Call for Submissions: Smokelong Quarterly

SmokeLong publishes flash narratives up to 1000 words. We consider reviews of flash collections, essays on craft, and articles on teaching flash for the blog. Include a print-ready, third-person bio with your cover letter. Please include no identifying information on your document, the filename, or the title on Submittable. Our editors read submissions anonymously and have no access to the cover letter or the messaging feature on Submittable.

You can send one previously unpublished piece at a time and wait until you hear our decision before sending another, or you can send up to three submissions in the same document for a small fee. The multiple-submission option includes a discount code to be used in the SmokeLong Shop and a promise to respond within 3 days. If your submission is being considered for publication, we’ll let you know that we’ll need a few more days to discuss your work.

During unpaid submissions windows, please allow us up to four weeks to inform you if we have accepted your work for publication. You will usually hear from us sooner. During paid submissions windows, we try to respond within one week. For submissions accompanied by a tip jar donation, we try to respond within three days regardless of when the piece is submitted.

We consider simultaneous submissions, but please take into consideration response times when submitting to multiple journals. Please inform us immediately if your work has been accepted somewhere else for publication.

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

Our Reading Schedule: 

• March Issue: November 16-February 15

• June Issue (The SmokeLong Quarterly Award for Flash Fiction): February 1-May 10. General submissions are closed from February 16 to May 14 while we read entries in The SmokeLong Quarterly Award for Flash Fiction competition.

• September Issue: May 15-August 15

• December Issue (including The SmokeLong Grand Micro Contest): August 16-November 15. The reading period for The SmokeLong Grand Micro Contest begins August 1. General submissions are open!

Please note that starting May 16 2025, we will have free-submission windows for each of the general-submissions reading periods above. After these windows close, there will be a small charge for submissions. We will announce these deadlines on social media; please follow us on Bluesky and The Train Wreck Formerly Known as Twitter to stay up to date. If you cannot afford to pay a small submission fee, no worries. We will always have a free-submission period.

Info to Help Increase Your Chances of Publication

The best way to learn what a journal publishes is to read the journal. Our archives—23 years of flash!—are free to read. If you are unfamiliar with the flash narrative, please take a few hours and browse our archives.

We are not interested in works previously published—with the exception of the now annual Grand Micro Contest, which is open to previously published work. Pieces published only on your personal web site or blog will be considered as long as they are removed before publication in SmokeLong; please inform us of this in your cover letter. Translated work must also be previously unpublished in the original language.

We are all writers at SmokeLong and sensitive to the nature of submitting work—which we realize is often your very private and important selves—to strangers. We will treat your story with respect. We want what all readers want from you: something sincerely and uniquely yours, something that stands up to rereading and lingers in our consciousness. We want to be surprised and thrilled.

Our intent is to respond as quickly as possible, which means you might receive a rejection one or two days after submitting. Please know that at least two editors gave your submission careful consideration. If we are considering your work longer than three weeks during unpaid submissions periods or one week during paid submissions periods, this is a great sign.

Online Rights: If we publish your work, we require exclusive electronic rights to it for 6 months and non-exclusive rights indefinitely so we can include it in our online archives.

Print Rights: We require non-exclusive print rights, for potential annual anthologies and promotional materials. All other rights remain yours.

Submit your work here.

Call for Submissions on Theme of "Playground Boyfriend": Black Warrior Review's Boyfriend Village

 

Boyfriend Village is Black Warrior Review’s online edition, released once and sometimes twice a year.

In March 2018, BWR chose to rename and reconfigure its online issue in honor of Zach Doss, who had passed away unexpectedly. Zach was a dedicated BWR Editor and a brilliant writer of queer, fabulist, surprising works; Boyfriend Village has become a special haven for such writing and much, much more.

In honor of Zach’s bold vision and legacy, Boyfriend Village seeks to be a fully accessible space for unusual, boundary-pushing literary content, especially work from the margins, work that makes exciting use of digital platforms, and work that other well-established journals might overlook. We hope that with the increased online presence Boyfriend Village allows, we might provide a larger platform for underrepresented aesthetics and writing communities. Work found in Boyfriend Village resists and challenges notions of “the page” alongside other extraordinary pieces you might expect to find in the print issues of BWR.

