Writing Competitions: Bellevue Literary Prizes

 

The BLR Prizes award outstanding writing related to themes of health, healing, illness, the mind, and the body. Winners are published in the spring issue of Bellevue Literary Review. For each genre, first prize is $1000 and honorable mention is $300. 

• Goldenberg Prize for Fiction, judged by Joan Silber

• Felice Buckvar Prize for Nonfiction, judged by Nicole Chung

• John & Eileen Allman Prize for Poetry, judged by Patricia Spears Jones

Click here to learn more about this year’s judges.

• Fiction: We seek character-driven fiction with original voices and strong settings. We do not publish genre fiction (romance, sci-fi, horror). We have only occasionally published flash fiction. While we are always interested in creative explorations in style, we do lean toward classic short stories.

• Nonfiction: We are looking for essays that reach beyond the standard ‘illness narrative’ to develop a topic in an engaging and original manner. Incorporate engaging and creative analysis that allows anecdotes to serve a larger purpose. (Please, no academic discourses or works with footnotes. )

• Poetry: We encourage poems that are accessible to a wide audience. Characteristics we look for are vivid writing, strong narrative, and rendering the familiar new. We encourage you to peruse back issues in our archive to get a sense of our ethos.

Submissions for BLR Prizes are open until July 1, 2025. 

• We happily consider simultaneous submissions, but please inform us immediately if your work is accepted elsewhere.

• Manuscripts can only be accepted electronically via Submittable.

• Fiction/nonfiction word max is 5,000 words (though most of our published prose is in the range of 2,000-4,000 words.) Please submit no more than three poems. Each poem should be on a separate page within a single document.

• Do not put your name or other identifying information on the manuscript document (or in the filename) so that the submissions can be read blindly. No cover letter needed.

• Students/friends/colleagues/relations of a judge are not permitted to enter submissions to that judge’s genre.

• There is a $20 fee per contest submission. Contest submission qualifies you for a 50% discount on a BLR subscription. (The fee helps BLR fund the contest and the journal, but if it’s a hardship for you, please contact us.)

• Winners from each genre (poetry, fiction, nonfiction) receive $1000. Honorable mentions from each genre receive $300.

• Winners will be published in BLR Issue 50 in Spring 2026.

• All contest submissions are automatically considered for general publication as well. (No need to submit in both categories!)

• All submissions must be of previously unpublished work.* BLR acquires First North American rights, and the right to reprint in anthologies and online. After publication, all other rights revert to the author and the work may be reprinted as long as appropriate acknowledgement to BLR is made.

• Contest winners are usually announced in November. Decisions for the rest of Issue 50 will be made by the end of the year.

(*For BLR, “published work” means published in print in North America, or published on the Internet in electronic journals, e-zines, academic websites, and other “public” or “official” websites. Works posted on personal blogs or websites will be considered on a case-by-case basis. We ask that authors be honest about web postings. If a work is discovered to have been posted or published elsewhere–and not openly acknowledged by the author in advance–we will remove it from consideration.) 

Enter here.

Call for Submissions: Branches: A Journal of Literature and Philosophy

 

Fall 2025 theme: VOICE

DEADLINE: September 13, 2025

Seeking submissions of previously unpublished written and visual work. We are especially interested in cultural criticism, personal essays, and book/movie discussions and also publish poetry, short fiction, art, and photography.

We recommend reading some of our previous issues (available free online) to get a feel for what we publish. Give us your big ideas and small thoughts, the ways you’re interacting with and understanding the world. We love Joan Didion, C. S. Lewis, Ada Limón, Susan Sontag, Flannery O’Connor, Patti Smith, and (hopefully) you!

Prose: 1500 word maximum

Poetry/Art: 4 piece maximum

If submitting multiple pieces, please include each as a separate document.

Do not submit work created with the use of generative AI or similar tools.

Have a response to one of the pieces we’ve published previously? Submit a letter to the editor.

Submit your work here. 

Call for Submissions: Orion's Belt

Orion's Belt

Stories should be submitted to:

orionsbelt.submissions@gmail.com

All stories must be under 1200 words (not including the title and byline). All stories over 1200 words will sadly be rejected automatically. All stories must contain significant speculative elements. This does not mean all sci-fi stories must have lasers and rockets. It just means a non-speculative story doesn’t become speculative if you include a single line clarifying the story takes place on Mars.

When to Submit

Because of the time needed to evaluate submissions and prepare stories for publication, Orion’s Belt has a limited submission window. We apologize for the inconvenience this may cause to you. Stories submitted outside the submission window will not be deleted, but they will not be read until the submission window re-opens.

Our submission window has been open since March 1st. This submission window will close on August 31st. 

Submission Details

All submissions should be directed to:

orionsbelt.submissions@gmail.com

The subject line of your email should be a variation of “Submission - Story Name (Author Name, Fiction/Poetry).” There is no need for submissions to be anonymous. Stories need not necessarily follow Standard Manuscript Format, but it is preferred. The font should be 12-point Times New Roman.

There is no hard limit to the number of times one can submit to Orion’s Belt, but we ask that you not submit more than twice in one month. Each submission should be sent in a separate email, though there is no need to wait to receive a response to the first submission before sending the second.

If Orion’s Belt rejects a story, please do not resubmit it, even if you revise it. Submitting a story simultaneously to Orion’s Belt and another publication is acceptable, but please contact us if another publication accepts the story first.

We only accept stories that have not already been published elsewhere.

A cover letter is expected. This needn’t be long or detailed. Attach the story to your email as a Word file or PDF. In the body of the letter, include your name, the title of your story, its length, its genre or subgenre, up to three previous publications, and any other information you deem relevant.

Response Times and Payment

We at Orion’s Belt try to answer the majority of fiction or poetry queries within a week. If we take longer, this typically means we’re seriously considering your story for publication. Because of our relatively brief response times, we unfortunately cannot always provide personalized feedback to writers.

While we appreciate the enthusiasm of authors asking about their stories, we must ask that you wait approximately two months before querying us. If two months have passed, and you still haven’t received a decision regarding your story, don’t hesitate to query the magazine at:

joshuafagan14@gmail.com 

If we accept your story, we will send you a contract in the form of a Word document. Send us back the contract with your name typed at the bottom, agreeing to the terms and conditions specified, and we will publish your story. After publication, you will receive payment via PayPal. Sadly, we cannot currently pay authors except through PayPal. If you cannot use PayPal or a like service, we recommend you not submit to Orion’s Belt.

We pay a flat 8 cents USD ($.08) per word. This is the industry-standard, SFWA-approved professional rate. Thus, if your story is 1000 words (not counting title, byline, etc.), you will receive $80 after publication. If your story is 500 words, you will receive $40. We treat poetry and prose as functionally identical for the purposes of payment. The pay for a 200-word poem will be the same as for a 200-word story. 

What We Want

Literature is a matter of the heart, not just of the intellect. As such, conveying exactly what kinds of stories will delight us is impossible. A story that sounds banal and cliche-ridden in concept can be philosophical and achingly beautiful in execution. Conversely, a story that sounds lovely in concept can fail to move us in execution. Additionally, while we prize elegant, vibrant writing, not every well-written story will appeal to us.

The best way to know what we like is to read what we’ve published in the past. Our past issues are free to read under our “Issues” tab. If you’re only looking for individual stories, check our “Archives” tab. Reading stories published in Strange Horizons and Beneath Ceaseless Skies will also help, as they are the two most popular literary speculative magazines here at Orion’s Belt.

Nonetheless, there are tendencies, formats, and ideas we tend to appreciate. A complete list of these would be too long and granular to be of any real use, but here is an adequate summary:

Stories told through another medium; i.e., journal articles, mission reports, diary entries, etc. The more idiosyncratic and experimental a medium you use, the more likely we are to appreciate it.

• Characters who are rogues or tricksters working outside oppressive bureaucratic systems.

• Characters forced to make difficult decisions that may conflict with their moral codes.

• Hard-won optimism, not to be confused with saccharine sentimentality.

• Ecological storytelling that avoids clear answers or easy moralizing.

• The blurring of lines between poetry and prose.

• Extensive allusions to mythology or classic literature.

