Writing Competitions: F(r)iction

Spring 2024 Contest Information

Deadline: April 30, 2024

Results: Announced September 9, 2024
Prizes: Win $2,100 in prizes!

Guest Judges: Wole Talabi, Sherrie Flick, C. S. E. Cooney, and Marin Sardy

Categories Accepted

• Short stories: 1,001 – 7,500 words--Entry Fee: $15.00

• Flash fiction: up to 1,000 words per piece--Entry Fee: $10.00-$12.00

• Poetry: up the three pages per poem--Entry Fee: $10.00-$12.00

• Creative Nonfiction: up to 6,500 words--Entry Fee: $15.00

Please visit our guidelines page to properly format your work for submission. We won't reject a submission flat out for not following guidelines, but we will frown the whole time we're reading.

What We Look For in Submissions

Our editors have drafted up this fantastic page on our website to share what we look for in our creative submissions. We strongly recommend you read this and check out the examples before submitting to get an idea of our general publishing aesthetic.

We also highly recommend checking out a past issue of F(r)iction. We have several pieces available online, but there’s nothing like holding a glossy, full-color issue in your hands. You can check out all of our issues in our shop.

Our Submission Guidelines

The winner will be announced publicly on September 9, 2024. All participants will be notified about the contest results through their Submittable account so please do not contact us before this date asking about the results. Judges' decisions are final.

We accept work, written in English, from anywhere in the world—regardless of genre, style, or origin—and welcome speculative writing and experimental literature. Strange is good. Strange with a strong character arc is even better. Keep it weird, folks.

Writers over the age of thirteen are welcome to submit. Please note that if you are aged 13 – 16 and your work is selected for publication, we will require a signature from a parent or a guardian.

We are unable to offer refunds for contest submissions, so please read these guidelines and choose your submission category carefully.

Staff members are not eligible for participation.

We read all submissions anonymously. Please include your name and contact information in your cover letter only and remove any identifying information from both the submitted manuscript and the file name as well.

Any work previously submitted to F(r)iction for publication is not eligible.

Please also be aware that as we receive hundreds of submissions for each of our contest we are unable to offer personalized feedback. It's not that we don't want to, but there's only so many volunteer staffers on our team.

We accept, and encourage, simultaneous submissions and only ask that you withdraw your piece(s) using Submittable upon acceptance elsewhere.

We do not accept work previously published elsewhere.

We edit every piece accepted for publication, including all our contest winners, whether you work is selected for publication through our online blog or in our print magazine. For this collaborative process we will pair you with one of our Senior Editors. All our editors have been trained to help guide the development of each piece to reach its fullest potential in keeping with the author’s vision. This does not mean we will take on a wild jumble of words and half-formed musings. But it does mean that we value your work and want to help each piece to be as unforgettable as possible.

No AI Submissions

We currently do not accept work from artificial intelligence ("AI") generators or similar. By submitting your entry here, you are attesting that your work was not created, in whole or in part, with an AI generator or similar. Should any portion of your work be discovered to be the product of an AI generator or similar, by submitting here, you agree to indemnify Brink Literacy Project for all losses, fees, and damages it suffers relating to your submission and/or misrepresentation, including but not limited to, direct and indirect damages, loss of sale, reputational damages, attorney fees, and other expenses. You further agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless Brink Literacy Project against any third-party claims relating to the work you submit.

NOTES:

F(r)iction (and its parent nonprofit organization, Brink Literacy Project) reserves the right to discuss contest entries, finalists, and winners in podcasts and marketing materials.

F(r)iction reserves the right to NOT award a winner in any categories if the submissions do not reach a publishable standard. In this case, reading fees will NOT be refunded and a winner will not be announced. Although this has rarely come to pass in our six year publishing history, our top priority must remain with the quality of work we publish.

Enter here.

Call for Submissions: Salvation South

Salvation South wants stories told in any medium about the American South: We accept journalism, personal essays, photo essays, short films, short fiction and poetry.

