Call for Submissions on Ancient Egypt, Greece or Rome: Aothen Magazine

Please only send pieces related to ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome.

All contributors will receive a 10 USD honorarium (Paypal only), and a high-resolution PDF of the magazine. All work will be published in print and on this website.

Not wanting to wait out the usual 3 week response time? We now offer 48 hour expedited responses via our Ko-fi for 3USD. Get a pass here. (Regular submissions will always be free!) Previous contributors should kindly wait one reading period before submitting again in order to increase the diversity of pieces published.

What we are looking for:

ONLY pieces related to classics, including:
- Poetry (up to 5 poems per submission)
- Essays (opinion or otherwise) (max. 2500 words)
- Short fiction (max. 1000 words)
- Photography (eg. of artefacts or sites)
- Art (digital or traditional)
- Classical translation extracts (max. 1000 words)

The magazine is looking for work that approaches classics in a new, fresh manner. We'd love to see more abstract, contemporary, and modern interpretations of classical history and myths.

Submit your work here.

Call for Submissions: Decolonial Passage

Decolonial Passage encourages emerging and established writers to submit to the magazine. We accept writing from writers of all backgrounds engaged in the decolonial project regardless of race, origin, gender, disability, or geographical location. Simultaneoulsy Decolonial Passage centers African, African-American, and Black Diaspora writing from the African continent, the Americas, Europe, and beyond. Read our Mission Statement to get a fuller understanding of Decolonial Passage and how the magazine interprets the concept of passage as both text and movement across geographical space. Read what we’ve published to get a sense of what the magazine is about.

WRITING GUIDELINES:

We accept simultaneous submissions, but please inform us that you are submitting with Decolonial Passage and with another publisher. Also, please inform us immediately if your work has been accepted elsewhere.

All work must be your own.

We do not accept previously published work.

For essays, creative nonfiction and flash fiction, submit one piece only.

Rolling/Open Submissions in:

Essays and creative nonfiction should be a maximum of 2500 words.

Short stories maximum 2500 words.

Flash fiction maximum 1000 words.

For poetry, writers may submit up to three poems during the months of Jan, March, May, July, Sept, or Nov.

Format – submit your work in MS Word or doc format. Use size 12 font, double-spaced, Times New Roman with one-inch margins. Please include your name on your manuscript.

Because we currently have rolling submissions, we ask that you submit only once every six months.

Our goal is to have a response to your submission no later than 3 months time.

Decolonial Passage is unable to compensate writers at this time but has the intention of functioning as a cooperative and being able to offer a modest compensation in the near future.

All submissions must include a cover letter and a short and current bio.

Full guidelines and submission portal here.

Call for Submissions: Redivider

Submissions are open for our spring 2023 issue!

Redivider seeks previously unpublished works from emerging or established authors and artists. We are excited to publish underrepresented voices as well as “offbeat” texts, art, and hybrid works that may not be welcomed at other journals.

We will not consider submissions that endorse prejudice, racism, xenophobia, classism, sexism, ableism, fat-shaming, homophobia, or gratuitous violence. We reserve the right to reject such submissions outright and reject further submissions from the author. We also reserve the right to remove content from our journal if an author is known to be harassing or abusive.

Please submit your work through our Submittable page only. Redivider will not accept work through email or USPS. We welcome simultaneous submissions.

Complete guidelines and submission portal here.

Call for Submissions: Pacifica Literary Review

Pacifica Literary Review is now accepting submissions of poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction. Prose submissions must be under 5,000 words. Flash fiction submissions must be no more than 1000 words individually. Novel excerpts are acceptable, but must be able to stand alone. For poetry, please submit no more than three poems in a single document. For flash fiction, please submit no more than three pieces in a single document.

Our general submission period is open year-round with periodic closures in September, January, and May for editorial production. If the submission portals are down, we’re putting a new issue together and will re-open shortly. We accept online submissions through our online submission system on Submittable. Simultaneous submissions are fine, as long as Pacifica Literary Review is notified immediately if the work is accepted elsewhere. Please withdraw submissions accepted elsewhere through Submittable. To withdraw a single poem or flash fiction piece, let us know by email at pacificalitreview@gmail.com.

All submissions should follow the directions on Submittable and be titled with the name of the work. The author will receive a confirmation of the receipt of the work as well as a final decision through email. Please don’t submit any additional work until you have received a decision from the editors regarding work already under consideration, and please do not resubmit a piece we have previously considered. Reporting time varies from one to four months.

We understand that you’re anxious to hear back, and we will try our hardest to expedite the process. At this time we cannot offer monetary compensation for publication, but we’re working on it.

Pacifica Literary Review reserves first North American publishing rights, and non-exclusive rights to reproduce, display, and distribute the work in print or other media platforms. Print rights return to the author after first publication in Pacifica Literary Review.

Writing Competition: Cleaver's Form and Form-Breaking Poetry Contest

CLEAVER’S FORM AND FORM-BREAKING POETRY CONTEST
Judge: Diane Seuss

Show us your poems that hold up the perfect iambic pentameter of a Shakespearean sonnet or crash it on the rocks of free verse. Show us a villanelle with textbook patterning or show us the villanelle who just crashed her car. Whatever the form, we want to see your poems that use form consciously, whether that’s to execute them to perfection or execute their expectations. The one requirement is that your work engages with a form of poetry; whether it gets married to that form or breaks up at the last couplet is up to you.

Some examples of poetic form:

Sonnet, Villanelle, Haiku, Haibun, Ghazal, Acrostic, Pantoum, Prose Poem, Golden Shovel, Elegy, Rondel, Sestina, and many more.

Feel free to bring us a form we haven’t listed.

Judge: Diane Seuss
$500 First Prize
$250 Second Prize
$100 Third Prize 

Prizewinners will be published in Cleaver’s Fall Issue, September 2023. Finalists may also be offered publication.

Submission Guidelines:

The initial submission fee is $15 for 1-2 poems of up to 3 pages each, with an option to upload additional poems for $10 apiece.

 No previously published work.

Please remove your name and any other identifying information from your manuscript, including removing your name from the file name.

All work must be submitted through Submittable by 11:59 pm ET on March 31. We cannot accept paper submissions.

Winners will be announced in June. Prior to the announcement, all submitters will receive an email notifying you of any decisions regarding their work.

