Call for Submissions: Fourth Genre

Reading Period: Sep. 1-Nov. 30, 2022

We are thirsty for essays that give us something to drink besides mainstream ideologies and forms, that showcase imagination and meaning-making capacities, that embrace a love of a sentence’s shape. We believe good essays center the margin or marginalize the center, or even better, blow up the center-margin borders. We want essays that make the common uncommon—that are not about the things they pretend to be about. You know, the essay about your shoelace that’s not really about your shoelace. 

We want to read more essays that reflect the intersections of race, ethnicity, culture, class, identity, gender, sexuality, diasporas, borderlands; and more essays that are cultural, lyrical, experimental, personal, environmental, self-interrogative, meditative, and reflective, as well as expository, analytical, exploratory, or whimsical. We want to publish the best creative nonfiction essays, understanding that notions of “best,” of taste and genre, are political and cultural.

More information and submission link here.

Call for Submissions to Anthology: Toxic Workplaces

WOMEN’S THEMED CREATIVE NONFICTION anthology series now accepting submissions. 

First theme: “Toxic Workplaces,” due December 12. Submit your 1,000- to 5,000-word essay pasted in body of e-mail to:

 women.write.about@gmail.com 

Compensation: $0.02/word + copy for previously unpublished. Previously published considered but no cash payment. E-mail to be notified of future themes and deadlines.

Call for Submissions on Theme of "Voice": Wayward Literature

Each issue of Wayward Literature focuses on a theme. The theme for the upcoming issue is “voice,” so you’ll want to be sure to keep this in mind when creating and submitting your work for consideration. Keep in mind that, even if you submit your work, it does not guarantee you a place in the issue. We will reach out to all those who are receiving a spot in the magazine. Those who do not will receive a separate email with the possibility of publishing on our blog.

Deadline: Oct. 1, 2022

Wayward Literature magazine accepts a variety of genres and art forms. All submissions must come with an author/creator biography. This should be around a paragraph and written in the third person. Find the technical guidelines here:

Short Stories & Flash Fiction:

– 2,500 words maximum for short stories. 1,000 words maximum for flash fiction.
– These are not hard maximums. If your story is 25-30 words over, we’ll still consider it. Anything 100 words over the maximum will not be considered.
– Must adhere to the theme
– No depictions of excessive violence
– If talking on sensitive topics (rape, abuse, suicide, etc.) please include a warning

Poems:
– 2 pages maximum
– Must adhere to the theme
– No depictions of excessive violence
– If talking on sensitive topics (rape, abuse, suicide, etc.) please include a warning

Art (Photography, drawings, paintings, etc.):
– One image per submission
– Must adhere to the theme
– No depictions of excessive violence
– If focusing on sensitive topics (rape, abuse, suicide, etc.) please include a warning
– Include a brief (2-3 sentence) description of the piece along with the title

More information and submission link here.

Call for Submisions on Theme of "The Undead": Planisphere Quarterly

Planisphere Q Seeks Flash Fiction, Vignettes, Character Sketches, and Poetry

Deadline: September 17, 2022

PQ is seeking undead submissions: vampires, ghosts, zombies, or any other ghoulish undead creature. Poetry, vignettes, character sketches, and flash fiction 500-words or less, firm. Please visit our website for more information.

Call for Submissions: Consequence

Consequence’s Fall Reading Period Now Open

Deadline: October 15, 2022

The reading period for Consequence Volume 15.1 is now open. As always, we are after any and all literary work or visual art that deals with the human consequences and realities of war or geopolitical violence as experienced by combatants, victims, or witnesses. We are especially interested in works of translation and fiction this time around. We also strongly encourage BIPOC and people from other under-represented communities to submit. Please spread the word.

Have questions about what work we’re inclined to publish and/or how much we pay? Visit our FAQ.

To submit, go here.

Writing Competition: Gemini Magazine 14th Annual Flash Fiction Prize

Gemini Magazine 14th annual Flash Fiction Prize

Deadline: August 31, 2022

Win $1,000 for a story of 1,000 words or less in the 14th annual Gemini Magazine Flash Fiction Contest. Second prize: $100. Four honorable mentions: $25 each.

Entry fee: $7. Any subject or style.

Except for the word limit, we have no rules and are open to your most creative work, whether literary, noir, historical, sci-fi or any other category. All six finalists will be published online in the October/November 2022 issue of Gemini.

Read previous winners and finalists online to see the wide variety of flash fiction we publish. 

Writing Competition: The Missouri Review's 32nd Annual Jeffrey E. Smith Editor's Prize

The Missouri Review's 32nd Annual Jeffrey E. Smith Editors' Prize

Deadline: October 1, 2022

The Missouri Review invites entries for its 32nd annual Jeffrey E. Smith Editors’ Prize. Winners receive $5000, publication, and promotion. Fiction or nonfiction entries up to 8,500 words, poetry entries up to 10 pages.