Salvation South accepts stories, in all mediums, that reckon with the history and celebrate the culture of the American South. We invite journalists, essayists, poets, fiction writers, photographers and filmmakers to tell their stories on our platform. Sending simultaneous separate submissions is fine, but please do not submit pieces that have been published elsewhere.

For poets, we ask that you submit between three and five poems in a single submission: We might accept only one, or we might accept them all.

We do our best to respond to all submissions within three months. Your patience is appreciated. Our crew is small. You will hear back from our editor-in-chief, Chuck Reece, or our poetry editor, Andy Fogle.

Submit your work here.

Call for Submissions: Marathon Literary Journal

We have two reading periods: Sept. 30-Nov. 30 for our winter issue and Jan. 31-April 30 for our spring issue.

Guidelines: 

• All work must be previously unpublished.

• Simultaneous submissions are okay as long as you notify us if your work is accepted elsewhere.

• No multiple submissions in the same genre. If you submit more than once in the same genre during a reading period we will not read your work. Submitting to more than one genre during a reading period is okay as long as it’s only one submission per genre.

• Please include a short, third-person bio with your submission.

If your piece is accepted: If your work is accepted by Marathon Literary Review, you agree to grant us First North American Serial Rights, electronic promotional, nonexclusive anthology and all archival rights. Upon publication, all rights revert back to the author. If your piece is reprinted elsewhere (whether in print or online), please cite Marathon Literary Review as first publisher.

We reserve the right to make edits and formatting adjustments to pieces and author bios.

The Basics (again) Please read carefully. Submissions that have ignored the guidelines will automatically be rejected.

• Use our online submissions system to submit your work (in one attachment). The link is available at the end of this page.

• We do not accept snail mail or email submissions.

• Please only submit once per genre per reading period; multiple submissions in the same genre during the same reading period will not be read.

• Do not resubmit your piece after you have already submitted it. If you have made edits to your piece or need to change something, you will need to withdraw your submission and submit again during our next reading period.

• Please use standard fonts in size 12pt.

• Please include a brief bio with your submission written in third person along with your preferred pronouns.

• Follow the additional genre-specific guidelines below.

Fiction & Flash Fiction

Please send one piece of fiction no longer than 8,000 words or 3 pieces of flash fiction no longer than 5,000 words total. Please single space your document and use block-style (no indentations before paragraphs) formatting. This is the format we use on our site and it saves us a lot of time when you send your work in this format. See our latest fiction pieces if you’re not clear on what we mean.

Photos/Artwork/Multimedia

We are interested in video poetry and interactive, multimedia pieces as well as photography and art we can use throughout our issue. Send a link to your work or up to three files. Please include a Word document that contains:

1. A link to your work (if you have one).

2. A short paragraph about each piece, including the title, the inspiration behind it or anything else you think we should know.

Poetry

Please submit up to three poems (in one attachment) totaling no more than 8 pages. Please watch formatting. Because we are an online journal our content management system does not like fancy formatting. We will try our best to keep your piece as it is, but may have to make adjustments.

Nonfiction

Please send one piece, no longer than 8,000 words.

Creative Nonfiction

Submissions may take the form of memoir, lyric essay, personal reportage or similar pieces that combine the literary techniques of creative writing and the factual accuracy of nonfiction. Please send one piece, no longer than 8,000 words. Please single space your document and use block-style (no indentations before paragraphs) formatting. We may need to make adjustments in pieces that have more creative formatting.

Ready to Submit?

Submit using our online form

Call for Submissions on Theme of "Home": Blood and Bourbon

Blood & Bourbon is here to showcase all things hard, gritty, and raw. That time you got in a bar fight, that time you went to an S&M club, that time you had an opinion that sparked a heated argument over a family dinner.

We’re actively seeking submissions in the following categories:

• Short fiction or non-fiction, 5000 words or less

• Opinion pieces or essays on any subjects, 5000 words or less

• Poetry, up to three pieces per submission

• Black and white photography and illustrations.

We accept simultaneous submissions and reprints. We provide author copies upon request with a small donation of $5.