Submit your work here.

Writing Competition: Bass Clef Books Inaugural George Drew Sophomore Chapbook Contest

BCB's Inaugural George Drew Sophomore Chapbook Contest

Jan. 15-May 15, 2023 Now Open!

$500 First Prize+12 copies

Bass Clef Books wishes to create further opportunities for poets to enter the next phase of their literary career by offering a Sophomore Chapbook Contest.

Poets who enter this contest must have only one volume of previously published poetry.

​​Send no more than 30 pages of your best original poetry. Manuscripts should be submitted as a Word file, 12 point Courier or Times New Roman font.

Please include a cover page with the author's contact information and biography and an acknowledgments page listing previous publications and the press that published the poet's first book.

Bass Clef Books asks for a $15 reading fee to help fund the contest, publication of the winning manuscript and promotion. Part of this fee will go toward publishing the selected chapbook in hardback.

We will accept only one entry from a poet. We attain North American First Serial Rights and reserve the right to use part of all publications to promote this press.

Simultaneous submissions are permitted, but entrants are asked to withdraw immediately if a manuscript is accepted elsewhere.

Manuscript revisions are not permitted after submission unless warranted. We publish in a 5.5 X 8.5 inch format.

We ask that the manuscript does not include multiple tabulation or other nifty formatting--doing so makes publication difficult. We do not accept manuscripts that contain visual art.

Bass Clef Books may consider individual poem(s) from each submitted manuscript to be included in an anthology series which will be published at certain intervals. Publication of these poems may take up to one year.

Winner announced August 1, 2023. Publication of book in Fall 2023. 

Submit your work here.

Call for Submissions: Able Muse

WHAT:

Able Muse publishes metrical poetry and poetry translation, along with art, fiction, and nonfiction (essays, book reviews, and interviews that focus on metrical and formal poetry).

WHEN: Able Muse accepts submissions in all genres from January 1 to July 15. We generally publish one issue per year. After making a submission, please do not send us another in the same genre (poetry, fiction, etc.) until we have responded to the first.

Able Muse is a not-for-profit publication. Compensation for contributors consists of one complimentary copy of the issue in which their work appears.

More information and submission portal here. 

Call for Submissions to Anthology on Theme of "Long COVID": Long Hauler Publishing

Long Hauler Publishing is pleased to announce an open call for short stories, commentary, letters, essays or poetry addressing the lived experience of COVID long-haulers. The goal of the Long COVID anthology is to harness support for American COVID long-haulers while furthering a wider understanding of Long COVID’s ongoing effects. This opportunity is NOT restricted to professional or published writers! The anthology is by and for long-haulers and serves as a historical document. We are a small press that welcomes marginalized and underrepresented voices.

The editing team is especially interested in the following themes:

• Daily Reality

• Community & Family

• Employment/Unemployment

• Support

• Emotions

• Isolation

• Routine

• Symptoms - including the symptoms of those who live with ME/CFS, a long-term condition

• Mental Health

Submission Guidelines: Short stories, commentary, letters, and essays should be 800 – 1500 words and poems up to two pages. One submission per person. Work should use a 12-point font, be original and written in English. Contributors must be 18 years of age or older and reside in the United States.

 

Submission Deadline: March 31, 2023

Selected works will be published in the 2023 anthology.

Include a brief bio of up to fifty words describing who you are, if/when you were diagnosed with COVID, and a link to any previously published writing. Note: You do not have to be a published writer as this book will reflect the real and true lived experiences of COVID long-haulers. If your piece is accepted, you will be notified by email. All contributors will be paid an honorarium and receive an electronic copy of the published book. There will be a fabulous online book launch party open to all. 

 

Submit your work here.

RED FLAG WARNING: WRITING SCAMS

This is a very long article but well worth the read. Due to its length, I have posted the link to the Substack for Lit Mag News where the scams are discussed in great detail. Many thanks to Becky Tuch for her thorough research and reporting.

Like many bloggers and newsletter groups, I do my best to vet the information I share here, but occasionally, something slips through. Please read Becky's article linked below. Her discoveries are alarming and disturbing. If you have had negative experiences with any of the people and/or markets below, I'm sure she'd love to hear from you.

Thanks.

Note: The link is via my email because I subscribe to her Substack. 

Showcase Magazine, Ephemera, C & R Press, Steel Toe Books, Fjords Review, PANK Magazine, American Poetry Journal...oh my?

https://litmagnews.substack.com/p/showcase-magazine-ephemera-c-and?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=165591&post_id=103352663&isFreemail=true&utm_medium=email

Call for Submissions: The Ocotillo Review

Welcome to Kallisto Gaia Press, home of "The Ocotillo Review". We are a nonprofit literary organization supporting writers at all stages of their careers. Although we welcome experimental or unusual approaches to literature, our goal is to promote finely crafted work with an expressive and meaningful voice. We pay our contributors upon publication because we feel that too much art is taken for granted. Thank you for supporting Kallisto Gaia Press.

THE OCOTILLO REVIEW

>>>The Ocotillo Review will accept submissions of poetry, short fiction, creative or narrative nonfiction, and flash fiction from January 15 through March 31 and August 15 through October 31 annually.

_ All work must be original and unpublished. Work posted on blogs, social media, or your neighborhood newsletter are considered published.

_ We accept submissions through Submittable. Email and snail mail submissions will not be considered. Fee-free submissions are accepted during the first ten days of our reading period only

_ Do NOT put your name or other identifying info on the document or in the submission title.

_ Multiple submissions or submissions in multiple categories are acceptable as long as the reading fee is paid for each category.

_ Please format your submission using a 12pt Times New Roman font.

_ We welcome the expression of diverse voices, diverse cultures - including submissions partly or entirely in Spanish, French, Italian, German, or Portuguese. Please include an English translation.

_ See specific guidelines for each genre. Failure to adhere to guidelines may disqualify the submission. Reading fees are not refundable.

_ We accept simultaneous submissions for The Ocotillo Review with the agreement that you will retract it if it is accepted elsewhere.

_ Do not include images or drawings.

_ Kallisto Gaia Press reserves first serial rights. All other rights revert to author upon publication. Published submissions will receive payment via PayPal.

_ We no longer charge a reading fee. We appreciate your voluntary support through our "tip jar", or by making a donation here. We appreciate your interest in our journal.