• Non-linear stories, or other stories that play with our perception of time. Bringing in special or general relativity or quantum physics is a plus, though the focus should still be on the narrative, not on the science.

What We Don’t Want

Orion’s Belt is an open-minded literary magazine. There are very few well-written, well-crafted stories we won’t consider so long as they abide by our guidelines, but there are a few exceptions:

• Stories using non-original copyrighted characters; e.g., fanfiction. There’s nothing wrong with these stories, but for legal reasons, we can’t publish them. Stories using public domain characters—Achilles, Captain Ahab, and the like—are fine, but there should be a good narrative reason why the story uses these characters.

• Extreme sex and violence. While “extreme” is a subjective term, and we err on the side of being more lenient and accepting, we’re unlikely to publish stories that contain a level of sex and violence beyond that which would be typical for an R-rated film.

• To reiterate, Orion’s Belt is a market for English-language speculative flash-fiction. We thus do not accept non-fiction or reporting, though fiction that incorporates elements of non-fiction and reporting is not only acceptable but encouraged.

• Stories generated using AI. That the banality of such stories is not self-evident to all is rather disappointing. In the most unambiguous terms possible, we decry the proliferation of such a zombie-like perversion of the writing process. AI-generated stories will be deleted. The accounts sending these stories will be permanently blocked. 

More information here. 

Call for Submissions: Wildscape Literary Journal

Wildscape Literary Journal

Subs will re-open for all genres for Issue 4 from June 1st-August 15th.

general info re: guidelines

-We welcome and encourage work from all historically marginalized creators

-We do NOT accept AI-generated work, and we ask that you do not submit any work, written or visual art, that has been created using AI in any way

–Languages We Accept: We can only accept work written in predominantly English, though work with words/phrases in other languages is absolutely welcome.

–Previous Contributors: We ask that previous contributors wait one issue before submitting work again. This does NOT apply to art contributors. Our issues are done by season (winter, spring, summer, fall), so just skip one season before submitting work again (for example, if you have work being published in the winter issue, please skip spring submissions and then feel free to submit again in Summer)

–Multiple Submissions: You may make up to two submissions in a submission period. We ask that you wait until you receive a response on the first submission before making a second submission

–Simultaneous Submissions: Simultaneous submissions are more than welcome. In fact, we encourage them! Please notify us immediately of acceptance for publication elsewhere by withdrawing your piece from Duosuma, leaving a note/message in Duosuma, or by emailing us:

 wildscapelit@gmail.com

–Previously Published Work: We do not accept previously published work (no, we don’t count your social media accounts don’t count as previously published, so send those in!). We will make exceptions for works that were published in print-only publications, or in publications that no longer exist (but please let us know in your cover letter if this is the case)

–Response Time: It generally takes us 1-2 weeks to make a decision on a submission. Sometimes, if things are slow, we might respond in just a couple of days. Other times, if we’re swamped, it could take as long as a month. If you don’t hear from us within 30 days, please feel free to reach out via email, at:

wildscapelit@gmail.com.

–Compensation: Unfortunately, since we are only a two-person team, a brand new magazine, and don’t charge for submissions, we are unable to pay our contributors at this time (but we hope to in the future). We do, however, nominate for both the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net, and we’re currently researching & considering other awards to nominate our contributors for as well. We also promote our contributors on social media as best we can.

–Author/Artist Rights: All rights revert back to the author/artist immediately upon publication. We ask that if work originally published with us gets published elsewhere in the future, that wildscape. receives credit for first/prior publication.

–WE DO NOT ACCEPT: Hateful words of any kind (if you need clarification on this, then we might not be for you). We believe that black lives matter, that the people of Palestine & Sudan & the Congo & Haiti & all other oppressed populations/nations deserve to be free, & that love is love is love. If you send work that enables the oppression of any marginalized people. We reserve the right to rescind acceptance/publication of your work if it is found that you are expressing hate towards any oppressed/marginalized groups. We also do not accept work that has been created using AI in any capacity.

More information and submission portal here.

Call for Submissions: Does It Have Pockets

Does It Have Pockets 

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 (over all 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. We generally accept sets of poetry and cannot guarantee publication if the full set is not available.

Do not send AI generated work, please.

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.

Please wait three months after receiving a response 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.

Response Time

Though we strive to make quick decisions, our team meets weekly to discuss each submission we receive. Subsequently, our response times will vary depending on submission queue volume. Please feel free to query if you have not received a decision within 90 days.

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 detail? Read our Duotrope self interview here. 

Submit your work here. 

Call for Submissions: Mississippi Review

Submissions

We are currently accepting submissions for Mississippi Review 53.3, with a publication date of Winter 2026. We will accept work between May 15 and June 30.

Fiction

Though we are happy to read and consider any Fiction for this issue, we are particularly interested in nature-themed pieces. Stories should be 8,000 words or less.

Poetry

Though we are happy to read and consider any Poetry for this issue, we are particularly interested in nature-themed pieces. Submit up to five poems in one file (file should be no more than ten pages total).

Creative Nonfiction

Though we are happy to read and consider any Creative Nonfiction for this issue, we are particularly interested in nature-themed pieces. Essays should be 8,000 words or less.

Cover Letter

In your cover letter, include a short professional bio (max 100 words) and any social media tags.
Simultaneous/Multiple Submissions

We do consider simultaneous submissions. If your work is accepted elsewhere, please notify us via Submittable.

We also welcome multiple submissions. Each submission requires a separate $3.00 submission fee.

Compensation

As a university-supported literary journal, we are working to find new ways to compensate our contributors. For Mississippi Review 53.3, we are able to pay each contributor $50 and send two free copies of the issue upon publication.

Contributors with mailing addresses outside of the U.S. will receive two copies of Mississippi Review 53.3 and a Mississippi Review subscription at the value of $50.

 Mailed Submissions

We prefer to receive submissions through Submittable. If you are unable to access Submittable, however, we are happy to consider submissions through mail. Send mailed submissions to the address below with a cover letter (including contact information) and your submission fee as a check.

Mississippi Review

118 College Drive #5144

Hattiesburg, Mississippi 39406-0001

Who Can Submit

Anyone who is not currently a student at the University of Southern Mississippi or affiliated with the Mississippi Review can submit.

Submit your work here. 

Call for Submissions: Room

Room publishes original fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and art by folks of marginalized genders, including but not limited to women (cisgender and transgender), transgender men, Two-Spirit and nonbinary people. We encourage writers with overlapping under-represented identities to submit, and we don’t want writers to feel restricted by gender or genre labels, so if you are unsure if your work is a fit for Room, please get in touch.

Reading Periods

We have four calls for submissions/year: two themed and two un-themed. To stay up to date on our reading periods and themes, subscribe to our newsletter. We also run four contests/year which have separate dates and guidelines. Go to our contest page to learn more.

Submittable

• Submit your work through Submittable. We do not accept submissions via mail.

• Submit only work that has not been previously published (in print or online).

• We gladly accept simultaneous submissions. If another magazine accepts your work for publication, please advise us and withdraw your piece immediately.

• We charge an optional fee for regular submissions, with a free option for accessibility. We charge a one-year print subscription fee for our contests.

• Fiction and creative non-fiction: up to 3500 words, double spaced.

• Poetry: up to 5 poems, submitted in a single doc file, with each poem starting on a new page.

• Submit all work in 12-point font, Times New Roman preferred.

Payment

• We pay issue contributors upon publication. We pay $50 CAD per page (up to a maximum of $200) + 2 copies of the issue in which your work appears + a 1 year print subscription to Room

• We pay $250 for cover art + 2 copies of the issue in which your work appears + a 1 year print subscription to Room

• We pay reviewers and web contributors a flat rate of $75.

• Room purchases first North American Serial Rights and digital rights. Copyright reverts back to author after publication

Rejections? Response Times?

• We receive over 4,000 submissions each year and can only publish approximately 80-100 pieces. So send your absolutely best piece(s) of work.

• DID YOU KNOW: Each issue of Room is edited by a different editorial team. Each time you submit to Room, you will be read by different readers and editors with different editorial tastes and preferences.

• We do not publish the same writer more than twice a year, and never in consecutive issues.