We are now open for submissions until April 28, 2024. The theme of the next issue is going to be Home.

We’re interested in diverse voices and want to hear from you regardless of what you look like, where you’re from, what you believe, who you like to fuck, et cetera.

Send your material to:

bandbsubmissions (AT) gmail.com (Change (AT) to @ )

Your submission should be attached as a .doc, .docx or .rtf file, with your name, address, email address, the story title (if applicable) and total word count at the top of the first page. Visual art submissions should be attached as hi-res .jpgs or .tiffs. Include a 50-word bio in the body of the email or in the Word doc.

Our Process

We are usually open for submissions for 2-2.5 months at a time. We will send you an email at the end of the submission period, letting you know if your work has been accepted. Please don’t expect to hear from us sooner, but let us know if your work has been accepted anywhere else during this submission period. We accept about 30 submissions per issue.

We then assign one of our editors to work with you to polish your submission and apply our house style guide. Keep in mind that we are a Canadian publication, so Canadian spelling will be applied to all work. Editing phase usually lasts about 2 months.

Once we receive all the final documents from our editors, we’ll work on layout. You will have a chance to see and approve the print proof before the launch of the issue. Layout and proofreading phase takes about a week.

We will share the links to the issue with you, so you can spread the word to your peers and followers. We currently publish on Amazon and Kobo, in print and e-book format.

Call for Submissions from Oceania Writers: Going Down Swinging

 Going Down Swinging: Edition #44

This year, we're going looooooong.

We want to see what you can do with a little more room to stretch your literary legs. Think long short stories, mini-manifesto, chapbook collections, perfectly paired essays.

We're looking for works between about 6,000-10,000 words (or equivalent) total. Give us one long piece or a selection of short work, in any combination. We are, as ever, keen to be surprised and delighted by form. More than anything, we're looking for good, good writing.

If you're sending us a collection of pieces, make sure they work together as a set. Think about cohesive or complementary styles, ideas or worlds.

Submissions close 8pm Monday 13 May, 2024.

THE SMALL STUFF

The book – our 44th edition – will be printed, published and launched in a City of Melbourne location in 2024. Each submission accepted for publication will be paid $600.

We’re only taking local (or near enough) submissions. All works should be your own and should be previously unpublished.

All accepted pieces will go through a comprehensive editing process with our team. Your work doesn't need to be perfect, but it does need to be finished. This also means you need to send us your work in a format we can edit – no PDFs, please.

If you've got any questions, reach out to us at:

 

info@goingdownswinging.org.au

 

(PS - if the form has submitted correctly, you'll get a thank-you note on the screen and a copy of your submission in your emails. If you don't get either of those, try again.)

 

Link to submit your work is located under the Print Submissions heading.

Call for Submissions: Seven Story Hotel

Submissions are now open for the third issue of Seven Story Hotel, a schizo-philosophical / countercultural journal series presented by Subtle Body Press, returning this winter. 

7SH explores the weird, esoteric, and outsider fringes of contemporary culture, art, and technology through an eclectic mix of interviews, essays, stories, poems, and artwork. We’re looking for original, provocative, and boundary-pushing pieces. You can check out a previous issue for the best sense of what we’re looking for. But by way of example, maybe you have a critical essay on technology as modern magick, a sociological commentary on the religiosity of UFOs, an anti-/pro-issue political treatise, a Jungian analysis of a niche internet subculture, a piece of speculative fiction on the implications of transhumanism or artificial intelligence, an exposé on some conspiracy, or an investigative piece on a new and exciting movement. In short, we seek disruptions and heresies to conventional wisdom and/or the dominant narratives of a culture.

Sound like your work? Let 7SH give it a home. 

DEADLINE:

Submissions are open until we have what we need. That means we could close in days or weeks, but regardless, all selections will be made by May 1, 2024. Submit sooner rather than later if you don’t want to miss out, as the closer we get to that date, the more likely we are to have already finalized our selections.

