATgmailDOTcom (Change AT to @ and DOT to . )

Include a cover letter and third person bio in the body of the email. There is no fee to submit. We are not yet a paying journal, but have plans to become one in the future.

Closes on Feb 22nd 2016.

Call for Prose and Visual Art Submissions: Lime Hawk

Lime Hawk is seeking new prose and visual art for its Winter Issue [8], to release in late February. Past issues touch on themes ranging from body identity to technology and alienation, mental illness, animal welfare, nostalgia, passion, and purpose. Check out past issues at our website, then send us your fresh new work!

No deadline to submit. No reading fees. 

Submittable link!

Valentine's Giveaway: $50 Amazon gift card and Kindle Fire HD7!

 

VALENTINE'S GIVEAWAY!

Win a Kindle Fire HD7 and a $50 Amazon gift card!

Sponsored by 28 authors, including moi!

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