Monday, December 15, 2025

Best Microfiction Nomination!

What a lovely surprise to find in my email this morning! This little piece, "Red," was already nominated for a Pushcart Prize by Mathieu Cailler, Author, a Pushcart winner from last year.

 
And now, the editors of The Sunlight Press have nominated the same story for Best Microfiction. Many thanks to Rudi Patel and Beth Burrell at The Sunlight Press for their support!
 

 

Saturday, December 13, 2025

Call for Submissions: Fresh Words: An International Literary Magazine

Fresh Words: An International Literary Magazine

We are open for submissions. We invite poems, short stories, essays, plays, diaries, excerpts from books (published or upcoming submitted by author only), book reviews, interviews and travelogues. Please send all submissions to:

freshwordsmagazine@gmail.com

as per the following guidelines:

Poetry:

3 to 4 poems (all themes and forms).

Short Stories: 

  • Maximum 2 stories
  • Word limit for each story (maximum 500 words)

Essays:

  • Topic must be literary.
  • Maximum 2 essays
  • Word limit for each essay (maximum 1000 words)
  • Send a summary of the work

Plays:

  • Maximum 2 submissions.
  • You can send one-act play (Maximum 15 pages for each work).
  • Also send a summary of the work.

Diaries:

  • You can send parts of your daily diaries and your observations about life.
  • Maximum word limit 1000 words

Excerpts from books. For Upcoming books:

  • You can send maximum 5 pages of your novel
  • You can send maximum 5 pages of your full length/ one act play
  • You can send maximum 2 poems of your poetry book 
  • A note (maximum 100 words) about the publisher and website from where it will be available

Book Reviews:

  • Two book reviews at a time (maximum 500 words for each)
  • Book review must mention (on the top right hand corner)the name of publisher, ISBN (if any), year of publication, total pages of book, weblink of book or website of publisher

E-Interviews:

The interested author/s may send an email to us with detailed literary achievements for consideration.

Travelogues:

  • Share your travelling experiences with the world
  • maximum word limit 1000 words
  • Do not forget to include your website and social media links at the end of text
  • You may share up to 10 pictures of your travel, in case they are available.

General Guidelines:

All submissions must contain a cover letter and a short literary profile (Maximum 70 words) of author in third person narrative.

All submissions must be sent typed in MS Word or PDF doc as attachment with the email.

The author should mention:

Legal Name:

Pen name (if any):

Snail mail address:

In the Subject line of your submission email please clearly mention the category like 'Poetry Submission' or 'Short Story' submission etc.

The author must send a high resolution photo of self as a separate attachment with the submission.

Simultaneous submissions are welcome but please immediately inform us in case they are accepted elsewhere.

Call for Poetry Submissions: Belmont Story Review


BSR 9 Cover.png 

What We're Looking For 

Belmont Story Review seeks to publish new and established writers who are passionate about their craft, fearlessly encounter difficult ideas, and seek to surprise and delight readers through an eclectic mix of storytelling at the intersection of faith and culture. We feature works of fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry. Please see our FAQ page for common questions we receive regarding submissions.

Terms and Conditions

Within your submission, please include a brief author bio. If applicable, include the following in your bio:

Major publications and awards

Any association or past correspondence with a guest or staff editor

Past publications in BSR

Due to the volume of submissions we receive, we ask that authors submit only ONE piece of prose total (choose to submit either Fiction or Nonfiction, not both). Poets may submit up to FIVE poems maximum. Please submit poetry in a single document.

Belmont Story Review pays honorariums in the form of a check in US dollars ($100 for prose, $50 for poetry). In addition to this pay we are also happy to provide a complimentary copy of the magazine. More copies can be purchased at bookshop.org.

The honorarium payment to selected contributors can only be offered to those who are able to receive a US check. Because we are a university-sponsored magazine, we must request a W-9 form from all our contributors in order to be paid by check. For those who cannot receive US checks (i.e. outside of the US or Canada), we can pay in kind with additional copies of the magazine (three total) but cannot issue monetary payment.

