Call for Submissions:The ANA

 

 SUBMISSIONS OPEN: MAY - JUNE 2026 

 While all rights revert to the contributors, The Ana must be noted as the first site of publication.

 We prioritize BIPOC, Queer, and working-class people.

FICTION · NON-FICTION · ESSAY · CROSS-GENRE LITERATURE

 Submit up to 3 works of prose.

 Each prose work must be up to 4,000 words max.

 Submit each piece individually.

 We only accept docx.

 POETRY · POETRY IN TRANSLATION

 Submit up to 3 poems.

 We only accept docx.

 Submit each piece individually.

 If you submit Poetry in Translation, please include context for the translation and the original poem.

 VISUAL ART

 Submit up to 5 works of visual art.

 We do not accept work created with Artificial Intelligence (AI).

 We only accept jpegs.  

Submit your work here. 

Writing Competitions: Blue Earth's Dog Daze Summer Contest

Dog Daze Summer Contest Guidelines

Blue Earth Review is looking for ambitious and exuberant works of flash fiction, essay, memoir, and short poetry that offer insight, complicate existing conversations, and that enrich our understanding of what it means to be human in an increasingly complex world.

Grand prize: One $500 prize per genre & publication.

Deadline: August 21, 2026

The current contest season is 2026. Submissions are currently: Open.

Submission fee per genre is $5, non-waivable and non-refundable. One submission per participant is allowed. Only submissions made through our official Submittable portal are accepted. Simultaneous submissions are accepted. Notify us immediately if the piece is accepted elsewhere. Participants must be United States residents or valid US taxpayers. Split winnings are not allowed. Winners will be paid the full $500 upon confirmation and processing as allowed by our affiliated institution, Minnesota State University–Mankato. Payment will be received on or after publication of the featured magazine. Contact us with any questions.

Alumni of Minnesota State University–Mankato must wait a minimum of 5 years after graduation to be eligible to submit to Blue Earth Review.

Flash Fiction

Submit up to two flash fiction pieces of no more than 750 words each. If you include multiple pieces, please include them both in a single file (.doc or .docx).
Winner: $500 prize and publication
Submissions: Open

Flash Creative Nonfiction

Submit up to two flash creative nonfiction pieces of no more than 750 words each. If you include multiple pieces, please include them both in a single file (.doc or .docx).
Winner: $500 prize and publication
Submissions: Open.

Submit up to three poems per submission in a single file (.doc or .docx). Max 5 pages.
Winner: $500 prize and publication
Submissions: Open.

Submit your entry here.

Call for Submissions: The Waxed Lemon

 

SUBMISSIONS

To submit your work for issue 11 of The Waxed Lemon, please review the submission guidelines below.

To submit, you will click on the link where you will be taken to a Google form. Please answer all the relevant questions and then upload your submission as either a Word document or a PDF file.

Submission Guidelines

PLEASE DO NOT submit to more than one category.

Work should not have previously been published in print or on social media.

Send no more than 3 poems. Poems should be no more than 30 lines long.

Send 1 piece of flash fiction. Flash should be under 500 words.

Send 1 story. Story should be under 2000 words.

We are not accepting ART submissions at this time.

Gaeilge agus Fáilte. Irish language submissions encouraged.

Submit your work in a single file as a Word attachment in .doc or .docx or as a PDF. ​

Please use single spacing and 12 point standard font.

​ Submit only during open submission periods - Monday 4th May 2026 to Saturday 3oth May 2026.

​ Send any queries to:

 thewaxedlemonsubs@gmail.com

​Submissions which fail to adhere to the above criteria will not be considered.

​​​The Waxed Lemon is a two-person organization and for this reason it can take up to 16 weeks before we can respond to submissions. We are aware that this is a long time to wait. Therefore, we are happy to accept simultaneous submissions. We just ask that if work you have submitted to us is accepted elsewhere, that you let us know as soon as possible.

​Pilot Payment Scheme

The Waxed Lemon is introducing a payment scheme for Issue 11.

Contributors will receive €50 per poem, €50 per flash fiction piece, and €100 per short story published.

This is a pilot payment scheme. We are grateful to the The Arts Office, Waterford City & County Council for their support of this scheme.

All contributors will receive a complimentary copy of the issue in which they are published.

Submission link here. 

Call for Submissions: Kestrel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kestrel publishes fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction by established and emerging writers. We are especially happy to publish work by West Virginia and Appalachian writers. Kestrel features reviews and visual art in each issue.

Kestrel is now accepting submissions year-round. Submissions are only accepted through Submittable.

Poetry: Kestrel welcomes poems of all genres, styles, and traditions, including experimental and hybrid forms, as well as poetry in translation. Send 3-5 of your best poems during one of our reading periods.

Poetry in Translation: Submissions of poetry in translation are encouraged. We prefer to publish bilingual translations (on facing pages), and we require clear permission from the original poet for the translation and for printing their work in the original (unless the work is in the public domain).