Every issue of Boyfriend Village has a new Online Editor, who selects a new theme and keeps the village refreshed and moving forward, even as it honors a vital part of BWR history.

All Boyfriend Village contributors are paid for their work.

2026 Boyfriend Village: Playground Boyfriend

Black Warrior Review is seeking submissions of all genres for our tenth edition of Boyfriend Village: Playground Boyfriend.

For many of us, the playground is where we first act out dominant societal institutions: performing weddings, playing house, or building business empires from woodchips. However, the playground is also where the boundaries of those institutions can dissolve entirely. Yes, the wedding is still on, but today, the brides are both mermaid horses with ice powers. The playground is space for experimenting with possibility. How high can you swing? How dizzy can you make yourself? If the jump skins your knee today, will it do the same tomorrow? This ground is where discovery happens, where exploration runs reckless, where rules can be more than broken; they can be thrown out entirely. We all love work which surprises the audience, but when does the artist surprise themself? Playground Boyfriend seeks art which embraces play, whether that be through wordplay and constraint, a spiritual release of control, a refusal to settle in one genre, a commitment to silliness, radical acts of imagination, or digging wormful holes in the dirt.

In most spaces, it isn’t proper to play. Play is treated as a luxury, a distraction, an unnecessary accessory to adult existence. Playground Boyfriend begs to disagree and argues that play is a vital mode of accessing what could be, and that work which plays can explore all stages of life. On the playground, there is room to move wildly without the bounds of itineraries, rules, or conventions of the restrictive here and now. Play towards a realized queer futurity, imagine the potential for new worlds, unshackle your art from all traces of colonialism, heteronormativity, or hyperindividualism—build a playground divorced from so-called reality. Bring Playground Boyfriend your disobedient grammars, your funky mix, your improper, your bold and wise. Leap from monkey bar to cumulus cloud, tongue out to gravity.

Playground Boyfriend invites you to disrespect authority, smash borders, make up the rules, turn office buildings to jungle gyms. There is no one form of playground—though we love tire swings and seesaws as much as anyone—because anywhere can become a playground, even trees and oceans and superstores and kitchen tables and grass blades and sewer systems and housefires. Claim new grounds for creativity. Let your play sprawl. Playground Boyfriend is here, one knee pressed in the mud, offering a blue raspberry Ring-Pop in exchange for your love, your rage, your melancholy, your bittersweet. We want your anything, so long as it plays.

This year’s editor is Tillie Lefforge, and you can learn more about her vision for this year’s Boyfriend Village on Instagram.

Submission Guidelines:

Submissions are open between May 15th, 2026, and June 15th, 2026. While themed, this is open to interpretation. If you think your boyfriend(s) might belong in our village, don’t hesitate—send them along!

There is one submission category for all genres. We accept fiction, poetry, nonfiction, hybrid, visual and multimedia art, as well as sound collage, video, games, and more. For graphic, audio, and visual work, if Submittable accepts the file type, so will we! Color images are welcome. If submittable doesn’t accept the file type, feel free to email us at:

onlineeditors.bwr@gmail.com 

You may use your cover letter to tell us as much or as little about yourself & your work as you like. Simultaneous submissions are welcome. 

Though we welcome submissions of all forms of art, the following are general guidelines on length: 

• For prose, under 6000 words is preferable.
• For flash (pieces under 1000 words), you may include up to three pieces.
• For poetry, five poems or less is ideal.

Again, these are just guidelines; they’re here to give you an idea of the typical length we’re willing to accept. For submissions that can’t be measured by word count, just keep in mind how much time is needed to fully engage with the work. We suggest that you look through past issues of Boyfriend Village as a guide on what would be an appropriate length to submit.

AI Statement: Work that has been created in any part with the assistance of AI tools is not eligible for submission or publication.

There is a $5 submission fee. Submission fees are used to compensate contributors. If you need a fee waiver for any reason, please email us at:

feewaiver.bwr@gmail.com

to request one.

Submit your work here. 

Call for Submissions: Qu Literary Magazine

 

Submissions for the Winter 2027 issue will open on May 15, 2026 and remain open until August 15, 2026.