• Please do not send a second submission in the same genre until you have heard back from us considering the first one (Note: You may enter our contests and submit a regular submission at the same time so long as the materials are different.)

• We respond to all submissions by email. Our average response time is between two weeks and six months. (A Room issue from planning to printing takes 9 months!) If you haven’t heard from us by six months, please contact us.

• If you are using Hotmail or Gmail, please be sure to designate Room as an approved sender to prevent our response being caught up in your spam filters.

Book Reviews

We review fiction, non-fiction, and poetry, published by smaller Canadian publishers, in an effort to suggest intriguing and original new work for our readers. For funding reasons, we have to fill these pages with “Canadian” content; interested book reviewers who were born or reside in Canada can send their pitches to:

reviews@roommagazine.com

Call for Submissions and Writing Competition on Theme of "Buyer's Remorse": American Writers Review

American Writers Review 

CALL FOR REGULAR SUBMISSIONS AND CONTEST ENTRIES FOR 2025 THEMED ISSUE:

Buyers' Remorse

It seemed like such a good idea.... But now?

For our new issue, we are seeking written work and imagery that springs from the moment when the best-laid schemes have turned to dust. The crash can be obvious, subtle, even not yet realized. The piece's point of view could be disappointed or triumphant or oblivious. The moment of remorse could be immediate, in the future, or long in the past.

Please read the submission guidelines carefully before submitting.

We welcome submissions of previously unpublished poems, short stories, creative non-fiction, art, short plays/monologues and photography, and seek contributions from anywhere in the world. Our recent issues have featured contributions from England, Scotland, Australia, China, Israel, the Philippines, as well as the United States.

If your piece has appeared in an online or print journal, it is not "unpublished."

Submissions can be sent to us through our Online Submission Manager. We will not accept emailed or snail mailed submissions.

We particularly welcome submissions that include both written pieces and images that spring from a shared experience or inspiration.

Follow the instructions on the submission page carefully.

Regular submissions will be accepted from March 1, 2015 to September 1, 2025. We charge a small reading fee of $5 to defray our costs. Payment is in contributors' copies. Entries must be in English, (prose must be double-spaced) in Word or RTF format. Art and photography must be in JPEG format, 200-300 dpi, suitable for black and white reproduction.

The contest is open all writers, of any experience level. Written entries must be in English, (prose must be double-spaced) in Word or RTF format, Art and photography must be in JPEG format, 200-300 dpi, suitable for black and white reproduction. While we expect to produce an e-book format in color, our print journal is black and white only.

Contest submissions will be accepted from March 1, 2025 to August 1, 2025 There is a single cash prize of $250, based on the judges' scores, plus publication of the winner and finalists. There is a $15 fee to defray our costs.

For contest entries only: Please do not include identifying information on your contest submissions, except in the section of the submission manager marked “cover letter.” If we see identifying information anywhere else, we will disqualify your submission and not refund your fee.

For both contest and regular submissions, we are looking for previously unpublished work, well-written with a human sensibility. Excerpts are acceptable, but they must work as stand-alone pieces. We reserve the right to edit for punctuation, sense, and length.

Few things are complete turn-offs, but porn, excessive gore, and gratuitous violence are a few. Work aimed at a children's audience is likewise not a good fit for us.

We also welcome submissions that include both written work and images. If an image evokes a written response, we want to see it. If a written work cries out for an image, feel free to send one along. Needless to say (but we will say it), if you submit written pieces and images, you must be the owner of both. We reserve the right to accept/reject/separate both pieces.

All authors grant first rights.

Again, submissions must be in English, double-spaced, in Word or RTF format.

Simultaneous submissions: Of course, you do it. Everyone does it. Just let us know as soon as you can if you have been accepted elsewhere. If you want to enter a piece in the contest and as a regular submission, you are, of course, free to do so.

Any questions, please email us at:

 

info@sanfedelepress.com.

FICTION GUIDELINES: Submit no more than two pieces at a time. American Writers Review seeks distinctive, character-driven stories. Aim for 2500 words or fewer, although we will not necessarily reject pieces that are slightly over that length. If you are submitting a written work with an image, that will be considered two pieces.

While we are not dogmatic about genre, we do not want porn, children’s fiction, or things that will make us retch without a really good reason.

Put “Fiction” and the title of your piece in the “Title” field of the entry form.

POETRY GUIDELINES: Submit no more than two poems at a time. We are seeking pieces that make their point in a tight, concise fashion. While we do not have a strict word limit for poetry, we do not encourage you to submit epics (think “The Illiad”) or multi part structures (“Spoon River Anthology” is many poems, not one). Also, please note that we publish in 6"x9" format. If your poems do not fit that format, consider how they can be accommodated. If you are submitting a written work with an image, that will be considered two pieces.

Put “Poetry” and the title of your piece in the “Title” field of the entry form

NONFICTION GUIDELINES: Submit no more than two works at a time. American Writers Review seeks distinctive, concise, tight pieces. Aim for 2500 words or fewer, although we will not necessarily reject pieces that are slightly over that length.

If you are submitting a written work with an image, that will be considered two pieces.

Put “NonFiction” and the title of your piece in the “Title” field of the entry form

DRAMA/MONOLOGUES: This is a new area for us. Please submit only one work, concise and short. Aim for 5 minutes for monologues, 7-9 minutes for dramatic works, although we will not necessarily reject pieces that are slightly over those lengths.

PHOTOGRAPHY AND OTHER ART GUIDELINES:
You are welcome to submit color and black and white photographs and digital copies of drawings and paintings. Art and photography must be in JPEG format, 200-300 dpi, suitable for black and white reproduction, if choose that format.

Put “Photography” or “Art” and the title of your piece in the “Title” field of the entry form.

You must be the creator/owner of any work submitted. By this, we mean, we are uninterested in AI created, plagiarized, or otherwise "not your work." If we discover that it is not your work, we will reject it.

We are aiming for publication in winter 2025, so you will find out fairly quickly if your work has been accepted.

 

Submit your work or enter the contest here. 

Call for Submissions: bioStories

bioStories welcomes creativity and originality in your approach to your subject and maintains no clearly recognizable editorial biases. We do, however, encourage you to consider that by the inherent nature of written expression, we find that a well-wrought passage that narrates a specific story or a finite moment within a life is far more effective at presenting something essential about that life than volumes of generalizations or summary. Similarly, we encourage you consider the frequent value found in getting out of the way of your subjects and allowing them to speak for themselves. But of course we value your voice as well and ask that submitting writers honor the uniqueness and innovation of their original, natural narrative voices every bit as much as they strive to present their subjects with honesty and candor. The smell of dishonest representation always penetrates. We react to such smell with the same reprehension as we do to work that appears focused on accomplishing an agenda. Present yourself and your subject as they are, part of the diverse, complex, and unruly citizenry of the universe, complete with warts and moles, hangovers and hangnails. Real life is messy, filled with broken plumbing and coagulating bacon grease, unmade beds and imperfect comebacks. Real biography recalls that sometimes you have to change the dressings on healing wounds and sometimes you have to add a little starch as you iron the shirt. Human nature is idiosyncratic and frequently contradictory, and, quite often, when you look close enough, it is downright graceful.

Share a life. Introduce us to someone we don’t yet know.

Submission Guidelines:

We welcome your submissions of original work. Please read some of the published pieces linked from the homepage and from the archives and contributors menu tabs for a better sense of what we publish and a view of our editorial sensibilities. We offer no restrictions on approach to material or format, but we do require that you kindly adhere to the following guidelines:

• nonfiction prose submissions only
• 500 – 7500 words; our typical piece runs an average of 2500 words (please contact the editor in advance should you have material that exceeds our length restriction and exceptions may be made)
• submit by email to:

editor.biostories@gmail.com 

and paste your submission within the body of the email. Please make certain the words “biostories submission” and your last name appear in the subject line; we do not open attachments
• we accept submissions year-round
• simultaneous submissions are welcome, but please notify us immediately if your piece is accepted elsewhere
• we accept multiple submissions but ask that you wait at least a month between entries
• work submitted must be previously unpublished in print and online
• submissions that fail to follow these guidelines will be discarded without response.