Fiction: Kestrel is open to any genre of short fiction that questions assumptions and moves us to reconsider everyday life. We enjoy stories with believable plots, developed characters, consistent points-of-view, vivid and symbolic settings, true dialogue, and thought-provoking themes, though we also enjoy experimental writing that makes new the expected conventions. 5,000 words maximum.

Non-Fiction: Creative nonfiction, memoir, or literary essays are preferred. Subject matter may vary but attention to writing as craft and art is paramount; the attention to diction, syntax, and detail should delight and surprise. We appreciate writing that makes a subject's complexity understandable and its familiarity new. We expect non-fiction to be non-fiction.

Reviews: Please query via email. See featured reviews at:

www.fairmontstate.edu/kestrel

Visual Art: Submissions to Kestrel may be made in any medium. Image resolution should be at least 300 dpi and in .jpg format. We publish full-color and black and white images. Kestrel may use images for publicity purposes.

Wrongfully Neglected: Kestrel invites recommendations, reflections, and reviews of individual texts (poems, short stories, essays) or books that fall outside the conventional guidelines for reviews, in terms of publication age (typically under 2 years), length (500 words and up), and voice. We would like to read pieces that show our readers why overlooked or forgotten literature published more than 2 years ago should be hunted down and read (or reread) immediately. Form and formality may vary, but writing must be vivid and engaging. Length should exceed a typical blurb but stop by the end of a Kestrel page (about 750 words). Submissions that do not meet these guidelines will be declined.

Only previously unpublished work will be considered. Kestrel retains first North American rights only. Contributors receive one copy and a one year subscription. Address your submission to the appropriate editor (fiction, poetry, nonfiction, visual art). Simultaneous submissions are accepted; immediate notification of a manuscript accepted elsewhere is expected.

Note: For submissions received January-May and August-November, allow six months for our response before inquiring. Restrict submissions to one per calendar year.

All accepted work is for the print publication; select work may be featured on our website. Kestrel submits each issue to Verse Daily, Poetry Daily, and Vox Populi, and, therefore, work published in Kestrel may be chosen for reprint in those venues.

Submittable is our only method for submissions.

Writing Competition: The Catamaran Poetry Prize for West Coast Writers

The Catamaran Poetry Prize encourages the submission of previously unpublished poetry manuscripts across a range of styles, themes, and forms. This contest is for a book length collection of poetry only. Manuscripts of fiction, creative nonfiction, translations, or screenplays are ineligible. The prize is only open to West Coast poets living in California, Washington, Oregon, Alaska, and Hawaii. All submissions should be written in English.

A prize of $1,000 will and publication in book form will be awarded to poet for the winning poetry collection selected by the judge for publication.

All poets who have entered their manuscript in the contest will receive a complimentary, one-year subscription to our literary journal Catamaran.

Submissions must be received between February 15, 2026 and July 1, 2026 in order to be considered for publication. No late submissions will be accepted.

Manuscripts must be typed, paginated, and between 60-100 pages in length. Poems in the collection must be the original work of the author and previously unpublished in a book length collection. Poems can be published previously in print magazines or online journals. Publication acknowledgments should be included for previously published work. Please ensure all included quotations are clearly attributed to the author.

Simultaneous submissions and multiple submissions are acceptable. Please send us an email at editor@catamaranliteraryreader.com and let us know immediately if your manuscript is accepted elsewhere.

Submissions will be read blind, without identification of the author, so please remove your name from the title page and content of the manuscript itself. Because the reviews will be made blind, former students of the judge are not disqualified. Previous manuscript submissions to a prior contest are also not disqualified, and may be entered again.

Revisions are not allowed to the manuscript after it has been submitted to the contest. However, the winning poet will have time to revise the collection before publication. Catamaran reserves the right to get approval from the judge if revisions are significant.

If our staff encounters any difficulties in processing your submission we will contact you to obtain a correction. Minor errors in your submission (spelling, formatting, typographic errors) do not affect your chance of winning.

The winner will be announced on the Catamaran website in September, 2026, and we expect to publish the winning collection in January 2026. We will also announce the names of finalists and semifinalists in September 2026 on our website. We will send a Submittable notification of the manuscripts selected as winner and finalists in September, 2026.

Reminder: this is a BLIND submission. Please remove your name from all pages of the manuscript, including from the title page. Manuscripts with identifying information will be "opened for editing" and not entered into the contest until the poet removes identifying information from all pages. Do not include names of people you would like to thank and acknowledge in your submission. These types of acknowledgements can be included and published with the winning manuscript.

Catamaran will host a book launch event and reading in December 2025. The book will also be entered for publication awards.

This year's judge is Joseph Millar. 

Submit your entry here.

Entry Fee: $45.00 (Includes subscription to Catamaran and a copy of the winning poetry collection.)

Call for Submissions: Public School Poetry

Public School Poetry publishes two online issues each year: a Back-to-School Issue in September, and a Spring Break Issue in April. Please note that while we invoke public school tropes for the identity of this journal, we are not asking for school-specific poems or student-specific submitters. Please read the guidelines below and then send us work you’re passionate to share with us!