Payment Upon Publication: $100 per prose piece or visual art, $50 per poem, plus a copy of the magazine. Alternatively, contributors may opt to receive five copies of the magazine.

We do not accept previously published work or work generated with AI. While we gladly accept international submissions, we are unable to pay international contributors or send complimentary copies of the magazine internationally at this time.

Rights: Qu requires First North American Serial Rights to publication (electronic and print). All rights revert back to authors upon publication. We do, however, post everything we publish on the archive section of the website after print publication, and so require Nonexclusive Electronic Rights.

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

Submit your work here. 

Call for Submissions: Cahava Literary Journal

Cahava (meaning “proverb” in Urdu/Hindi) is an international literary journal dedicated to championing remarkable voices in the literary world. We strive to introduce up-and-coming writers to a wider audience.

Cahava publishes pieces that explore the human condition - short stories that make you laugh to poems that may make you cry. Most importantly, we look for work that offers a new perspective on the world around us; or perhaps just help understand ourselves a little better.

Cahava is an international online literary journal, published quarterly. Each issue features a thoughtfully curated selection of poetry and fiction.

We welcome submissions of short stories, flash fiction, poetry, and prose poetry. All work must be original, unpublished, and written in English. Translations are also welcome, provided that appropriate permissions have been secured.

We accept submissions year-round and do not charge a submission fee.

Submission - Summer 2026

Deadline - Jun 15, 2026

Status - Open

Prose
Submissions up to 3,000 words, including:

Short stories

Novel excerpts

Creative nonfiction

Personal essays (literary or general interest)

Play scripts

Postcard stories

Compensation: $0.05 (CAD) per word

Poetry
Submit up to five original poems of any style. Individual poems must not exceed three pages in length.

Compensation: Higher of $10 or $0.05 (CAD) per word

Additional Notes

Simultaneous submissions are accepted; however, notify us immediately (contact@cahava.com) if your piece is accepted elsewhere.

Previously published work (in print, online, or digital) will not be considered.

Response time: up to 8-10 weeks.

Submit your work here.

Call for Submissions from Writers Under Age 25: Afterbodies

Thank you so much for choosing Afterbodies to house your beautiful work!

We are currently accepting submissions of poetry and prose from all writers under the age of 25. 

Our reading periods are May 10th—July 1st and October 10th—December 1st. We seek writing that tacks, cajoles, and resurfaces the unseen. To submit, please use our Duosuma listing.

We pay a flat honorarium of $20 per accepted contributor. Please submit up to 10 pages of written work per reading period. We will endeavor to get back to you within three to four weeks. We kindly ask that you submit only once per reading cycle, and refrain from submitting AI-assisted work or work which conveys a harmful message. Simultaneous submissions are allowed.

Afterbodies receives first electronic serial rights to your piece upon publication. After publication, all rights revert back to the author. Please acknowledge Afterbodies as the first publication in future appearances. You can reach us at:

editors.afterbodies@gmail.com 

for questions and concerns.

Submit all poetry and prose through Duosuma: 

https://duotrope.com/duosuma/submit/afterbodies-iJ2WM 

Submitting through our submission form is preferred, but if you cannot access it for any reason, you may email your submission to us at:

editors.afterbodies@gmail.com

Please format your email header as “[Name] - [Genre] Submission”, and include a cover letter and a personal bio.

For poetry, please send up to five single-spaced poems, starting each poem on a new page. PDF.

For prose, send up to three pieces double-spaced, with a total word count of less than 5,000 words. PDF.

​We will get back to you in under three to four weeks. Feel free to query on the status of your submission after four weeks. If you need to withdraw your submission, please email:

editors.afterbodies@gmail.com

Writing Competition: International Voices in CNF: Vine Leaves Press

International Voices in CNF 

Submission Guidelines:

1. Eligibility:

• The competition is open to writers worldwide.

• Submissions must be in English and unpublished (that includes self-published). Submissions written by AI will be disqualified.

• VLP authors and staff are not eligible to enter.