WORD COUNT:

For Seven Story Hotel, we are looking for written works of 5000 words or less, but our preference is short- to mid-length pieces. 1350-2700 words is about the sweet spot; the further askew from that average, more or less, the more unlikely we are to take it.

RIGHTS & COMPENSATION:

Subtle Body Press is paying a flat fee of $35 per contributor to acquire First World rights for print and e-book/digital. In other words, if you submit multiple pieces and we accept more than one for publication in 7SH, the flat $35 purchases the rights for all your accepted works as a unit. To be clear, we only accept submissions that have not been previously published in any medium.

SUBMISSION:

Send your writings in either PDF or DOCX format to:

sevenstoryhotel [at] subtlebodypress [dot] com (Change [at] to @ and [dot] to . )

We accept simultaneous submissions, but please let us know if your work is placed elsewhere before you hear back from us.

Call for Submissions on Theme of "Do It Yourself": The Broken City

Issue 34 Submission Guidelines

The Broken City is currently accepting submissions for its summer 2024 edition: DIY.

 That's right, readers, it's a Do It Yourself issue. No, you don't need to make the magazine for us—we want to hear about crafts, construction, repairs, destruction, recipes, art and inventions (time machines included, working or not).

Send your poetry, fiction, essays, illustrations and photography to:

thebrokencitymag@yahoo.com

Deadline is: June 1, 2024. Submitters will be contacted after that date, with news of acceptance or rejection.

General Submission Guidelines

1. The Broken City will—at least briefly—consider any type of submission, the most common being: poetry, fiction, essays, comics, illustrations, photography, music/book reviews.

2. The Broken City is currently a non-paying publication. It is primarily a venue for new writers in search of exposure, publishing credits and glory, but does not discriminate against established submitters.

3. The Broken City retains one-time publication rights to accepted submissions. Future rights to individual works published in The Broken City remain with the author.

4. Written Submissions: Prose (fiction, essay, etc.) submissions must not exceed 3,000 words. Poetry submissions should contain no more than five poems.

Text submissions should be attached to an e-mail as a document that has the extension .doc, .docx, .rtf or .txt. Please, no archaic or oddball extensions like .wpd. If there's absolutely no way you can produce a .doc, .docx, .rtf or .txt file, paste your submission into the body of your e-mail.

Place your name at the top of the first page of the document. Also, use a single, common, easy-to-read font for the entirety of the document—no Comic Sans or Lisboa Light. Fancy fonts do not make your submission look cool; they make it unreadable.

5. Visual Submissions: Photos, illustrations, artwork, etc. should be high-quality and in either .jpg, .gif, .png, .bmp, .pdf or .tif format. Multiple, large files should be sent in multiple e-mails (maximum 10 MB per e-mail). Photo series are preferred but individual shots will be considered as well.

6. Previously published work and simultaneous submissions are permitted. Please notify The Broken City if your work is accepted elsewhere after you submit.

7. Accepted work will be edited to correct spelling, grammar, punctuation, sentence structure and word use errors. The Broken City will consult authors before making changes that would significantly alter the content of a submission, but it should be expected that minor revisions will be made unilaterally. Poetry will not be edited without consent, except to replace frustratingly odd combinations of dashes with an em dash.

8. After submitting, add

thebrokencitymag@yahoo.com

to the contacts or safe-senders list of your e-mail account to ensure that future e-mails from The Broken City don't end up in your spam folder.

9. Do not add The Broken City to your group mailing lists. The magazine does not want to receive news about your upcoming events or announcements that your blog has been updated.

10. The Broken City receives hundreds of submissions per issue. The magazine is therefore unable to provide individualized feedback. If your submission is not accepted, you will be sent a curt but polite rejection letter.

Call for Submissions on Theme of "We Could Almost Touch It": Tangled Locks Journal

 

We Could Almost Touch It, aims to amplify the voices of women and delve into the state of women since the 2016 presidential election. Similar to our Featured Abortion Stories, this series is designed to provide a platform for women to share their experiences and stories.

