Call for Historical Fiction: History Through Fiction

Short Story and Novel Excerpt Submissions - Open Year-round (One story published monthly beginning May 1, 2022)

History Through Fiction is now accepting historical fiction short story and novel excerpt submissions that, if accepted, will be published in the member-only content area of our website (launching May 1). Stories and excerpts must be previously unpublished and should be between 1,000 and 8,000 words long. HTF prefers stories that are based on real historical events and/or people. However, all stories with any kind of historical setting will be considered – this includes those with elements of fantasy and alternative history. Stories that are accepted will receive light editing before being scheduled for publication to our member-only content area. We will publish one new story on the first day of each month.

Authors whose work is accepted for publication will receive a $25 honorarium for their work.

History Through Fiction reserves first time rights for publication. This means, once an author’s story is accepted for publication, and a contract is signed, the author cannot publish elsewhere until it has first been published by History Through Fiction and thirty days thereafter.

To submit, please send an email with the subject line Short Story Submission or Novel Excerpt Submission to:

editor@historythroughfiction.com 

In the body of your email, please include a word count, a short synopsis or summary, and a short author bio. Please allow up to six weeks for a response to your short story submission.

Due to the quantity of submissions, if your story is rejected, we will not be able to provide any specific feedback. Writers who identify as BIPOC, LGBTQ, disabled, neuro-diverse or as a member of other marginalized and traditionally underrepresented communities are strongly encouraged to submit their work.

Read more about us here.

Call for Submissions on Theme of "Optimism": Sequestrum

Yes. We know how un-literary “optimism” sounds. To be clear, we aren’t looking for any sickly-sweet submissions. But we’ll read heartbreak if we get a little redemption. Give us a mystery with some hope. Poetics with ambition. Humor is fine too. Hell, we’ll even take revenge. Revenge is optimistic, right? We want tense, imaginative, literary-quality writing that doesn’t end with gout/the sun being a dried-out prune. That’s all. Quality writing means original, challenging writing. This is a challenge. We know you’re up for it. As always, wow us. Thrill us. Never bore us. We’re eager to read your best.

Deadline 4/15

~~~

Not the theme you were hoping for? No problem. We’re also reading unthemed submissions following our general submission guidelines.

What We Publish:

Fiction: Submissions should generally not exceed twelve thousand* (12,000) words.

Creative Nonfiction: Submissions should generally not exceed twelve thousand* (12,000) words. All genres of nonfiction (articles, reviews, memoirs, personal essay, cross-genre, etc.) are acceptable, though we rarely publish scholarly essays or literary criticism.

Poetry: We like our poetry short. Submissions should be no more than thirty-five* (35) lines. Maximum four (4) poems per submission.

*Length guidelines are just that: guidelines. Pieces exceeding these limits will be considered but generally have a harder time being published. If your work is outstanding, we’ll make room for it.

A Note on Themed Submissions:

Themed submissions are considered alongside our general submission pool. Themed submissions are not contests resulting in a predetermined minimum or maximum number of publications (we hate turning good writing away for the sake of contest rules). Any piece which is a good fit will be published in Sequestrum and is subject to standard rights and payment as outlined on our submission guidelines (unless other rights are part of the theme or outlined below). Selected pieces are not published as a batch or part of a “themed” issue but are instead proudly displayed right alongside every other Sequestrum publication. We implement deadlines to transition between calls, with roughly four themes per year. Multiple and simultaneous submissions allowed. Our standard reading fee and free subscriber submission rules apply. If making a subscriber submission to a theme, please indicate so in your cover letter.

We’re trying to keep things simple. Themed submissions are a call for the sort of writing we’re hungry to read. As our tastes change, so will our themes. We’re hoping to be surprised. We’re hoping to find exactly the stories and poems we’re looking for. We’re hoping to fall in love with writing we never realized we needed.

Send away. We’re eager to read your best.

When ready to submit, please use our online submission system.

 

Payment: We believe good writing deserves recognition and offer a small cash honorarium of $20 for all writers we publish. In addition, all contributors receive a complimentary 6 month subscription redeemable at any time after acceptance.