Unlike many peer publications, we continue to resist charging submission fees and, because of the cost associated, have chosen not to use a submission manager. There are, of course, significant expenses associated with maintaining a publication, so we do encourage writers submitting to the magazine to consider a nominal donation (say, for instance, what a submission would cost if we all went back in time and submitted by regular mail rather than email.) There is no obligation to donate and donations have no bearing on the acceptance of work. Donation link here.

Art Submissions:

We are always on the look-out for art that is representative of our mission and that fits well with essays we feature on the website. We also seek out cover art for digital issues and digital/print anthologies. We’re open to considering most anything that feels reflective of the nonfiction we publish, including, but not limited to paintings, pen and ink, photography, and mixed media. Please contact us by email with some sample images if you think you have work that might be a fit.

Payment:

At present, we are unable to pay authors for their material, however, when funding allows, we are committed to compensating writers.

Call for Submissions to Anthology on Theme of "NOISE": Procrastinating Writers United

Hello? Can you hear me? Join us for our 2025 mini-digital-publication THE YELLING CONTINUES, a cacophonous collection of creativity in a small package! Submissions open February 1st – June 30th. 

Theme: NOISE. Submitted work titles will be styled in ALL CAPS. (NOISE is open to interpretation; let us know how your work fits the theme!)

We’re looking for: 

• Artwork 300 dpi (illustration/comics/something else?!)

• Poetry up to 5 formatted pages (rhyming/nonrhyming/weird format/etc.)

• Prose up to 8,000 words (fiction/nonfiction/creative nonfiction/lists/almost anything!)

• Other up to 5 formatted pages (in case you have something hybrid to share)

What kinds of work are you accepting as submissions?
We are likely to accept the following styles of artwork and writing, with some exceptions. If you’re interested in submitting a type of work not listed here or addressed elsewhere on this page, reach out to us via email! 

• Collage

• Comics

• Creative essays

• Graphic design

• Illustration

• Nonfiction

• Poetry

• Writing

• Works shorter than 8,000 words

• Works longer than 8,000 words (at editors’ discretion)

Are there any mediums or topics that will be automatically rejected?

– We do not accept plagiarized or stolen work; fanwork; work with AI-generated elements.
– We do not accept works promoting or glorifying bigotry, homophobia, racism, ableism, or other forms of hate.
– We reserve the right to reject sexually suggestive/explicit works and works including sensitive topics such as violence and sexual assault, as well as anything else taken on a case-by-case basis at the editors’ discretion.
– Longer works (10,000+ words, 10+ pages) may be rejected depending on a variety of factors.
– We provide editing suggestions; if your work is not open to edits, we are likely not the publication for you.

What compensation does PWU offer to contributors?

Contributor compensation for TYK includes one digital (ebook as EPUB or PDF) copy of the anthology per contributor. Submissions are free and always will be. If TYK becomes available in print, authors will have access to at-cost copies. 

We’re currently not a paying market but we hope to become one someday! PWU is a labor of love, and we receive no grants or outside funding. Our publication is intended to serve as a platform for creators to see their work in print, and any possible profit from the current anthology is put toward future projects.

How will contributors get their copy?

Contributors will receive their ebook via email. For projects with a print copy version, we will reach out with options for discounted or at-cost copies.

Do you accept simultaneous submissions / previously published work?

Short answer: yes! In general, we don’t reprint work within the same year.
– Simultaneous: please email to withdraw if your work is accepted for publication elsewhere.
– Previously published: if the work can be reprinted, we can accept it. Please let us know where it has been published before; submissions that try to be sneaky will be rejected.

More information and submission details here.

Call for Submissions: The Account: A Journal of Poetry, Prose, and Thought

BASIC INFO

As of May 19th, 2025 submissions for the Fall 2025 Issue of The Account is open for Poetry, Fiction, and CNF. Submissions will close on August 22nd, 2025 or when our submission caps are met — whichever comes earliest.

We often hit our submission cap early, so we suggest submitting work asap.

Please review our submission guidelines for poetry, fiction, and nonfiction on Submittable. Poets may submit up to 5 poems as a single submission.

We do not charge submission fees.

The Account welcomes work by BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ writers.

We are open to a diverse range of styles, including experimental and hybrid work. The best way to decide if The Account is a good fit for your work is by reading the journal online, which is free.
REQUIRED ELEMENTS OF A SUBMISSION

1) Your work.

2) An account (approx. 150 to 500 words) to go with your work.

Cover letters are optional.

We will not consider any work submitted without an account, but the account can be changed or rewritten after a piece is accepted.

SO WHAT IS “AN ACCOUNT” ANYWAY?

We pair each published poem, story, or essay with an “account” of it written by the artist. That’s where the name of our journal comes from.

The account is like a short artist’s statement. What to say is up to you, but it should be something you want to tell the reader—a peek behind the curtain into your mind or your process while writing this piece. What brought you to the page to create this?

Some people use the account to discuss where they got the idea and the formal choices they made. Others talk about their personal history, current events, or how this particular piece relates to a larger project. An account might even go in a direction that feels more academic and research-driven. Any/all of these approaches are great. Poets are welcome to talk about their poems as a group or write a little about each poem separately.

Here are three examples, each with a different approach: Allisa Cherry’s account blends personal details with discussion of structure and syntax: https://theaccountmagazine.com/article/cherry-2022
Jennifer Richter’s account explains the inspiration for the piece and how it fits into her manuscript: https://theaccountmagazine.com/article/richter-21
Maxwell Suzuki’s account discusses his poetic interests and talks through the craft of his poem: https://theaccountmagazine.com/article/suzuki-2022/ 

POLICIES

Only one submission per writer, please. Anyone who submits more than once during the reading period will have their work disqualified without further review.

If you discover a mistake with your submission, message us via Submittable. Do not withdraw and resubmit. We are not the kind of journal that rejects people over typos.

Simultaneous submissions are fine.

If a piece is accepted elsewhere, please message us via Submittable. Unfortunately it is not possible to swap in new pieces for us to read. The rest of your original submission packet will remain under consideration.

Authors retain their copyright and will receive a publication contract after acceptance.

Our staff works on a volunteer basis, and we are not currently a paying market.

Interviews, reviews, and artwork operate on a solicitation-only basis.

General inquiries: poetryprosethought — at gmail — dot —com

Follow The Account on Twitter, Instagram, and on Facebook.

BASIC INFO

As of May 19th, 2025 submissions for the Fall 2025 Issue of The Account is open for Poetry, Fiction, and CNF. Submissions will close on August 22nd, 2025 or when our submission caps are met — whichever comes earliest.

We often hit our submission cap early, so we suggest submitting work asap.

Please review our submission guidelines for poetry, fiction, and nonfiction on Submittable. Poets may submit up to 5 poems as a single submission.

We do not charge submission fees.

The Account welcomes work by BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ writers.

We are open to a diverse range of styles, including experimental and hybrid work. The best way to decide if The Account is a good fit for your work is by reading the journal online, which is free.
REQUIRED ELEMENTS OF A SUBMISSION

1) Your work.

2) An account (approx. 150 to 500 words) to go with your work.

Cover letters are optional.

We will not consider any work submitted without an account, but the account can be changed or rewritten after a piece is accepted.

SO WHAT IS “AN ACCOUNT” ANYWAY?

We pair each published poem, story, or essay with an “account” of it written by the artist. That’s where the name of our journal comes from.

The account is like a short artist’s statement. What to say is up to you, but it should be something you want to tell the reader—a peek behind the curtain into your mind or your process while writing this piece. What brought you to the page to create this?

Some people use the account to discuss where they got the idea and the formal choices they made. Others talk about their personal history, current events, or how this particular piece relates to a larger project. An account might even go in a direction that feels more academic and research-driven. Any/all of these approaches are great. Poets are welcome to talk about their poems as a group or write a little about each poem separately.

Here are three examples, each with a different approach: Allisa Cherry’s account blends personal details with discussion of structure and syntax: https://theaccountmagazine.com/article/cherry-2022
Jennifer Richter’s account explains the inspiration for the piece and how it fits into her manuscript: https://theaccountmagazine.com/article/richter-21
Maxwell Suzuki’s account discusses his poetic interests and talks through the craft of his poem: https://theaccountmagazine.com/article/suzuki-2022/ 

POLICIES

Only one submission per writer, please. Anyone who submits more than once during the reading period will have their work disqualified without further review.