Throughout this year, we will be accepting submissions and publishing essays on a rolling basis. In 2025, we plan to compile a collection of essays from this series into a book that documents our experiences, aspirations, and dreams. By submitting your work for online publication, you will also be eligible for possible publication in the printed anthology.

We are actively seeking personal essays that narrate our journeys toward genuine equality while highlighting the impact of inequality on our lives and outlining our efforts to resist and combat it.

We invite all of you to submit your essays. For this special series, we will waive all submission fees. You are also invited to join our community of writers and readers by signing up for our newsletter and following us on social media.

• Essays should be up to 1500 words in length. 
• We can accept previously published essays as long as the rights have reverted back to the author. Please let us know where and how to credit the first publication.
• Writers may choose to publish anonymously.

There is no fee for submission. 

Deadline: Dec. 15, 2024

We are a small magazine with volunteer readers yet we are committed to compensating writers for their work. We pay authors $15 per published piece in the quarterly journal.  This in no way reflects the value of the author’s work but merely the amount we are able to pay from submission fees. 

We partner with writers on enhancing their visibility. All published authors received custom-designed promotional images (similar to book covers) that are suitable for social media promotions and tips on promoting their work.

Submit your work here.

Writing Competition: Imagine 2200: Grist

Imagine 2200: Climate Fiction for Future Ancestors is Grist’s climate fiction initiative, engaging writers from across the globe in envisioning the next generations of climate progress. Whether built on abundance or adaptation, reform or a new understanding of survival, these stories provide flickers of hope, even joy, and serve as a springboard for exploring how fiction can help create a better reality.

We aim to showcase stories of creative climate solutions and community-centered adaptations, with an emphasis on uplifting voices and cultures from the communities most impacted by the climate crisis. Imagine 2200 is an invitation to writers and readers alike to imagine a future in which solutions to the climate crisis flourish and help bring about radical improvements to our world.

At the core of Imagine is our climate fiction contest, which is open for submissions March 28-June 24, 2024.

The premise

Imagine 2200 celebrates stories that envision the next decades to centuries of equitable climate progress, imagining futures of abundance, adaptation, reform, and hope. We are looking for stories that are rooted in creative climate solutions and community-centered resilience, showing what can happen as solutions take root, and stories that offer gripping plots with rich characters and settings, making that future come alive.

In 2,500 to 5,000 words, show us the world you dream of building.

Your story should be set sometime between the near future and roughly the year 2200.

A great Imagine story is not afraid to explore the challenges ahead — the path to climate progress will involve struggle and adaptation, and we invite you to show that — but ultimately offers hope that we can work together to build a more sustainable and just world. We want to see stories that incorporate real world climate solutions and climate science, as well as cultural authenticity (a deep sense of place, customs, cuisine, and more) and characters with fully-fledged identities. We especially want to read — and share — stories that center solutions and voices from the communities most impacted by the climate crisis.

Your story can bring these principles into any genre — we love seeing climate themes show up in love stories, mysteries, adventure, comedy, and more. Climate connects to every part of life, and all sorts of stories can be climate stories, so dream big — envision a world where climate solutions have flourished, and where we prioritize our well-being, work to mend our communities, and lead lives that celebrate our humanity. We can’t wait to read what you come up with.

There is no cost to enter. Submissions close June 24, 2024, 11:59 p.m. U.S. Pacific Time.

The winning writer will be awarded $3,000. The second- and third-place winners receive $2,000 and $1,000, respectively. An additional nine finalists will each receive $300. All winners and finalists will have their story published in an immersive collection on Grist’s website.

We are also partnering with Oregon State University’s Spring Creek Project, which will offer the winning writer (or a runner-up, in the case the winner cannot accept) the opportunity to participate in its Environmental Writing Fellowship and Residency, including a writing residency at the Cabin at Shotpouch Creek for the winner to spend up to four weeks in residence to continue their climate writing project. The Fellow will receive a $3,000 honorarium from Spring Creek Project.

Stories will be reviewed by a panel of experts, and judged by acclaimed authors Omar El Akkad and Annalee Newitz.