• We welcome submissions from marginalized voices including, but not limited to:

Age

BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color)

Body positivity

Chronic illness

LatinX

LGBTQ+

Neurodivergent

People living with disabilities (intellectual and physical)

People living with HIV

People with a history of incarceration

Sex workers

Undocumented people

Unhoused people

Women

2. Next Submission Period:

• Submissions open on February 1, 2026.

• Submissions close on July 1, 2026, at 11:59 PM (UTC+2).

3. Submission Process:

• Submit your creative nonfiction manuscript via Submittable.

• Each submission requires a $28 entry fee, payable through Submittable.

4. Formatting Guidelines:

• If the manuscript is narrative in nature (i.e. a memoir) then the length should be between 50,000 – 80,000 words, give or take within reason.

• If the manuscript is experimental in nature (i.e. not straight prose, could be vignettes, poetry, or a mix), it should be at least 100 pages long.

• Submissions must be in a standard font (e.g., Times New Roman) and size (12pt), double-spaced.

• Include the title of your manuscript at the beginning.

5. Anonymity:

• Please ensure that your submission does not contain any biographical information on the front. PLEASE NOTE: There is no need to be anonymous in your actual manuscript (it's nonfiction!). We just don't want it to be obvious for the initial selection process so we can be certain that our readers aren't swayed by the demographics of the author before they start reading.

6. Multiple Entries:

• You may submit multiple entries to the competition, each requiring a separate entry fee.

7. Judging Process:

• Judges will assess entries based on originality, creativity, writing quality, and adherence to the genre.

• The judging process is blind (as it can possibly be, since it's nonfiction), ensuring impartiality and fairness. ​

​8. Notification Timeline:

• Longlist: October 2026

• Shortlist: December 2026

• Winner: January 2027

9. Prizes:

• The winner will receive a cash prize of $1000.

• Publication of the winning manuscript will occur in 2028 by Vine Leaves Press.

• Runners up will also be considered for publication.

10. Rights:

• By submitting your work, you grant Vine Leaves Press the right to publish your manuscript in print and digital formats.

11. Questions:

• For any inquiries regarding the competition or submission process, please contact us at:

 info@vineleavespress.com

12. Legal Notice:

• Vine Leaves Press reserves the right to amend any guidelines or dates related to the competition if necessary.

Call for Submissions: Radon

Radon welcomes short stories and poetry containing elements of science fiction, anarchism, transhumanism, or dystopia.

​We publish quality literature the first of every February, June, and October.

Submissions are accepted year-round.

Simultaneous submissions are welcome.

Reprints no longer accepted as of 2025.

AI submissions are not allowed at Radon.

We kindly request a third-person bio that is 100-words or shorter in your cover letter.

Author rights:

For original work, Radon asks for first worldwide digital and print publication rights in English and non-exclusive archival rights.

Authors published in Radon cannot be accepted into the issue immediately following, but may submit after this period.

Our issue reading periods are:

​February: Sep. 1 – Dec. 31

​​​​June: Jan. 1 – April 30

​​​October: May 1 – Aug. 31

Prose

We accept flash fiction and short story submissions up to 5,000 words. Radon pays a semi-professional rate of 2.5¢ per word for original work. Fiction has a guaranteed $15 minimum.

For quicker processing, please use a submission style similar to the modern manuscript format. We ask that you utilize single-spacing. Please note that we do not publish fantasy stories and are looking for work that includes leftist social commentary.

Poetry

Please submit up to five poems in a single Word document. There is no line limit. Radon pays a semi-professional rate of $25 per poem. As of 2025, we don't accept reprints.

We request single-spaced formatting using a standard 11pt font such as Garamond, Times New Roman, Aptos, or Lato.

The poetry editor prefers free verse poems with narrative elements. Page and spoken word poems are equally welcome.

Are you an artist?

Radon is looking for evocative digital art to showcase in our published issues and on our website. We pay $110 for issue cover art, $50 for back cover art, and $20 for art used on our site.

​Please use our Submittable system to submit an application, accessible via the Submit button on this page. Due to ethical concerns, we do not accept AI-generated artwork.

​As an online publisher, we request digital artwork that is at least 300 DPI. Cover art submissions should fit in a 5.5 x 8.5 aspect ratio.