If you discover a mistake with your submission, message us via Submittable. Do not withdraw and resubmit. We are not the kind of journal that rejects people over typos.

Simultaneous submissions are fine.

If a piece is accepted elsewhere, please message us via Submittable. Unfortunately it is not possible to swap in new pieces for us to read. The rest of your original submission packet will remain under consideration.

Authors retain their copyright and will receive a publication contract after acceptance.

Our staff works on a volunteer basis, and we are not currently a paying market.

Interviews, reviews, and artwork operate on a solicitation-only basis.

General inquiries: 

poetryprosethought — at gmail — dot —com (Change ---at to @ and ---dot--- to .)

Follow The Account on Twitter, Instagram, and on Facebook.

Call for Submissions: Qu Literary Magazine

 

 

Submissions will open on May 15, 2025.

Qu is a literary magazine, published by the MFA program at Queens University of Charlotte. The Qu editorial staff is comprised of current students.

Payment Upon Publication: $100 per prose piece, $50 per poem or visual art. Contributors will also receive one copy of magazine.

We do not accept previously published work. International submissions are accepted with a caveat. Unfortunately, we cannot pay for contributors who are US citizens living abroad or non-US citizens at this time. Payment for publication in this case will be five copies of magazine.

Qu requires First Rights to publication (electronic and print). All rights revert back to authors upon publication. We, however, post online a number of the works we publish and they remain available on the archive section of the website after print publication, and so require Non-Exclusive Electronic Rights. Not all published pieces are posted online.

ALL SUBMISSIONS MUST BE DONE VIA SUBMITTABLE. Manuscripts submitted via email will NOT be considered.

Submit your work here.

Call for Submissions: Floating Acorn Review

We are interested in quiet works – pieces that whisper rather than roar. Give us contemplations on three a.m. train rides, stones skipped on stormy beaches, and all that falls in between. We also have a particular interest in pieces that explore nature and its interactions with the human condition. Vibrant descriptions too are something we have a fondness for particularly in smaller pieces which can pack a resounding punch.

While we have no limitations regarding genre, pieces that feature homophobia, transphobia, racism, xenophobia, or misogyny will not be considered for publication. We also ask that erotica not be submitted.

The maximum word count for fiction and creative nonfiction is set at approximately 2,000 words. Any submissions that pass 2,500 words will not be considered.

Poetry has no set line or word count limit. We do ask, however, that any submitted poem does not exceed three pages in length (the total submission may exceed this page count).

You may submit up to three fiction or creative nonfiction pieces at once. If you intend to submit in both categories, we kindly ask you send them as two separate submissions.

Poetry submissions may include up to three poems.

We allow simultaneous submissions but ask you to reach out immediately should your submitted piece(s) be accepted elsewhere.

All submissions should be sent to:

floatingacornreview@gmail.com

and should be formatted the following way:

Your email subject line should include the genre you are submitting in, the number of pieces, and your name. Ex: “Fiction 2 by [INSERT NAME]”

All submitted pieces should be in one attachment (PDF or Word preferred) at 12 point Times New Roman font. Please note that how you format your piece within the submission is how it will appear in the issue should it be selected for publication.

Additionally, we ask that you include how you wish your name to appear print and an author bio of approximately 100 words.

More information here.

Call for Submissions and Readers: Joyland Magazine

Joyland Magazine accepts unsolicited submissions of fiction year round. All submissions must be in English. We welcome works in translation. Simultaneous submissions are allowed. We consider fiction submissions (short stories and stand-alone novel excerpts) of up to 12,000 words. Our average response time is 12-16 weeks.

All writers are compensated $200 for stories published with Joyland Magazine.

Joyland Magazine charges $5 per submission. All submission fees go towards web-hosting fees and paying writers and editors. Writers who wish to submit for free may email us at:

joylandmagazine@joylandmagazine.com

with the subject line "Submittable Fee Waiver" to receive a link to our free submission portal.

Joyland is seeking readers for the summer. Readers receive a $50/month stipend. If you are interested email:

joylandmagazine@joylandmagazine.com

Submit your work here.

Writing Competition: 2025 May Sarton New Hampshire Poetry Prize

Deadline: June 30th, 2025!

Bauhan Publishing is accepting submissions for the 2025 May Sarton New Hampshire Poetry Prize.

PLEASE READ ALL DIRECTIONS!!! PLEASE, PLEASE DO THIS!

• With the success of our first thirteen contests, we are pleased to accept submissions for our next prize—in our fourteenth year! We hope you will join one of these previous winners: Rebecca Givens Rolland for her collection The Wreck of Birds (2012), Nils Michal for his collection, Come Down to Earth (2013), David Koehn for his collection, Twine (April 2014), Deborah Gorlin for her collection Life of the Garment (April 2015), Desirée Alvarez for her collection, Devil's Paintbrush (March 2016), Zeina Hashem Beck for her collection Louder Than Hearts (Spring 2017), Jen Town for her collection All The Light We Cannot See (Spring 2018), Marilee Richards for her collection The Double Zero (Spring 2019), Dorsey Craft for her collection, Plunder (Spring 2020), Alexa Doran for her collection, DM Me, Mother Darling (Spring 2021), Richard Smith for his collection, Not a Soul But Us (Spring 2022), Catherine Arnold for her collection Receipt For Lost Words (Spring 2023) and Heather Treseler for Auguries & Divinations (Spring 2024).

• The winner receives $1000, book publication, and 50 copies of the published book, as well as distribution with our other spring titles through our distributor (Casemate IPM).

• We are pleased to announce this year's judge is poet, Anthony Walton, author of The End of Respectability. He is currently writer-in-residence at Bowdoin College, teaching writing and poetry. The New Yorker published "Dead Reckoning" in July, 2024

• We do not pre-screen; all manuscripts go to the judge.

• Below are the submission guidelines—if you have any questions, please email us with "May Sarton Prize" in the subject line.

• Multiples entries are accepted for $30 per entry.

• PLEASE NOTE: If you need to EDIT your manuscript, please ask us to "OPEN FOR EDITING" by sending a message through Submittable or an email to contest@bauhanpublishing.com. There is no reason to "withdraw" your manuscript or you will have to pay another $30 to submit it again.

Also Please note: this contest is NOT restricted to NH poets! It is open to submissions WORLDWIDE. "New Hampshire" in the title just differentiates it from another May Sarton contest.

Submission guidelines:

1. TITLE PAGE WITH NO NAME

2. Please, NO ACKNOWLEDGMENTS, biographical material, or dedication pages in the manuscript - or in the file name. We will gather your name and contact information through your Submittable account. The manuscripts uploaded must be without identifying information for a blind judging.

3. Manuscripts must be typed and paginated. We are looking for collections that are roughly 50 to 80 pages in length, as a PDF or Word Doc.

4.. Translations and self-published books are not eligible. The manuscript must be the product of only one author.

5. Any person who has studied poetry in a formal program with this year's judge through a college, university, community program, residency, or private tutorial within the last two years is not eligible to submit a manuscript to this contest.

6. No illustrations, photographs or images should be included.

7. The actual manuscript should include ONLY the following: TITLE PAGE (with no name), TABLE OF CONTENTS, POEMS.

8. The winner will be announced by September 2025 publicly via press release, social media, and our website at Bauhan Publishing. We will notify the winner and finalists prior to the announcement, as well as email all contestants through Submittable and eblast before publishing the results. Please ensure that you can receive email from bauhanpublishing.com and Submittable.

9. Bauhan Publishing reserves the right to cancel the contest for any reason. In that unlikely event, all entry fees will be returned to contestants.

10. If you need to edit your manuscript or change anything before the deadline, please go to your submission and ask us to open it for editing (or email us, and we will open it for you.) There is no need to withdraw your manuscript and then pay to re-submit.

11. GOOD LUCK!

Please contact us at:

contest@bauhanpublishing.com 

with any questions.