Your submission must be an original fictional story of between 2,500 and 5,000 words that has not been previously published. The full contest rules are available on our submission portal.

Happy Easter!

 

Call for Submissions: Witcraft

Witcraft is designed to provide a home for skilful writing that is brief, humorous and engaging, with the emphasis on wit, word play, absurdity and inspired nonsense.

We’re looking for fiction, nonfiction and poetry that is founded on wit, humour, puns, absurdity and irony. Put away the sledgehammer, the cliches, the tired tropes and the nastiness.

What we won’t publish are:

- work that is gratuitously offensive. You know exactly what we mean, so don’t try us. 

- jokes and/or comedy routines. This is a site dedicated to longer written humour.

Hard sells will include the list below, which will no doubt grow longer with experience: 

- If you think excretion or genitalia or four-letter words are inherently funny, this is not the place for you.
- Current political satire, including fake news.
- Shaggy dog stories (unless they’re about shaggy dogs)
- Snarky diatribes

Length: Submissions are limited to between 200 and 1000 words of fiction, nonfiction or poetry. Submissions outside those guidelines will be deleted unread.

Format: Use a readable font. Times New Roman 12 double spaced is a guideline.

Reprints: Reprints are acceptable provided any rights have reverted to you. Include details of where your piece was previously published, date of publication and, where possible, a link.

Rights: We seek no rights but please acknowledge Witcraft as first publisher in any later publications. Please note that if we publish your story that will count as published by almost all other outlets and will rule you out of submitting to them. Just sayin’.

Simultaneous Submissions: Fine. You’d be mad not to.

Submission Fee: Not a brass razoo.

Payment: All submissions accepted for publication are automatically eligible for one of 3 prizes for the month submitted. First prize A$50, second prize A$20, third prize A$10, payable via Paypal only.

Response Time: Our aim is to respond within 2 weeks but usually within 2 days.

How to submit: Submit via Duotrope Witcraft Submission Manager | Duosuma by Duotrope

Publication Schedule: Chosen pieces will be published daily.

Writing Residency: The Willa Cather Residency for Writers

The Willa Cather Residency for Writers was created in 2023 to commemorate the 150th year of Cather’s birth and to provide a unique opportunity for a small cohort of writers—and eventually artists of all media—to reside and create in Red Cloud, Nebraska for two weeks. A new initiative of the National Willa Cather Center, the program reflects the life-long reverence that world-renowned author Willa Cather had for art, storytelling, and her hometown—an inspirational setting amidst the Great Plains of Nebraska—from which she created the communities in half of her novels.

In a nod to the long road that Willa Cather traveled before she became free to focus on her own writing—a road that included freelancing, teaching, editing, and managing a national magazine—the Willa Cather Residency for Writers welcomes writers who are struggling to transition from a hectic career to a life in art. While open to all, our purpose is to assist such artists.

Logistics

Our select cohort of writers will live and work in Red Cloud over a two-week period from October 13-27, 2024. Each resident will be provided a private furnished room in the Cather Second Home Guest House—with its comfortable communal kitchen, dining, and living spaces—and a separate place to work. Residents will also receive $400 for provisions while in Red Cloud.

While knowledge of Cather’s work and personal connection to Nebraska is not essential, it is important that applicants—and selected artists—embrace and appreciate the relative isolation of Red Cloud and seek a quiet place to do their work. In addition to a $35 application fee, residents are expected to provide their own transportation to and from Red Cloud. Airport pickups may be arranged.

Deadline: April 15, 2024

Apply here.

Call for Submissions: Judy Magazine

Judy Magazine is committed to providing an easy and accessible submissions process to all writers regardless of their income, citizenship status, or residency. We are always open to submissions from writers who are currently incarcerated and will accept submissions via mail from anyone who is unable to send their work through our online process. We especially welcome submissions from writers who identify as members of historically marginalized groups, writers who are economically disadvantaged, and artists who are self-taught or identify as outsiders. Obviously, we are particularly interested in writers and artists who love their grandmothers as much as we do.