Submit your work here.

Call for Submissions: New Delta Review

New Delta Review publishes a wide range of fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, book reviews, interviews, and artwork. Please read the editor statements below for a sense of our aesthetics, our mission statement, and, of course, check out our back issues, available online. All submissions must be sent using Submittable.

Submit here.

Poetry

We would like you to challenge traditional notions of lyricism, or avoid the lyric altogether. Stricter forms are fine, but we tend to prefer them corrupted. Embrace the radical, the political, the bizarre, but do so with purpose. Five poems max, please and thank you.

Fiction

We publish fiction of wildly different styles and modes. While we tend to gravitate toward the weirder side of things, our aesthetic is always in flux and this dynamism is exciting to us. We enjoy stories with or without plots, but, either way, we’re looking for complete fictions, ones with an arc, an atmosphere, a heart, preferably with blood. Novel excerpts are fine as long as they’re self-contained: if it needs a summary to make sense, it’s not for us. Please check out what we’ve published in the past; current and back issues are available for free, right here, on the internet.

While we do occasionally publish longer pieces, we prefer our stories to come in at around 3,000 words. We also have a special interest in flash fiction, and brief series of flash pieces

Nonfiction

We are looking for experimental essays that explore personal experiences, that engage the reader on both an affective and intellectual level. We enjoy work that celebrates the genre’s complexity by pairing compelling content with innovative structure. We want to see you exploring ­­­­­­and questioning through your work, so that readers can experience the journey alongside you. Though we’re generally less fond of travel writing, we want to be taken somewhere, with ambience and texture and resonance. Questions are as valuable as answers—show us your vulnerability. While we do occasionally publish longer essays, we prefer submissions of around 3,000 words or less.

Digital Media

NDR’s digital media category is intended for works that use language, in its broadest terms, to push the boundaries of writing and genre. Possible forms could include: video-texts, sound-texts, performance pieces, the documentation of installation poems, visual/concrete poems, collage with text, comics, interactive writing, or anything else that challenges the borders of medium and genre or might not otherwise be able to be published in a print magazine.

Links to any video projects, interactive media or other can be added in lieu of uploading unruly media.

Art

We consider artwork in all media—from traditional (painting, drawing, photography, installation/sculpture) to new media (video, animation, and hypertext). Please consider our online format, and the possibilities of art on the web, when submitting your work. We want art that works with or around the limits that our online platform offers. Please see our past photography contest winners and the cover art featured in our back issues for a sense of our evolving aesthetic. We strive to push against traditional concepts and forms; send us your wildest and most challenging pieces.

For image submissions, please attach med-res JPGS (no larger than 4MB). For video/new media submissions, links are acceptable.

If you are sending new media artwork, bear in mind that we will link it from this website, which is somewhat limited in its ability to host microsites and large media files. This may require hosting your work on a third party site.

Reviews/Interviews

NDR seeks the most creative interviews and reviews—we want to hear about books and authors that range from the mainstream or the very-well-known to the not-so-well-known and deeply underground. We want to know what’s hot to you. Please see our back issues to get a sense of our length requirements and standard practices—but don’t be afraid to surprise us with something that’s entirely different.

Matt Clark Editors’ Prize

While we regret that we do not pay our contributors for their work, all fiction, nonfiction, and poetry (except for contest winners) published in our issues are automatically eligible for our Matt Clark Editors’ Prize in Prose and Poetry. Two winners each year (one in prose and one in poetry) will receive $250 after being selected by the NDR Editors.

Call for Submissions: The MSU Roadrunner Review

The MSU Roadrunner Review launches twice a year. We are open to all writers, and invite submissions during the following reading periods: 

September 5 through November 13 for December issues

February 4 through April 12 for May issues.

We consider:

Fiction: 3,500 words or less
Flash Fiction: 550 words or less
Creative Nonfiction: 3,200 words or less
Poetry: no more than two single-spaced pages
Visual Art: single image with a meaningful title.

Prose and poetry should be sent as a properly formatted Word document to:

roadrunnerreview@msudenver.edu 

with the genre and word count (for prose pieces) in the subject line. Pieces that come in without this information in the subject line may not be considered.

Image-oriented work (including graphic short stories) should be submitted as an attachment in an easily accessible format to:

roadrunnerreview@msudenver.edu.

Multiple submissions are fine, but each must come in its own email.

Please include a short (though optional) bio.

We look forward to your submissions!

The MSU Roadrunner Review Editors

Writing Competition: The Cow Creek Chapbook Prize

The Cow Creek Chapbook Prize is a poetry chapbook contest brought to you by Pittsburg State University. We're open to all styles and subjects. As long as the poems challenge and capture the imagination, we want to see them.

The winning poet will receive $1,000 and 25 author copies. The chapbook will be published as a perfect bound book and sold both online and in limited bookstores.

The winner will be announced in October of 2023.

​This year's judge is chad abushanab. Chad is the author of The Last Visit, which won the 2018 Donald Justice Poetry Prize. His poems have appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Sewanee Review, Ecotone, The Believer, Best New Poets, Southern Poetry Review, and many other publications. He is an Assistant Professor of English at Bemidji State University located in the northwoods of Minnesota. www.chadabushanab.com 

Guidelines:

Submit 15-30 pages of poetry with a $15 entry fee by May 15, 2023.

Simultaneous submissions are fine, but please let us know if the chapbook is accepted elsewhere.

Multiple submissions are fine, but each chapbook must be submitted separately.

It’s fine if individual poems have been previously published or if one is accepted over the course of the contest, but the arrangement of poems must be an original work.

Submissions are read blind, so please don’t include your name or other identifying information anywhere on the manuscript.

Past or present students of Pittsburg State University and individuals directly connected to the judge are not eligible to submit.

Submission portal and more information here.

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.

When to submit:
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.)

Things to know when submitting:

• Nearly everything we publish is unsolicited.

• We encourage submissions from writers of all identities, living anywhere, published and unpublished.

• We will not consider writing that has already been published in English, whether in a book, magazine, newspaper, or on an app, a website, a social media feed, or a publicly accessible online community.

• We consider only work written in English or translated into English.

• We have no word limits, though space is at a premium and length sometimes affects our decisions.