Call for Submissions: SEEMS

Guidelines for submission:

• 1-5 poems of virtually any length, including prose poems (single or double spaced)

• 1 short story under 5,000 words or 2 flash fiction pieces under 1,000 words (double spaced)

• 1 personal essay under 5,000 words or 2 mirco essays under 1,000 words (double spaced)

• Please attach each submission in a separate Word.doc (do not copy and paste your work in the body of the email)

• Name, address, and email (and/or phone number) are necessary on first page of every piece

• Cover letter, including biographical information

Send submissions to:

seems@lakeland.edu 

or to the address provided on the CONTACT page

Include a self-addressed, stamped envelope for our reply (if sent via mail)

Continuous deadline, meaning we read year-round

We do not read simultaneous submissions

Contributors are to provide work accepted and biographical notes electronically as Word.doc attachments

Notes to consider:

• Usually, we take six months to respond, but sometimes it's longer, especially if we have interest in all or any of the work submitted

• Payment is through a copy of the issue in which a contributor's work appears

• Response time is longer in the summer

• Publication of accepted manuscripts rarely occurs in less than a year

• In the past, we've accepted less than 2% of submissions

• Contributors may purchase additional copies at 75% of the cover price 

For more information, please visit our website.

Call for Submissions: True Story

Deadline: April 30, 2022 

Each issue of True Story features one exceptional work of creative nonfiction, distributed in print and digitally (and available online to subscribers and behind a limited paywall).

• Guidelines: Essays must be previously unpublished. Multiple submissions are welcome, as are entries from outside the United States. You may submit essays online only, via Submittable. Submissions should be between 5,000 and 10,000 words long, on any subject, in any style. Surprise us! The only hard and fast rules are that all work submitted must be nonfiction and original to the author, and we will not consider previously published work. That said, many of the stories we’ve featured in True Story share some common elements:

A strong narrative component or source of tension that keeps readers in suspense;
A significant informational component;
A personal (or at least writerly) connection or window into the information element;
Significant movement across distance or time or both;
And some sort of bigger question.

We’ll pay $750 on publication and give you 10 free copies of “your” issue. We’ll do our best to respond to submissions within four months. We can’t promise to consider work submitted for True Story for any of CNF’s other projects or publications—but we reserve the right to do so.

There is a $3 reading fee, waived for current True Story and/or Creative Nonfiction subscribers. 

Tips From the Editor

Please do send work that blends style with substance, and reaches beyond the personal to tell us something new about the world. We're drawn to stories that balance a strong narrative (i.e. something happens) with a teaching or reflective element (i.e. the something that happens matters for some reason). Please do include your complete contact information and keep us informed of the status of simultaneous submissions. Please don't send poetry.

Submission link.

Call for Submissions: Angime

Angime accepts submissions in fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and visual arts. While we are particularly interested in works that engage with Central Asia and the post-Soviet sphere, we also welcome submissions that frame a conversation between multicultural, multilingual, and multidisciplinary perspectives.

Submissions accepted year round.

Please note:

• All work needs to be submitted with a cover letter introducing the author and the submission(s), and must be emailed.
• All manuscripts should follow standard manuscript formatting requirements.
• For length requirements, please consult specific guidelines for each section.
• We accept simultaneous submissions but ask to be notified if your work is placed elsewhere.

For more information, please visit our website.

Call for Submissions on Theme of "Voices from the Wild": Wood Cat Review

Wood Cat Review | Emerging Voices from the Wild

Deadline: Year-round

We are a new literary journal looking for emerging writers and poets who capture the spirit and experience of life out-of-doors. Artists whose lives and work thrive in the mountains, forests, and along the open road. From Cascadia to Acadia, Voyageurs to Big Bend, and all the life in between, yours are the voices which speak to travel & adventure, triumph & disaster, challenge & hope, love & loss.

Open submissions are accepted year-round for flash fiction, short fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.

Visit website for more information.

Writing Competition: Switchback Books Gatewood Prize

 

Switchback Books Gatewood Prize

Deadline: March 31, 2022

Prize: Publication Contract from Switchback Books

The Gatewood Prize is Switchback Books’ annual competition for a first or second full-length collection of poems by a woman or non-binary writer. Submit poetry manuscripts by March 31, 2022. This year's competition will be judged by Julie Carr.