Prose

We accept fiction, nonfiction, prose poems, and anything that can conceivably be called “prose”

(If you take that as an invitation to get weird, good, you’re picking up what we’re putting down)

Submissions should be up to 5,000 words in length (with the exception of the rare and brilliant piece that requires more words)

Each issue will be themed, but feel free to be loose with your interpretation of that theme. Ultimately, good work will win out over anything else

All work must be previously unpublished

AI generated work will be mocked and rejected and any violators of this rule will be forced to explain artificial intelligence to Judy (the lady) as punishment

We (OF COURSE) accept simultaneous submissions—just drop us a note when your work is accepted elsewhere

Recipes

It’s simple: we want real family recipes that hold meaning to you as a person that you can use as inspiration as an artist

We want recipes that make you feel something, that might make us feel something

We don’t want recipes copy and pasted from the New York Times Cooking section; we read that, and you’ll get busted

Given that this is a literary magazine (by name at least), recipes that are interesting and come with a compelling story will be favored over recipes that sound delicious, but don’t tell us anything about the writer’s family, culture, or self; make us feel something other than hungry (we get there on our own)

Art

We are looking for old family photographs, images that make us nostalgic for times and places we may have never known

We accept all forms of visual art so long as it is original and created by a HUMAN BEING

Our tastes are broad and underdeveloped, but we are certain we like folk/outsider art, anything surreal, raw, and provocative— also photographs of motels for some reason

We are unlikely to publish all of your dog photos, but don’t let that stop you from sending them along!

If you are currently incarcerated or are otherwise unable to follow the online submissions process and wish to send your submissions through the mail, please send your writing and artwork to the following address:

Judy Magazine

2 Fern Street Apt. 33

Millinocket ME 04462

 

Submit your work here. 

 

Note: They mention a theme in their guidelines, but I could not find a theme for this (their first) issue.