• We do not publish genre romance, horror, mystery, or science fiction; however, we are open to writing that borrows elements from any of these.

• We will consider excerpts if they read as if they were meant to stand alone.

• We are interested in personal essays, think-pieces, memoir, prose poems, formal poems, blank verse, free verse, short stories, and short shorts; we do not publish academic essays or purely journalistic writing.

• Though we rely on student interns for many things, they are not involved in considering submissions. All manuscripts are read by masthead editors.

• Our blog features posts by writers who have appeared previously in AGNI or AGNI Online.

• You can familiarize yourself with the magazine by ordering a recent print issue or by perusing the writing that appears online.

• Sending through our online portal costs $3 per submission. (Submission Manager will briefly redirect you to Boston University’s secure payment page.) If this is a concern or causes a burden, please feel free to submit by regular mail to avoid the fee.

Some requests:

• 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.

• Blog publication, which is limited to writers who have previously appeared in AGNI or AGNI Online, is unpaid.

Submit your work here.

Call for Submissions from Black Writers: Lolwe

Lolwe is accepting submissions for Issue 7 throughout the month of February (1-28 February 2023). The issue will be guest-edited by Bongani Sibanda (Zimbabwe), Hibaq Osman (Somalia/UK) and Filemon Iiyambo (Namibia).

We are looking for work that is bold, different, and blurs or pushes boundaries: play with form and language, ignore genre classifications, send in your fears and joys, your doubts and faiths, your curiosities and silences.

You can read our past issues here.

Please read the submission guidelines carefully before submitting and send us your work via Submittable.

Submission Guidelines

What to submit: Fiction, essays, poetry, and photography.

Who can submit: Black (African, Caribbean, Diaspora) artists.

When to submit: 1 August to February 2023*. 

(*Please note however that due to the volume of submissions we receive, the categories will close once we have reached the submission cap and you will not be able to submit when that happens even if there’s still some time before the deadline. Any submission sent via email or in the wrong category will be automatically rejected. Therefore, we encourage you to submit as early as possible)

How long: 

1,000-10,000 words for fiction and essays. 

Min. 3 – Max. 5 poems contained in a single document. 

Min. 5 – Max. 10 images/artworks in one document alongside 200-500 words about the work. (If you’d like to submit an image for the cover, just submit a single high resolution version in the photography category).

Which format: Word document, Times New Roman, 12pt, double-spaced.

When to expect a response: 3-4 months after submission deadline. Please don’t enquire about submission status until the time has lapsed. Queries to:

info@lolwe.org.

Multiple submissions: No. Please submit one submission per submission cycle and to only one category. Any submission to more than one or the wrong category will be automatically rejected.

Simultaneous submissions: Yes. Just remember to withdraw if accepted elsewhere. For poetry, leave a note on submittable indicating which poem(s) is/are no longer available. Please note that failure to withdraw or notify us of work accepted/published elsewhere will lead to an automatic disqualification of the entire work submitted.

Republishing: No. Only original, unpublished submissions will be read. Previously published work is not accepted at all.

Submission fees: None. Feel free to donate a “tip” to us though.

Payment: Lolwe will offer a modest remuneration for work that is accepted for publication. You can help by donating to Lolwe.

Send a brief bio alongside the submission.

Submission link.

Writing Competition: The Nimrod Literary Awards

Contest Rules

The 45th Nimrod Literary Awards: The Katherine Anne Porter Prize for Fiction & The Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry

First Prize: $2,000 and publication
Second Prize: $1,000 and publication

Contest Begins: January 1, 2023
Postmark Deadline: April 1, 2023

Poetry: 3-10 pages of poetry (one long poem or several short poems)

Fiction: 7,500 words maximum (one short story or a self-contained excerpt from a novel)

International submissions are welcome.

Winners, finalists, and selected semi-finalists will be published.

No previously published works or works accepted for publication elsewhere. Author's name must not appear on the manuscript.

Online Submissions: Submit Online via Submittable.

Postal Submissions: Include a cover sheet containing major title and any subtitles, author's name, full address, phone, and email. Manuscripts should be stapled, if possible; if not, please bind with a heavy clip. "Contest Entry" should be clearly indicated on both the outer envelope and the cover sheet. Include SASE for results only. If no SASE is sent, no contest results will be sent; however, the results will be posted on Nimrod's website. Manuscripts will not be returned. 

Send postal submissions to:

Nimrod Journal, Literary Contest

The University of Tulsa, 800 S. Tucker Dr.

Tulsa, OK 74104

 

Please also mark fiction or poetry (whichever is applicable) on the outer envelope.

Entry Fee: Each entry must each be accompanied by a $20 fee (additional $3 fee for online submissions). Make checks payable to Nimrod. Entry fee includes both entry fee & a one-year subscription (two issues, print or digital options).

Questions: nimrod@utulsa.edu

Writing Competition: Perkoff Prize

The 2023 Perkoff Prize is now open!

The Perkoff Prize is a tri-genre contest that awards $1000 and publication each to writers of the best story, set of poems, and essay that engage in evocative ways with health and medicine as judged by the editors. 

DEADLINE: March 15.

Begun in 2021, the initial concept for the Perkoff Prize was as a post-publication award (much like TMR’s Peden Prize) that recognized literary excellence in a piece that had a meaningful connection to health and medicine. The original benefactor of this prize, the late Dr. Gerald Thomas Perkoff, was Professor Emeritus at the University of Missouri School of Medicine in the Department of Family and Community Medicine (learn more about his life here). His love of poetry and the possibilities in treating the vast, rich arena of human experience with health and medicine drove this desire to take note of and reward literary achievement. 

We started planning ways to reinvent and revitalize the prize in the late spring of 2019, with no idea what the following years would bring us. Now here we are, amidst a pandemic that has relentlessly revealed to us the precarity—and resourcefulness—of human health and the endeavors of medicine to relieve pain and suffering. It is our humble hope that the Perkoff Prize is an opportunity for the artful expression of these infinitely diverse and collectively resonant human experiences.

Guidelines: All submissions must engage with health and medicine in some way.

• All submissions must be previously unpublished.

• Poetry: up to 10 pages of poetry.

• Fiction and Nonfiction: up to 8500 words, double-spaced.

• Winners will be published in print issue of TMR.