The contest fee is $15, or $25 with a book of your choice from our catalog.

For more information about eligibility requirements and detailed submission guidelines, please visit our website.

Call for Submissions on Theme of "BIPOC Experience": Waxing and Waning

Waxing & Waning Presents: The Blackout Edition

Deadline: May 25, 2022

As 2021 draws to a close, George Floyd’s killer behind bars, Breonna Taylor’s still enjoying their time of freedom, and countless other BIPOC people’s deaths still without justice, we are seeking writing and art that exemplifies the BIPOC experience. In a time of racial unrest, we are looking for creative work that both includes this aspect, but we are also looking for any and all work about the modern BIPOC experience, even outside of race. Give us your poems about sunsets, stories that strike a chord in the human experience, art that screams to be heard. Be deep, true, honest.

For more information and to submit, please visit our website.

Call for Science Fiction and Fantasy Submissions: Metaphorosis

What we want:

Beautiful writing showing engaging characters in science fiction or fantasy settings.

Genre: Science fiction and fantasy prose only.

Length: We accept submissions from 500 words up to a firm 10,000 word ceiling. We prefer stories in the 2,000-6,000 word length.

Pay: We pay a flat rate of $.01/word

Please go here for full guidelines, a sample contract, and our submission portal.

Call for Submissions: McSweeney's Internet Tendency

Dear writers,

All of the satire and comedy we publish on this website comes from complete strangers such as yourselves. While we remain small and irresponsible and afflicted with mold-borne allergies, we do our best to respond to all submissions quickly and professionally. That said, there are a number of things you can do to further enhance and streamline the experience for yourselves and for your friendly McSweeney’s Internet Tendency editorial staff, which since 2007 has been run by one person out of a living room in a suburb of Boston, Massachusetts.

EMAIL SUBMISSION ADDRESSES
General website submissions should be sent to websubmissions@mcsweeneys.net. Timely submissions should be sent to timelysubmissions@mcsweeneys.net. This inbox is for super topical pieces riffing on big news stories of the last 24-48 hours. All types of submissions (lists, open letters, monologues, etc.) are allowed. Be sure to mark the subject field in your email as “TIMELY.” Also, let us know why you feel your piece is super timely, and feel free to include a link to a reputable news site for proof. Note: Submissions sent on Friday afternoons (EST) or over the weekend will be replied to sometime the following Monday (on Tuesday after three-day weekends).

Lists submissions should be sent to lists@mcsweeneys.net.

Open Letters to People or Entities Who Are Unlikely to Respond submissions should be sent to openletters@mcsweeneys.net. (Note: We generally publish nonfiction letters that are written and signed by the submitter. Also, we are all set for letters about noisy neighbors, small animals/insects that have invaded your living space, and breaking up with inanimate objects, like Facebook and iPhones.)

LENGTH
Submissions should be shortish. By shortish we mean an absolute maximum of 1,200 words, but in truth we veer toward pieces that are under 1,000 words, and snuggle closest to ones that are even shorter than that. Submissions of exactly 742 used to automatically appear on the site, as if by magic, but like so many good things, those days are gone.

PAYMENT
We are thrilled to report that there will be payment for all accepted general, open letter, and lists submissions. The payment will be modest, and for some perhaps even low enough to disappoint, but it will be better than the amount we used to pay for accepted work, which was nothing. Our site has never been monetized and has accrued a grand total of zero dollars from advertising revenue in its 20+ years. In 2017 we launched a Patreon campaign to help provide some sustainability without resorting to ads and paywalls, as well as to eventually create a fund to pay contributors. So, as long as our campaign’s total remains above Goal #2 (enough $ to pay contributors) we will be able to pay for the content listed above. If our campaign continues to grow, we eventually hope be able to pay for New Food Reviews and other sorts of articles, but currently we cannot. 

Find our full guidelines and submission information here.

Writing Competition: The 2022 Pinch Literary Awards and 2022 Page Prize

The 2022 Pinch Literary Awards accepts poetry and fiction. The 2022 Page Prize accepts nonfiction.