Call for Submissions: Chicken Soup for the Soul

It's time to celebrate! Everyone loves the holidays and making cherished memories. Our holiday editions make wonderful gifts and are so popular that we create a new edition each year. We are now collecting stories for our 2024 HOLIDAY edition that will be published later this year. How do you celebrate the holidays? Are your celebrations very traditional? Do you celebrate in the same way year after year? Or are they very spontaneous and never the same — making new traditions and memories from year to year? We want to hear how you celebrate your holidays. Do you gather with family and friends to share the special spirit of the season at home? Do you travel to far-away places and spend the holidays in a different place each year? Please submit your true stories about the entire December holiday season, including Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and New Year's festivities too. **If your stories are about celebrating Christmas, please be sure that they are "Santa safe" so that we don't spoil the magic for precocious readers! Here are some suggested topics, but there are so many more ideas that we know you have:   • What celebrating the holidays means to me   • Holiday traditions   • Memories of the holiday season   • The love of family   • Family reunions   • Holiday humor   • Gift giving   • Gift receiving   • Regifting — oh no!   • Decorating... oh how we love to do that!   • Un-decorating... oh how we hate to do that!   • Eat, Eat, Eat... and be merry   • Christmas through the eyes of a child   • Elf on the Shelf fun and games   • Here comes Santa Claus   • Secret Santa fun   • Things that went wrong!   • Holiday food and traditions   • Neighborhood competition for house decorations   • The spontaneous things your family has done   • Funny anecdotes A few guidelines for you and some general information: All submissions need to be true — we do not publish fiction. Stories should be no longer than 1,200 words. Please write in the first person about something that happened to you or someone close to you. Every part of your story must be true. No "composite characters." But yes, you can use a pen name, if necessary, to protect yourself or someone else. If you already submitted your story to this 2024 holiday topic please do not submit it again. We have it in our system, and it will be read by our editors. If your story has been published in a past Chicken Soup for the Soul book, please do not submit it. We will not republish it. If you submitted a story to a previous Chicken Soup for the Soul book and we did not publish it, please submit it to us again if you think it will fit in this holiday edition. Please remember, we no longer publish "as told to" stories. Write your story in the first person. Do not ghostwrite a story for someone else unless you list that person as the author in which case, they will be required to fill out our permission form if the story is selected. If a story was previously published, we will probably not use it unless it ran in a small circulation venue. Let us know where the story was previously published and the approximate exposure it received in the "Comments" section of the submission form. We include stories in our books from as diverse a group of writers as possible, including the LGBTQ community and people of all ethnicities, nationalities, and religions. If your story is chosen, you will be a published author and your bio will be printed in the book if you so choose. You will also receive a check for $250 and 10 free copies of your book, worth more than $160. You will retain the copyright for your story and you will retain the right to resell it or self-publish it. SUBMISSIONS GO TO OUR WEBSITE. The deadline for story submissions is April 30, 2024.   We love to publish your funny stories and we've had great success with all of our humor book titles. Our editors have a great time working on the topic, too! From the feedback we have received, it's obvious that people really do love stories that make them laugh and feel good, so we are doing it again. We're working on a new book of 101 funny stories to be titled Chicken Soup for the Soul: Laughter's Always the Best Medicine which will be released in 2025. We are looking for stories about something that happened to you in your life in your relationship with a partner or spouse, a parent or child, a family member or friend, at work or at home — that made you and the people around you laugh out loud. Did you mean for it to be funny? Maybe not. Sometimes the funniest things were not meant to be funny at all! Did someone make you laugh? Did that other person mean to make you laugh? Did a situation just get out of control? Did a misunderstanding snowball into a comedy of errors? We can't wait to read your true stories. We want them to be silly, outrageous, and hilarious. They absolutely must brighten our day and make us laugh! Here are some suggested topics but we know you can think of many more:   • A slip of the tongue — Oh no, I didn't mean to say that!   • Mistaken identity   • Obsessions and compulsions   • Work whoops   • Pranks that worked — Gotcha!   • Pranks that backfired — Yikes!   • Annoying habits — if you don't stop doing that I'm going to scream!   • Doggone funny   • Getting catty   • That was embarrassing   • Happily ever laughter   • Innocently inappropriate   • I thought I heard you say... but you really said...!   • Senior moments   • Wedding woes   • Funeral foul-ups   • Holiday hiccups and meltdowns   • Kitchen/dinner party accidents   • Sports catastrophes   • Domestic turmoil   • Dating disasters   • Making fun of yourself   • Crazy family fun and foibles — it's all relative   • Moving-day mayhem   • Laughing at "inappropriate" times   • I can't believe I did that!   • Travel turmoil   • Zany vacations   • Any other funny stories that make you laugh — the ones you tell over and over again A few guidelines for you and some general information: Please submit your story using your real name but if your work is selected to be published in the book, we understand that you may want to use a pen name and/or change the names of the people in your story to protect the innocent (or guilty!) and your identity. All submissions need to be true — we do not publish fiction or exaggerations. Stories should be no longer than 1,200 words. If a story was previously published, we will probably not use it unless it ran in a small circulation venue. Let us know where the story was previously published and the approximate exposure it received in the "Comments" section of the submission form. If you already submitted your story to this topic please do not submit it again. We have it in our system and it will be read by our editors. If your story was already published in a past Chicken Soup for the Soul book, please do not re-submit it. We will not publish it again. If you submitted a story to one of our previous Chicken Soup for the Soul book titles and we did not publish it, please feel free to submit it to us again if you think it will fit in this topic. Please remember, we no longer publish "as told to" stories. Write your story in the first person. Do not ghostwrite a story for someone else unless you list that person as the author, in which case they will be required to fill out our permission form if the story is selected. We include stories in our books from as diverse a group of writers as possible, including the LGBTQ community and people of all ethnicities, nationalities, and religions. If your story is chosen, you will be a published author and your bio will be printed in the book if you so choose. You will also receive a check for $250 and 10 free copies of your book, worth more than $160. You will retain the copyright for your story and you will retain the right to resell it or self-publish it. SUBMISSIONS GO TO OUR WEBSITE. The deadline for submissions is APRIL 30, 2024.