Regular entry fee: $25. All-Access entry fee: $30

All entrants receive a 1-year digital subscription to the Missouri Review and a digital copy of Missouri Review Books’ sixth offering, Hello, I Love You, featuring previous contributors. All-Access entrants receive the same plus access to the past decade of digital issues of TMR. All entries considered for publication.

Guidelines and further info here.

Deadline: October 1.

Writing Competition: Whitefish Review's Montana Prize for Humor

Whitefish Review's "Montana Prize for Humor" Judged by Garrison Keillor

Deadline: September 30, 2022

Entry Fee: $22.00

Think you’re funny? Know someone else hilarious? Submit your humorous fiction, nonfiction, and poetry for a chance to win the Montana Prize for Humor and $500 in each category! 

Legendary writer and funny man Garrison Keillor is the final judge! Have your writing published in Whitefish Review, a nationally acclaimed journal published twice yearly from Montana to illuminate the landscape of the human condition, our connection to the natural world, and the confluence of art and science. It features distinctive voices of both well-known and emerging authors and artists. All are welcome to submit! 

Enter here.

Call for Submissions on Theme of "Speculative Fiction and Music": Syncopation Literary Journal

Syncopation Literary Journal: Volume 2, Issue 1

Deadline: November 1, 2022

Syncopation Literary Journal is an online publication that amalgamates music and literature. We are seeking poetry, flash fiction, and short stories for Volume 2, Issue 1.

Theme: Speculative Fiction. Submissions should relate to music. We publish new and emerging writers. Submission details here.

Publication announcement: "Spring 2022"

 I am thrilled to share that my CNF flash piece, "Spring 2022," is now up at Skink Beat Review. You can read it and my artist's statement here: 

https://www.flipsnack.com/nikkiax/august-25-state-of-affairs-issue-2-2/full-view.html

Writing Competition: 2023 Reflex Press Novella Award

The 2023 Reflex Press Novella Award is now open to works of narrative fiction of between 15,000 and 40,000 words.

Closing date: 11:59:59 p.m. GMT 31 January 2023.

Word limit: 15,000 to 40,000 words.

Winners announced: May 2023

Prizes: winner – £1,000 and publication with Reflex Press. Two runners-up – £500 and publication with Reflex Press.

Entry fee: £10

Eligibility

• Entries must be in English.

• Entries must be the work of the entrant and must not have been published, including self-published, or accepted for publication elsewhere in print or online, including blogs or personal websites.

• It is permissible for individual pieces from novellas-in-flash to have been previously published, but the entrant must hold all print and digital publishing rights for all pieces.

• Entries must be fiction but can be on any subject and written in any style or form.

• The novella competition is international and welcomes entrants from all countries.

• Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but please let us know if your entry wins a prize or is published elsewhere so we can withdraw your entry.

Format

• Entries must be at least 15,000 words but no more than 40,000 words.

• Please submit the full manuscript.

• Entries must be anonymous and must not include your name, address, email, telephone number or any other personal information.

• Entries will only be accepted in the following formats: Microsoft Word Document (.doc or .docx), OpenDocument Text (.odt), Rich Text Format (.rtf), and Text Document (.txt).

• Please make the filename of your entry the same as the title of your story. 

 Full guidelines and submission link here.

Call for Submissions: The Georgia Review

The Georgia Review accepts submissions both online and by post. We do not accept submissions via email. Submissions are free for current subscribers to The Georgia Review.* Subscriptions and online submission fees ensure that we can pay all contributors.

We do not consider general unsolicited manuscripts between May 15 and August 15. All manuscripts receive serious, careful attention; each submission is read by a published writer in a salaried position at The Georgia Review. We aim to respond to submissions within eight months.

Work previously published in any form will not be considered. Please tell us in your cover letter if your submission is simultaneously being considered elsewhere, and please let us know immediately if your work is accepted by another publication. Likewise, please notify us if any part of your submission is known to be included in a book already accepted by a publisher (include the anticipated date of book publication).

To find out more about what we publish, browse the work featured on our website.

Online Submissions

Online submissions should be sent to our Submittable account. Each submission requires a $3 processing fee, with an exception for current subscribers to The Georgia Review, who may submit online at no cost. Subscribers: Please email garev@uga.edu to receive a link to submit for free, providing the genre of the work to be submitted and your full name and address (including zip code).

Payment and Copyright

The Georgia Review pays all contributors; the current standard rates for our print issues are $50 per printed page for prose and $4 per line for poetry, up to $800. We pay a flat rate of $150 for book reviews published on GR2. In addition, all contributors receive a one-year subscription to The Georgia Review and a 50% discount on additional copies of that issue.

The Georgia Review buys first North American serial rights only. All other rights revert to the author at publication, but we offer formal, written reassignments upon request. We ask that whenever an author reprints work that first appeared in our pages, The Georgia Review be given acknowledgment for the specific work(s) involved.