Submit your entry here.

Call for Submissions: Mississippi Review

Submissions for Mississippi Review 53.3 will open May 15-June 30, with a publication date of Winter 2026.

Though we are open to reading any Fiction, Nonfiction, and Poetry, we are particularly interested in nature-themed pieces for this issue.

 

Cover Letter

In your cover letter, include a short professional bio (max 100 words) and any social media tags.

 

Simultaneous/Multiple Submissions

We do consider simultaneous submissions. If your work is accepted elsewhere, please notify us via Submittable.

 

We also welcome multiple submissions. Each submission requires a separate $3.00 submission fee. 

 

Compensation

As a university-supported literary journal, we are working to find new ways to compensate our contributors. For Mississippi Review 53.3, we are able to pay each contributor $50 and send two free copies of the issue upon publication.

Contributors with mailing addresses outside of the U.S. will receive two copies of Mississippi Review 53.3 and a Mississippi Review subscription at the value of $50.

 

Mailed Submissions

We prefer to receive submissions through Submittable. If you are unable to access Submittable, however, we are happy to consider submissions through mail. Send mailed submissions to the address below with a cover letter (including contact information) and your submission fee as a check.

Mississippi Review

118 College Drive #5144

Hattiesburg, Mississippi 39406-0001

 

Who Can Submit

Anyone who is not currently a student at the University of Southern Mississippi or affiliated with the Mississippi Review can submit.

 

More information and submission portal here.

Call for Submissions: Epiphany: A Literary Journal

We hope that when you read Epiphany: A Literary Journal, you'll get a sense of the great variety of stories, poems, essays, and genre-bending work that we like, and the recurring themes to which we keep returning. We hope that you'll enjoy and connect with the work of your fellow writers, and that you'll feel you're a valued part of our community, rather than just another lonely writer sending your beloved work out into some unsympathetic void. We hope you'll see what makes us different. We hope you'll feel you have a stake in our endeavor.

GENERAL FALL/WINTER SUBMISSIONS will be open from May 1, 2025 through June 15th, 2025, 12AM EST.

To expedite our response, please remember these GUIDELINES FOR GENERAL SUBMISSIONS (FICTION):

1. Submit one story at a time.
2. Format in 12-pt font, double-spaced.
3. Withdraw promptly through Submittable should your work be accepted elsewhere.
4. We only consider previously unpublished work (online or in print).
5. Please include your name, title, and word count on the first page of the submitted file.
6. Fiction contributors will receive a payment of $175, and two contributor's copies of the journal.

To expedite our response, please remember these GUIDELINES FOR GENERAL SUBMISSIONS (POETRY):
1. Submit up to 5 poems at a time.
2. Format in 12-pt font, single-spaced (where appropriate).
3. Send us a Message (not a Note) informing us if a poem in your submission has been accepted for publication elsewhere.
4. We only consider previously unpublished work (online or in print).
5. Poetry contributors will receive a payment of $75 per poem and two copies of the journal.ent stage.

GUIDELINES FOR PROSE SUBMISSIONS (Translations):

1. Submit one story at a time.

2. Format in 12-pt font, double-spaced.

3. Withdraw promptly through Submittable should your work be accepted elsewhere.

4. Please include your name, title, and word count on the first page of the submitted file.

5. Translations require rights permission from the original writer.

6. Prose contributors will receive a payment of $175, and two copies of the journal.

GUIDELINES FOR POETRY SUBMISSIONS:

1. Submit up to 5 poems at a time.

2. Format in 12-pt font, single-spaced (where appropriate).

3. Send us a Message (not a Note) if one of the poems from your submission has been accepted for publicattion elsewhere.

4. Please include your name and title on the first page of the submitted file.

5. Translations require rights permission from the original writer.

6. Poetry contributors will receive a payment of $75 per poem and two copies of the journal.

To expedite our response, please remember these GUIDELINES FOR GENERAL SUBMISSIONS (Essays):
1. Submit one essay at a time.
2. Format in 12-pt font, double-spaced.
3. Withdraw your work promptly through Submittable should it be accepted elsewhere.
4. We only consider previously unpublished work (online or in print).
5. Please include your name, title, and word count on the first page of the submitted file.
6. Excerpts from books in progress, memoirs, or longer works are welcome.
7. Nonfiction contributors will receive a payment of $175 and two contributor's copies. 

Please submit your photography or artwork to be considered for the cover art of Epiphany, or as art for inside the magazine.

The cover will be printed in full-color with the magazine’s logo in overprint, and will be reproduced on the magazine’s website and electronic publications.

If your work is selected for use on our cover, we will ask you to grant us a one-time use of your image. You will also need to provide a high-resolution scan of the artwork (300 dpi), at the inch dimensions of our issue, for print-quality reproduction.

You can submit up to five images at a time. In the cover letter, feel free to provide any information about your artwork that we should know. Low-res images are acceptable for submissions, as long as high-res images can be provided when necessary. Please also specify if you are submitting art intended for inside the magazine or for the cover. Compensation offered for licensing this art is $100 per piece for art inside the issue and $300 for a cover.

Deadline for Art/Photography: Oct. 15, 2025

Submit your work here.

Writing Competition: The Tusculum Review 2025 Chapbook Prize

Contest Judge Jaime Cortez

Three-Part Award | A prize of $1,500, publication of the story in The Tusculum Review’s 21st volume (2025), and creation of a limited edition stand-alone chapbook with original art is awarded for the winning story.

To Enter | The entry fee is $20 per manuscript. Entry fees include a one-year subscription to The Tusculum Review (an annual publication) and consideration for publication in our 21st volume (2025). We encourage international submissions but must charge an additional $15 fee to mail the journal to locations outside the U.S.

Deadline | The deadline for submitting is June 15, 2025. All entries should be sent through Submittable:

tusculumreview.submittable.com

We do not accept mailed or emailed submissions, but if Submittable is a hardship, let us know at:

review@tusculum.edu

Single Story Length | Each manuscript should consist of a single story in a standard 12-point font, double-spaced. Stories may be between 2,000 words (about 7 manuscript pages) and 7,000 words (22 pages).

Unpublished Entries | Stories may not have been previously published nor be forthcoming. You are welcome to submit your story to other publications or contests while we consider it for the prize, but please alert us if your story is going to be published or honored elsewhere, so we can take it out of the running. If you have more than one story to submit, create a new entry for each.

Anonymous Manuscripts | Please do NOT include your name or any other identifying information on any page of the story manuscript.

Contest Judge | Contest judge Jaime Cortez and editors of the The Tusculum Review will determine the winner of the 2025 prize. Family, friends, and previous students of the contest judge and the The Tusculum Review editors are disqualified from the competition, as are those with reciprocal professional relationships. Previous winners of Tusculum Review contests are also disqualified. Previous finalists and honorable mentions may enter.

Blind Judging | Names and identifying information will not be visible to the judges. The Tusculum Review reserves the right to extend the call for manuscripts or cancel the award. We have only canceled one of the 30+ contests we’ve hosted, due to single-digit entries. We look forward to reading your work.

Publication Rights | Except for second printings of the journal due to demand, all rights to material in The Tusculum Review and chapbooks revert to the individual authors and artists after publication (first serial rights). We request that you acknowledge us if you reprint work we published first. The chapbook design belongs to The Tusculum Review. Tusculum University does not discriminate on the basis of gender, race, age, sexual orientation, identity, religion, veteran or military status, citizenship status, ethnic origin, or disability.

Chapbook Launch and Marketing | The debut of the prizewinning chapbook is our most important annual event. When possible, we bring the prizewinner to campus for the live launch, where they read for, and take questions from, an audience of community members and students, many of whom have already read and discussed the writer’s work: the prizewinner is greeted by fans. The visiting writer may be asked to lead a workshop of student fiction earlier in the day. A student editor will interview and write a profile of the winning author for publication on our website in advance of the launch event. We will use photographs of the author, quotes from their story, and blurbs from the contest judge to market the prizewinning chapbook and the event. After filming the live launch, we’ll include portions of the recording on our website. We will submit the prizewinning story for consideration for the Pushcart Prizes, the O. Henry Prize Stories, Best American Short Stories, and other relevant recognition.

