Call for Submissions on Theme of "Water": The Fourth River

 

The Fourth River 

General Guidelines

The Fourth River publishes print and online issues. Submissions are accepted July 15-September 15 and November 15-January 15. We will occasionally run special calls for theme issues as well.

Submissions for the web series, Tributaries, is rolling, though we will sometimes close for a short time to catch up on reading.

There is a $3 submission fee for our issues, however we will announce FREE submission days occasionally over social media, so be sure to follow us!

Submissions to Tributaries are always free.

We wish it were otherwise, but The Fourth River is not a paying market at this time. Contributors to our print issues will be offered one copy of the issue in which their work appears. Digital contributors will be offered either one back issue or a copy of the upcoming print issue.

We welcome submissions of previously unpublished poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction and visual art, that explore the relationship between humans and their environments, both natural and built, urban, rural or wild. We are looking for writing that is richly situated at the confluence of place, space and identity—or that reflects upon or makes use of landscape and place in new ways.

Submit your work here.

Call for Submissions on Theme of "Fire": Crescendo Magazine

 Crescendo Magazine

Call for Submissions - Writing on Fire

Our triennial magazine will be publishing its third print issue. This issue will explore the theme of Fire.

As our ancestors have long known, fire both sustains life by providing heat to keep us warm and cook our food, and extinguishes life, through fires that become conflagrations. We fear fire yet are attracted to it. Perhaps it is the risk that fire brings, the possible danger that draws us to it, “like moths to a flame.” Fire takes on symbolic meaning in religion and spirituality, being used to “light the way” in houses of worship while also being a means for purifying or destroying evil. In times past and present, people light candles or a fireplace to evoke a certain mood. We light campfires to gather around and share stories.

Your writing might explore:

• Who or what burns (literally or figuratively)?

• What does fire destroy? What does it create?

• What does it mean to be on fire (literally or figuratively)?

• What is the relationship between humans and fire?

• Consider idioms where fire is present, i.e., “playing with fire,”
“burning bridges,” “going down in flames,” “you’re fired,” “ready, aim,
fire!,” “where there’s smoke there’s fire,” etc.

Send Us Your Work!

Email submissions of poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and inter-genre work to:

CrescMag@gmail.com 

by August 30, 2026. Writing should be original to the author and not created using generative AI. Submissions should be no more than 2500 words for prose and up to four poems.

We do allow simultaneous submissions. In your 1-page cover letter, please indicate where else you are sending this work. And if this work is accepted elsewhere after you send it to us, please let us know. There is no fee to apply.

Guidelines for Submissions:

• Typed, double-spaced (poetry may be single-spaced) pages
• Numbered pages
• Fiction, nonfiction, and other prose: Less than 2500 words. Excerpts of longer works are welcome if self-contained
• Poetry: Submit up to 4 pages with each short poem being on a new page (long poems no more than 4 pages)
• Translations are welcome if permission has been granted

Call for Submissions: LitMag Online

 

LITMAG ONLINE

Fiction, Nonfiction, and Poetry
Up to 4,000 words.

What to Send
One story or essay at a time, up to three poems.
Please wait until you have heard back from us before submitting again.

Previously Unpublished
We do not consider work that has previously been published either in print or online including personal blogs etc.

(If a piece was published in a known journal that has since closed and the piece is currently unavailable, we will consider a reprint, though acceptance would be rare, and only after a full disclosure of previous publication circumstances.)

LitMag Online: Upon acceptance, we pay $100.

LitMag Online will be open July 15 to August 15.

How to Submit
Online. We use Submittable. (Saves trees, prevents paper cuts.) We cannot consider emails with attachments or snail mail.

Multiple Submissions
Please submit only once in each category and wait until you receive our response before submitting again. (A contest is its own category.)

Simultaneous Submissions
Yes, of course. But please withdraw your submission immediately via Submittable if another publication beats us to your work.

Call for Submissions: Consequence

 

Submissions are welcome during the spring (January 15 – April 15) and fall (July 15 – October 15) reading periods*, and will be considered for our print publication (Consequence journal), our website (Consequence online), or our blog (Consequence substack). Please note that all subs need to address in some manner the consequences of war or geopolitical violence.

*Translations is open year-round

Curious about the work we typically publish? Check out our substack.

If you have questions, please check out our FAQ page. If you still have questions after reading that, please send us an email via the form at the bottom of this page. Thank you.

Please note that we have a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to AI-generated work. If your sub is deemed to have been created by AI, even partially, you will be banned from submitting to us.

Pay Rates and Submission Info--

Poetry

• Print: $20 per piece

• Online Feature: $50

• Substack: $30

• We love any and all forms of poetry so no restrictions here.