Submissions will not be accepted after the deadline. We do not accept pieces that have already been published or revised submissions.

You should expect to receive word on your piece’s status by April 1 during the year of volume publication via the email you provide with your submission. If you have not received an email by that date, please feel free to contact us. Our volumes are published annually in the fall.

Submit your work here

Deadline: Jan. 21, 2026

Call for Submissions on Theme of "Labor": The Arkansas International

Recent cover image or website screenshot for The Arkansas International 

The Arkansas International invites the world’s best writers and artists into conversation with each other and with readers who yearn for depth, complexity, and delight. We are eager to read your work!

We welcome previously unpublished general submissions of fiction, poetry, essays, comics, and works in translation. To get a sense of what we publish, read previous issues on our website.

Submit to Issue #20, the Labor Issue.

We are now open for submissions for themed issue #20, due out in the fall of 2026. This issue will be both online and in print.

Send us your stories, poems, comics, and non-fiction about all the ways we labor, whether emotional, physical, or mental. How does labor form and inform our lives? What does our work say about what we love, or about what or whom we care for? What does it reveal about what we hate or fear? Hired labor, hard labor, labors of love, or laborious revenge, all of it creative fodder. Send us your best work by January 15, 2026!

General Guidelines

  • For all submissions, include a brief cover letter and bio.
  • Prose submissions should be no more than 8,000 words, poem packets no more than five poems, and we ask that excerpts from longer works be self-contained. Please submit all work in one document.
  • Simultaneous submissions are welcome, provided we are notified in the event that a piece is accepted elsewhere. Please do not submit more than a single story, essay, or poem packet until you have heard back from us about your previous submission.
  • Submissions of translated works must include a copy of the original text. Before submitting translations of works that are not in the public domain, translators should identify the rights holder and obtain a statement that the rights to publish an English translation are available.
  • We assume you are human and do not accept work produced by artificial intelligence (AI) generators or similar.
  • If you need to withdraw any or all parts of your submission, please withdraw via Submittable For partial withdrawals of poetry submissions, add a message to your submission.
  • While we no longer offer free submissions, we are happy to provide waivers to those identifying as BIPOC or in need of financial assistance. For more information on how to apply, please email editor@arkint.org.

Response time:

On average, we respond within three to six to months, although sometimes longer due to the volume of submissions received. We continue to review submissions and will be in touch as soon as we can. We are unable to respond to general status queries. Should you need to be in touch with the editorial team, Submittable message is the best way to do so.

Beginning with issue #19 in spring 2026, the unthemed spring issue will be online only, while the themed fall issue will be both in print and online. Fiction contributors will be paid $25 per 500-word page and poets will be paid $25 per page, with payments capped at $200. All contributors will receive a one-year digital subscription. In addition, contributors to a print issue will receive two complimentary copies of the issue. 

Submit your work here. 

Writing Competition: The "London" Literary Prizes: The /tEmz/Review

Recent cover image or website screenshot for The /tEmz/ Review 

Cost to enter: zero. Free entry!

Submission dates: Nov 1, 2025 to December 31, 2025

Results: Announced in April, 2026

Categories: Poetry and prose

8 Awards:

First Place Poetry (Canadian)
Runner-Up Poetry (Canadian)

First Place Poetry (International)
Runner-Up Poetry (International)

First Place Prose (Canadian)
Runner-Up Prose (Canadian)

First Place Prose (International)
Runner-Up Prose (International)

First-place entries will receive a $200 (CAD) cash prize and publication.

Thanks to a generous anonymous donor, runner-up entries will receive $100 (CAD) cash prize and publication.

Rules: You can submit up to three poems in the poetry category (please submit them all in one file), and a maximum of one short story in the fiction category. Short stories must be a maximum of 5000 words. You can submit to both the poetry and fiction categories.

You must submit original work that has not been published in any other context and that has not won any other contests.

AI is not allowed in any capacity for this contest.

