Writing Competition: The 2025 Beautiful Pause Prize

The 2025 beautiful pause prize is open now through may 1 for full-length poetry manuscripts

the beautiful pause prize…is a yearly prize of $1,000 and the print publication of a full-length manuscript awarded to a writer of exceptional talent and heart.

One runner-up will receive $500 and publication of a series of poems in one of our biannual print volumes.

Submissions open for POETRY manuscripts through may 1st, 2025.

Contest Timeline*

Winning and shortlisted manuscripts announced in August/September 2025

Publication and release of the winning manuscript in Spring 2026.

Guidelines

• 18 and older to submit.

• This contest is judged by Press Pause editors, and submissions are anonymized.

• Please submit complete manuscripts. 30 poems minimum.

• Only one attachment/manuscript per submission. A single author may submit multiple manuscripts but must pay the $25 reading fee for each submission.

• Remove any identifying information from your manuscript. If there is identifying information anywhere on your manuscript, it will not be considered.

• It is okay if some or all poems are published elsewhere separately, but not if they have been published as a collection before. Poetry collections should be thoughtful and cohesive.

What Makes a Beautiful Pause?

We are looking for original, honest, beautiful poems from humans. We have no gates to keep. Haunt us from every corner of every place. Send us thoughtful collections that make us pause, slow down, think, laugh, cry, and feel more connected to our fellow humans. As we always say: Send us whatever is in your hearts.

publishing with us

Dear Future Beautiful Pause Winner:

We love you.

Your manuscript will be treated with respect, with you at the helm of the editing process. We will copyedit your manuscript in suggestion mode, and maybe provide a few thoughts on developmental edits that you can take or leave. You will be able to extensively proof your work before publication.

We are fans of the feel of beautiful books in our hands. We don’t print anything that isn’t beautiful.

You will receive $1,000 immediately upon winning and 25 contributor copies when printed. You will receive royalties on all sales.

Because we do not have a social media account—(We’re Press Pause!)—we will also work with you to market your book and put a small budget behind doing so.

Questions? Email:

se.harsha@presspausepress.org

Submit your entry here.

Writing Competition: Fractured Lit Ghost, Fable, and Fairy Tales Prize

We invite writers to submit to the Fractured Lit Ghost, Fable, and Fairy Tales Prize from February 15, 2025, to April 13, 2025.

We’re looking for stories that use flash fiction’s unique use of brevity and lyricism to create new twists on these familiar traditions. We want stories that take a slant approach, that create and illuminate the shadows, that awaken us to new ways of looking at our past and future; stories that scare us with their resonance, their attention to detail, and characters who get in and out of trouble. Don’t be afraid to use parts and pieces of all of these storytelling tropes and traditions in order to Frankenstein something never before seen. This contest produces some of the most imaginative submissions each year, and we look forward to reading your creations!

Guest Judge Dan Chaon will choose three prize winners from a shortlist. We’re excited to offer the winner of this prize $3,000 and publication, while the second- and third-place place winners will receive publication and $300 and $200, respectively. All entries will be considered for publication.

Dan Chaon’s newest book, One of Us, is forthcoming in October 2025. He is the author of seven previous books, including Ill Will, a national bestseller, named one of the ten best books of 2017 by Publishers Weekly. Other works include the short story collection Stay Awake (2012), a finalist for the Story Prize; the New York Times Best Seller Await Your Reply; and Among the Missing, a finalist for the National Book Award. Chaon’s fiction has appeared in the Best American Short Stories, the Pushcart Prize anthologies, and the O. Henry Prize Stories. He lives in Cleveland.

Here’s what Dan looks for in a flash fiction story:

To me, flash fiction is not just a very short story or a poem in prose. It’s a unique form in its own right. Perhaps the closest corollaries are the koan and the riddle and the joke. Or the stiletto. The best flash fiction pierces you—it’s a stab, a slap, visceral and shocking, though "flash" doesn’t necessarily mean "flashy." It may be as quiet as a barely exhaled final breath.

We hope this prompt inspires you to create something out of your normal routine, that allows you to dip into the wellspring of your creativity, and helps you tell the story only you could tell.

GUIDELINES: 

• Your $20 reading fee allows up to two stories of 1,000 words or fewer each per entry—if submitting two stories, please put them both in a SINGLE document.

• We allow multiple submissions—each set of two flash stories should be a separate submission accompanied by a reading fee.

• Writers from historically marginalized groups will be able to submit for free until we reach our cap of 25 free submissions. No additional fee waivers will be granted.

• Please send flash fiction only—1,000 word count maximum per story.

• We only consider unpublished work for contests—we do not review reprints, including self-published work (even on blogs and social media). Reprints will be automatically disqualified.

• Simultaneous submissions are okay—please notify us and withdraw your entry if you find another home for your writing.

• All entries will also be considered for publication in Fractured Lit.

• Double-space your submission and use Times New Roman 12 (or larger if needed).

• Please include a brief cover letter with your publication history (if applicable). In the cover letter, please include content warnings as well, to safeguard our reading staff.

• We only read work in English, though some code-switching/meshing is warmly welcomed.

• We do not read anonymous submissions. However, shortlisted stories are sent anonymously to the guest judge.

• Unless specifically requested, we do not accept AI-generated work. For this contest, AI-generated work will be automatically disqualified.

The deadline for contest entry is April 13, 2025. We will announce the shortlist within ten to twelve weeks of the contest's close. All writers will be notified when the results are final.

Some Submittable Hot Tips: 

• Please be sure to whitelist/add this address to your contacts, so notifications do not get filtered as spam/junk: notifications@email.submittable.com.

• If you realize you sent the wrong version of your piece: It happens. Please DO NOT withdraw the piece and resubmit. Submittable collects a nonrefundable fee each time. Please DO message us from within the submission to request that we open the entry for editing, which will allow you to fix everything from typos in your cover letter to uploading a new draft. The only time we will not allow a change is if the piece is already under review by a reader.

OPTIONAL EDITORIAL FEEDBACK:

You may choose to receive editorial feedback on your submission. We will provide a two-page global letter discussing the strengths of the writing and the recommended focus for revision. Our aim is to make our comments actionable and encouraging. These letters are written by editors and staff readers of Fractured Lit. Should your story win, no feedback will be offered, and your fee will be refunded.

 

Submit your entry here.

Call for Submissions: Witness: Black Mountain Institute

About the Magazine

Witness seeks original fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and photography that is innovative in its approach, broad-ranging in its concerns, and unapologetic in its perspective. The magazine blends the features of a literary and an issue-oriented magazine to highlight the role of the modern writer as witness to their times.

Our mission is to amplify extraordinary voices, feature writers from every part of the globe, and highlight pieces that speak to the present moment in an enduring and distinctive way. The magazine seeks to open up conversations surrounding oppression and transcendence, prejudice and compassion, fear and raw honesty. The editorial team is also proud to feature the work of emerging voices alongside that of established writers.

 

Reading Periods

Witness is published twice a year: a Spring print issue, and a Fall/Winter online issue. Please note: submission windows are subject to change based on submission capacity. Additionally, your submission may be considered for future issues--regardless of the submission window--depending on the volume and quality of work submitted in a single reading period.

 

Deadline: April 1, 2025 

 

• General Guidelines: We do not accept previously published work. This includes material that has appeared online in any form or format, including personal blogs.

• We do not accept more than one submission per genre, though you may submit up to five poems and three flash pieces as a single submission. We work to respond to all poetry submissions within four months; response times for fiction and nonfiction may be six months or longer, depending on the volume of submissions.

• Simultaneous submissions are allowed, but please withdraw your work promptly if it is accepted elsewhere. If submitting multiple poems or flash, if any of your pieces has been accepted by another publication, please notify us directly by sending a message through Submittable.

• If Witness publishes your piece, we ask that you wait two years following your publication date before submitting to us again. We love our contributors, but seek to platform as wide an array of authors as we can.

• Graduates and current UNLV MFA/PhD candidates or other students affiliated with the university are asked to wait two years post-graduation before submitting work for consideration at Witness.