• All entries will be considered for publication (whether in print, or as part of our Poem of the Week or Blast features).

• 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.

• Current University of Missouri students and faculty are ineligible.

• Standard Entry fee: $15. Each entrant receives a one-year subscription to the Missouri Review in digital format (normal price $24).

• “All Access” Entry fee: $30. In addition to the one-year digital subscription to the Missouri Review, the “All Access” entry fee grants access to the last 10 years of digital issues and the audio recordings of each digital issue.

Submit your work here.

Call for Submissions on Theme of "Belonging": Sonder Magazine

Our submission window for Issue VIII will open 1st-28th February.

We are looking for short stories, flash fiction, creative nonfiction, and cover artwork all based on the theme of BELONGING.

We especially encourage work from previously unpublished writers who feel it is their time to be heard.

Sonder Magazine is all about bringing different perspectives together. Everyone is wildly and magically different, yet there is still a universality that draws us all together. We are about reflecting those differences and, ultimately, what it is that brings us together. 

Guidelines

• We accept one submission per person per category
• Only pieces submitted through the relevant entry form below will be considered
• All submissions should be sent in .doc, .docx or.odt format
• We accept simultaneous submissions but please let us know immediately if your piece is accepted elsewhere
• Please ensure the name of your document is your submission title, eg. [TITLE].doc or [TITLE].docx
• Short story submissions should be between 1,000-2,500 words
• Creative nonfiction submissions should be between 1,000-2,500 words
• Flash fiction submissions should be no more than 700 words
• There is no limit to cover artwork submissions. Please send your artwork in a .jpg or .jpeg file and the resolution should be 300dpi
• Writers should be previously unpublished, ie. you have not had a book-length project published by a reputable publishing company
• Do not let your name appear in the submission document as all pieces will be read anonymously

Thanks to the generous support of Arts Council Ireland, all contributors this year will receive a complimentary copy and a contribution fee of €300.

You will hear back from us whether your piece is selected for publication or not within three months after the closing date.

Submit your work here.

 

Call for Submissions from Women-Identifying Persons: HerStry

Join the Revolution. Tell Your Story.

We are proud to have published stories from women all around the world. We accept all types of stories as long as they are true and about you. No topic is off limits!

HerStry centers the experiences of women identifying persons. We’re looking for work from bigender/polygender persons, cisgender women, intergender persons/intersex persons, non-binary persons/gender non-conforming persons, transgender women/transfeminine persons, two-spirit. In other words, if you are a cis man, please refrain from submitting.

We nominate for the Pushcart Prize and Best of Net.

A few things we don’t want to see:

Tear down pieces

Racist material or hate speech

Explicitly sexual material (In other words, please don’t send us porn)

Overly violent material

HerStry does not accept previously published pieces.

personal essays - Paying (Starting in 2022)

HerStry publishes personal essays every Wednesday. Personal essays are a way for our writers to tell the stories they want to tell. There are no rules. No themes. As long as the story is true and about you, we want to read it. Nothing is off limits (well, some things are off limits, see above).

Starting in 2022 HerStry will pay $10 for every published personal essay. Because of that, we now have a $3 submission fee to help cover costs and to pay our wonderful editors. We have a free submission period one weekend a month. Please be advised that we have a limited number of free submissions and once they are gone they are gone.

The Rules:

Stories must be true and about you

Stories must be between 500 - 3,000 words

Stories should be double spaced, with 12pt font, Times New Roman or Calibri (get out of here Comic Sans!)

Stories are read blind. Please DO NOT put any identifying material on your manuscript. Manuscripts that don’t follow this rule will be automatically disqualified without being read.

Stories must be submitted as word documents of some sort. PDFs will not be considered

Stories must be submitted with a short bio and photo of the author

No poetry, please

*** In order to let as many people submit as possible please only submit one story at a time. Do not submit again until you hear from us. Duplicate submissions will be deleted without being read. ****

Submit your work here.

Call for Submissions: Shrapnel

Shrapnel publishes experimental writing from emerging writers in the genres of fiction, creative non-fiction, essays, and poetry. We also converse with the Canadian literary community through book reviews, interviews, and columns.

We are also keen to publish graphic narratives and comics, as well as transgenre work that is not easily categorized.

Please note that Shrapnel is not currently publishing stories centred around trauma or grief.

Please read the submission guidelines for each genre carefully and submit your very best work. We will not respond to submissions that do not follow our guidelines.

All fiction, CNF, and essay publications are paid $60; book reviews are paid $40; hybrid works, comics and poems are paid $30. We’re eager to raise the pay as soon as possible depending on what funding we can secure.

We’re paying extra for your voice! On top of our rates for written work, we’ll chuck in an additional $5 for writers who are able to record themselves reading their piece. This makes our content more accessible and gives people more than one way to experience your stories.

Regarding All Submissions

Please include content warnings if your writing involves scenes of violence or sexual assault.

Some of our readers are sensitive to topics of this nature and we want to ensure everyone has a good time working with Shrapnel. Thanks for your cooperation.

If a submission is rejected, please wait six months before resubmitting.

Submit your work here.

Call for Submissions on Theme of "Agency": Fatal Flaw

Fatal Flaw is a triannual online magazine publishing unexpected, topical writing and photography that considers the world through a cracked lens. We seek work that finds poignancy in unexpected places, confronts the status quo and, most importantly, prompts discussion about the human condition in these uncertain times. Give us fractured inner monologues, messy reckonings, imperfect catharses. Show us the fatal flaw and the beauty inherent within it.

We publish poetry, fiction, flash fiction, nonfiction, photography, and visual art in themed issues. Reading starts anew with each issue. For announcements on current or upcoming themes, please be sure to monitor our website or social media.

We welcome submissions from writers of all backgrounds – from the emerging and unpublished to the established – and especially encourage submissions from those who identify as persons of color, multiracial, indigenous, LGBTQIA+, disabled, and anyone belonging to a community of underrepresented voices. We currently offer free submissions to BIPOC and other underrepresented writers and artists in all genres.

CURRENT THEME

Submissions are open for Volume 9! Submit your poetry, fiction, flash fiction, nonfiction, and visual art on Submittable.

Submission period: January 23-February 26 

Theme: AGENCY

When we take action, we maximize our sense of control. There is a power there, translating thought into deed. But with power comes consequence, and responsibility.