• Up to three poems per sub

Nonfiction

• Print: 1-4 pp—$30

• 5-10 pp—$40 | 11+ pp—$50

• Online Feature: $50

• Substack: $30

• Interviews, Critical & Personal Essays, Narrative Nonfiction, and everything in-between

• < four thousand words

Translations 

• The same pay scale and guidelines as listed for the corresponding genre (e.g., a translated poem follows the Poetry guidelines)

• Please note: Translations have additional sub requirements, which are listed on our submission platform.

Fiction

• Print: 1-4 pp—$30

• 5-10 pp—$40 | 11+ pp—$50

• Online Feature: $50

• Substack: $30

• Shorts: < five thousand words

• Flash: < a thousand words

• Excerpts: < five thousand words

Reviews

• We pay for reviews, though primarily publish ones we solicit. We’re open to pitches, though, so if you have a review idea for a book, movie, play, etc., that’s related to craft and/or our themes—please reach out to our Reviews Editor here:

reviews@consequenceforum.org

• Fifteen hundreed to three thousand words

Art

• Print: $150 for eight-page spread

• Online Feature: $50

• Substack: $30

• We’re interested in all forms and mediums, though graphic narratives tend to work better online

Submission portal here.

Call for Submissions: Cygnus Magazine

Issue 2 Submissions

- Cygnus is open year-round.

- Our submission period is open from 11th June to 1st August.

- A gratuity of $33 to $50 and free digital copies of our Issue will be given to the selected poets and writers. Moreover, the shortlisted poets will only receive the free digital copies of our Issue.

- Please do not submit AI-generated, religious, or political work.

- Follow the submission guidelines, or your work will be rejected.

- Currently, we are operating as a small team, so please be patient with the results and our upcoming Issues.

Submission Guidelines

These are the submission guidelines below: -

1. We do accept previously published work, and simultaneous submissions are allowed; if your work is accepted elsewhere, you do not need to withdraw your submission. We will be glad to include it in our Issue.

2. Please send your work in a single Word file.

3. Give a heading to your work. Do not include your name or anything that involves your personal data in your Word file.

4. Send a maximum of 5 poems not exceeding 12 pages.

5. We accept poetry, short fiction, and flash fiction.

6. Submit only one short story not exceeding 5000 words and one flash fiction not exceeding 2500 words.

7. We accept poems of all forms and styles.

8. Please send your work in English only.

Call for Submissions: Yarnz

We’re grateful you’re considering submitting your work to our publication. We’re looking for pieces that challenge well-established ideas. We love writing that makes us pause after each paragraph, and we’re big fans of literature that helps us see old patterns through a new lens. We’re especially interested in ideas that are fresh and surprising. We welcome pitches from all voices, including those who may not consider themselves writers but have something meaningful to say. Please read our editorial tone guide here.

Creative Nonfiction & Essays

• Cultural, social, and political essays. Well-structured cultural and social commentary, and analysis (afrobeats, literature, movies, etc.). Reported features are also welcome. There’s no word count!

• We’re generally interested in essays that offer new and interesting ideas

• We like works that offer an historical angle to a current problem or phenomenon

• We’re a fan of essays that explore topics that aren’t popular

• We welcome personal essays that do not veer into obsessive self-awareness

• We value essays that explore African metaphors, music, memory, movement, imagination, and meaning-making.

• Pitch us at:

 pitches@yarnzmag.com

Fiction

• Short stories, literary or experimental fiction with strong voice and rooted settings.

• We're interested in fiction that explore how people live and move in West African Countries; what does Black joy means and new definitions of this; positive representations of West African heritage; West Africans in the diaspora; meta-fictional address of societal issues and ailings in the region; engagement with consumerism and western institutions; works that send a message and shows depth of research; historical timelines represented in fiction; fluid and confident mixed use of English and pidgin and other WA languages

• Checkout Lover Boy and Keyhole. That’s the current bar.

Send submissions to:

fiction@yarnzmag.com

Poetry

• One to three poems per submission

• We’re interested in explorations of cultural identity; works steeped in the essence of West African languages; what it means to exist and live in these areas; poems on seeing from a West African lens; poems that pay homage to tradition, forgotten cultural practices and West African gods; renaming the divine in this part of the world; works that explore what it means to write in other West African languages; West African poetry translations.

• Send submissions to:

 poetry@yarnzmag.com

Visual Essays, Art & Photo Stories

• High-resolution images (4-10), accompanied by a short artist statement or narrative (150–500 words)

• We love pieces that are cohesive: your collection should tell a story

• Your work doesn’t have to be political, but it should fit within a broader societal context

• Satirical works are welcome. Art for art’s sake isn’t welcome

Send submissions to:

art@yarnzmag.com

Submission Format

• Attach work as a Word document (.doc or .docx) or PDF

• Use standard fonts and double spacing (except for poetry)

• Include a short bio (max 80 words) and your social media handle. We ask that you follow us on social media as well. This makes it easy to find you when posting about your work.