We pay our contributors $150 for prose and $75 for poetry, whether in the print or online issue. We suggest a reading fee of $3 for a general submission. If you have any questions or requests, please email:

 

witness@unlv.edu

 

Submit your work here.

Call for Submissions on Theme of "Slip": swim meet lit mag

Submissions are open for our next issue, SLIP, until March 15.

 What is swim meet lit mag, anyway?

swim meet lit mag is an online literary publication based in Meanjin (Brisbane, Australia). We accept all kinds of creative work.

Swim meets bring people together; swim meet lit mag offers an accessible space to read and publish all kinds of creative work from around the world, with a particular focus on local emerging writers.

Our mission is to provide an approachable avenue for publication, especially for early-career creatives, but we accept submissions from anyone (as long as written works are predominantly in English or translated to English). That’s why our general submissions are free, and our response time is usually swift. Likewise, our catalogue is, and always will be, free to read.

While our themes aren’t strict, our editor is particularly interested in submissions from swimmers (current or former), or about swimming – whatever that means to you. If your work has nothing to do with swimming, that doesn’t mean we don’t want to see it! Send us something you’d be proud to see published.

Because we’re a volunteer-run publication committed to paying our contributors, we offer a Tip Jar Submission option with a fee of $3.00 (AUD), which will move your submission to the top of the queue and allow you to submit extra material. We also accept donations all year round. Your support means we can continue paying artists.

Donations: As a volunteer-run publication, we are always open to donations that help support our operational costs and allow us to pay writers. The amount is automatically set to a one-off payment of $5.00 (AUD).

The nitty-gritty

Who can submit? Anyone! We love supporting local creatives, but we accept submissions from anywhere in the world.

Formatting: Please include all pieces in one document (.doc or .docx where possible) for written submissions. PDF, JPEG, and PNG files are acceptable for visual and hybrid work. If submitting multiple pieces, please include them in a single submission (no need to start a new Google Form for each submission). You will be able to upload multiple files in one submission. If these formats aren’t suitable, please upload a file with a link to your work (wherever you see fit, as long as the editor can access it – but make sure it isn’t publicly available).

Poetry: Up to 3 poems, up to 50 lines each, in one document. Please begin each poem on a new page. Tip Jar submissions can include up to 5 poems!

Prose submissions: One piece of up to 2000 words. Flash pieces are also welcome! Please include the word count in the submitted document. If you have something longer, please email us with a pitch (it doesn’t have to be formal – just communicate how long the piece is, what it’s about, and why it might be a good fit for us). Tip Jar submissions can be up to 3000 words (longer pieces can be pitched first!)

Visual Art and Photography: Up to 10 pages/pieces in one submission. If your work doesn’t fit into this category or you have any questions, please contact us. Visual submissions may be considered for cover art (feel free to specify if you have a particular preference in this regard).

Oddlings, etc: We’re keen to expand our catalogue to include forms not mentioned here! Videos, GIFs, hybrids, etc. all welcome! Please kindly pitch these first

Multiple submissions? Just once per genre (i.e. one poetry packet, one piece of fiction, one art packet). Please avoid re-submitting a piece that we have declined (unless directly requested).

Payment: At this time, we are only able to pay Australian contributors (via PayPal where possible). Payment is minimum $30 for poems, flash prose, and visual art. $50 minimum for longer prose, cover art, or suites of poetry and visual work.

Rights and reprints? All rights remain with the author, regardless of submission outcome. If your work has appeared elsewhere and you have the rights to it, we will consider it. Please make a note of where the piece has appeared previously in your cover letter if this is the case. If a piece published by swim meet lit mag is accepted for publication elsewhere, please let us know! We’ll give our blessing, but we’d like to stay informed.

Simultaneous submissions? Sure! Just let us know if your work is accepted elsewhere. (Congrats, by the way!)

What happens upon acceptance? If the editor sees fit, written work may undergo a collaborative editing process, using email communication and Track Changes in Word/Pages. The work we usually accept is of high quality and does not require major structural or stylistic editing; some pieces don’t require editing at all. The purpose of the editing process is to polish and retain the integrity of the work, to bring out the best in each piece to help it shine. We always listen to the artist and want to hear your suggestions during the editing phase!

Any other questions? Send them our way over at our contact page!
Issue 6: SLIP

Submissions are OPEN until March 15!

SLIP: We want to hear about the elusive. We want to know about what you’ve strived for that remains perpetually out of reach. What earthly, tangible things can never truly be ours? Perhaps there’s a moment that plays on a loop in your memory, perhaps because one slip (might’ve) changed everything.

Visual artists, be as abstract or as concrete as you like. Writers, send us your most experimental slip-ups; poets, your raw portraits of what haunts you; multimedia artists and others, surprise us!

Submit your work here.

Call for Submissions: Does It Have Pockets?

Short Deadline: Feb. 28, 2025
 

General Submission Guidelines

 

What We Want

We are looking for fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry. We also welcome interviews, book reviews, and other literary adjacent projects. Of particular interest are digital art, hybrid, and cross-genre works that straddle the lines of classification.

Submission Specifics

Categories

Poetry: a minimum of 3 poems and a maximum of 5 poems. Note: we rarely publish poems that run over 3 typed pages.

 

Creative Nonfiction: up to 5K words.

 

Fiction: up to 5K words. We welcome flash fiction up to 1,000 words. You may send 5 flash pieces (up to 5K words) in a single document.

 

Artwork: 6 -10 images sized 1080x1080 pixels submitted as a jpeg.

Please limit submissions to two categories until we’ve replied.

Simultaneous submissions are fine, but please let us know in your cover letter. We appreciate timely notification if a piece under consideration has been accepted elsewhere.

Formatting

We prefer standard formatting and Times New Roman 12 pt font. We will do our best to retain poetry formatting within the limits of our online platform.

We will be glad to look at previously published work (reprints) as long as: You have the rights. It has been at least 24 months since published online or three months if published in a small print-only run, and you provide the prior publication credit at submission.

If published by DIHP, please wait six months before submitting again.

Submissions Fee

We charge a $3.00 submission fee.

These funds are used for artist payments and administrative costs (Submittable, website, etc.). We hold fee-free periods for the last two weeks of each February and August, to ensure cost is not a barrier for any writer.

Pitches are free. For periodic features or one-off interviews, reviews, etc., use the Pitch Pockets category. Please include an explanation of your idea, audience, intended frequency, and a writing sample.

Artwork submissions are free. Please use the Pitch Pockets submission category.

Rights

All rights remain with the author before, during, and after publication. We request non-exclusive permission to feature your work on our site, our social media channels, archives, and special projects (anthologies, collections, etc).

Payment

If published, we pay $10 per issue (including artwork). We understand this is nowhere near what writers/artists deserve, and we will raise rates as soon as we are able.

DIHP may provide content warnings when publishing pieces that touch on the following subject matter:

• Sexual assault
• Abuse/child abuse
• Child loss
• Abortion
• Self harm/suicide
• Excessive Violence
• Eating disorders/body dysphoria

Looking for more specifics? Read Duotrope’s interview with our editor-in-chief.

Submit here: https://doesithavepockets.submittable.com/submit

Call for Submissions: Macrame Literary Journal

Macrame Literary Journal

Submissions are now open. The current submission period for Spring 2025 will run from February 1 to April 1. Please review the full submission guidelines and send your work through DUOSUMA. We greatly value the opportunity to read your work and look forward to giving full attention to each and every one of your submissions.

General Guidelines

SUBMISSION PERIOD

Our publishing schedule is quarterly – Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter. We aim to respond to submissions as quickly as possible, but our response time can vary depending on the number of the submissions we receive. Please submit once per submission period.

WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR

We welcome submissions in poetry, short fiction, and micro-fiction. We only accept previously unpublished work, whether in print or anywhere on the web. Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but please be sure to withdraw your submission immediately upon acceptance elsewhere. Please indicate whether you wish to withdraw a specific piece or entire submission.

Please submit your work in Word or PDF format, remove identifying information from the work, and use standard font type 12p, double-spaced for fiction and micro-fiction and single-spaced for poetry.

We will try our best to preserve the formatting of your work, but it may appear differently depending on the formatting of your work and/or browser.