Submissions will be accepted Feb 1st, 2022 - March 31st, 2022 at the end of the day

The submission fee is $20 for the Pinch Literary Awards and $10 for the Page Prize. 

1st place contest winners in poetry and fiction will each receive a prize of $2000. 1st place winner of the Page Prize will receive $1000. 

Guidelines:

• We will only be accepting original works.
• Fiction submitted should have a maximum word count of 5000 words.
• Poetry submissions should have a maximum of three poems.
• Nonfiction submissions should have a maximum of 1000 words.
• We do NOT accept submissions via email.
• There is no limit to the number of submissions a person can make.
  

*Please note that all submissions are eligible for either journal or website publication. Second and third place winners will be given high-priority consideration for publication, but because of space, cannot be guaranteed.

Go here for more information.

Artists' Residencies for POC: Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (VCCA)

The Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (VCCA) has established the 50th Anniversary Fund to provide free residencies of up to two weeks for at least 50 first-time VCCA Fellows who self-identify as artists of color. Applications are now being accepted for the 50th Anniversary Fellowships.

The 50th Anniversary Fellowships will be awarded to artists creating original work in a wide variety of literary, visual, and musical/sound arts who self-identify as part of one or more of these U.S. census groups: American Indian or Alaskan Native; Asian; Black or African American; Hispanic or Latinx; Middle Eastern or North African; Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander; or multi-racial.

Artists from these groups have been underrepresented at VCCA over the course of its 50-year history. “As we move thoughtfully into our next 50 years, it’s vital that VCCA continue to become a more inclusive and accessible creative haven,” says Quinn Graeff, VCCA Board President.

VCCA’s mission is to provide time and space for national and international writers, visual artists, and composers of talent and promise to bring forth their finest works, because the arts are vital, diversity is a strength, and creativity is essential.

“To fulfill VCCA’s mission to its fullest, our top priority (now that we have purchased our long- time home at Mt. San Angelo) is building an endowment large enough to sustain free residencies for every artist who participates in our programs,” says Executive Director Kevin O’Halloran. “As we reach toward the ultimate goal of free residencies for all, we’re first funding free residencies for groups of artists who have been underrepresented at VCCA.”

At present, VCCA’s Annual Fund supports at least half the cost of every residency, and significant financial aid is available beyond that. VCCA’s endowment provides more than $150,000 annually, including several endowed fellowships specifically for artists of color. But the 50th Anniversary Fund is unique for VCCA: while most VCCA fellowship funds are set up to support one artist per year in perpetuity, the 50th Anniversary Fund is designed to support at least 50 artists in a single year.

VCCA is taking two additional steps to improve accessibility to prospective applicants. Effective immediately, it will lower its application fee from $50 to $30 and make clearer the existing option to arrange an application fee waiver. And, VCCA will no longer require letters of recommendation as a part of the application process.

More information and application portal here.

Writing Competition: Backbone Press Chapbook Competition

 

Backbone Press Chapbook Competition 

Deadline: March 6, 2022

Winner will receive book publication, $250 prize, and (20) copies of the chapbook. In addition, the winner will receive a small honorarium for a reading or chapbook launch event.  

All submissions should be submitted via Submittable with a $20 submission fee.

Backbone Press is accepting chapbook submissions for our 4th annual competition. Deadline is March 6, 2022. Poet Tyree Daye will judge. Previous winners and runner ups include: celeste doaks, Lindsay Young, Chloe Martinez, and Danielle P. Williams. See website for full details.

Call for Submissions from residents of Michigan: Qua Literary and Fine Arts Magazine

Qua Literary and Fine Arts Magazine Call for Submissions - MI

Deadline: March 18, 2022

Qua Literary and Fine Arts Magazine is a student-run publication of the University of Michigan-Flint. Founded over 50 years ago, we are currently in the process of returning to a biannual publishing schedule. We invite submissions of Fiction, Creative Nonfiction, Poetry, Visual Arts, Photography, etcetera, from anyone currently living in the state of Michigan.

No submission fees.

For the all-digital Winter issue, all submissions must be made by March 18th, 2022 here.