 

Call for Submissions: Atticus Review

ISSUE THREE: OPEN with a Special Folio on Language

Deadline: Nov. 16, 2022

For the December 2022 issue, Atticus Review is looking for work for our open-themed issue. We are, however, especially interested in work that engages with notions and explorations of language. We are open to any and all interpretations of the prompt.

Thank you for your interest in publishing your work with Atticus Review. We are an online journal that publishes stories, poems, essays and other forms of creative digital media.

MIXED MEDIA SUBMISSIONS

Atticus Review seeks all types of electronic/digital/interactive literature as well as short/experimental films, book trailers, audio soundscapes and sonic compositions. If you like to push literary boundaries via digital technologies, send us your best.

To submit, send an email with subject “Mixed Media Submission” to mixedmedia@atticusreview.org. If possible, we prefer that you send links to media on Vimeo or YouTube or Soundcloud (or wherever the work is posted online) rather than send us audio/video files directly.

BOOK REVIEWS:

The rumors are true: we are once again accepting book reviews! If you have a book review, send it our way.

Submit your work here.

Call for Submissions: Kenyon Review

Our general submission period opens on September 1 and closes on September 30, 2022. In 2023, our magazine will feature two themed issues, one focused on WOMEN’S HEALTH and one on FOOD. We invite work that broadly considers these two themes. There will also be submission calls from guest editors to come; check back in September for more information.

In addition to guest-edited folios and thematic materials, we’ve reserved a significant portion of publication space for work that might be categorized as general submissions.When you submit your work you will have the option to identify it for general consideration or for one of the themed issues.

You may not submit the same piece to multiple categories/themes, but simultaneous submissions to other magazines are permitted.

We consider previously unpublished: 

• short fiction and essays (up to 7,500 words)

• flash fiction and essays (up to 3 pieces, up to 1,000 words each; please format and submit as a single document)

• poetry (up to 6 poems; please format and submit as a single document)

• plays (up to 30 pages double-spaced)

• excerpts (up to 30 pages double-spaced) from larger works

Complete guidelines and submission link here.

Call for Submissions to Anthology: Women in Their 80s

Women in their 80s! Seeking prose and poetry for an anthology on the joys and challenges of being an octogenarian. Previously published work accepted.

No submission fees. Edited by Dena Taylor and Wilma Marcus Chandler.

Deadline: December 31.

E-mail entries to:

detaylor@cabrillo.edu or snail mail to:

W. Chandler, 885 35th Ave., Santa Cruz, CA 95062.

Writing Competition: Terrain.org's 13th Annual Writing Contest

 

Terrain.org 13th Annual Writing Contest

Submission Period

The contest submission period for our 13th Annual Contest is May 1, 2022 to 11:59 p.m. on September 5, 2022 (Labor Day in the U.S.). Winners will be announced in December 2022.
Prizes

A prize of $1,000 plus publication for the first-place winner will be awarded in each genre. Finalists in each genre will also receive publication and a $200 prize.

 Selection Process

All submissions are considered for publication. Terrain.org’s editors will read all entries, passing the top entries in each genre to the judges, who will choose the first-place winners. Decisions of the judges are final. Judges and editors do not know the identity of the contestants.

How to Submit

You are not eligible to enter this contest if you are a current student of the contest judges or if you have been a winner in the contest in the last five years. Finalists are welcome to submit again.

Simultaneous submissions are acceptable, but previously published material in any format, including blogs, will not be considered. Submissions can be withdrawn through the submission system, though in that case contest entry fees will not be refunded. Individual components of submissions (i.e., a single poem in a poem set) may be withdrawn by sending a message through Submittable.

Cost

The cost to submit is $20 per story, essay or article, or set of 3-5 poems (or single long poem).

What to Submit

You may submit up to three entries (at $20/entry) in any or all genres:

Poetry
Submit 3-5 poems or one long poem (5+ pages) per entry. Combine all poems into a single document. For poetry, we are seeking not just the best poem, but the best set of 3-5 poems or the best long poem, with the hopes of awarding our prizes to poetry sets or long poems rather than individual, shorter poems, when possible. No maximum lines per poem. Poems must contain only the poem title(s) and poem(s) without the author name or contact information (including in the document header/footer).

Fiction
Submit one story, up to 5,000 words total, or up to three flash fictions (up to 1,000 words each) per entry. Stories must contain only the story title and story itself without the author name or contact information (including in the document header/footer).

Nonfiction
Submit one essay or article, up to 5,000 words total, or up to three flash essays (up to 1,000 words each) per entry. Essays must contain only the essay title and essay itself without the author name or contact information (including in the document header/footer). We will consider all nonfiction, but are most interested in creative nonfiction, including personal essays, lyric essays, memoir, literary journalism, and other literary forms.