WE SUPPORT ALL WRITERS

We welcome and encourage submissions from writers of all walks of life, including every nationality, race, religion, gender, and orientation, and those whose perspectives are underrepresented in the literary world.

CONTENT SUITABLE FOR ALL AUDIENCES

Macrame Literary Journal is intended for all audiences. We will not read any submissions containing profanity, excessive violence, explicit content, hate speech and intolerance of any kind.

AI POLICY

We do not accept work created by, or with the assistance of AI. By submitting your work to us, you certify that you are the sole creator of the work.

AUTHOR RIGHTS

Macrame Literary Journal acquires first serial rights, and upon publication, all rights return to the author. If your piece is later republished elsewhere, please mention that it first appeared in Macrame Literary Journal.

More information and submission link here.

Call for Submissions: Smoky Blue Literary and Arts Magazine

Smoky Blue Literary and Arts Magazine

Submission periods: February 1-June 15 (Fall/Winter issue) and August 1-December 15 (Spring/Summer issue)

Send submissions to:

 

editor.sblaam@gmail.com

Please expect to wait up to two months after our deadlines (June 15 and December 15) for a publication decision. Occasionally with e-mail, there are technical difficulties. We cannot be responsible for delay or loss of submissions. To check on the status of your submission, please send an inquiry to:

 

editor.sblaam@gmail.com.

We accept poetry, short fiction, creative non-fiction, and memoir.

Dual Literary and Photography/Art submissions (i.e. poetry paired with artwork) will only be considered for publication if they can be published separately as well as paired together.

Poetry: we accept a maximum of four poems submitted per issue.

Prose: from each contributor, we accept a maximum of one fiction work and one non-fiction work submitted per issue. Any length up to 5,000 words is acceptable. We do not publish novels or serial excerpts (unless the excerpt can stand alone).

Online submissions should be sent as an email attachment to:

 

editor.sblaam@gmail.com,

 

either in Word (.doc), Pages (.pages), another current word processor format, or Rich Text format (.rtf). We do not accept Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) or older formats such as Word Perfect (.wp) or Microsoft Works (.wps).

We do not accept submissions (literary or image) via Google Docs or any other such method, only as email attachments or, if necessary, embedded in the email text.

We accept only electronic submissions via:

 

editor.sblaam@gmail.com.

In the body of your email, please include your name, e-mail address, home address (optional), phone number (optional), personal website url (optional) and a short (50 words or less) biography (if you wish us to include one if we publish your work). You may also include a cover letter if desired. All published material will be appropriately accredited. (Let us know if you wish accreditation to differ from your legal name.)

All work must be original, previously unpublished, and in English. We accept simultaneous submissions, but please inform us promptly and withdraw your work if it is accepted elsewhere. We do not accept revised versions of work previously submitted to us, whether accepted for publication or not.

By submitting your work, you grant us first serial rights, the right to archive your work online for an indefinite period of time, and the right to nominate your work for awards such as the Pushcart Prize. Once the issue featuring your work has been published, you are free to republish your work as you wish, online and/or in print. Once published, all rights revert to you, the author.

We are not currently a paying market. Regrettably, because of the volume of submissions, we cannot give individual feedback.

Call for Submissions: Many Nice Donkeys

Many Nice Donkeys is interested in unpublished poetry and flash prose (fiction & nonfiction) of all sorts. We welcome the literary, the weird, the disobedient, and the avant-garde. Send us poems that make claims we can’t stop chewing on and stories that reframe the ordinary. If you have work in hybrid genres, send that, too! We’re excited to see a broad range of submissions from which we can build deeply connected and unique issues.

Submission Window for Volume II, Issue III: February 1 through March 17

Please review the guidelines below in full before sending us your submission.

Format

We currently do blind reads at MND. Please do not include your name or contact information anywhere in your submission documents. Please do paginate your documents. We ask that you use standard fonts like Times New Roman or Garamond and submit .doc or .docx files. The name of your document should be the title of the first piece that appears in the submission. If you submit in multiple genres, please submit separate submission forms.

Previously published work includes any work that was self-published on a personal blog or website, in addition to traditional publishing. We are also looking to avoid any work that is already slotted for future publication in a chapbook or collection, even if our issue would be released first. Should we select your work for publication, we’ll solicit a brief bio in your acceptance email. Please do not send any major revisions/updates for pieces after they’ve been accepted in their original format.

Poetry

Send up to 5 poems, but no more than 8 total pages of poetry in a single document. Each poem should start a new page. Please follow the format guidelines above unless a .pdf is necessary in maintaining the shape of a poem. Please also note that we are unlikely to accept rhyming poems and poems that are center aligned.

Fiction/CNF

We will accept flash prose of up to 1000 words. This means that whether you submit one piece or ten, the total word count for all the pieces combined should not exceed 1000 words. Along with paginations, please include a word count at the top of your document.

Frequency

You may submit in both poetry and prose, but please do not resubmit to either category in the same submission period until/if you have received a denial for your initial submission.

Simultaneous Submissions

Are welcome. We ask that you let us know as soon as possible by sending us a follow up email if some of your work is accepted elsewhere (be sure to specify which piece(s) if you have submitted multiple).

Citizenship

We welcome you to challenge us but remember: if you are an ass you must be a nice one. Racism, homophobia, transphobia, Islamophobia, misogyny, sexism, etc. have no home here. Should you send work containing/perpetuating intolerance or hate, our barn doors will close on you quickly.

Submit your work here.

Call for Submissions: Collaborature

Collaborature

is always open for submissions and never charges a fee to submit. Please read and adhere to these guidelines when submitting.

The key point of every submission is that it must be written by more than one author, or include a collaboration of two individuals (eg: art and poetry).

No AI generated writing accepted. AI generated images are not preferred. It is not necessary that an image be included with your submission, but you may include an image to be featured along with your work. There are many online sites where you may download images for free. Please include a link to the page where the image is found.

Simultaneous submissions okay. Submission grants Collaborature the non-exclusive right to publish and display your work. That’s it.

Previously published work okay. Please indicate date(s) and publication(s) where your piece first appeared. Upon publication with us, please credit Collaborature as having published your work when submitting it elsewhere in the future.

What we look for: Please submit polished work, minimal revision may be done at the discretion of editor.

Submitting poetry: Please submit one to three poems. Limit each poem to 100 lines or less. Poetry can be collaborative in many ways. Here are some that are accepted:

Call and response encompasses a broad range of poetry, including writing a response poem to a poem by another author. See an interesting excerpt about that here.

Cento poetry is automatically considered whether constructed solely by one author or multiple authors.

Ekphrasis

Epigraph

Renga

Rengay

Renku

Sestina Here is a fascinating article about a teacher helping students in her class write a collaborative sestina.

###

Submitting prose: please include one piece of prose per submission, and limit your work to 1000 words or less. Prose can be collaborative in many ways. Here are some that are accepted:

Flash fiction or short fiction

Haibun

Tanka prose

###

General housekeeping: nothing hateful in nature will be published. This is at the discretion of the editor, and no explicit instruction will be given as to how to avoid writing that is hateful in nature. Let’s make it common sense.

Please send submissions to:

collaborature@gmail.com 

In the subject line of your email, please include SUBMISSION – YOUR NAME – MONTH/YEAR. In the body of your email, please include a brief introduction and brief bio, along with no more than two website / social media links.

Turnaround: Collaborature is a strictly volunteer venture. Please allow us to work through submissions at a reasonable pace. Please wait two to four weeks before querying to check on the status of a submission.

Response: It is our aim to respond to each submission; if we miss you, feel free to send us an email.

Feedback: You may request feedback for your submission in the body of your email. Note that this might slightly extend turnaround time. Feedback will be given sparingly.

Please report your response times at Duotrope.

We are unable to pay for submissions at this time :(, but we love you. :)

The works contained herein are under the copyright of their respective authors and artists.