Call for Submissions: Book of Matches

Book of Matches seeks Poetry, Fiction, Creative Nonfiction, Translation

Deadline: March 8, 2022

In an age dominated by our worst tendencies for tribalism, it's more important than ever to celebrate the best in humanity through the very real magic of words. Book of Matches is always interested in protest—interested in protest against the unknowing alive in human existence, in protest against the knowing, too.

In essence, Book of Matches celebrates what burns in the dark, and too the assurance of how little this illuminates before going out. Send your most meaningful lies, real lives, and poetry of both that we may see a bit more clearly the stormy seas around us all.

Full submission guidelines here.

Call for Submissions: Plant-Human Quarterly

Plant-Human Quarterly seeks Poems and Essays for Upcoming Issues

Deadline: Year-round

Plant-Human Quarterly reads year-round. We seek unpublished or published poetry and essays that explore the myriad ways writers manifest their relationship to the botanical world—whether through heavily researched pieces, keen observation, or more intuitive ways of knowing and interacting—that attempt to communicate across boundaries and approach a plant’s-eye-view of the world.

Send no more than 5 poems or an essay of no more than 1,500 words (flash essay or essay excerpt). Past contributors include Ellen Bass, Forrest Gander, Kimiko Hahn, Brenda Hillman, Jane Hirshfield, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Pattiann Rogers, Scott Russell Sanders, Arthur Sze.

Submission guidelines

Call for Submissions: River Styx

General Submission Guidelines for Writers

• Work submitted to River Styx must be previously unpublished in print or online. This includes social media posts.

• We accept poetry, prose, and short play submissions electronically via Submittable or through USPS sent to:

 River Styx

3301 Washington Ave, Suite 2C

St. Louis, MO 63103

• All mailed submissions and correspondence must include a self-addressed stamped envelope (SASE) with sufficient postage.

• Please do not submit work via any method that requires a signature.

• Prose pieces should be typed, double-spaced, and page-numbered. Send no more than one short story or essay per submission. Stories/essays of 500 words or fewer may be sent in groups of up to three.

• Send up to five poems per submission.

• Translations are welcome if permission has been granted from owner of copyright.

• We will read simultaneous submissions but ask that you inform us of such and notify us immediately if your work is accepted elsewhere.

• Expect up to five months for a decision. Please do not query before five months have passed.

• No e-mail submissions of any kind will be considered. If you wish to submit electronically, please use Submittable.

Payment

All writers whose work we publish will receive compensation. This includes a one-year subscription, one additional copy of the issue in which their work appears, and payment of approximately $25 to $150, depending on the length of the work as well as our finances at the time of publication.

For art, we pay $50-150, depending on location and use of the work and (again) our finances at the time the work is accepted.

Call for Submissions to Anthology: The Last Five Minutes of a Storm

From Jan 25th to March 7th, we are open for short story submissions for our new collection, The Last Five Minutes of a Storm! We are looking for stories of all genres that respond to our title and/or cover art, and writers will receive a flat rate of €150 for accepted submissions.

For our first anthology of 2022, we are taking inspiration from Wallace Stevens’ poetry, and asking for stories that look upon the world with a mind of winter and behold nothing that is not there and the nothing that is (paraphrasing The Snowman).

For our prompt, we are looking for short stories that reflect our title: The Last Five Minutes of a Storm.

As always, you can also take inspiration from the artwork we've chosen for the cover, created by artist Pedro Vó! (See our website for the cover art.)

We are looking for emotional responses to the title and/or the cover – stories that come from the specific place of mind they take you to. (if in doubt, make a cup of tea and read Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird).

The Last Five Minutes of a Storm

How does it feel to be in the eye of the hurricane? What does it mean to know that the storm will vanish very soon, if only you can hold on a second longer? Now that the monster is defeated, can the hero make it out of the maze? Do they still want to?

We are not requesting any specific genres for this edition, so they are all welcome – sci-fi, literary, fantasy, romance, horror, noir, non-fiction – as long as they reveal a piece of reality that might have otherwise gone unnoticed.

For complete guidelines and to submit your work, go here. 

If you have any issues or questions, you can contact us here.