We have two reading periods each year:

October 15th - December 1st

April 15th - June 1st

Submit 4-6 unpublished poems in one file that does not exceed ten pages to our Submittable account. When you get to Submittable, you will also be asked to fill out a brief enrollment form instead of a letter. The enrollment form is primarily our checkpoint that you know what we're about and really want to be a part of it.

​Poets selected will be published under the condition that they write “a five-paragraph essay” (300-600'ish words) on a fellow contributor’s poem packet for the issue. Contributors are randomly and anonymously assigned their packet by the Public School Poetry Vice Principals shortly after being accepted to the issue. This exchange is a vital part of our mission to democratize craft talk and poetry engagement.

We ask that these "five-paragraph essays" engage explicitly with the poems in order to guide our readers back to them with renewed/different understanding. We encourage contributors to consider the “five-paragraph essay” as a structure to play with/use in much the same way you might approach a sonnet or an ekphrasis. Essays can be as lyrical or analytical as you like as long as there’s five parts/units/paragraphs. Contributors are not obligated to address every poem and we won’t edit your essay or ask for revisions as long as it does this work and follows our school spirit guidelines:

• We are here to lift each other up, not put each other in trash cans

• We love questions and paradoxes, and we value insight over criticism

• We are generous to styles, subjects, tones, forms, and aesthetics that differ from our own our own

We only have room to publish a handful of writers. If your pieces aren’t selected, please know we still read them with care and are cheering you on from the bleachers. If your pieces are selected, please note that you are agreeing to give Public School Poetry first serial publication rights. After publication, all rights revert back to you, the author. 

Submit your work here. 

Call for Submissions: The Journal of Compressed Arts

The Journal of Compressed Creative Arts is looking for, as you might guess, “compressed creative arts.” We accept fiction and creative nonfiction, as long as they are compressed in some way. Work is published weekly, without labels, and the labels here only exist to help us determine its best readers. Our response time is generally 1-5 days. Also, our acceptance rate is currently about 2% of submissions.

We pay writers $50 per accepted piece and signed contract.

Submissions are open from March 15 to June 15 and September 15 to December 15.

If you’ve been previously published by the press, please wait a year until submitting again. Thanks.

Here are a baker’s dozen of things Matter Press definitely doesn’t want:

• conversations in bars, cafes, restaurants, cars, hikes, or in some unexplained space where disembodied voices think they are way more interesting and clever than they are

• anything written “after.” Nothing in conversation with, inspired by, or an homage to a preceding poem, artwork, or other text. Before is okay.

• line break poetry or poetry written as prose with / between the lines where the line break would be

• Pieces “after” the action, so that the protagonist does nothing except moments of glancing, thinking, reflecting, noticing, sitting, wondering, brushing, dreaming…

• odd names of characters like Friglep or Zueron or Noir or anything that isn’t a name

• a strange writing pseudonym that is a bunch of senseless letters strung together

• the heading on a piece that still has the name of the writing teacher, English teacher, professor—along with the name of the class

• yeah, the world is awful, the president is awful, the climate is awful, ICE is awful. It’s all awful. We know. No need to tell us. We 100% get it.

• second-person stories. You can send such a story to your other favorite literary magazines; you do not need to send it here.

• pieces that assume we will automatically care about your piece because you wrote it. We won’t. The piece needs to make us care. And pretty quickly. There are 100s of pieces in the slush pile. We aren’t a writing workshop that has no choice but to read each piece carefully and closely and lovingly because everyone knows everyone. We have choices. Hundreds of them.

• the appearance of Jesus, God, or any holy being

• writing about writing

• any questions about the above

The reader for your submission is, during this round of submissions, the managing editor.

Please be sure to submit in the correct category; we’ve been receiving several fiction submissions in the creative nonfiction category. For all submitters, we aren’t as concerned with labels—hint fiction, prose poetry, micro fiction, flash fiction, and so on—as we are with what compression means to you. In other words, what form “compression” takes in each artist’s work will be up to each individual. However, we don’t publish erotica or work with strong, graphic sexual content. In short, we want to fall in love with your work. That might happen in the way we’ve fallen in love with work we’ve previously published, or it might happen in a way we have yet to experience. Maybe reading that other work will help in knowing whether you should send your work to us, but in truth, such a thing might not be discoverable. Here are things that matter:

Please do not include a cover letter as part of the manuscript document.

Please include, as part of your cover letter on Submittable, a brief bio. Also, in the cover letter, let us know why you feel this piece works for a journal obsessed with “compression.”

Please no more than one submission of a single piece in each genre at a time. Please feel free to submit again after receiving a response, but please no more than 3 submissions per genre per reading period.

Simultaneous submissions are fine with us, but please let us know if the submission has been accepted elsewhere. Failure to do will result in some facsimile of your face being put on the Matter dart board. And no one wants that.

Please format prose to be singled-spaced, 12-point Times New Roman font, in a Microsoft Word document, with an extra space between each paragraph.

If you’ve been previously published by The Journal of Compressed Creative Arts, please wait a year before submitting again.

Submit your work here.