Call for Submissions: Querencia Press

Querencia Press accepts poetry, fiction, non-fiction (including memoir), hybrid work, and occasionally visual art. We accept all submissions through Submittable. Please include a short, third-person bio and your pronouns with your submission. *hardsells are listed at the end of the guidelines

We are OPEN for chapbooks and full length manuscripts and will close in November. Anthology submissions for our unthemed quarterly anthologies are OPEN! Deadline March 1, 2025. Not Ghosts, But Spirits V submissions are CLOSED. Anything received for anthology categories outside of open submission periods will roll into the next anthology. Please read details in the category/callout you are interested in for dates and specifics—at the very least read the bolded text.

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

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

Querencia Press does not charge a submission fee (though tips are much appreciated). If a manuscript is accepted, you will receive a contract with competitive royalty options, but we are a non-paying market for anthologies. We do not provide physical contributor copies, but we do provide a discount link for contributors. 

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

Querencia is a small press. We have only two readers and one full time editor. We read and consider each submission carefully in the order that it is received, and we do not believe in silent rejections. You will receive a response. Please try to resist sending follow up emails regarding when your submission will be read. We are currently processing manuscript responses on about a 5-6 month turnaround due to the volume of submissions, sometimes longer for acceptances if we have a large acceptance rate for a particular month.

All submissions should be in a single .pdf, .doc, or .docx format, however we do not require any specific formatting guidelines. Visual submissions can be sent as PDF, JPG, PNG, or TIFF (please no RAW files) Do not send us Google Docs links or Pages—we cannot use them across all of our devices, and if we have to ask for you to resend your submission in a different format, it increases your wait time (if you absolutely have to send Pages because of Apple, please inform us and know we may take a bit longer to get to your submission based on when we have a device available to access Pages). For anthology submissions we ask that you title your document with the genre and the number of pieces and to which anthology callout you are submitting (i.e. Poetry - 5 Pieces - Quarterly Anthology). We do not need a cover letter, but please include a short 3rd person bio and your pronouns with all submissions.

We are looking for chapbooks and full-lengths in any genre. For poetry and hybrid work, we are seeking work with a minimum of 20 pages. Prose manuscripts should be a minimum of 7,000 words. There is no page or word count limit, but please let us know what genre the work best falls into. We currently publish most manuscripts in a 6x9 softcover format, with a minimum 11pt font, so if you have unique formatting you may want to see what your manuscript will look like in this size. Please submit your work in a single document (any accepted manuscripts will need to be converted to .doc or.docx, but if you have unusual formatting submitting a PDF is best). We will close November of each year to catch up on our sub pile and prepare for the end of the fiscal year.

Call for Sumissions on Theme of "Last Words": Gulf Stream Magazine

What we publish

We publish fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, hybrid works, translations, book reviews & visual art. We are a biannual online publication. We love a wide range of genres and styles, especially writing that is innovative in form and progressive in content.

This year, we wanted to bookend our Fall issue with the Spring issue. And so, after Issue 35: First Words, comes Issue 36: Last Words. We want you to send us your writing that has all the charge and desperation and absolute importance of the last words you’ll ever write. We want the last words between lovers, the utterances that eek out of the cracks of a broken heart or perhaps the lines that break the heart of another. We want the last words before everything went sideways, before everything ended and perhaps began anew in that ending. What are the words you would share with us if they were the only things we’d remember you by? How do your characters want to be remembered? What is the secret you need us to know before you go or the truth that comes out, that slips, that last thing you wish we’d ever hear but can’t take back anymore now that it’s out? If you had one last thing to give us, one last thing to say, one last thing part of yourself that needed a voice before the silence, what would it be? We want that.

More important than any theme, we welcome all submissions as long as they’re honest and authentic – what we want most of all is your best work. Work must be original, created without the use of AI, and previously unpublished (with the exception of translations – see genre guidelines). Not sure if your work is suited to our magazine? Find out what we like by reading our current issue.

We acknowledge that literary spaces traditionally have centered the white, heterosexual, cisgender male experience at the expense of other voices. We want to break from that tradition and are therefore especially interested in reading work from those who are often marginalized in literary spaces, including Black, Brown, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC); all women, including but not limited to, trans and cis women; LGBTQIA+ people; agender, gender non-conforming, and nonbinary people; people with disabilities; and people who live at the intersections of identities.

Limits

Fiction: 5,000 words (or 3 pieces of up to 1,000 words)

Creative Nonfiction: 5,000 words

Poetry: 3 poems per submission

Hybrid: 5,000 words (may include up to 5 images, B&W only)

Translations: 3 poems or 5,000 words of prose (must include original piece)

Book Reviews: 500-750 words (books must have been published within the past year)

How to submit

Please submit your work through submittable.

No submissions through email or mail unless you have an invite to do so from the editors. (For example, prisoners may request to do this.)

Include a bio of up to fifty words along with your cover letter.

We do our very best to respond within 6 months, but due to the volume of submissions, it can sometimes take longer.

Guidelines

-Reading fee of $3. (For a fee waiver, reach out to the editors).

-International submissions are welcomed, but English only this year.

-Multiple submissions are welcome at $3 per submission, but please, no more than one submission per genre at a time.

-Simultaneous submissions are fine as long as you notify us if it’s accepted elsewhere.

-No submissions from current FIU students.

-Submissions accepted from FIU alums two or more years after graduation.

Copyright Info

We hold first serial rights for the material we publish, with the copyright reverting back to the author upon publication.

Reviews & interviews

No unsolicited submissions or requests, please.

Contact

gulfstreamlitmag@gmail.com

Submit your work here.

Call for Submissions on Theme of "The Call is Coming From Inside the House": Talk Vomit

Spring quarterly submissions will remain open until March 6th.

THEME:

Our spring edition theme is the call is coming from inside the house, however you interpret that. What does it look like — feel like — to find the threat is actually coming from within — your person, your community? We will accept traditional horror (light on the gore, please) as well as more experimental interpretations of this prompt. For detailed guidelines, please review our submissions page. Submissions may be sent using this Google Form.

We manage submissions through Google Forms, linked above.

The details:

• Non-fiction under 4,000 words, fiction under 2,000, and poetry just generally kept to a minimum

• Please submit one prose piece or two poems.

• Turnaround times vary. Expect a response within approximately one month of submissions closing.

• Talk Vomit believes wholeheartedly in simultaneous submissions and raises their eyebrows at places that don’t. BUT, if your piece is accepted elsewhere, please email:

 talk@talkvomit.com

as soon as you can. If you don’t, it stands to be quite embarrassing for both of us.

• Talk Vomit asks for first serial rights. We aim to share most work on our website, our Substack, and in print, as space allows. Upon initial publication, all rights revert back to you, although we ask you credit Talk Vomit in the event of republication.

Some stuff we particularly like:

• Gothic stories. Not high fantasy stuff, usually, but moody and atmospheric pieces that take a microscope to the underbelly of our communities and relationships

• Flash satire

• Essays that weave first-person with cultural criticism; essays with a fresh coming-of-age narrative (one can come of age at many times in their life, in many ways; Monica is currently particularly interested in coming-of-age stories related to motherhood, fwiw)

• Cultural criticism, in general

• Book reviews, especially those in the 300-600 word range — unless you’re baking in some first-person narrative and lengthier criticism. If that’s the case, follow our general nonfiction word limit.

• Serial stories. Feel free to pitch one at:

 talk@talkvomit.com

Let’s get Dickensian about it.

At the end of the day, we’re curating each quarterly to fit a theme and meet our editorial needs. We say no to a lot of a solid pieces that we simply don’t have room for. Don’t hesitate to submit to the next round if your piece is not accepted.

If your piece is a thinly-veiled homage to Lolita, we will delete it without response. Read something else.

Payment: We’re very pleased to pay our contributors thanks to print zine sales and supporters of our Substack. Our rates are DIY-zine rates, but we hope they will increase. Fiction and nonfiction run in the $10-30 range; poetry in the $5-15 range. The rate will be higher for print exclusives. We issue honraria via Venmo and PayPal.

FYI: We began publishing on a mostly quarterly basis on April 1, 2023.

Call for Submissions from Bipolar Creatives: Mande: A Journal of Bipolar Talent

Submit

 

Mande is always open to submissions from bipolar creatives on any topic. While I appreciate the long shadows bipolar throws, I’m particularly interested at the moment in its high points, in any joy or positive elements you find in bipolar.