All submissions will also be considered for publication in Issue 35, so please do not submit the same piece both for the contest and for that journal issue.

Theme: There is no theme. It's thematic and formal anarchy! Just submit something that's really good!

How to submit: Please submit through our Moksha submissions portal. Include a short bio as your cover letter, and clearly indicate in it if you're Canadian or not (for our purposes, you're Canadian if you're a Canadian citizen OR if you are currently living in Canada).

Call for Submissions on Theme of "If/Else": Notch Magazine

Notch Magazine latest issue 

Notch Magazine

We welcome meditations on conditionality and nested possibilities. Please send essays on the foundations of computational logic and stories that capture capillaries of reasoning. Share art that seizes visual polarity, cultivating contrast or queering light vs. dark. Track the evolution and architecture of decision trees—particularly when neat root systems spawn a Dantesque forest of disorientation. Consider temporal parallels, alternative paths that tug at the seams of the present. Capture the essence of elseness, being as/in/of otherness. Inhabit the space between If and Else; a clearing in which to grapple with potential.

We accept all mediums–from operatic scores to tattoos.

If submitting across multiple genres, please send separate emails with the genre in the subject line.

For writing: Pieces up to 1500 words are preferred. Longer work is considered on occasion. Works in translation are welcome.

For the visual & sonic: Please send a high resolution image, audio file, or link to your art. Artist statement optional.

Please note that, given the high volume of submissions, we can respond only to those selected for publication.

Submissions close January 7, 2026.

Contributors will be compensated.


To submit, email your work and a brief bio to:

submissions@notch.ink

Call for Submissions: Barnstorm Journal

Barnstorm publishes only previously unpublished nonfiction, fiction, poetry, and experimental work work. While we welcome submissions in multiple genres, please wait to hear from us before submitting twice in the same genre. We also accept visual art which accompanies each written piece published.

Submission Schedule

We only review submissions sent through Submittable. Submissions are accepted on a rolling basis and published from September through May. Work submitted during the summer will not be read until the fall.

We make every effort to respond in a timely manner. If your work is accepted and published elsewhere, please withdraw submissions in your submittable account.
Submission Guidelines

For all prose, please send one piece no longer than 5,000 words.

For poetry, send no more than three poems.

For art, we publish digital representations of visual work, including photography, graphic design, drawings, illustration, animation, and high quality pictures of sculpture, mixed media, paintings. Please visit our Submittable page for more information.

A note on our submission fee: This small financial resource will provide support for new possibilities: it can support the work of Barnstorm staff; it may fund future projects such as writing contests, prizes and awards, or a live reading event. Ultimately, it will help us achieve our mission: to publish the best personal and creative nonfiction essays, short stories, poetry and art that is playful, takes risks, and, as our motto says: harnesses energy.

We only review submissions sent through Submittable. Writing and art sent through our contact form, or email will not be reviewed.

Submit your work here

Call for Submissions: Lamp Lit

Lamp Lit publishes quarterly at the moment, though we would love to publish more frequently, and hope to do so as we pick up steam. We are looking for work we love, and that expands the capacity of our hearts. If you like, you can read our previous issues to see what we’ve chosen in the past, but we also eagerly look forward to reading work that looks nothing like what we’ve published before.

Submitting to Lamp Lit is free and we don’t have plans to change that. We accept submissions of poetry, flash fiction, personal essays, short stories of any genre and cover/other art for our issues.

We accept previously uncurated work, meaning that if you published it on your own website or social media in the past, that’s fine, but please do not submit work that has been accepted or published by another journal.

We also accept simultaneous submissions, but do tell us if your submission is being submitted elsewhere, so we can jump on your pieces if we love them. Please notify us immediately if your work is accepted elsewhere, and accept our hearty felicitations! If we do accept your work, please withdraw the piece from consideration by other publications.

We reserve first serial publishing rights, and the right to reprint or use quotes or excerpts for promotional use. All other rights revert back to you on publication.

We do not, at this time, pay contributors — this is a labor of love.