All work must be submitted via Submittable.

Call for Submissions on Theme of "Center of Gravity": About Place Journal

All submissions are due by October 15, 2022

Center of Gravity

Justice is the center of gravity and resistance is how we get there.

While the fight for social justice, reproductive rights, and the environment has been an ongoing struggle, the present moment demands an even more urgent response to these grievous times. As James Baldwin reminds us, “the role of the artist…is to illuminate that darkness [and] to make the world a more human dwelling place.” In this light, we invite submissions of poetry, prose and visual art that explore the possibilities of resistance and collective democratic world building, envisioning worlds in which achieving justice is a reality.

We are particularly interested in submissions that engage with the various centers of gravity concerning voting, reproductive rights, and trans rights, making black lives matter, healthcare, inequality, and their intersections with the environment and autonomy. In particular, we ask how acts of resistance might rebuild our human and nonhuman dwelling places while creating resilient systems of authentic community. 

Submission link and guidelines here.

 

Call for Submissions to Anthology on Theme of "Into Chaos": Sans. Press

From Aug 2nd to Sept 6th, we are open for short story submissions for our new collection, INTO CHAOS! We are looking for stories of all genres that respond to our title and/or cover art, and selected writers will receive a flat rate of €150 for accepted submissions.

What calling would be strong enough for one to step into darkness?

When heading into the unknown, the path is always lined by warnings – and yet, time and time again, characters barrel down that road, daring and unafraid. What is it that drives them on, despite all odds? Is it fear or is it desire? The need to escape or the siren song of adventure?

And, perhaps more importantly, what will they find when they lift the veil and peer beyond?

Be it unhinged mayhem or sublime beauty, we want stories of what happens when characters step INTO CHAOS.

For our latest anthology, we want stories inspired by our title – INTO CHAOS – and the cover artwork, created by artist Dominique Ramsey. All genres of writing are welcome, as long as they explore a story of embracing the unknown (which can be as real or as magic as your heart desires)! More than any specific story or style, we want the emotional response the title and artwork evokes in you.

In the words of William Ernest Henley, we want tales where no matter how strait the gate,
the menace of the years finds me, and shall find me, unafraid.

Full guidelines and submission link here.

Writing Competition: Story Magazine

We are proud to announce our 3nd annual Story Foundation Prize is now open! The winner will receive $1500 and publication in our summer 2022 issue for a single short story. Submissions for the Story Foundation Prize opened on August 15th and will close on December 15th.

Submit one short story of up to 10,000 words to our Submission Manager at: www.storymagazine.org/submissions

Our entry fee is $25. Each entrant receives a one-year subscription (three issues) to Story.

Please double-space your manuscript.

Multiple submissions and simultaneous submissions are welcome, but you must pay a separate fee for each entry and withdraw the piece immediately if accepted elsewhere.

Entries must be previously unpublished. All entries will be considered for publication at our regular rate. Previous winners of the Story Foundation Prize are not eligible.

All entries will be judged by the editors of Story.

Winners will be announced in March 2022.

Questions? Please contact us via email at:

contact@storymagazine.org

Call for Submissions: Canthius

 Submissions are now OPEN from July 25 to September 1, 2022! 

Canthius is an intersectional feminist magazine that publishes poetry and prose by writers of marginalized gender identities, including trans, Two Spirit, non-binary, agender, cis women, genderqueer, GNC, and intersex writers. We are committed to publishing diverse perspectives and experiences and strongly encourage Indigenous women, Black women, and women of colour to submit. We also welcome submissions in Indigenous languages.

Writers accepted for publication will receive $50 for one page, $75 for two pages, $100 for three, $125 for four pages, and $150 for five pages or more, regardless of genre. Contributors will also receive a complimentary a copy of the issue and a discounted price on any further copies of the issue in which their work appears. 

Thanks for sharing your writing with us – we can't wait to read it!

Please read our full guidelines here.

Writing Competition: 2022 Brooklyn Non-Fiction Prize

The Brooklyn Film & Arts Festival is pleased to announce the call for submissions for the 2022 Brooklyn Non-Fiction Prize.

The Brooklyn Non-Fiction Prize, a cash award of $500, will be awarded to the best Brooklyn- focused non-fiction essay which is set in Brooklyn and is about Brooklyn and/or Brooklyn people/characters.

We are seeking compelling Brooklyn stories from writers with a broad range of backgrounds and ages (minimum age 18 years old) who can render Brooklyn's rich soul and intangible qualities through the writer's actual experiences in Brooklyn.

From the collection of selected Brooklyn Non-Fiction Prize submissions, several authors will be selected to read from their work and discuss their Brooklyn stories with the audience at our annual finale event.

The exact date/time and venue will be announced later.

These stories and several other submitted stories will be published on the Brooklyn Film and Arts Festival website and made available to the public.