 

We also publish work by people familiar with bipolar, as long as it’s directly related to manic depression.

 

To start, you can submit writing and art to:

 

kate@mandeliterary.com

 
Be sure to include the word “submission” in the subject line. Include a brief biography of 100 words or less. Feel free to mention your social media handles.

Mande does not charge a reading fee.

Mande pays $50 per artwork, $50 per poem, and $50 per 1000 words of prose up to a cap of $250.

Mande does not accept previously published material, including work released on blogs or social media. I check every piece for plagiarism and AI creation; failures are rejected. Mande retains first serial publication rights. I also retain the right to record your written work for promotion on YouTube, unless you ask me not to.

 

I regret I can’t respond to queries about submission status. I’m making every effort to decide on pieces within four months of submission date. To withdraw a piece or pieces, contact me again at:

 

kate@mandeliterary.com

Yes, send me anything, any format, and I’ll work with it until I decide I need to pen more rigorous guidelines.

Call for Creative Nonfiction Submissions: Hindsight Magazine

Submissions are accepted on a rolling basis. We accept pieces online through our Submittable account. We do not accept pieces by post or email. Submission is free.

All submissions are considered for publication, either in print or online. While we cannot offer payment outside of our competitions, we send print copies to all published contributors. Print copies are otherwise distributed annually at AWP conferences, and locally here in Boulder, Colorado. Our print volume is published annually. All of our issues are available for free online.

Submission Guidelines

We welcome submissions from everyone except current teaching faculty at the University of Colorado Boulder.

We only publish creative nonfiction writing, fact-checking as necessary.

Any necessary textual citation should follow Chicago Manual of Style footnote format.

AI-generated submissions will be rejected.

Hindsight publishes all forms of creative nonfiction (including narrative journalism, creative scholarship, and nonfiction poetry). Pieces for our Changing Skies issues must address or center around climate issues.

All submissions are considered for publication in print, online, or both.

We only accept the following file types:

Word files (.docx, .doc) for writing.

JPG's or PDF's for art or work including graphics.

For all prose, use double-spaced Times New Roman 12 point type, 1" margins, and indented paragraphs.

For prose in sections, indicate space breaks with a centered hashtag.

For all poetry, use single-spaced Times New Roman 12 point type, double spacing between stanzas.

Please remove your name from your piece, including file name, first page with title, headers, and pagination, to ensure anonymous reviewing. If your writing includes an identifiable name for you (beyond simply a common first name, etc.) please replace with "MY NAME" and we will restore your name in editing if accepting your piece for publication.

We accept simultaneous submissions, but please notify us immediately if your work is accepted elsewhere, through Submittable, and pull the piece. We publish only previously unpublished work and obtain First North American Serial Rights: all rights revert to you as soon as we publish your work first. We may then republish or excerpt your work unless you request that we not do so.

Submit your work here.

Call for Submissions: Toronto Journal

What do we publish?

We publish short stories from anywhere in the world.

We will also consider non-fiction pieces that are either set locally or explore some local history (Toronto, GTA, and surrounding). See the Stories from the City category, and the Toronto Feature category, respectively, for some examples.

Who do we publish?

We are firm believers in the idea that the writing should speak for itself. It’s irrelevant to us whether you’re a new writer or an established writer. All submissions to Toronto Journal are anonymous.

Compensation

We pay $50 per piece. All published writers will also receive a printed copy of the issue in which they appear.

Submission Guidelines

• Do not include your name or email on the pdf or word document with your content.

• Do not include a cover letter with your work.

• Word limit is 7,500 words.

• No strict formatting requirements besides legibility.

• Simultaneous submissions are ok. Please let us know if your work is accepted elsewhere.

• If your work is selected for publication, Toronto Journal has first serial rights only, and the author retains all other rights to the work.

• We cannot accept any work that has been published previously in English, either in print, online, in audio format, or otherwise.

• Should we happen to accept multiple pieces from the same author for a given issue, the accepted pieces may be postponed to subsequent issues.

• If you are submitting for the Summer issue, expect to hear back from us by March 31st each year. If you are submitting for the Winter issue, expect to hear back from us by September 30th each year. If you don’t hear back from us, please get in touch: submissions@torontojournal.com.

How to submit?

Use the online form. Remember to not include any identifying information in your attachment. Submissions to Toronto Journal are anonymous.
We are currently accepting submissions for our Summer 2025 issue.

Deadline: 1 March 2025.

Call for Submissions: West Branch

The editors of West Branch welcome submissions of poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and translation. We normally read unsolicited manuscripts between August 1st and April 1st. We print only original, unpublished work. For accepted work, we purchase First North American serial rights.

Payment is awarded for accepted works in the amount of $100 per submission of poetry, and $.10/word for prose with a maximum payment of $200. Additionally, we provide each contributor with two copies of the issue in which his/her work appears and a one-year subscription to West Branch.

Please review the submission guidelines below before submitting using the online submission manager:

• All manuscripts should be paginated, with the author's name on each page. Prose should be double-spaced and include a word count.

• Please send no more than six poems or thirty pages of prose. You may submit up to three pieces of short-form fiction (flash, short-shorts, etc.) so long as the total page count remains under fifteen pages. Poems and multiple short-form pieces should be saved and uploaded as a single file.

• The submission manager accepts most document types; we prefer to receive files in .DOC or .RTF format.

• We prefer to receive no more than two submissions from a single contributor in a given reading period. We make periodic checks for contributors who have reached the 2-submission limit, and reject any additional pieces submitted by those contributors. However, you will still be able to log in to view your account, and reaching the 2-submission limit will not affect pieces already under consideration. Please note also that the submission manager will only allow you to have one piece under consideration at any given time.

• Simultaneous submissions must be clearly marked as such in the comments section. If any of the work is accepted elsewhere, please withdraw your own West Branch submission immediately.

• Our usual response time is ten weeks or less--often much less--but if we find your material interesting you may wait longer to hear from us. Please DO query if more than four months have passed since your submission, via e-mail at:

 westbranch@bucknell.edu

• Book reviews are typically arranged by assignment, and we currently publish only poetry reviews. If you are interested in writing reviews, please query with a sample. Our pay rate for reviews is highly competitive.

Please acquaint yourself with the magazine before submitting; sample back issues are available for only $3. Subscriptions are available at $10 for one year and $16 for two years. For subscription information, selected work, and news, see our website.

Call for Submissions: British Science Fiction Association

British Science Fiction Association

Editors Gene Rowe and Eugen Bacon are delighted to announce that submissions for Fission #5 are opening. We’re excited to read your original science fiction stories!

The submissions window opens at midnight on 13 February 2025 and closes at 11:59 pm on 26 February 2025.

Submission guidelines: Email submissions to:

fission@bsfa.co.uk

and put “Fission #5 submission” in the subject header. Please COPY AND PASTE your story into the body of the email. NO ATTACHMENTS.Due to ongoing cybersecurity concerns, we’ll delete any submission that is an attachment or has hyperlinks.

We invite original science fiction stories (genre-bending stories welcome!) up to 5,000 words, and offer a contributor payment rate of 2 pence per word.

We do not accept reprints. We may consider translations for work that has never been published in the English language.

One submission per author, simultaneous submissions welcome, but tell us when your work is accepted elsewhere so we can withdraw it from Fission.

You don’t need to be a BSFA member to submit.

Important note on generative AI: We do not accept any work created or altered by generative ‘AI’ such as, but not limited to, Midjourney and ChatGPT.

Questions? Email:

fission@bsfa.co.uk.

Call for Submissions: Chewers by Masticadores

Chewers by Masticadores

Submissions are always open and free.

Submit up to five pieces of poetry, prose, fiction, creative nonfiction and essays, book reviews, interviews, experimental works, translations, images of original artwork/photography, or collaborations. Include your works in a Word document or in the body of your email.

Add your author image and a short third-person bio (2-3 lines, no more than 50 words) and a link to your website at the bottom of your submission email.

Note: Previously-published contributors do not have to provide an author image or bio unless they want to update their information on this page: https://chewersmasticadores.wordpress.com/contributor-bios/

Chewers accepts both unpublished and previously published work. Submit previously-published work if you own the rights, and note the journal that published your work.