We will nominate for The Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net.

We do not accept submissions that denigrate other people of any description on the basis of race, gender, sexuality, religion or ability. Please do not send us anything gross. Submissions of this kind will be summarily deleted without response.

We do not accept work produced by AI. Please do not send any to us. Let’s not outsource our creativity to our tech bro overlords.

Submissions are accepted via email only at:

lampliteditors@gmail.com

Find us, or track your submissions on Chill Subs.

A cover letter is nice and we do hope you will say hello when you submit, but please don’t stress about it. What we really need is your short, third person bio and the titles of your pieces in the body of your email (separated by commas, please, not bullet points). Without a bio, your submission is incomplete. There’s no need to get fancy, just tell us who you are and where to find your work/socials so we can big it up when we publish.

You will receive a response from us within 3 months of your submission, and very likely much sooner.​ If you have not heard from us within three months, please feel free to request an update, and please keep it to the same email chain, that way everything is together, nice and tidy, and we won’t lose our minds searching the inbox.

More information here.

Call for Submissions: Smokelong Quarterly

Please note that we are currently in our quarterly free-submissions period (November 16th - December 31st). Our next paid-submissions window is January 1st to February 15th.

SmokeLong publishes flash narratives--fiction, nonfiction, and hybrid (somewhere between fiction and non-fiction)--up to 1000 words.

Include the word count and a print-ready, third-person bio with your cover letter. We prefer a simple cover letter.

Please remove all identifying information from your story’s document. Guest Editors and staff Submissions Editors read anonymously and have no access to bios. Also note that submissions editors have no access to Submittable messages. If you need to make changes to your submission, please withdraw and resubmit your work.

During unpaid submissions windows, you may send one previously unpublished piece at a time and wait until you hear our decision before sending another, or for a fee you may choose to send up to three submissions in one document through the Multiple Submissions form. The Multiple Submissions option comes with a discount code for The SmokeLong Shop and a promise to respond within three days. Paid multiple submissions are read by Christopher Allen, the publisher and editor-in-chief of SmokeLong, and passed to the senior editors for comments if Christopher decides they deserve further consideration. If we are considering your submission for publication, we'll let you know that we need a few more days to discuss your work.

For free submissions, please allow us up to four weeks to respond. We try to respond to paid submissions within one week.

Simultaneous submissions are considered. Please inform us immediately if your work has been accepted elsewhere for publication.

We pay $100/story or $150/story with audio, upon publication in the quarterly issue. Payment will be issued via PayPal or Zelle, and in rare cases the writer may be responsible for any associated fees if applicable.

If you are seeking feedback on your submission, please see the forms "SmokeLong General Submissions with Feedback" or "Senior Editor Critique." These services are subsidized by SmokeLong so that the editors giving feedback earn more than you're paying. This is one way SmokeLong is trying to keep feedback reasonably priced while also providing income for talented editors. If you are taking part in SmokeLong Fitness, please be sure to use the links for discounted links in the workshop.

If you choose to make a donation to SmokeLong using the tip jar feature, thank you so much! Your contribution will help the journal pay six senior editors (all freelance editors, so please look them up), artists, reviewers, interviewers, writers, and our webmaster, who has graciously stepped in to clean up our messes for more than 10 years. We sponsor up to four Emerging Writer Fellows each year, and we also support worthy causes, which you can find on our We Support page. While your donation will not influence our decision regarding your submission, it will influence our love for you. We also offer readers the possibility of donating to SmokeLong directly on the website.

We can't wait to read your words.

--The SmokeLong Team

Submit your work here

Friday, December 5, 2025

Artists' Residency: Monson Arts' Residency

Monson Arts’ residency program supports emerging and established artists and writers by providing them time and space to devote to their creative practices. During each of our 2-week and 4-week programs throughout the year, a cohort of 5 artists and 5 writers are invited to immerse themselves in small town life at the edge of Maine’s North Woods and focus intensely on their work within a creative and inspiring environment. They receive a private studio, private bedroom in shared housing, all meals, and $500 stipend ($250 for 2-week programs). The Abbott Watts Residency for Photography offers access to the photography studio and darkroom of Todd Watts in nearby Blanchard, adjacent to the former home of Berenice Abbott. Click here to read more about this unique opportunity specifically for photographers.