Writing Competition: The Banyan Poetry Prize

The Banyan Poetry Prize is offered annually for a single poem. The winning poet is awarded $1,000 and included in the summer issue of The Banyan Review in June. The current editoral team judges and selects the winning poem.

Submissions are open from January through May 31.

Entry Fee: $20.00

The Banyan Review seeks well-crafted poetry on any topic. We are open to all aesthetics and publish works written in English. Please send up to five (5) unpublished poems in one single file. We only accept digital submissions through Submittable and do not accept submissions through email. Translations are not accepted for this prize. We encourage simultaneous submissions. Please notify us if your work is accepted elsewhere so we can wish you a hearty congratulations and remove your work from our queue.

Poems must be unpublished and should not have appeared in any print or electronic format including personal social media.

Writing Competition: 2022 Nelligan Prize for Short Fiction

 

General Guidelines for the 2022 Nelligan Prize for Short Fiction:

• $2,500 will be awarded for the winning short story, which will be published in the fall/winter 2022 issue of Colorado Review.
• This year’s final judge is Ramona Ausubel; friends and students (current & former) of the judge are not eligible to compete, nor are Colorado State University employees, students, or alumni.
• Entry fee is $15 per story ($17 via Submittable); there is no limit on the number of entries you may submit.
• Stories must be previously unpublished.
• There are no theme restrictions, but stories must be at least 10 pages (or 2500 words) but no more than 50 pages (12,500 words).
• All manuscripts must be typed and double-spaced.
• Contest opens December 1, 2021.
• Deadline is the postmark of March 14, 2022 (note that we observe a five-day grace period for both paper and online submissions).
• Winner will be announced by mid-June 2022.
• All submissions will be considered for publication.
• You do not need to be a Colorado or US resident to enter. If you are, however, a foreign national working in the United States, please check the conditions of your visa status with regard to receiving payment (in the event that your manuscript is selected as the winner) from entities other than your sponsor. Colorado State University cannot issue honoraria to foreign nationals with B1/WB, B2/WT, H-1B, or F-1 visas. A J-1 visa holder with a sponsor other than CSU must have written authorization from the Responsible Officer (RO) at their sponsoring institution prior to the activity.

For more information, please visit our website.

Writing and Artists Grants: Sustainable Arts Foundation

This year, we will make awards of $5,000 each to twenty artists and writers with children. Additionally, we will name twenty finalists.

Deadline: February 25, 2022

Application Fee: $20.00

Our awards offer unrestricted cash, which recipients can use as they see fit.

Our selection process is focused almost entirely on the strength of the submitted portfolio.

Eligibility To be eligible, the applicant must have at least one child under the age of 18. Parents of older children with a disability or special needs may also be eligible. 

Who Should Apply Artists and writers with at least one child under the age of 18 and a strong portfolio are welcome to apply.

We are inspired by anyone making creative work while raising a family. Given the intense demand for these awards (we typically receive 2,000-3,000 applications), and the fact that the awards are based on demonstrated excellence in your discipline, we don’t recommend that artists or writers just beginning their creative careers apply to this program.

While we don’t require that applicants have published or exhibited their work, the rigor and critique involved in that process can certainly benefit the portfolio. Portfolios of writing or artwork created in a more personal vein for sharing with friends and family are not suitable.

We invite you to view our list of previous awardees and follow the links to their work to get a feel for their level of craft.

Racial Equity As of Fall 2016, we make at least half our awards to applicants of color. You can read more about this decision on our website.

You can find more information and the application portal here.

Writing Competition: 2022 Spokane Prize for Short Fiction

 

Submit to the 2022 Spokane Prize for Short Fiction

Deadline: June 24, 2022

Willow Springs Books is accepting submissions for the 2022 Spokane Prize for Short Fiction. All authors are eligible regardless of publication history. Manuscripts must have a minimum of three (3) stories of fiction totaling at least 98 pages. The collection as a whole must be previously unpublished. Deadline: June 24, 20222.

Prize: $2,000 plus publication

Entry Fee: $27.50

More information and submission link here.