For the 9th volume of Fatal Flaw, we want to explore the concept of Agency.

As artists and thinkers, how do we exercise agency in our work? How does that agency reveal itself through a manifestation of our creativity–in the characters we create, the voices we summon, and the images we capture? What do we lose when we absolve ourselves of agency? And what happens when our agency is denied?

We want pieces that examine desire made real, an illumination of that space between action and inaction and what tips the scales. Fiction, nonfiction, and poetry that demonstrate personal salvation or a struggle for control. Visual art that throws into relief the most human of experiences: to take action, to live.Send us your most fearless, tenacious writing and visual art—we can’t wait to experience it.

More information and submission portal here.

Writing Competition: Narrative Winter Story Contest

Our winter contest is open to all fiction and nonfiction writers. We’re looking for short shorts, short stories, essays, memoirs, photo essays, graphic stories, all forms of literary nonfiction, and excerpts from longer works of both fiction and nonfiction. Entries must be previously unpublished, no longer than 15,000 words, and must not have been previously chosen as a winner, finalist, or honorable mention in another contest.

Narrative winners and finalists have gone on to win Whiting Awards, the Pulitzer Prize, the Pushcart Prize, and the Atlantic prize, and have appeared in collections such as Best American Short Stories, Best American Nonrequired Reading, and many others. View the recent awards won by Narrative authors.

As always, we are looking for works with a strong narrative drive, with characters we can respond to, and with effects of language, situation, and insight that are intense and total. We look for works that have the ambition of enlarging our view of ourselves and the world.

We welcome and look forward to reading your pages.

Submit your work here.

Awards: First Prize is $2,500, Second Prize is $1,000, Third Prize is $500, and up to ten finalists will receive $100 each. All entries will be considered for publication.

Submission Fee: There is a $27 fee for each entry. With your entry, you’ll receive three months of complimentary access to Narrative Backstage.

Timing: The contest deadline is March 31, 2023, at midnight, Pacific Standard Time.

Judging: The contest will be judged by the editors of the magazine. Winners and finalists will be announced to the public by April 30, 2023. All writers who enter will be notified by email of the judges’ decisions, which will be final. The judges reserve the option to declare ties and to designate and award only as many winners and/or finalists as are appropriate to the quality of contest entries and of work represented in the magazine.

Submission Guidelines: Please read our Submission Guidelines for manuscript formatting and other information.

Call for Submissions from Undergraduate and Graduate Students: Mistake House

Deadline: March 20, 2023

Mistake House Magazine welcomes fiction and poetry by writers currently enrolled in graduate and undergraduate programs from around the world, including work by previously unpublished writers.

Editorial Mission

In our May 2020 issue, Mistake House Magazine rolled out a new tag line: a space between ordinary and odd.

We couldn’t have imagined a more peculiar space than 2020 and 2021, years in which the “ordinary” became the “odd” space of global lockdowns and sheltering in place, economic disruption and increasing economic disparity, global cultural divisiveness and political polarization, a deepening climate crisis, and the urgent need for inclusivity and equity. Yet, the seeds of these problems existed in the past and as the world emerges into the unknowable future, writers will join others in understanding and addressing these problems. The times we live in ask writers and readers, as Audre Lorde said, to “learn to work and speak when we are afraid in the same way we have learned to work and speak when we are tired.”

Mistake House seeks literary fiction and poetry that provides a sense of insight, compassionate justice, a space of rest, and a sense of coming home, including poetry and fiction expressive of documentary poetics. We welcome variety in subject, form, and perspective, including all modes of literary writing from domestic realism to speculative fiction to experimental poetry and beyond. Simply, we offer an open invitation to send us work with heart and work that tells us something fresh about the world we think we know.

Submitting writers should want their work to contribute to a larger dialogue in the world. Mistake House Magazine seeks to participate in the literary community’s urgent efforts to draw on moral courage to write about pressing issues in the world today. We believe that writing honestly about current human issues is a way to be involved and make a positive impact.

Submit your work here.

Call for Submissions to Anthology: Wholeness

It is an emergent phenomena, real as life, breath, consciousness—and, like them, can't be explained or predicted by its component parts. It's that something more that heals and reveals possibilities we could not see before. It can hold opposites, reconcile what seems completely incompatible. It can change what follows in ways we never imagined. When and where have we experienced a sense of wholeness? How did we recognize it? How did it shift our ways of being in ourselves, with each other, with what lies beyond? Can it be described? Shared? Does it require a sense of wonder—or create it?

DEADLINE: APRIL 15, 2023 

Send your work to:

wholeness@universaltable.org

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES FOR ALL WISING UP ANTHOLOGIES  

Print and Web

• We make final editorial submissions on all submitted manuscripts only after the submission deadline.

• Electronic submissions only, either Word or RTF.

• Prose ≤ 5,000 words. Poetry ≤ 5 poems.

• Payment in copies

• Submit manuscripts electronically

We consider dual submissions and previously published work only if informed of this at time of submission.

Previously published work must be accompanied with a list of where and when it has been previously published, including on the internet.

We do not pay reprint fees. It is the author's responsibility to get needed permissions.

Call for Submissions on Theme of "Human Relationships with the Botanical World": Plant-Human Quarterly

The literary magazine Plant-Human Quarterly explores the myriad ways writers manifest their relationship to the botanical world – from heavily researched pieces, to keen observation, to less systematic, intuitive ways of knowing and interacting – that attempt to communicate across boundaries and possibly approach a plant’s-eye-view of the world.

We seek both unpublished and published* poetry and essays. Send no more than 5 poems or an essay of no more than 1500 words (flash essay or essay excerpt) in a single Word document.

Submit by email only to Neil Shepard at:

plant.human.quarterly@gmail.com

Writing Grants for Writers and Artists Who Are Parents: Sustainable Arts Foundation

 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: Feb. 24, 2023

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

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.

Disciplines Writers may apply in one of the following categories:

Creative Nonfiction
Early and Middle Grade Readers
Fiction
Graphic Novel/Graphic Memoir
Illustrated Children's Books
Illustrated Children's Books (Text Only)
Poetry
Young Adult Fiction

Visual artists may apply in one of the following categories: 

Book Arts
Ceramics
Drawing
Fiber Arts and Textiles
Illustration
Installation
Jewelry
Mixed Media
Painting
Photography
Printmaking
Sculpture
Wearable Textiles

Please see our FAQ for more information about disciplines. 