Applications for a residency at Monson Arts are open to anyone at any stage of their career, working in visual arts, writing, and related fields (i.e. audio, video, photography, woodworking, movement, screen and playwrights). Open calls for residency applications currently take place 3 times throughout the year with deadlines on January 15, May 15, and September 15. Each application period corresponds to specific residency offerings 3-6 months out.

Residents’ studios are located in newly renovated Main Street buildings that have been designed specifically for visual artists and writers. All of our studio spaces are outfitted to be as flexible as possible so that we can accommodate a variety of creative practices. Our visual arts studios are spacious and light-filled with large work tables and sinks. Shelving and portable storage carts are available as needed. Access is available to woodshop and metal shop facilities in nearby buildings for any fabrication needs. Our writing studios are comfortably furnished with work tables, office chairs, bookshelves, and reading chairs. For those working in time and sound based media: apply to the Writing category if quiet contemplation would be best for your project or the Visual Arts category if you need room and the opportunity to make and play sounds out loud.

Residents live in newly renovated historic homes throughout town, within walking distance to studios and everything that downtown Monson has to offer. These are mostly 3 bedroom structures that are fully furnished and comfortable all four seasons of the year. Houses all have shared kitchens, bathrooms, and common areas with laundry machines, telephone, and other amenities as well. Wifi is available in all of our buildings through high speed fiberoptic service.

Application Requirements include: 

  • Up to 5 images / 5 minutes of media OR 5 pages of writing examples
  • A letter of intent for your time at the residency
  • C.V. or Resume (limited to 6000 characters)
  • Two reference names
Spring

3/30 – 4/23 – Residency – (With Abbott Watts Resident)

4/27 – 5/21 – Residency

*5/26 – 6/5 – Residency – (With Abbott Watts Resident) 2 week residency (Tuesday start for memorial day)

Our next application period will be open December 1st – Jan 15th for residency sessions taking place in the Spring of 2026. 

More information and application portal here.

Call for Submissions: The Writing Disorder

The Writing Disorder Fall 2025 cover image 


The Writing Disorder 

CURRENT NEEDS:
Fiction, Poetry, Nonfiction, Art, Reviews, Interviews, Comic Art and Experimental work.
We would like to see more poetry, long fiction, nonfiction, artwork, reviews and interviews.

FICTION & NONFICTION:
“Welcome all. We are open to content and subject matter. Please send us your best work. We seek traditional as well as experimental submissions. Our staff enjoys reading all kinds of work. As always, there is no limit on word count.” — C.E. Lukather, Editor

POETRY:
“A new season, a new issue, a new crop of poetry. As your poetry editor it is my pleasure to offer this harvest. This harvest which is impossible without you. Impossible without your careful crafting, grafting, sowing of words. Without your words nestled like seeds on the paper, peas on a page. So send us your free verse, your experimental, your form. Send us the flowers, the fruit, and the hay.” — Juliana Woodhead, Poetry Editor

ARTWORK:
We showcase artists and photographers as well. Features typically include 10-15 images (minimum 1200 pixels wide, 100 ppi, RGB, jpeg files) Include artist statement, bio, links to work, list of shows, and titles of art. We can also include video or audio clips.

MANUSCRIPTS:
We are currently accepting manuscripts of nonfiction work for publication: biographies, autobiographies and unusual life stories. For more information, please contact us at: 

info@thewritingdisorder.com 

FORMAT:
The Writing Disorder accepts Microsoft Word document (storytitle.doc or .docx) submissions by email. However, we can’t promise that it’s going to look exactly the way you had it (we are Mac users). Please attach it to your email.