Submission Deadline: November 15th, 2022.

Entry Fee: Free

The winner's award is $500.

Submissions should be between 4 to 10 pages. (Up to 2500 words).

Send your Brooklyn Non-Fiction story as a Word document by email to:

Brooklynfa@yahoo.com

Please include the story title, your name, email and phone number on your submission document.

The submitted writings will be judged by a panel of Brooklyn writers.

Runners-up will be invited to read from their writing and their entries will be included in the Brooklyn Film & Arts Festival's Brooklyn Non-Fiction Collection of stories in an online anthology.

Writing & Video Competition: Button Poetry

Button Poetry Seeks Video Submissions

Deadline: August 31, 2022

Button Poetry is now accepting entries for the 2022 Video Contest. We are looking for brave poetry that crosses borders or effaces them completely, work that enters into larger social conversations, work that lives in the world, work with a strong, unique voice and palpable energy.

The winner will receive $500 and be featured across our social media, which collectively has 5M+ followers.

Entry Fees:  

$8 per submission

$6 per submission for Young Writers (ages 18-21)

$6 per submission from International Entrants (outside the U.S.)

Please, only one video per submission. Multiple submissions are welcome, but must be submitted and paid for separately.

Finalist Judge: Sabrina Benaim, author of Depression & Other Magic Tricks. Find guidelines here.

Call for Submissions: Woodcrest Literary Journal

Woodcrest Literary Journal Open for Submissions

Deadline: November 1, 2022 (or until we reach our limit)

Woodcrest is pleased to announce an open reading period. Submissions are now open and can be sent through Submittable. The literary journal of Cabrini University, Woodcrest aims to publish work that surprises and challenges the human experience. Please read our recent issue to familiarize yourself with our journal. We accept work from around the world and we want to hear from you.

Call for Submissions: Rockvale Review

 

Rockvale Review Open for Poetry, Short Fiction, and CNF Submissions

Deadline: September 30, 2022

Rockvale Review is an online literary journal associated with Rockvale Writers' Colony, a retreat center in middle Tennessee. We're seeking bold (like a rock) and vulnerable (like a vale) writing for Issue Nine in the genres of poetry, short fiction, and CNF. The unthemed issue will be published in November 2022. We read blind, so no names on the work please.

Submission fee - $2.50.

Please follow all the guidelines listed on our website. We look forward to reading your work.

Call for Submissions: Jokes Literary Review

Jokes Review Seeks Pulp Fiction

Deadline: October 31, 2022

Send us your best pulp fiction! We’re looking for stories that play with genres. Gothic westerns. Detectives on Mars. That sort of thing. Low brow but still literary—and funny! Also accepting art and comics. 

Call for Submissions on Theme of "Tattoos": Sleet Magazine

Sleet is open for Submissions

Deadline: August 31, 2022

Sleet Magazine is now open for Winter 2022 submissions. As always, we are looking for fine writing in general. In addition, our special theme is “tattoos.”

Please see our submissions page for details.

Call for Submissions: Storm Cellar

 

Call for Submissions: Storm Cellar

Deadline: Rolling

Storm Cellar, a journal of safety and danger, seeks amazing new writing and art for its winter issue. Under-represented creators, especially Black, Indigenous, POC, LGBTQIA+, physically disabled, neuroatypical, fat, poor, border-straddling, and others are encouraged to submit. Work with a connection to the Midwest gets a little bump. Surprise us!

Now paying; a limited number of free submissions are available at the beginning of each month. Full guidelines here.

Call for Submissions: Querencia Press

Querencia Press accepts poetry, fiction, non-fiction (including memoir), and hybrid work. We accept work through email:

querenciapress@gmail.com

Please include a short, third-person bio in the body of your email and the genre you are submitting to in the subject line.

We are currently looking for chapbooks, full length manuscripts, as well as pieces for our Fall ‘22 unthemed anthology.

We accept simultaneous submissions and previously published work that has appeared in print or online (this includes blogs and social media). As long as you hold the copyright to the work, we want to see it!

You keep the rights to your work! Your work belongs to you!

Querencia Press does not charge a submission fee. If a manuscript is accepted, you will receive a contract with competitive royalty options, but we are a non-paying market for anthologies.

All submissions should be in a single .pdf, .doc, or .docx format, however we do not require any specific formatting guidelines. Do not send us Google Docs—we cannot use them across all of our devices, and if we have to ask for you to resend your submission in a different format, it increases your wait time. For anthology submissions we ask that you title your document with the genre and the number of pieces (i.e. Poetry - 5 Pieces).

We do not tolerate sexism, racism, homophobia, xenophobia, ableism, or any other forms of bigotry. We do accept explicit content, but please provide a trigger warning so we know what we are reading.

Querencia is a small press. We read and consider each submission carefully, and we do not believe in silent rejections. You will receive a response.