• Your email subject line should follow this format: ‘lastname_firstname_category’

Simultaneous submissions are allowed, but notify us if your work is accepted elsewhere. We accept original, unpublished work only. Upon publication in Yarnz, rights of all works revert to its contributor. Any subsequent publications must acknowledge us, i.e. “First published in Yarnz Magazine.” We will notify you after receiving each submission. We try to reach out with decisions 3 – 4 weeks after the submission deadline, but we’re a small, so delays might occur. If you have questions, please reach out to us via email:

info@yarnzmag.com

Pay

Yarnz is a new and entirely bootstrapped magazine. While we’re working hard to properly pay contributors, we can only offer a $10 honorarium for accepted submissions at this time. 

Writing Residency: The Jan Michalski Foundation Residency

The Jan Michalski Foundation’s residency for writers is designed to provide an environment for literary creation and to support those involved in the written word.

The Foundation features a group of seven distinctive residential modules that are available for writers and translators invited for residencies of varying lengths of time. Hanging from the openwork “canopy” that runs above the Foundation, these units are called “cabins” and offer ideal conditions to anyone who is looking to start, continue working on, or put the finishing touches to a writing project.

Although open to all kinds of writing and all languages, the residency program does give priority to literary writers and translators. The residencies can be for either individuals or pairs of participants in the case of projects involving more than one discipline. Each year some forty authors from around the world, from emerging writers to seasoned veterans, are able to count on a certain period of time dedicated to a literary project.

A percentage of the residencies are dedicated to nature writing, a form of fiction or creative non-fiction that raises awareness of nature, prepares for a sustainable future, and helps to better understand socio-environmental interconnections and the impact of human actions on nature.

Become a resident

General Terms and Conditions

Residences are available for all types of writers engaged in literary creation. While we give priority to writers and translators, we are also open to other disciplines as long as literature is at the heart of the project. Stays in the Jan Michalski Foundation are granted to individuals as well as pairs of writers working on a common project. The latter might include a writer and a translator, a writer and someone from another discipline, two writers, and so on.

Location

The Jan Michalski Foundation lies at the foot of the Swiss Jura Mountains in Montricher. The village is approximately 30 minutes from Lausanne and one hour from Geneva. It is possible to reach Montricher from Morges by train.

Six “cabins” overlook Lake Geneva and the Alps while a seventh is oriented towards the forested slopes of the Jura. One final cabin serves as a kitchen and common living area where resident writers can cook together, socialize and relax.

Length of stay

Residencies can vary in length, lasting from two weeks to one, two, or three months. The length of stay should match the scope of the project. The period applied for is a request only, and the Jan Michalski Foundation reserves the right to offer another period depending on availability.

Eligibility criteria

• There are no age or nationality restrictions.

• Beginners are accepted.

• Candidates are only allowed to submit one application per year.

• Former residents are not allowed to reapply.

Residence conditions

Residents are allocated one of the seven cabins for periods lasting from two weeks to three months. The cabin allows them to live independently. For projects in pairs, a separate cabin will be assigned to each of the selected candidates. We are not able to welcome families, children or pets at the Jan Michalski Foundation.

Please be advised that we are not able to divide residencies into multiple stays throughout the year.

There is one cabin available for people with reduced mobility. Please specify any reduced mobility needs in the Comments box in the Your Stay section of the application form.

Residents’ travel costs to and from their home address will be covered by the Foundation.

Residents are granted a weekly allowance of CHF 400.

The Foundation provides breakfast and lunch for residents and the village has a small grocery shop.

Electric bikes are available for residents.

The Montricher train station, with regular connections to Morges, is situated two kilometers from the Foundation.

Residents have free access to the library during the day.

Residents are free to participate in cultural activities organized by the Foundation.

Selection criteria and process

Applications will be assessed based on three criteria, the literary quality of the project, the candidate’s professional background, and whether or not the length of the stay matches the scope of the project. Beginners’ applications are assessed based on the quality of the project and the motivation they are able to convey in their application.

Please be aware that we are unable to modify applications or add documents to applications once they are submitted.

A panel of experts chaired by Mrs. Vera Michalski-Hoffmann will make a decision on all applications.

All candidates will be notified of the jury’s decision.

Reasons for non-selection will not be provided by the jury.

Schedule

The application forms for 2027 will be available online from 2 June 2026, and will remain open until 31 August 2026.

 Announcement of selected candidates: December 2026

Arrival of the first wave of selected residents: mid-January 2027

How to apply

• Applications are to be registered and submitted online. Please make sure you follow each step and send all of the requested documents.

• Incomplete applications will not be considered.

• Applications can be submitted in English or French. But the excerpts from your current or your published work can be in any language.

Submit your application here.