NOTE: Please include your last name in the title of your Word document.
Send your fiction, nonfiction and artwork to:

submit@thewritingdisorder.com 

Send your poetry to:

poetry@thewritingdisorder.com 

Our Submission Policy
The Writing Disorder is published four times a year: new issues are posted at the beginning of Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter.

Needs:
We seek work of the highest quality, but do not have specific guidelines for style or subject matter. Check our website before submitting for any announcements. Although we look for short stories and poetry, we also publish personal essays and memoirs. Novel excerpts are acceptable, if self-contained. Reviews, nonfiction pieces, humor, comic art, and criticism are also welcome. And we love experimental work. For poetry, please submit THREE to EIGHT poems. Also, let us know what type of work you are submitting. Sometimes it’s difficult to tell whether a piece is fiction or nonfiction.

Format:
Submit one prose piece or three to eight poems. A notation of publications and awards, if any, is helpful. Poems should be individually typed either single- or double-spaced on one side of the page. Prose should be typed double-spaced on one side and can be as many pages as you need.

Deadline:
Our reading period is all year long. Submit your work at any time during this period; if a manuscript is not timely for one issue, it may be considered for another.

Submitting Your Work:
Send only one manuscript at a time online. Do not send duplicate or multiple submissions. There is a limit of four total submissions per writer per reading period (season), regardless of genre, whether it is by mail or online. Do not send a second submission until you’ve heard about the first. We cross-reference our database periodically, and if we find more than one active submission, or a fifth submission (or more) during the reading period, all submissions will be immediately rejected unread. Simultaneous submissions to other journals are amenable as long as they are indicated as such and we are notified immediately upon acceptance elsewhere.

NOTE: We accept previously published work—as long as it is not currently available online.

Submissions by Email:

Email one file to:

submit@thewritingdisorder.com

— containing one prose piece or three to eight poems. If you have a legitimate association with a staff editor you may address that editor by name in your email. You should also include a brief citation of publications and awards (less than 50 words), if any. A longer citation of credits or a cover letter may be included as the first page of your submission document. Submissions must be sent as a Word (.doc or .docx) file. Any files that don’t adhere to our guidelines will be withdrawn from consideration. In general, you will receive a faster response by email versus by regular mail.

Call for Submissions: Prism Review

Recent cover image or website screenshot for Prism Review 

We are open--send great work!

Generally, all accepted authors are paid, and all non-contest submissions are considered for our $200 Staff Choice Award: an accepted submission chosen by our staff as best embodying two things we love and respect about writing: stylistic ambition and social engagement. One author each issue will receive this award, announced with the issue's release (usually in May).

As always: we hope to read your very best, we're excited to read it, and we want more, we hope for more, we quietly plead for/demand more. Simply: we love great literature, especially literature that is urgent and/or strange, and we love all voices, be they new, emerging, or established - certainly those from underrepresented groups. We always put samples from past issues on our homepage if you'd like to get a sense of our sensibilities.

Note: Submissions are being read for our spring 2026 issue. They must be previously unpublished, and simultaneous submissions are totally fine (but please withdraw accepted pieces immediately; the lack of this practice has increased far too much for us lately). Only one submission (in any genre) at a time.

Note 2.0: We generally charge a two dollar fee so that we can do something we hope all agree is a good thing: pay all our authors, at least $40 per writer; usually we have free submission windows in early Dec and May ... and during most of June and July, we're happy to provide free submissions to any authors who self-identify as being from underrepresented or minoritized communities or simply can't afford the $2 fee. Just email our editor at:

sbernard (at) laverne (dot) edu (Change (at) to @ and (dot) to . )

for more information.

-->Excepting the student contest, current students and employees of the University of La Verne are not eligible to submit. Sorry!

Note 3.0: We are not Prism International, a fantastic journal in Canada.

Submit your work here

Call for Submissions: Ninth Letter

Ninth Letter accepts submissions to our print issues between Sept. 1 – Feb. 28.

Genre Guidelines:

For poetry, please submit 3-5 poems (max. 8 pages) at a time.