Manuscripts - We are looking for chapbooks and full-lengths in any genre. For chapbooks, we are seeking work with a minimum of 20 pieces or a minimum of 1,500 words. Work that exceeds 45 pieces or 30,000 words will be considered full-length. There is no page limit, but please let us know what genre the work falls into along with if you are submitting a chapbook or a full-length manuscript. We currently publish all manuscripts in a 6x9 softcover format, so if you have unique formatting you may want to see what your manuscript will look like in this size. Please submit your work in a single document (preferably .doc or .docx—any accepted manuscripts will need to be converted to this format).

Poetry - We accept submissions of up to five (5) pieces per person. There is no page or word count limit, but we will not read additional submissions in the same category unless you have received a response. Please submit your work in a single document.

Fiction, Non-fiction, & Hybrid - We accept submissions of up to three (3) pieces per person. There is no page limit. Please do not exceed 2,000 words per piece. We will not read additional submissions in the same category unless you have received a response. Please submit your work in a single document.

*Anthology submissions DEADLINE: August 15th, 2022 - any anthology submissions sent outside of the submission window will roll over to our next anthology period.

Call for Submissions: Funicular Magazine

Funicular Magazine publishes quality fiction and poetry that shocks, surprises, moves, and tickles us. Maybe all of those things in a single piece. We are a Canadian magazine and we want to publish Canadian voices, but don't be shy if you aren't Canadian. We love sharing international writers with our readers too.

General Guidelines

✅ Font: We don't care, just make sure we can read it or, y'know, we won't

✅ File Type: PDF, Word, Text file

✅ Simultaneous Submissions (please withdraw your piece if it is being published elsewhere)

✅ Multiple Submissions (see specific submission limits below)

❌ No previously published stories (in print or online). Self-published is fine.

❌ No genre fiction. There are places for genre fiction. One of those places is not here.

❌ Do not put your name anywhere in the document or filename. We read submissions blind.

What We Want

If we like your work, we will ask for online and/or serial publication rights.

Short Fiction Submissions Allowed Per Entry: 1

Julio Cortazar said that the novel wins by points, the short story by knockout. Think about that when sending us your work.

A short story can normally be read in one sitting, and if your sciatica is acting up you usually won't be sitting for very long. 3000 words max. You can go a little over the limit. Don't stress. Everything is going to be fine.

Poetry Submissions Allowed Per Entry: 3

William Carlos Williams, Ford Maddox Ford, Elizabeth Barret Browning, Henry David Thoreau, William Butler Yeats, Edward Estlin Cummings. These are the names of some poets we know with three names. If you are a poet with three names you should definitely send us some poetry. Only have one or two names? Send some anyway. Poetry will be the glue that keeps this whole magazine together.

We have no idea what we're looking for when it comes to poetry but we will know it when we see it.

Flash Fiction Submissions Allowed Per Entry: 3

What is Flash? Nobody knows for sure. Flash is brilliant. Flash is short. Flash doesn't have time to mess around. Flash can surprise. Flash can pulverize. Do whatever you want but make sure you make it count and make it short.

Short fiction under 1000 words is the general rule for flash fiction.
What You Get

We are committed to paying the writers we publish in print. Short story: $10/printed page (up to a maximum of $100)
Flash: $25 per piece
Poetry: $25 per piece
We'll also throw in a contributor's copy so you can place it conspicuously on your coffee table to help convince your parents you are not wasting your life on this writing thing.

We do not currently pay for pieces accepted for online publication only.

 

Deadline: Aug. 16, 2022

 

Submit your work here.

Call for Submissions: Five Points

Five Points welcomes unsolicited submissions of fiction, poetry, flash fiction and non-fiction, and literary non-fiction. We encourage you to send us your work. The best way to learn about what we are looking for is to order sample copies of the magazine through our website.

GENERAL GUIDELINES: Include a cover letter with your submission. Simultaneously submitted works are permitted. Prose pieces should be typed double-spaced on one side and be no longer than 7500 words total. Submit one prose work per submission. Submit up to three poems per poetry submission. Each poem should be no longer than fifty lines. Poems should be individually typed either single- or double-spaced on one side of the page. Please make sure your name appears on all of the pages of your manuscript. See Submittable for further guidelines.

SPECIAL ISSUES: Please check back for future calls for special issues.

DEADLINES: Our reading periods for general submissions are: August 1 to December 31 and January 1 to April 30. We accept submissions for the James Dickey Poetry Prize from Sept. 1 through Dec. 1.

NOTIFICATIONS AND QUERIES: Our response time varies and may range from four weeks to four months or more. We receive a high volume of submissions and appreciate your patience. Please do not query us until five months have elapsed; we are unable to respond to email inquiries concerning the status of a manuscript any sooner than this. We thank you for your patience.