Contest judge Jaime Cortez is a California writer and artist based in Watsonville and the SF Bay Area. His writing and drawings have appeared in Kindergarten: Experimental Writing For Children (Black Radish Press), No Straight Lines (Fantagraphics), Street Art San Francisco (Abrams Press), and Infinite Cities (UC Berkeley Press). He wrote and illustrated the graphic novel Sexile for AIDS Project Los Angeles. His debut short story collection, Gordo, was published in 2021 by Black Cat, an imprint of Grove Atlantic. Gordo received national acclaim from the New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, and the Minneapolis Star Tribune. It was nominated for the Carnegie Medal of Excellence in Fiction and the Lambda Literary Award for fiction, and was named a best book of the year by National Public Radio and Bookpage. Cortez received his B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania, and his MFA from UC Berkeley. Jaime’s website is www.jaimecortez.org

Call for Submissions: The Disappointed Housewife

The Disappointed Housewife seeks fiction, essays, and poetry – along with unclassifiable writings, photos, and drawings – that stretch genre definitions, break the rules, challenge readers, and bend their brains, all while maintaining the highest levels of style and substance.

We think that literature has to evolve, that it should keep up with the world around it even if it doesn’t reflect it so much as use it. Taunt it. Remold it, when required.

We’re looking for stories that strike us as different, always with that idiosyncratic touch. Iconoclastic. Kind of bent. Humorous. Poems that find the metaphors we’ve been looking for but never quite landed on. Essays that take us away from the usual and into the world of the unseen and overlooked.

Above all, The Disappointed Housewife is a literary journal. We aren’t looking for genre material, though if your submission manipulates a genre in a literary way, we might just bite.

A little more specifically: we aren’t interested in romance, science fiction, thrillers, horror, fantasy, or erotica in their typical forms. We’ll cut you some slack, though. Just be sure that your work adheres to the general mission of The Disappointed Housewife.

Which is, to put it more plainly, to provide readers with great writing they can’t get anyplace else.

Submit your previously unpublished work by email to:

thedisappointedhousewife@gmail.com 

and paste the entire submission in the body of the email. We do not open unsolicited attachments. For poetry, do your best to recreate line breaks and other layout elements in the email, with the understanding that it will appear on the site, if it’s accepted, exactly the way you want it. For all submissions, provide a brief bio written in the third person; feel free to include links to your work available online.

By submitting to The Disappointed Housewife, you grant us first electronic rights, nonexclusive anthology rights, and archival rights should the work be accepted. All rights revert back to you after publication. If you elect to publish the piece elsewhere, you agree to cite The Disappointed Housewife as the original publisher.

We do consider simultaneous submissions, but please let us know if your work is accepted for publication elsewhere while under consideration here. Submit to only one category at a time.

Understand that if your work is accepted, you will likely not be able to publish it elsewhere (i.e., at another, perhaps more famous, magazine). Most outlets don’t consider previously published material, and your piece’s appearance here will be considered a publication.

If your work is rejected, please wait thirty days before your next submission. If your work is accepted and published, we ask that you wait one year before submitting new material.

Flash fiction and creative nonfiction should be 1000 words or less. Submit only one piece at a time. Submit up to three poems. For items that are harder to categorize (lists, faux official documents, parodic advertising, humorous-text tattoos …), we’ll know the right length when we see it, but understand that exceptions to the word limit are going to be rare.

A word on form

There’s so much that can be done in terms of the way readers “read” literature now. Words on a page, sure. But you could construct a short story entirely in tweets or phone texts. Or handwrite poetry on 3 x 5 index cards and photograph them (please write legibly). A photo slide show with enigmatic captions. A facsimile of someone’s job application. The menu of a hip restaurant that’s on the forefront of insect haute cuisine. A story made up of urls that readers click on to go on a virtual journey.

There’s a story in almost anything that’s written, even if it was told unintentionally.

In other words, writers who can think of unorthodox and offbeat ways to tell their stories will be highly appreciated here at The Disappointed Housewife.

We hope to be challenged, and if your idea isn’t easily translated to basic website conventions, we’ll work with you to figure out a way to get it out there.

Think multimedia. Think imagistic. Sound clips. Facsimile. DIY. Objects as literature. “The medium is the message.”

Call for Submissions: Taco Bell Quarterly

We are back, pretending to make our literary magazine again. We are the Taco Bell Quarterly, a Prestigious Literary Magazine that is opening for submissions on 4/20/25.

We are looking for prose, poetry, art, and beyond for our eighth issue, which will be available to read for free online, and to buy in print in the late fall.

We will pay $150.

What are we looking for: works of literature that intersect with Taco Bell.

Does it have to be about Taco Bell? Does it have to mention it? It’s the Taco Bell Quarterly. The joke is that it’s our only guideline. Also, we do not have any guidelines. We have no rules. You can say whatever you want. We have an aesthetic. We have a vibe. Read our last 3 issues especially to get a sense of the direction we’ve been going in.

But also, yes, it can and should be about Taco Bell too, because that is the joke of the literary magazine, in which every piece has a recurring product placement. Because life might happen in a Taco Bell, or with a Taco Bell logo in the background for a moment. That moment of product placement may be chosen sincerely, sarcastically, however you see fit to tell your story and land in The Taco Bell Quarterly. Why that moment? Why are you telling that story? It’s probably not the Taco Bell. And we’re not Taco Bell. We’re just the strangers in the background listening in on your conversations. Tell us a good story.

We are interested in presenting pieces that are in conversation with one another, and often the mention of Taco Bell is the tiny thread that connects these larger stories.

Send us your war plans, stories, poems, art, comics, scientific research banned by the government, manifestos, Spanish language pieces, sea shanties, deep dives, recipes, games, and other things that would scare the Dandy and make him puke in his top hat.

TLDR: we’re like the Paris Review but with bean burritos

Prose: The sweet spot we usually publish is 500-2500 words, but we’re open to considering up to 4k words. Short stories for when my attention span which has been whittled down 1.2 seconds by the internet and weed. Why are you making this up, ask yourself with a violent shaking of the self

Flash fiction yes of course we love it and we love you

Creative Non Fiction: moments, essays, hybrid autofiction undefinable art as self, realizations, peer reviewed studies, primal screams

CNF but it’s longer, more involved, and needs editing. Pitch me in email in a paragraph, but you’re going to have to look up my email, impress me with your bylines, or have an idea that is so good that I can’t say no, which is equally as difficult as just pitching it to a general submission pile. Choose your own adventure.

Poems: someone said about one poem in our last issue (paraphrasing) “I want to write like this but then I don’t think anyone will get it, but TBQ gets it, so I should just do it”

Actual editorial guidelines: 1-4 poems, yeah fine, and there can be 5 or 6 if you’re undecided. Try me. The 5th one you almost left out because of some dumb guideline is the one I’m going to like the most.

Art/Visuals: Art that touches. Art that jumps off the page and touches. The touch the feel of cotton the fabric of our lives. Whatever is the opposite of art in hotel rooms. Unexpected art. Found art. No AI bullshit. We will shame you in front of cool writers.

Comics: Our comics have been fucking amazing and honestly could have been published literally anywhere else so we have no idea why their artists chose us. Send us something distinct, in your style, make it pop, give it narrative; we’ll take pencil pen watercolor digital. Send us stuff that TERFS wouldn’t re-tweet and weird teenagers would like on Tumblr.

Things That Are Not Literary: Smut, romance, aliens, elves, serial killers, detectives, science fiction, fantasy, horror, and beyond. We want to publish more, but we are also looking for Literary writing. Whatever that means to you. – see Rae Wilde in TBQ6 for a good example of something that worked.

Other: I want to find Waldo trying to escape the pit of hell. Think outside the bun / think outside the crossword puzzle. RPGs. I would love to see an old school board game across two pages.

Deadline: The last time we were open we got 3k subs in just a little over 3 months, so we will not be open that long. We will probably cap about 1500 subs, so we may be open for a month -ish? If you miss the cap, you can always email it. Don’t stress. We’re barely a real lit mag.

Submit here.