For fiction and creative nonfiction, submit one story or essay up to 8,000 words at a time. For flash, you may submit up to 3 pieces with a total word count totaling no more than 4,000 words.

If you classify your work as “hybrid,” please submit to the genre category you feel your submission most closely applies. You are welcome to leave a note in the cover letter field with any details you think our reading team would find helpful. We will make sure your submission gets to the right team and receives the attention and consideration it deserves.

Submission Fee:

We charge a $3 reading fee. Fees are waived from December 1-31 or until we hit our cap of 300 submissions per genre.

Fee Waivers:

A limited number of fee waivers are available for writers for whom the submission fee would present undue financial hardship. Please send a short email to:

ninthletter9@gmail.com 

to request a fee waiver. No proof of income or other sensitive information is required.

Publication Terms & Payment:

Ninth Letter pays $25 per poem and $100 for prose upon publication and two complimentary copies of the issue in which the work appears. Contributors also receive an exclusive subscription discount offer at the time of acceptance. Ninth Letter acquires First North American Serial Rights (FNASR). We ask that you acknowledge Ninth Letter upon reprint of your work.

Response Time:

We strive to respond to your submission within six months. Please wait until that time has elapsed before querying about the status of your submission.

Submit your work here.

Call for Submissions: The Lemonwood Quarterly

The Lemonwood Quarterly latest issue 

What to Submit

The Lemonwood Quarterly seeks the best English language short stories and plays we can find. We do not publish poetry, flash fiction, nonfiction prose, book reviews, or interviews. We are looking for superbly written stories and play pieces between 2,000 and 10,000 words. Please submit a double-spaced Word document.

We especially seek out stories with female protagonists who are well into adulthood. There’s no minimum age requirement, but if your protagonist is not at least over thirty years old or so, it could be difficult for them to carry forward the type of stories we aim to publish. We definitely are not looking for coming-of-age stories. We are excited to showcase stories with protagonists who have already passed through those earlier milestones or hurdles and are at a different point in their life.

Who Should Submit

We welcome and encourage submissions from writers of every gender, age, race, ethnicity, sexuality, and nationality —including writers without fancy degrees or previously published work, and whose perspectives might be underrepresented in the literary world. Please do not send us work that includes machine-generated or AI text.

How to Submit

We accept only online submissions through the link below. Please do not send us emails or hard copies of your manuscripts. An online submission fee of $4 to help cover administrative costs is required to complete your submission.

Submissions are read anonymously, so please do not include your name anywhere on the word document itself. You will provide your identifying information in the submission form.

When to Submit

Our magazine is quarterly, so we are frequently considering new submissions. Our submission period may close if we reach our submissions capacity, so submit early. Please submit only one story or play at a time and wait to hear back from us before submitting again. We aim to respond within one to six months. If your story is selected for publication, please wait until the issue with your piece has been published before submitting another story. If your story is rejected, please send us new work; do not resubmit previously rejected stories.

Simultaneous Submissions to other Publications are fine, but please indicate in your submissions form that the work has been submitted to another journal. If work that you have submitted to us is accepted elsewhere, please notify us immediately via our contact form to withdraw your submission.

All work should be previously unpublished in any form, including online, in blogs, or in print.

Translations are accepted. Translators should acquire translation rights from the copyright holder before submitting. In the submission form, in addition to your translation and your own information, you will be asked for a copy of the original work, the author’s name, the work’s original title, a note stating the original language in which it was written, as well as a short bio about the author.

Revisions

Please send us your work in its final fully edited form. We do not have the staff available to consider individual revisions. If you feel you must revise, please contact us via the contact form to withdraw your submission, and resubmit the newly edited piece. It may take several days for your withdraw request to be processed.

Refunds of the submission fee cannot be made after the piece has been submitted, even if you need to withdraw the work. If you withdraw a submission and you want to submit a different piece, you cannot swap them out; you must make a new submission.