Simultaneous submissions ok.

Please edit for spelling and grammar before you submit.

The Subject line of the email should state Submission – your full name.

Submit to: Nolcha Fox/Editor

email:

nolchafox@yahoo.com

Notes:

Chewers by Masticadores does not allow Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI), nor is it a content farm. All of our content is produced by humans. – Nolcha Fox, Editor

Please do not submit work that would be removed from social media if published because it is inappropriate, disrespectful, or offensive. This includes work that is sexist, racist, homophobic, sexually explicit, or hateful. Moreover, this is not a forum for promoting religions, political parties, or products (except books).

After publication, all rights revert to the author. If your work is republished in the future, please credit Chewers by Masticadores as the previous publisher.

Call for Submissions: New Feathers Anthology

New Feathers Anthology is an online literature and art magazine, published three times annually, with a year-end print anthology. We are interested in quality fiction, poetry, nonfiction, visual art, music, and short videos, imposing no restrictions on genre; however, we only accept written work that has not been previously published, whether in print or online.

All work must be electronically submitted to our editors through Duosoma. Works of literature should be attached as a .doc or .docx file. We suggest that literature submissions be formatted with 12 pt. Times New Roman type, and essays and short stories should be double spaced.

Your files should contain no identifying information, as all submissions are read blindly by our editors. Submit each piece in a separate file, so that you can easily withdraw pieces, if necessary. Include a cover letter with your first and last name, email address, mailing address, the title of your work(s), and a brief bio (100 words or less). If you have a project to promote or a website, include a few lines promoting your work and a link to your website.

We are open for submissions from February 1 to March 1 for our spring issue, June 1 to July 1 for our summer issue, and October 1 to November 1 for our winter issue.

​Simultaneous submissions are accepted. If your submission has been accepted by another journal, however, please do us a favor and withdraw the piece. Allow four to six weeks for a decision​Fiction and Nonfiction

We welcome literary fiction submissions of all forms, including those that incorporate experimental or genre elements. We are happy to consider self-contained excerpts of novels and long stories. In nonfiction, we welcome memoir, personal essay, lyric and experimental work, hybrid forms, new journalism and nonacademic cultural criticism. Please limit fiction and nonfiction submissions to one story or essay, with a maximum of 4,000 words. For flash fiction or nonfiction, contributors may submit up to three works.

Poetry
We are looking for fresh, original work that impresses us with its ideas, language, and technique, regardless of the form. When submitting, make sure that the line breaks, spacing, and other formal elements of your poem are correct. Please limit poetry submissions to one to five poems.

Art
Works of visual art should be attached as a .jpg, .jpeg, .gif, .png, or .pdf file. We accept most forms of visual art (as photos); this includes photography, illustration, animation, sculpture, painting, ceramics, and drawing. Each artist can submit up to three pieces of visual art for consideration.

Videos
Since we are an online journal, we are excited to include short films (no more than twenty minutes). We are interested in both documentary and fictional work, of all types. Please attach a link to your video, as a multimedia submission. If your work is accepted, we will arrange a dropbox to upload your file. Please submit just one video per submission.

Music or Sound Art
Music or sound art should be attached as a link, for example to a Soundcloud or Bandcamp file, as a multimedia submission. If your submission is accepted we will arrange a dropbox to upload your file. Please limit your submission to three pieces.

New Feathers Anthology acquires First Electronic Rights and Archival Rights for the work we publish in our magazine. We ask that you give permission for us to also publish your work in the year-end print anthology. All rights revert back to the author upon publication. If your work is later republished, we request you note its initial publication in New Feathers Anthology.

At this time we are unable to offer monetary payment to our contributors, but all contributors will be eligible for the New Feathers Award at the end of the year and will receive a print copy of the year-end anthology comprised of all works published during the year. 

Submit your work here.

Call for Submissions: Menagerie Magazine

 

Menagerie publishes fictions, essays, and poems. We believe in sentences so sharp they draw blood, the strange and inexplicable, the wild and weird and uncanny, words in thickets, clusters, and flocks, pieces that move us beyond caring what others think about said pieces.

Things we like: fictions ala Borges, Link, Calvino, & Sparks; weird lyric essay; engagements with the environment and natural world; poems that explode form; bricolage, masala, & sagul sagul; forays into the omnipresent information-saturated online architecture we live in.

Things we don’t: lukewarm prose, sentences bereft of emotion, formulaic attempts at being on trend, conformity, pat endings, sentiment-drenched rhyming poems, neat and orderly stories.

We care about writers and artists. That means if you’ve entrusted your work to us, you’ll get a response. And we pay for the work we publish. Because it’s important that we value what you’ve made.

Menagerie is open for two reading periods a year: Feb-May and Aug-Nov. Subs are free till we hit our monthly cap, so get in early. Tip Jar subs are also available during reading periods. (If only tip jar subs are available on the submittable page, that means we’ve hit our monthly free cap. If you want to submit for free, just wait till the start of the next month.)

We’ll do our level best to promote your work, pairing each piece with original artwork, and providing social posts you can use on your own channels. It’s our hope that Menagerie will serve as an accelerator for bringing your work into the world and getting it noticed.

We observe the following guidelines:

• Simultaneous submissions are allowed. If your work is accepted elsewhere, please withdraw it.

• Please submit to only one category at a time. A focused submission is better than hitting all categories at once.

• Poetry submissions may include 3-5 poems at once. If one of the poems is accepted elsewhere, notify us, and we’ll continue considering the other poems in your submission.

• Stories and essays should be no more than 5K. We tend to publish in the 1-3K category more frequently, through, given the short attention span we all have on the web.

• We pay $50 per acceptance (e.g. one piece of prose or one to three poems) and acquire first serial rights. We do not republish work that has already appeared elsewhere.

• Please expect a response time of 30-60 days.

In short: if you’ve written something and don’t know what to call it, we want to see it. Our menagerie is vast and unending, and contains all size and shape of curios.

Perhaps yours will soon be one of them.

Submit your work here.

Call for Submissions on Theme of "Ephemeral--The Beauty in Impermanence": Isele Quarterly

Call for Submissions: Ephemeral – The Beauty in Impermanence

Not everything lasts forever, and that’s okay.

For this quarterly issue of Isele Magazine, we are seeking submissions that revolve around the ephemeral – those transient yet profoundly meaningful moments that shape our experiences. Conceptually, this quarterly issue is rooted in the idea that some of life’s most powerful and beautiful experiences are short—the soft glow of a sunset, the brief connection between strangers, the rush of emotions in an unforgettable encounter, the final note of a song, the last episode of your favourite series, the decay of a once-vibrant structure, the quiet moments that pass us by unnoticed. Experiences that are momentary, yet unforgettable.

Through this issue, we wish to explore impermanence—not as something tragic, but as something that underscores the delicate nature of existence. We want works that explore the fleeting beauty of life’s impermanence. We invite you to reflect on what it means to embrace the present while recognizing that it, too, is slipping away. It’s in the vanishing of these moments that we can find beauty, nostalgia, and a deeper connection to both the world and ourselves. Send us your fiction, nonfiction, poetry, photography, visual art, and hybrid works that explore this theme.

Submission guidelines:

All submissions for the quarterly issue should be submitted to:

 quarterly@iselemagazine.com 

• The email subject line should read Genre: Lastname (e.g. Poetry: Angelou).

• We DO NOT accept multiple submissions. Please submit to one genre only.

• For fiction and nonfiction, submit max. 5000 words of prose.

• For poetry, submit max. 3 poems in a single document.

• For photography and visual art, submit max. 5 images in JPEG or PNG format and include a brief note detailing the concept and relevance of your work. Only submit work that you still retain the rights to. We DO NOT accept AI-generated images or artwork.

• For prose (fiction and nonfiction) and poetry, we DO NOT publish previously published works (by this, we mean any piece that has appeared on the web or in print, including your personal blog). However, we will consider a translated version of the work if the original language wasn’t in English. For photography and visual art, we may publish works that have been previously published, posted, or exhibited as long as the artist still retains the rights.