Our submission process for general submissions and our poetry contest is handled exclusively online via Submittable. We are unable to consider manuscripts or queries sent via the post office and cannot return mail that has been sent to us.

Writing Competition: Nature & Place Prize

Dear Poets,

In her urgent poem “Trilliums”, the late Mary Oliver wanders through the natural world “listened to the earth-talk, the root-wrangle, the arguments of energy, the dreams lying just under the surface” as she obverses the trilliums in full bloom before eventually becoming the very flower of the poem’s name. In our pursuit of gentleness, nostalgia, and a reimagining of ‘home’, Frontier Poetry is launching a new contest called “Nature and Place”.

We’re looking for poems rich and robust in language, technique, and form that pay homage to the natural world and all of the small marvels that occur in nature. We’re also interested in poems that observe geography and the landscape of home. Frontier Poetry warmly encourages poets of all backgrounds, identities and ethnicities to submit. You're welcome here. 

—I.S. Jones, Editor in Chief

Guidelines Submissions are open to all poets.

• No identifying information in the submission document. Our diverse team of readers will read all submissions blind.

• Unpublished poems only.

• We accept simultaneous submissions but please notify us if your work is picked up elsewhere.

• No more than three poems per submission. There is no line-limit. Poems may be any length, any style, or any subject.

• Multiple submissions are allowed, but each new poem requires a new submission and fee.

• Please include a brief cover letter with your publication history and about yourself.

• International submissions are welcome.

• Submission fee of $20
  

•  Award: $3500

• Deadline: Sep. 15, 2022
  

If you have any questions about submissions of any kind or would like to query a current submission, please visit our FAQ page or send an email to:

contact (at) frontierpoetry (dot) com 

Submit your work here.

Call for Submissions to Horror Anthology Inspired by Music of Alice Cooper: Dismember the Coop

“Dismember the Coop” is a charity horror anthology of stories inspired by the music of Alice Cooper, both the group and solo. The proceeds from sales go to support the Solid Rock Teen Centers, an organization setup by Alice and Sheryl Cooper that benefits the disadvantaged youth in the Phoenix area. To learn more about it, go here.

Note that although this is a charity anthology, authors and artists will be paid. I don’t like giving my work away for free, and I suspect most other professionals don’t either. 

Submission guidelines: Stories should be between 3,000 and 5,000 words with payment being at $25 USD, plus an e-book or paperback copy, your choice. Payment will be upon acceptance, with distribution of books following publication. I don’t really care about the format, font, etc., since I’m a geek and a lot of that will be sorted out in the editing process, but just be consistent, eh?  

No explicit sexual content just for the sake of having it. No racism, hatred toward marginalized groups, animal cruelty, or violence just for violence’s sake. No reprints. Multiple submissions are fine, but only one story per author will be chosen. Simultaneous submissions are also fine, but if your story is chosen elsewhere, please let us know so we can remove it from consideration.

Some notes about the stories:

You can base your stories on song titles.

You can base it on characters referenced during a song.

*** You CANNOT quote lyrics in your story. *** Doing so creates so many copyright headaches it’s not even funny, and this will cause your story to be rejected outright, regardless of quality.

Alice has a huge catalog of songs to choose from, going back over 40 years. Try to be creative and go deep catalog. If you submit a story based on “School’s Out” or “Welcome To My Nightmare,” you might be among a bunch of others who did the same, and I want variety. So that might make your story less likely to make the cut.

Also, while Alice has been in many non-musical projects from movies to “The Muppet Show” to “Hollywood Squares” to commercials and so many other things, this anthology is focusing on his music, from the Alice Cooper Group to his solo work to Hollywood Vampires. That’s a broad enough base to select from, we don’t need to extend it to his other works.

Stories should be submitted to:

dismemberthecoop@authorbertedens.com

Please include at the top of your story your name, email address, approximate word count, and the song that was your inspiration.

Submissions will be open from July 1 through August 31, 2022. Publication TBD.

Let’s see what y’all got!

Writing Competition: The Publishing Laboratory at the University of New Orleans

We are looking for the best unpublished novel or short story collection. The Publishing Laboratory at the University of New Orleans seeks to bring innovative publicity and broad distribution to authors.

We collect submissions from March 1 to August 31, deciding on 15-20 finalists. The finalists are read by students from The Publishing Laboratory in the fall, and one is chosen for publication.

Please submit your entire manuscript via Submittable.  

The selected author will receive a ten thousand dollar ($10,000) advance on royalties and a contract to publish with The University of New Orleans Press.  

The work does not have to be regionally focused. There is no word limit. There is no restriction on subjects covered. The contest is open to all authors from around the world, regardless of publishing history. Works of fiction (novels and short story collections) only.

Submission fee: $28.00.

The University of New Orleans Press is based at the University of New Orleans and distributed by Hopkins Fulfillment Services. Abram Shalom Himelstein is the editor-in-chief.