Call for Submissions: Translations with a Focus on North and South Korea: Consequences Forum

 

Consequence Translations Feature: A Focus on North and South Korea

Deadline: April 15, 2022

This project aims to highlight the ongoing experiences of North and South Koreans as their countries remain inexorably entwined in war. We are looking for translated prose, poetry, and graphic/visual arts that engage with these experiences. Original works do not necessarily have to be in Korean but should address issues resulting from (or directly related to) what we in the US call the Korean War (a.k.a. the 625 War, a.k.a The Fatherland Liberation War).

Full guidelines and submission link here.

Thank you.

Call for Submissions: Feels Blind Literary

Feels Blind Literary is Open for Submissions for Issue #7

Deadline: March 6, 2022

Feels Blind Literary, a publication featuring work from artists and writers who are nonbinary or identify as women, is currently accepting art, photography, fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and plays. Issue #7 will launch in time for AWP where we will have a table and host an off-site reading. All profits from our small fee go to organizations like the Richmond Community Bail Fund, though submissions are free every Monday, as it’s important to us that cost is not a barrier to access for our contributors.

We nominate for the Best of the Net and Pushcart. Dazzle us with your best!

Call for Submissions: AGNI

We look for writing that catches experience before the crusts of habit form—poetry and prose that resist ideas about what a certain kind of writing “should do.” We seek out writers who tell their truths in their own words and convince us as we read that we’ve found something no one else could have written.

Our online Submission Manager is open from September 1st to midnight December 15th, and again from February 15th to midnight May 31st. We welcome manuscripts by mail between September 1st and May 31st. (Submissions mailed in June, July, or August will be returned unread, provided sufficient return postage is included.)

• Please send only one story, one essay, or up to five poems, and please wait for our reply before sending more. As soon as we respond, you can feel free to submit again during a reading period.

• Please use page numbers and, if you are submitting prose, double-space your document.

• Please do not submit revisions of work we’ve already considered.

• If you submit on paper and want us to reply by mail, please enclose a stamped, addressed envelope (SAE). If the envelope is large enough and you include sufficient postage, we will return the manuscript; otherwise, it will be recycled. If you’d like to be notified by email only, please include your email address and skip the SAE.

• Do not email your work; we do not read or consider emailed submissions.

• Feel free to submit the same work to other magazines simultaneously. If your entire submission is accepted elsewhere, please log in to your online account and withdraw using the link there—or, if you’ve submitted by mail, or if only a portion of your submission has been taken elsewhere, please contact us with a quick withdrawal note.

• Do not mail your work to us in the months of June, July, or August. The online portal is closed during those months also, and closes at midnight December 15th until midnight February 14th.

• Do not send us your only copy; we cannot accept responsibility for your manuscript.

• Please do not contact us about your submission until four months have passed. We work hard to respond within two, but we’re not always able. If you submit online, you can log in to your account anytime to check status. “Received” means we have the submission and are considering your work.

WHERE to send:

If you’d rather not submit through our online portal, please address your envelope to the Fiction Editor, Poetry Editor, or Nonfiction Editor and mail to:

AGNI Magazine
Boston University
236 Bay State Road
Boston, MA 02215

Regular post is fine. There is no advantage to sending a more expensive way.
Purchasing rights

All submissions are considered for both print and online publication.

We buy first worldwide serial rights and pay $20 per printed (or printed-out) page for accepted prose, and $40 per page for accepted poetry, up to a maximum of $300. We also give a year’s subscription to AGNI. In the case of print publication, each contributor receives two copies of the issue their work appears in, and we send up to four additional copies to friends or family.

Call for Submissions: The Baltimore Review

Our next submission period is February 1 through May 31, 2022 (or until caps are reached). Since we will be capping the number of submissions, please do not withdraw and re-submit your work if making revisions. This counts as two submissions. Simply note the minor edit or, if the changes are more extensive, attach the new version in the Submittable message. But it’s always best, of course, to take some time to thoroughly proofread your work before submitting. Thanks!

Response time: You will be notified of our decision within four months. We're aiming for a response time well within that time frame, usually one to three months, but we do receive thousands of submissions in each submission period, and we read each one of them. Thank you for your patience.