• We accept simultaneous submissions, but please notify us as soon as your work is accepted elsewhere so that we can withdraw it from consideration.

• Submission fees and payment of contributors: We DO NOT charge submission fees. All submissions are free of charge.

Isele Magazine pays all its contributors a modest token.

Rights: Isele Magazine requests the first serial rights of your published piece. However, all rights will revert to you after publication. If your work is republished elsewhere, please indicate that it previously appeared in Isele Magazine.

The Isele Prizes: All accepted submissions are automatically considered for The Isele Prizes.

Deadline: 7th March 2025

We will respond to every submission no later than two months from the submission deadline. If you have not heard from us within two months, please feel free to send a query to

quarterly@iselemagazine.com.

General Submissions

We do not accept multiple submissions, but we do consider simultaneous submissions. Please let us know ASAP if the work submitted has been accepted for publication elsewhere.

Please do not submit previously published works (by this, we mean any piece that has appeared on the web or in print, including your personal blog). However, we will consider a translated version of the work if the original language wasn’t in English.

Please include a brief cover letter with the title of your piece and a third-person bio.

Submissions are reviewed on a rolling basis.

Due to the volume of the submissions we receive, we aim to respond within six months, though it can be longer. If you have not heard from us after one year of your submission, please feel free to send a query to:

editor@iselemagazine.com.

Isele Magazine requests first serial rights of your published piece. However, all rights will revert to you after publication. And if your work is republished elsewhere, please indicate that it was first published in Isele Magazine.

We pay our contributors a modest token.

Fiction & Nonfiction Submissions

You may submit up to 6,000 words of fiction and 3,500 words of nonfiction. Please make sure your manuscript is double-spaced, preferably in Times New Roman or Garamond size 12 font. We rarely publish novel excerpts but have been known to make exceptions.

Send fiction (as a Word document attachment) to:

fiction@iselemagazine.com

Send nonfiction (as a Word document attachment) to:

nonfiction.iselemagazine@gmail.com

Poetry

You may submit up to 4 pages of poetry or one long poem. Please submit as a single document.

Send poetry (as Word document attachment) to:

poetry.iselemagazine@gmail.com 

Book Reviews

Submit up to 1,500 words. Double-spaced, Times New Roman, size 12 font.

Send book reviews to:

submissions.iselemagazine@gmail.com.

All accepted submissions (excluding book reviews) are automatically considered for The Isele Prizes.

Call for Submissions: Four Way Review

Four Way Review accepts poetry and fiction from both established and emerging authors. We look for work that demonstrates fine attention to craft while retaining a powerful and compelling voice. We want writing that showcases the imagination's unique ability to refine the raw materials of human experience.

We encourage submissions from diverse voices.

Unsolicited submissions are considered year-round. Before submitting, please see our latest issue and ensure your work is a good fit. Please wait to hear back from us before submitting again.

We accept .pdf (preferred), .doc, and .docx. You may also include a cover letter with your contact information and a brief bio in the "comments" box. Simultaneous submissions are welcome, but please note this in your cover letter and let us know immediately if a piece is accepted somewhere else. Due to a high volume of submissions, we cannot respond individually to withdrawal requests.

In order to offer our writers a small honorarium, we now charge a small submission fee of $3 for part of the year. In January, April, August and November, all submissions are fee-free. During these months, we might close submissions for one or more genres, should the submission maximum be reached. This is done to ensure that our readers are able to read and respond to each submission in a timely manner. 

Poetry

— We are interested in all styles and forms of poetry.

— We ask that writers submit poetry no more than three times per year, with three to five poems in a single submission.

— Please email us to withdraw individual poems. 

Fiction

— We're looking for finished stories that are both whole and surprising.

— Keep longer submissions below 6,000 words. Submit only one piece at a time and no more than three pieces a year.

— Short shorts should be under 1,000 words. You may submit up to three flash pieces in one submission. 

Translation

— We are interested in all styles and forms of writing in translation.

— We ask that writers submit work no more than three times a year, adhering to our guidelines for poetry, fiction and nonfiction (i.e., no more than three to five poems in a single submission and keeping prose below 6,000 words).
— If possible, please include the original piece with your translated submission.

— Please confirm that you have obtained permission, either from author or rights holder, to publish the translation. 

Creative Nonfiction

— We're looking for pieces that surprise us, pieces that push at the corners of the form.

— Keep longer submissions below 6,000 words. Submit only one piece at a time and no more than three pieces a year.

— We do accept flash nonfiction. These should be under 1,000 words. You may submit up to three flash pieces in one submission.

All submissions must be previously unpublished. We request first North America serial rights for any work that we accept. All rights revert to the author upon publication, though we ask that you acknowledge Four Way Review if the work is published elsewhere.

You can withdraw your work using our submissions manager. To withdraw part of a submission, email us at:

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

We try to respond within 90 days. Please note that our submissions manager is separate from the manager for Four Way Books. We will not respond to manuscript submissions.

We accept submissions through our online submissions manager. Unsolicited email submissions will be discarded unread.

THE BASICS

Submit through our Submissions Manager

Up to 5 poems or 6,000 words

We'll respond within 90 days

Call for Submissions from Writers and Artists in Southern Louisiana: ANTIGRAVITY

ANTIGRAVITY is a monthly magazine published in letter-sized “pony tab” black and white newsprint and distributed as a free publication throughout the New Orleans metro region, with a paid subscription option also offered. We specialize in original content that spotlights New Orleans artists and those passing through. Our coverage also includes politics and social justice issues, food, reviews, opinion pieces, comics, and original photography, focused mainly on the metro New Orleans region and South Louisiana. ANTIGRAVITY is in its 20th year (230+ issues) and comes out the first week of every month.

INTERESTED IN CONTRIBUTING?

ANTIGRAVITY specializes in hyper-focused, under-documented stories and artists, though we do occasionally cover larger, more high-profile stories and artists. The monthly content of ANTIGRAVITY is largely contributor sourced. We do not usually assign pieces; instead we count on our contributors to present ideas, subjects, artists, etc. that they are specifically interested in.

ANTIGRAVITY pays for content. Our current rates (with more details provided in a Style & Policy Guide) are as follows:

Copy: (includes columns, features, show reviews or extended reviews, etc.): $50—$75 per published page, $150 max.
Reviews: $15 per published review.
Poetry: $25 per published poem.
Photos, comics, and illustrations: $20 to $25 per image (average)
$50+ for covers and full-size images.

More information and submission link here.

Writing Competition for Writers from North and South Dakota: The 2025 Maureen Egen Writers Exchange Award

Established in 1984, the Maureen Egen Writers Exchange Award introduces emerging writers to the New York City literary community. The prestigious award, which aims to provide promising writers a network for professional advancement, has helped to launch the careers of Sue Monk Kidd (The Invention of Wings, The Secret Life of Bees), David Mura (Turning Japanese: Memoirs of a Sansei), Craig Santos Perez (from unincorporated territory [åmot]), Mona Simpson (Case), Lidia Yuknavitch (Thrust), and others. Since Poets & Writers began the Writers Exchange in 1984, 114 writers from forty-four states or jurisdictions have been selected to participate. The award is generously supported by Maureen Mahon Egen, a member of the Poets & Writers Emeritus Board.

This year, North and South Dakota have been selected for the Maureen Egen Writers Exchange Award. Writers from the states of North and South Dakota are invited to apply for the 2025 Maureen Egen Writers Exchange Award. One fiction writer and one poet will be selected. Winners receive an all-expenses-paid trip to New York City to meet with top literary professionals, including editors, agents, publishers, and prominent writers. This year’s judges are Kali Fajardo-Anstine for fiction and Chet'la Sebree for poetry.

Entries must be submitted by March 1, 2025.

Complete guidelines and application link here.

Call for Submissions on Theme of "Handmade Tales": Wyldcraft

Now accepting submissions for the SPRING/SUMMER 2025 issue!

Deadline for submissions: MARCH 1st, 2025

Click HERE to take a look at our previous issues!

❮ GENERAL ❯ We accept the following types of submissions: 

• Fiction

• Creative Nonfiction

• Poetry

• Experimental forms (spells, recipes, obituaries, grocery lists, legal citations, horoscopes – we’re open-minded)

• Written submissions, other than poetry, should be no longer than 1500 words. For poetry and all other forms: use your judgment.