More information and application portal here.

Writing Competitions: Prime Number

The Prime Number Magazine Awards for Poetry & Short Fiction is open to writers around the world, ages 18 and older, who write in English. We asked our judges to select from all entries, in their respective categories, a First Prize winner, two Runners-Up, and a short list of Finalists.

The winning poem and short story, and our runners-up, will appear in Issue 241 of Prime Number Magazine on September 1, 2023. First Prize is $1,000 in each category.

Entry period: January 1 to March 31, 2023 (midnight EASTERN time)

Judge for Poetry: Felicia Mitchell

Judge for Short Fiction: Dennis McFadden

First Prize in Each Category: $1,000 and publication in Prime Number Magazine, Issue 241, Sept-Dec 2023 (a Press 53 publication)

Announcement: Winner, runners-up, and finalists will be announced no later than July 1, 2023 (probably sooner)

Reading Fee: $15

How to Enter the Prime Number Magazine Awards

Entries are only accepted online via Submittable 

• Poetry: Submit one (and only one) unpublished poem, no more than three pages in length in standard 12-pt. type. (Times, Garamond, etc). Make sure your name does not appear on the page with your poem.
  

• Short Fiction: Submit one (and only one) unpublished short story of up to 5,300 words, with title and word count, double spaced with numbered pages in standard 12-pt. type. (Times, Garamond, etc). Make sure your name does not appear on the manuscript.

• Multiple entries: Multiple entries are accepted, but you must enter each poem and/or story individually and pay the reading fee for each entry.
  

• Simultaneous submissions: Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but please withdraw your entry via Submittable if it is accepted elsewhere. You may not replace the withdrawn poem or story with another poem or story. Reading fee is not refundable.

• Editing entry: If you discover an error before the deadline and wish to replace your entry with a newly edited version, request "Open Editing" via Submittable. Requests made after the deadline will not be honored.

Judging: All entries are read blind. Judge is asked to disqualify any entry that is recognized, so please use your best judgment.

Eligibility: Contest is open to writers anywhere in the world, 18 years of age and older, who write in English.

Note: Press 53 and Prime Number Magazine editors and family members are not eligible. Authors who have published a book-length collection with Press 53 are not eligible. Writers whose work appears in anthologies published by Press 53 or have previously published in Prime Number Magazine are eligible.

Disclaimer: Prime Number Magazine reserves the right to extend the deadline if deemed necessary. Only unpublished works are eligible. Reading fees are non-refundable. Entries with author's name appearing anywhere on the manuscript will not be considered. No refunds will be made. Entries withdrawn from the contest will not receive a refund. All entries must be original to the author.

Questions/Comments should be directed to Kevin Morgan Watson, Publisher & Editor in Chief of Press 53 and Prime Number Magazine.

Call for Submissions: Allium, Journal of Poetry & Prose

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, recognized and emerging writers, and a variety of forms and genres from the traditional to the experimental.

Allium, A Journal of Poetry & Prose publishes three issues each year: two online issues (Fall and Summer) and one print issue (Spring).

 Allium accepts simultaneous submissions, requests a maximum page length of five pages for poetry, fifteen pages (3,750 words, double-spaced, using a 12 pt. Times Roman font) for craft essays, fiction, hybrid, nonfiction, and creative nonfiction, and does not seek previously published work. 

Our submission period begins October 15 and ends March 15. Submissions are read February through May. Please do not submit more than once per reading cycle. 

Submit your work here.

Call for Submissions: Rockvale Review

Submissions OPEN for Issue TEN on January 1, 2023!

The reading period runs from January 1 to March 31, 2023.

Issue Ten will be published in May 2023.

We publish poetry, short fiction and creative nonfiction. Please read the following guidelines carefully and in their entirety. Disregarding our guidelines may result in the disqualification of your submission.

The reading period for Issue Ten is January 1 to March 31, 2023. Work submitted outside this window will not be read. We invite you to submit your best work that is both bold and vulnerable. This issue is unthemed.

• Guidelines applicable to all genres: We read blind, so don’t put your name anywhere on your work or in the title of the file you attach. If we see a name, the submission will be disqualified and we won’t read it. You can add a cover letter and a 100-word, 3rd-person bio in the appropriate section on the form if you wish, but we are more interested in the quality of the work you send now than in your past achievements. If your work is accepted, we will contact you for your author’s bio.

• Please use 12-point, Times New Roman font. We only accept .doc, .docx or PDF files.

• We may ask for an edit in a piece of writing we really believe in.

• While we’d love to compensate you for your beautiful words, we can’t do that yet.

• We only accept work via Submittable.

• Simultaneous submissions are perfectly OK, but please let us know if your work is accepted somewhere else by making a note in Submittable. Previously published work is not accepted.

• We acquire first North American serial rights for work we publish. All rights revert to the author upon publication. Should your work be subsequently published in a chapbook, full collection, another journal, or anthology, please mention that it appeared first in Rockvale Review.

• Submission Fee: We charge a $2.50 submission fee for all submissions.

 More information and Submittable links here.

Call for Submissions: Main Squeeze Literary Magazine

Main Squeeze Magazine is currently ACCEPTING SUBMISSIONS.

We only accept unpublished work. Concurrent submissions are fine. If your work is accepted elsewhere, we ask that you inform us immediately to withdraw your piece(s).

Your submission email should include a list of the pieces you are submitting and a brief third-person bio. Indicate your submission genre in the subject line, i.e. FICTION SUBMISSION or POETRY SUBMISSION, etc. Please attach all submissions to your email. Each attachment containing your work should be titled genre_title.

ALL SUBMISSIONS ARE DUE FEBRUARY 17

By submitting your work you give consent for Main Squeeze Magazine to publish it upon acceptance.
What are we yearning for?

We want prose with steel-toed boots and grandma candies in its pocket. Poetry that molds soft bellies into something with feet for brain walking. Nonfiction with a shovel in its car for ease of burying the body. Just make it brutal and beautiful. Human Condition, yes. Sacrificing everything at the altar of intensity, yes. Freakifying of work, yes. No ghosts. No fantasy that the only thing interesting is fantasy. Defamiliarizing the familiar, yes. No sky poems (unless it works). No breakups. No dead dogs. Relentless attempts at taking off readers’ heads, yes. Now until Feb. 17.