Payment for non-contest submissions is $40 via Amazon gift certificate or $40 through PayPal, if preferred. We hope to continue this as long as funding is available. We also nominate our contributors' work for every possible prize. 

For more information and to use our Submittable portal, go here.

Artists' Residency for Native American Artists: LIFT

The Native Arts and Cultures Foundation (NACF) is now accepting applications for the LIFT–Early Career Support for Native Artists program, a one-year award and early career support program for emerging Native artists to develop and realize new projects. The program’s focus is to provide financial support and professional development to artists whose work aims to uplift communities and advance positive social change.

Eligible applicants must be individual Native artists working in dance/choreography, fiction/poetry writing, film/video, multi-disciplinary arts, music, performance art, theater and screenplay writing, traditional arts, or 2D + 3D visual arts.

Artist applicant must be an enrolled member or citizen of a federally-recognized or state-recognized American Indian tribe or Alaska Native corporation, or of Native Hawaiian ancestry. We encourage artists to apply who are shaping their practices and for whom the award may serve as a launching point in their career.

LIFT is a monetary award of $10,000 for a proposed project with a required minimum of $3,000 earmarked for the artist’s benefit and wellbeing. Up to twenty artists will be selected to receive LIFT awards.

Deadline: March 16, 2022 

More information here.

Call for Submissions: Works Progress

Works Progress Calling for Fiction Submissions

Deadline: Year-round

We are a brand new Substack publishing short fiction about anything bigger than yourself: stories about astronauts, ICU nurses, politics, protests, alternate histories, big-world calamities, juicy personal dramas and the people who experience them. Fiction with dynamic characters who do interesting things. We don’t think stories should be slogs. We do not publish quiet stories about divorce.

We pay our writers.

Submit via email:

worksprogress.submissions@gmail.com

 and visit our archives here.

Call for Submissions: Allium: A Journal of Poetry and Prose

Allium: Call for Submissions

Deadline: April 1, 2022

Allium are flowering plants that include hundreds of species. Alliums vary dramatically in size, shape, and color, and are cultivated as both vegetable and ornament. They naturally resist taxonomy. Our Allium aspires to create a similar resistance by publishing diverse creative voices, BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and neurodiverse communities that have been underrepresented in literature, recognized and emerging writers, and a variety of forms and genres from the traditional to the experimental.

Allium accepts simultaneous submissions, requests a maximum page length of five pages for poetry; fifteen pages for fiction and nonfiction.

No previously published work. Visit our Submittable page for more information.

Writing Competition: Writer Advice

Writer Advice Seeks Flash Memoirs

Deadline: March 2, 2022

Entry Fee: $5.00

PRIZES: First Place earns $150; Second Place earns $75; Third Place earns $40; Honorable Mentions will also be listed 

Everybody has great stories to tell. What’s yours? A flash memoir shows readers how you (the narrator) experienced and reacted to a turning point in your life. Write about something that changed the way you viewed yourself or your world. Show what happened and how it affected you. Invite us into your emotional truths.

A flash memoir should be short—750 words or less. It can have scenes, conflict narration, dialogue, and description. It should surprise, enlighten, and maybe entertain readers. Be authentic. No one can tell your story but you.

More information and submission portal here.

Writing Competition: Syncopation Short Story Contest

 

Syncopation Short Story Contest

Deadline: April 4, 2022

Syncopation Literary Journal is running its first Short Story Contest. Send us your best music-related short story.

No fees.

Top three stories to be published on Syncopation’s website. First place story will also be published in forthcoming Volume 1, Issue 2 of Syncopation. Interview with winning author will also be published in Issue 2.

Enter here.

Call for Submissions: Santa Clara Review

 

Submit to the Santa Clara Review

Deadline: February 28, 2022

We are now accepting submissions for our Spring 2022 issue. The deadline for submission is February 28th, 2022 at 11:59pm PT.

The Santa Clara Review publishes fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and art from all over the world. We are especially interested in writing and art from Black writers, Indigenous writers, LGBTQ+ writers, and writers of color. We welcome short screenplay and play submissions as well as prose and poetry. We are seeking work from visual artists to fill 12 pages of full-color art and photography.

For further submission guidelines and details, please visit our website.