• Please proof-read your work prior to submission.

• At this time, we can only publish English-language submissions (or translations).

• We accept simultaneous submissions, with the understanding that you’ll let us know if another outlet has chosen to publish your content.

• THIS ISSUE (Spring/Summer 2025): The theme is “Handmade Tales”. Please interpret the theme however you’d like!

❮ SUBMISSION PROCESS ❯
Submissions are accepted via email:

wyldcraftmag@gmail.com 

• Please include the word SUBMISSION in the Subject Line

• Emailed submissions should be attached as separate, editable documents (not in the body of the email). For the sake of clarity, we don’t intend to edit your submission (outside of correcting any unintentional spelling mistakes), but we require this in the event your material is selected for inclusion in order to make the formatting and publishing processes easier on us . By the way, if we are digging your work but have editorial notes that we feel might strengthen your submission, we will reach out!
  

• You must include the following along with your submission: Your Full Name (and, if different from your given name, your preferred author byline).

• You may include the following as well (it can’t hurt!): If you prefer, any social media handle or website you’d like to appear alongside your work.

• Any additional info about you that we may find cool (have you written for other publications before, or won any awards? We love that for you and want to hear about it!)

• If your submission is accepted, we will obviously let you know! You’ll receive an email response directly to the email address your submission came into us from.

• If your submission is not accepted, you likely won’t hear from us – we’d love to chat, of course, but given the volume of submissions we receive, we don’t have the bandwidth to get back to everyone. If you haven’t heard from us in 6 weeks, please assume your submission has not been accepted on this occasion.

 ❮ LEGAL JUNK ❯ We don’t have any desire to steal your work – you maintain the copyright to the original material you submit; we’re just here to provide a platform!

• Speaking of ownership: please don’t send us work that isn’t yours! In fact, by sending us a submission, you’re confirming that you are the sole owner of the material submitted.

• Submitted works MUST be original – while we love leftovers, we don’t want your scraps from a previous publishing. Don’t send us pieces you’ve already had successfully published in other magazines, blogs, etc.

❮ OUR VIBES ❯ About Us: We are a grassroots, female-run literary magazine currently in the new moon of our life. We think of ourselves as foragers, going out into the wild to find and elevate emerging literary voices. We’re committed to lowering the traditional barriers of entry to publication, and we encourage submissions from authors in every stage of their literary journey.

We’d love it if your submissions mesh with the vibe of our mag – to that end, here’s what our dating app profile would say, if we had one:

• Spiritual but not religious

• Eco-feminist (no fish pics plz)

• Witty & witchy

• Inclusive

• Down to clown

Writing Competition: The Rumpus 2025 Prize for Poetry, Fiction, and Creative Nonfiction

December 5, 2024-March 2, 2025 we're open for submissions for our inaugural Rumpus Prize for Poetry, Fiction, and Creative Nonfiction.

 $3,600 in prizes$1,000 1st prize and publication in three genres: poetry, creative nonfiction, and fiction.

Honorable mentions receive $200 and publication in each of the three genres

All writers can opt in if they’d like to be considered for publication by The Rumpus, regardless of whether they’re named a winner or finalist. See details and submission links BELOW. Submission fee is $20 per entry.

Complete submission guidelines and portal here.

Writing Competition on Theme of "Post-Election Turmoil": Front Street Press

Front Street Micro Press

Submit Now: Free Contest!

The recent election in the USA has seemingly shown women, people of colour, and members of the LGBTQ+ that more people are anti-basic human rights for all than we ever thought possible.If you went into a depressive spiral in November, you're not alone. Share your grief, your rage, your feelings of helplessness with us. 

Grand Prize: $50
Short List: $20
Long List: $10 

Closes on February 28th, 2025.

Submit your work here!

Call for Submissions: What Books Press

WHAT BOOKS PRESS

With its genre-bending list of bilingual poetry, eco-fabulist science fiction, magic journalism, hybrid collaboration, and graphic narrative, WPB was founded in 2008 to assert the imperative for serious writing that reflects the diversity of literary and political cultures emerging from Los Angeles, a center for art in the globalized world, We came together with a single purpose: to create an outlet for groundbreaking fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, with extraordinary art by renowned multi-media artist Gronk on every cover. And we’re still doing it, bringing out exciting new work every year that we believe truly needs to be in this world. We remain committed to—and are always looking for—new, innovative, and underrepresented writing that challenges both formal boundaries and the pressing social and political issues of our time.

To keep up to date with our press and publications, please sign up for our email list here.

What Book Press is actively seeking full-length works of prose in any genre--fiction, nonfiction, hybrid. In keeping with our eclectic collection of titles from our inception in 2008, we are looking for work that thrills us with a bending of literary expectation, or a striking use of language, or a poignant portrayal of the human condition--or (why not?), all three.

Please submit a query letter telling us a little bit about yourself, your submission, and your interest in WBP. For your submission, please also submit a 10-20 page sample of your book. Works submitted in their entirety at this stage in the process will be returned unread. Should we find your work of interest, we will invite you submit the rest of the manuscript.

Submit your queries and sample pages here. 

Deadline: April 15, 2025

Writing Competitions: 2025 Beautiful Pause Poetry Collection Award

The 2025 beautiful pause prize is open now through may 1 for full-length poetry manuscripts

the beautiful pause prize…

is a yearly prize of $1,000 and the print publication of a full-length manuscript awarded to a writer of exceptional talent and heart.

One runner-up will receive $500 and publication of a series of poems in one of our biannual print volumes.

Contest Timeline*

• Winning and shortlisted manuscripts announced in August/September 2025

• Publication and release of the winning manuscript in December 2025/January 2026

• The prize will reopen for nonfiction on November 15, 2025.

Guidelines

• 18 and older to submit.

• This contest is judged by Press Pause editors, and submissions are anonymized.

• Please submit complete manuscripts. 30 poems minimum.

• Only one attachment/manuscript per submission. A single author may submit multiple manuscripts but must pay the $25 reading fee for each submission.

• Remove any identifying information from your manuscript. If there is identifying information anywhere on your manuscript, it will not be considered.

• It is okay if some or all poems are published elsewhere separately, but not if they have been published as a collection before. Poetry collections should be thoughtful and cohesive.

What Makes a Beautiful Pause?

We are looking for original, honest, beautiful poems from humans. We have no gates to keep. Haunt us from every corner of every place. Send us thoughtful collections that make us pause, slow down, think, laugh, cry, and feel more connected to our fellow humans. As we always say: Send us whatever is in your hearts.

publishing with us

Dear Future Beautiful Pause Winner:

We love you.

Your manuscript will be treated with respect, with you at the helm of the editing process. We will copyedit your manuscript in suggestion mode, and maybe provide a few thoughts on developmental edits that you can take or leave. You will be able to extensively proof your work before publication.

We are fans of the feel of beautiful books in our hands. We don’t print anything that isn’t beautiful.

You will receive $1,000 immediately upon winning and 25 contributor copies when printed. You will receive royalties on all sales.

Because we do not have a social media account—(We’re Press Pause!)—we will also work with you to market your book and put a small budget behind doing so.

Questions? Email se.harsha@presspausepress.org.

Writing Competitions: Prime Number Awards for Poetry & Short Fiction

The 2025 Prime Number Magazine Awards for Poetry and Short Fiction

Open for Entries, January 1-March 31, 2025

Before entering, please read the following guidelines carefully

Entry period: January 1 to March 31, 2025 (midnight EASTERN time)

Judge for Poetry: Molly Rice, author of Forever Eighty-Eights: Poems

Judge for Short Fiction: Dennis McFadden, author of Jimtown Road: A Novel in Stories, winner of the 2016 Press 53 Award for Short Fiction

First Prize in Each Category: $1,000 and publication in Prime Number Magazine, Issue 277, Sept-Dec 2025 (a Press 53 online publication)

Two Runners-Up in each category receive $250 (new!) plus publication

Announcement: Winners, runners-up, and finalists will be announced no later than July 1, 2025 (hopefully 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.