Compensation to Authors for their Work 

  • The Lemonwood Quarterly pays all of our contributors a flat rate. The current rate is $200 for every story or play published in our magazine.  
  • We will nominate as many pieces as we can to annual literary prizes such as The Pushcart Prize, The O. Henry Award and The Best American Short Stories.  
  • Contributing authors will be featured on our website and will have the opportunity to submit an updated bio, a photo, and any links to their social media.  
  • Authors will receive a contract upon acceptance and payment upon publication. The Lemonwood Quarterly’s publishing agreement includes the following rights: First worldwide electronic publication rights; non-exclusive online rights on our website, and other limited rights. Copyright is retained by the author. Authors are free to resell the work, although we do ask for a 90-day exclusive from our first publication of the work. We ask that whenever an author reprints a piece that first appeared in our magazine, The Lemonwood Quarterly is given acknowledgement as the work’s original publisher. 

Submit your work here

Call for Submissions on Theme of "The Great Unknown": Wild Greens

Wild Greens is looking to publish art, commentary, essays, poetry, short fiction, handmade items, and music for our January issue.

The theme is "The Great Unknown."

Grab your hat and your scarf and embark on a journey toward the inviting horizon. Does a better tomorrow await? Take the plunge into the endless possibilities of what could be.

Submissions open through December 15. 

Submit your work here

Writing Competition: The Richard Mathews Prize for Poetry

The Richard Mathews Prize for Poetry

Book Publication • $2,000 Award
Selected Poems published in Tampa Review


1. Manuscripts must be previously unpublished. Some or all of the poems in the collection may have appeared in periodicals, chapbooks, or anthologies, but these must be identified.

2. Manuscripts must be at least 48 typed pages; we prefer a length of 60-100 pages but will also consider submissions falling outside this range. Manuscript pages should be consecutively numbered.

3. Entries should include a separate title page with author’s name, address, phone number, and e-mail address (if available).

4. Entries must include a table of contents and a separate acknowledgments page (or pages) identifying prior publication credits.

5. Submissions are due December 31. Simultaneous submissions are permitted, but the University of Tampa Press must be notified immediately if the manuscript is accepted elsewhere.

6. A nonrefundable handling fee of $25 is required for each manuscript submitted. Submissions are not complete until this fee has been sent using any major credit card via our secure online service. (There is an additional small electronic payment processing fee.)

7. The winning entry will be announced in the subsequent fall. Online submissions will be acknowledged by email.

8. All entries receive one free issue of Tampa Review. (Mailed to any U.S. address; international subscribers will receive a digital issue.)

9. Judging is conducted in accord with the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses Contest Code of Ethics by the editors of Tampa Review. Submissions are not accepted from current faculty or students at the University of Tampa. Editors will recuse themselves from judging entries from close friends and associates to avoid conflicts of interest.

Submit your entry here

Writing Competition: The C. Michael Curtis Short Story Book Prize

The C. Michael Curtis Short Story Book Prize is open to emerging writers in thirteen Southern states. Submitters must currently reside in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia or West Virginia, and must have no more than one previously published book.

The C. Michael Curtis Short Story Book Prize includes $5,000 and book publication for a debut book of short fiction. C. Michael Curtis served as an editor of The Atlantic since 1963 and as fiction editor since 1982 and discovered or edited some of the finest short story writers of the modern era, including Tobias Wolff, Joyce Carol Oates, John Updike, and Anne Beattie. He edited several acclaimed anthologies, including Contemporary New England Stories, God: Stories, and Faith: Stories. Curtis moved to Spartanburg, S.C. in 2006 and taught at both Wofford and Converse Colleges, in addition to serving on the editorial board of Hub City Press. This prize is made possible by a generous contribution from Michel and Eliot Stone of Spartanburg.

A $25 submission fee will accompany each submission. Manuscripts will be taken through online submission only. All manuscripts will be read anonymously by paid screeners. This contest is guided by the CLMP Code of Ethics.

Deadline: Dec. 31, 2025

Submit your entry here.