Call for Submissions: M E N A C E: a magazine of the literary weird

We are always open for submissions. Before submitting, read our mission carefully to understand if your work is a fit.

Requirements by Genre

Fiction — Limit 10k words, double-spaced, standard font.

Flash (fiction or CNF) — Limit 1k words, double-spaced, standard font.

Poems — Submit up to 5 poems in one packet, limit 10 pages.

Art — Submit up to 3 pieces at a time, black/white or color.

Reviews, essays, and cultural critique — Please query the editors at:

menacesubmissions[AT]gmail[DOT]com (Change [AT] to @ and [DOT] to .)

with a pitch for your piece. We do not accept completed reviews at this time.

We do accept hybrid work. Please submit work to the category most associated with your work. Indicate the work is a hybrid piece within your submission email.

How to Submit

Email your submission to:

menacesubmissions[AT]gmail[DOT]com (Change [AT] to @ and [DOT] to . )

Please attach your submission as a .DOC, .DOCX, or .PDF file using a standard serif font. For art submissions, submit as a .JPG file.

In the subject line of your email, please indicate the category to which you’re submitting. EXAMPLE: “Fiction for Menace”

In the body of your email, please include the title of your piece(s), word count (prose only), and a brief third-person bio (<100 words), and content warnings (if applicable). That’s it. We don’t want anything else.

Note that “transgressive” does not mean “traumatizing.” We reject work that uses trauma purely for shock value. Do better. Transcend the tired tropes.

Please do NOT include any verbiage in your email to explain your submission, whether about theme, topic, inspiration, or mission. Let your work speak for itself.

We accept simultaneous submissions. Please let us know immediately if your work has been accepted elsewhere.

We do not accept multiple submissions. Please submit to one genre and wait to hear back before submitting again.

After you receive our decision on your submission, please wait three months before resubmitting unless we have expressly requested new work from you.

We do not accept previously published work.

We do not accept AI-generated content.

Submissions that do not follow these guidelines will be disregarded.

Upon acceptance, we request First North American Serial Rights for publication. Following publication, all rights revert back to the author. We ask that you credit M E N A C E as the place your work first appeared.

Feedback/Tip Jar Submissions

If you would like feedback from our editors, including in-text markups and a 1-2 paragraph overall response, we offer the following tip jar submission options. Make payments via PayPal to:

menacesubmissions[AT]gmail[DOT]com (Change [AT] to @ and [DOT] to .) 

and indicate your feedback request within your submission email.

M E N A C E is a paying market:

1-3 poems — $15

Flash (fiction or CNF) — $15

Fiction — $30

Writing Competition: Salamander 2025 Fiction Prize

Salamander 2025 Fiction Prize

First Prize: $1,000 and Publication
Second Prize: $500 and Publication

 

$20 Reading Fee: Includes One-Year Subscription

 Final Judge: Helen Phillips

SUBMISSIONS OPEN FROM MAY 1 – JUNE 1, 2025

All entries will be considered for publication. All entries will be considered anonymously.

• Send no more than one story per entry. Each story must not exceed 30 double-spaced pages or 7500 words in 12 point font. Multiple entries are acceptable, provided that a separate reading fee is included with each entry.

• Please submit a separate cover sheet with each entry, containing the title of the story and your name, address, phone number, and email. Your name or any other identifying characteristics should not appear anywhere on the story itself.

• Simultaneous submissions are acceptable, but the contest fee is non-refundable if the submission is withdrawn. Please notify the editors as soon as possible if a submitted story is accepted elsewhere.

• Previously published works and works accepted for publication elsewhere cannot be considered. Salamander’s definition of publishing includes electronic publication.

• Salamander will not consider work from anyone currently or recently (within the past 4 years) affiliated with Suffolk University or the prize judge.

Contest results will be posted on:

 

salamandermag.org

 

by September 1.

Contest reading fee includes a one-year subscription. We will send your subscription to the address given unless instructed otherwise. If more than one subscription is purchased, additional subscriptions may be gifted to another reader. International addresses will receive a one-year online subscription; those who prefer a print subscription, please add $20 for subscription postage.

WE ARE ONLY ABLE TO ACCEPT ONLINE SUBMISSIONS IN 2025. We apologize for any inconvenience, and thank you for your understanding.

 

Submit your entry here.

Call for Submissions to Anthology: Made from Midnight

Made from Midnight Anthology

We are a small group of women---poets, editors, and authors---who started this project last year with one goal: collaboration. We've seen first hand the amazing things connection can do for our spirits, minds, and bodies. We would love nothing more than to have you join us! It gives us great pleasure to write these next words: Welcome to Poets in the Pines' very first anthology

Death, in all its forms, has the power to unravel us—one thread at a time. But in the unmaking, we are woven into something greater, something stronger. We are searching for works of short prose and poetry that explore this dark and often lonely quest through the graveyard, discuss the deals made with demons to grant us one more day, and most importantly, say the unsaid in a way that makes readers question if they’ve written the words themselves. Do not limit yourself to grief. Death involves many facets: the afterlife, the supernatural, transition, aging, etc. Be creative! We’re interested in exceptional writing, strong feelings, and vivid imagery—Gothic, floral, or whatever surprising images death evokes for you.

Please do not send graphic horror or gruesome violence.

A group of three professional editors and authors will judge each piece in an unbiased and anonymous process. Your writing will be scored a 1-5 on the following: creativity, technicality, imagery, and alignment to theme, with the highest score being a 20.

Submit your work here.

PLEASE NOTE: At this time, there are no costs for submission. However, offering a donation will allow us to give you honest and constructive feedback on your work, whether you are accepted or not.

A percentage of proceeds will go to a charity TBD.

If your entry is accepted, you will be sent a contract via email.

Contributors receive one free copy of the book after publishing. Global authors, we kindly ask that you cover shipping costs.

Deadline to submit: June 6, 2025.

Writing Competition: Fractured Lit Flash Fiction OPEN

Our submitters know a good opportunity when they see it, so we’re excited to once again host the Fractured Lit Flash Fiction OPEN from May 11 to July 13, 2025.

What we love about this contest is that there are no themes or restrictions on style. We want your most innovative and resonant flash and microfictions. Send us those pieces that lift us up, that take us down, that make us feel alive. Write that story you have been obsessing over, that has you by the throat or the heart, that needs to find its readers. We love stories that reveal their characters in unique and soulful ways, that put us into the middle of the action, that make us feel something more than our usual realities. Take us through realism, fabulism, and everything in-between.  

Fractured Lit publishes flash fiction with emotional resonance, with characters who come to life through their actions and responses to the world around them. We’re searching for flash that investigates the mysteries of being human, with the sorrow, and the joy, of connecting to a diverse population. 

We're thrilled to partner with Guest Judge Gwen E. Kirby, who will choose one grand-prize winner and fifteen finalists from a shortlist of forty stories curated by our editors. The first-place winner will receive $2,000 and publication, while the fifteen finalists will receive $100 and publication. All entries will be considered for general publication. 

Good luck and happy writing!

Gwen E. Kirby is the author of the collection Shit Cassandra Saw. Her stories appear in One Story, Tin House, Guernica, Mississippi Review, SmokeLong Quarterly, and elsewhere. Guest editor Aimee Bender selected her story “Shit Cassandra Saw But Didn't Tell the Trojans Because at That Point Fuck Them Anyway” for Best Small Fictions 2018. It also appeared in the Wigleaf Top 50 and was anthologized in Flash Fiction America from Norton. She has an MFA from Johns Hopkins, a PhD from the University of Cincinnati, and teaches creative writing and literature at Carleton College. 

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

My favorite thing to find in a story is the thing I am not expecting, and I think it's doubly true with flash! I love to read a flash story and think, wow, that could only be pulled off in 1,000 words. That conceit, that voice, that moment, it's too big and wild and bright to last a moment longer, it had to come to life on flash's knife's edge. So I am looking for stories that surprise me and that use the form to its limits and to its strengths.

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.

• Writers from historically marginalized groups may submit for free until we reach a cap of 25 submissions in this category. No additional fee waivers will be granted for this contest.

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

• Please send flash and microfiction 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 judge.

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

• The deadline for entry is July 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 email 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.

Submit your entry here.