Send submissions to:

mainsqueezelitmag@gmail.com

Complete guidelines here.

Call for Submissions on Theme of "Roe v Wade": Woodcrest Magazine

Deadline for Themed Issue: March 10, 2023

With the events that occurred earlier this year regarding the Supreme Court's overturning of Roe vs Wade, we’ve had to participate in some difficult conversations regarding human rights, bodily autonomy, and protecting historically marginalized communities from being violated. We at Woodcrest invite you to participate in the conversation as we continue to navigate these issues moving forward. 

Please send us your poetry, prose, art, and photos so we can elevate the voices who have been affected but not heard.

Submissions of creative writing and mediums of art are welcomed. Submissions will be reviewed and selected by our editorial staff, who will decide which pieces best fit the most current version of our digital magazine. Please send us only unpublished work. Pieces that have previously appeared online or in print are considered published. 

• Photography
• Art
• Short Stories
• Poetry
• Creative Non-Fiction

We aim for a response time of 3-8 months. Please submit only once per reading period. At this time, we do not offer monetary payment for published work.  

Submit your work here.

Call for Submissions: Split Rock Review

Split Rock Review is an independent, online publication run by volunteers who love literature, art, and the wilderness.

We publish poetry, short creative nonfiction and fiction, comics, hybrids, visual poetry, interviews, book reviews, photography, and art that explore place, environment, and the relationship between humans and the natural world. We encourage you to read our back issues and books to see if we’re a good home for your work.

ISSUE 20 (Spring/Summer 2023)

Reading period: February 1 - March 31, 2023.

GENERAL SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

We only accept submissions via Submittable. Any submissions sent via email will be unread.

We offer 200 free submissions during the reading period as well as a TIP JAR and EXPEDITED submission option for a nominal fee.

We are particularly interested in work by people historically underrepresented in literary publishing: artists and writers who are Black, Indigenous, people of color, people with disabilities, gender-nonconforming, LGBTQIA+, women, and other marginalized communities.

We accept simultaneous submissions. However, please withdraw your work immediately should a piece you’ve submitted be accepted elsewhere. If you are withdrawing your entire submission, please log in to your Submittable account and click “Withdraw.” If you need to withdraw part of your submission, open it within Submittable and "Add" a comment indicating the poem or poems you'd like to withdraw. We will see your note and gladly consider the available poems.

No manuscript edits or revisions will be considered during the reading period.

We do not accept works of translation or previously published work for our journal issues (this includes personal blogs, social media posts, and personal websites).

We accept collaborative works, but please provide the names of all the collaborators in your submission.

For previous SRR contributors, please wait at least twelve months from the publication date of your work before submitting to us again. You know we love your work, but we want to give other writers and artists an opportunity to be published and showcased in SRR.

If your work is accepted, you agree to give Split Rock Review First Electronic Rights and Archival Rights. You may republish your work without fee, but we ask that Split Rock Review is acknowledged as its place of initial publication.

Unfortunately, we cannot pay our contributors; however, we do our best to promote our writers/artists and their work. Check out our Contributor Spotlight Series and Photic Zone Interview Series. 

More information here.

Call for Submissions: Humana Obscura

Deadline: Feb. 28, 2023

While we are open to style, we’re looking for work that is nuanced, raw, and imagistic with strong elements of the natural world or hints to the human-nature relationship. We tend to favor work that is unexpected, real, evocative, yet subtle, with a strong sense of place and strong imagery. We like contemporary, but we’re a bit old school in that we shy away from publishing work that references technology—like your iPhone or Tinder or TikTok… We will not publish political pieces or work that is fantastical in nature or of the horror genre. We steer away from work that is entirely anthropocentric or personified nature, unless done subtly and skillfully. Please keep in mind the seasonal nature of the issue you’re submitting to.

We prefer free-verse poetry and prose that is accessible to readers, is straightforward, and avoids fancy language and doesn’t try too hard to be clever, to rhyme, or to be confined by syllabic or structural constraints—unless haiku, tanka, micropoetry, or similar. We do not publish experimental work, and very rarely do we publish poems longer than one page.

When it comes to art, we like both the realistic and the abstract—think out-of-focus photography, minimalism, and impressionistic smears of colors on a canvas. We love photographs of nature, be it landscapes, animals, or otherwise.

Surprise us. Delight us. Haunt us. Make us keep thinking about your piece long after we’ve read it or viewed it.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Poetry – 3 to 5 poems (or up to 10 haiku, tanka, or other forms of micro poetry, 5 lines or less). Please include all poems in one document.


Short Prose/Flash Fiction – No more than 2 pieces, 1,000 words maximum per piece.


Artwork & Photos – 5 to 8 works at a time, high resolution (300dpi).

At this time, we only consider submissions sent through our online submission manager (Submittable). Emailed submissions will not be considered. Submissions must be accompanied by a brief cover letter and 50 to 100 word third-person bio. Poetry and prose submissions should be sent in a single document (.doc or .pdf formats preferred). Response time varies depending on where we are in our review cycle, but please allow up to six months for a response.

We accept simultaneous submissions, but we must be immediately notified if a piece is accepted elsewhere. We will not accept previously published work, though we are considering work that has been posted to a social media account only. Content posted to a blog or website will not be considered.

Please do not submit more than once per genre per reading period. However, you may submit to more than one genre within one reading period. Additional submissions will not be read. While we ask that you please adhere to our reading periods for specific issues, we do accept submissions on a rolling basis. Submissions received outside of our reading period will be considered for the next upcoming issue.

We ask for first time worldwide rights for accepted pieces. Following publication, all rights revert back to the author. Please note that your work first appeared in Humana Obscura if it is reprinted elsewhere on the web or in print.

At this time, we are not able to offer payment to our contributors for published works; however, we frequently and vigorously promote our writers/artists and their work (both within Humana Obscura as well as outside our magazine), so be sure to subscribe to our magazine and connect with us on Twitter (@humanaobscura) and Instagram (@humanaobscura).

Before submitting, please see our past issues for the type of work we publish.Visit our website here.

Please send any inquiries to:

editor[at]humanaobscura[dot]com.