Writing Competition: The St. Lawrence Book Award

The St. Lawrence Book Award

Each year Black Lawrence Press will award The St. Lawrence Book Award for an unpublished first collection of poetry or prose. The St. Lawrence Book Award is open to any writer who has not yet published a full-length manuscript in any genre.

The winner of this contest will receive book publication, a $1,000 cash award, and ten copies of the book. Prizes are awarded on publication.

Deadline: August 31

Entry Fee: $27.00

More information and submission link here.

Call for Submissions: Works Progress

Works Progress Calling for Fiction Submissions

Deadline: Year-round

 We are a 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 and visit our archives. More info here.

Call for Submissions: Pensive: A Global Journal of Spirituality & the Arts

Pensive Seeks Submissions of Spiritual Writing and Visual Art

Deadline: November 15, 2022

Pensive: A Global Journal of Spirituality & the Arts, innovative online publication from Northeastern University, welcomes unpublished poetry, prose, visual art, translations.

Visit our website and submit via Submittable February 1-May 15 or August 1-November 15. No fee. Historically underrepresented and international voices encouraged. Recent contributors include Baca, Bruchac, M. Collins, Chess, Cording, Espada, Glancy, Hoffman, Lea, Marchant, D.S. Martin, MEH, Metres, Piercy, Samaras, Sholl, and more.

Spring issue is opened-themed, with special section on spiritual responses to current events & voices from "inside” and “outside" (e.g. incarcerated, homeless, refugee communities, and their allie

Call for Submissions: Fleas on the Dog

Fleas on the Dog is Open 4 Submissions

Deadline: August 31, 2022

Fiction. Fiction. FICTION. (any kind) Fiction. Fiction quality QUALITY quality. Poetry. P-O-E-T-R-Y. Poetry (poetic, OK?). Plays. plays. PLAYS (the play’s the thing.) 4 ( four) Issue 12. That’s Twelve! The 1 after 11. All you’ve got to lose is your reputation and self respect. Is that asking too much? B there OR B square. Runs August 1 to 31. Um… C our Guidelines for DEE-tales.

Call for Submissions: Cherry Tree: A National Literary Journal

Cherry Tree Now Open for Submissions!

Deadline: October 1, 2022

Cherry Tree: A National Literary Journal would like to read your fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction through October 1, 2022. All accepted work is also considered for our distinctive Literary Shade section.

Contributors receive $20 and 2 copies of the issue in which their work appears.

Our $3 reading fee helps us to pay contributors and 10% of those fees will be donated to Minary's Dream Alliance, a community nonprofit organization with strong mentorship programs for at-risk youth. (The editors make a matching donation.) For more about what we're looking for and to read our guidelines, please visit our website.

Writing Competition: New Letters' Editor's Choice Award

$1,000 + Publication: New Letters Editor's Choice Award

Deadline: October 17, 2022

Entry Fee: $20.00

The New Letters’ Editor’s Choice Award is now accepting entries for experimental work that crosses the traditional boundaries of genre and form. Enter your hybrid work—your lyric essays, prose poems, short-shorts, collages, micro-memoirs. . . whatever you’re doing that’s experimental, that defies easy categorization. The maximum word count is 8,000 and entries must be previously unpublished.

The winner will receive $1,000 plus publication in New Letters. Visit our website for guidelines and to enter online via Submittable.

Call for Submissions on Theme of "Goodbye": Valley Voices

Spring 2023 Issue of Valley Voices Seeks Work on Goodbye

Deadline: December 30, 2022

The word may mean departure, detachment, death, divorce, breakup, a fresh start, a new life, a promising career, or a bright future. There are many, different ways to say goodbye, so there should be many, different meanings in the word or similar words such as farewell, adieu, bon voyage, zaijian, or Godspeed. It can be tearful, fearful, painful, peaceful, joyful, mournful, beautiful, awful, mirthful, sorrowful. When Li Po says goodbye to his friend Meng Haoran, he says: “A lonely sail, distant shades, extinguished by blue— / There, at the horizon, where river meets sky.” We look forward to reading work that sparks with fresh images, funny stories, and interesting details that attract not only the editors’ eyes but also the readers’ as well.

Full guidelines and submission link here.

Writing Competition: Puerto del Sol

Puerto del Sol's 2022 Poetry and Prose Annual Contests $1,000

Deadline: September 1, 2022

Puerto del Sol is accepting entries to annual contests in poetry and prose between March 1 and September 1. Judges are Kali Fajardo-Anstine in prose and Anthony Cody in poetry.

One prize in each genre for $1,000 will be awarded along with publication. Current students, faculty, or alum of New Mexico State University are not eligible. Close friends or former students of the judges are ineligible. Submitters must remove identifying information from submissions. Winners are announced in October 2022.

$15 entry fee. All entries will receive the issue featuring the winner. All submissions are considered for publication.

Submit here.