Call for Submissions: phoebe

 

The editors of phoebe are pleased to announce that for Issue 55.1, phoebe will be a paying market! See our guidelines below for pay rates and more details on how to send us your work!

phoebe is a journal of literature and art which publishes twice each year: one print issue each winter, and a contest issue each spring, made up of the winners, runners up, and honorable mentions from submissions to our annual contests in poetry, fiction and nonfiction.

Winter Print Issue:

Open for submissions from August 15th to October 7th. 

Submission Guidelines

• We only accept submissions via our online submission portal, Submittable.

• We do not consider previously published work.

• We welcome multiple submissions, but each should follow the guidelines below:We do not have a strict word limit for prose; however, work over 4,000 words will need to be extraordinary.

• Regarding flash prose, we are happy to accept up to three pieces of less than 1,000 words each. Please paste these together in a single document and submit them via the standard fiction or nonfiction portal.

• Poetry submissions should contain 3-5 poems, totaling no more than ten pages. Please include all poems in one document.

• Writers, we prefer that you submit your work as a Word Document. Visual Artists may use PDFs to submit multiple works of art, but should be prepared with a high-resolution version of their files upon their work’s acceptance to the journal.

Submit your work here. 

• We allow and encourage simultaneous submissions. If your submission is no longer available for publication, please use our online submission portal to withdraw it as soon as possible. If you need to withdraw a single poem or piece of flash prose, please add a note to your submission and email us at:

phoebeliterature@gmail.com.

• We strive to respond to submissions 30 days after the submissions period closes. If you have not heard from us 60 days after the submissions period closes, feel free to inquire about the status of your submission.

• If you’ve submitted to phoebe in the past, or if you’ve been published in our journal before, you are welcome to submit your work again.

• phoebe does not accept submissions from current or former students of George Mason University’s creative writing program or any other affiliates of George Mason University. If you have a question regarding your eligibility, please send us an email at:

 phoebeliterature@gmail.com.

Payment

phoebe is overjoyed to be able to pay its writers and artists $30 per accepted poem, essay, story or piece of visual art. All contributors to the print issue also receive one copy of the journal upon publication.

Publication Rights

phoebe retains First North American serial rights for all work that we publish. All other rights are the authors, and they revert immediately upon the work’s publication. The work may be republished along with an acknowledgement of its original publication in phoebe.

Due to the risk of copyright infringement (and a plethora of other ethical reasons) phoebe does not accept AI-generated writing or visual art at this time. Digital manipulations and digital art are welcome.

Upon publication of your work in phoebe, we ask for the following:

1) First American rights for print publication of the Work in a future issue of Phoebe.

2) Indefinite non-exclusive rights for electronic publication of the Work at www.phoebejournal.com, as well as through Phoebe’s social media websites and newsletters.

3) Possible inclusion of the Work in a future anthology published by Phoebe Press.

All other rights remain the author’s.

Call for Submissions: Copper Nickel

 

What We’re Looking For

Copper Nickel accepts submissions of poetry, fiction, essays, and translation folios from August 15 to December 15, January 15 to March 1.

We DO accept simultaneous submissions, though we ask you to contact us if submitted work is accepted elsewhere.

We do not accept work produced via generative AI. At Copper Nickel, we believe that creative writing is vitally rooted in the unique, creative expression of the individual mind—the self—and generative AI is the opposite of that. What’s more, AI models have been trained using the overt, unabashed theft of the labor of individuals—including many, many creative writers—without consent or appropriate compensation. We are opposed to that. 

Poetry & Prose Submit four to six poems, one story, three flash pieces, or one essay at a time.
After receiving a response from us, please wait at least six months to submit again.
For prose we do not have any length restrictions—but longer-than-normal pieces have to earn their space.

Translation Folios Submit five to ten poems or a piece of prose (fiction or nonfiction).
If we accept, we’ll ask for a contextualizing introductory essay of 800-1200 words.

Submission Withdrawal Withdraw full submissions through submittable.
Withdraw individual poems or flash pieces by messaging us through submittable indicating which pieces should be removed from consideration.

Correspondence

We try to respond to all submissions within twelve weeks, though response times can be longer—particularly in the spring. We receive many thousands of submissions each year; reading and responding to them all is sometimes slower than we would like.

Please do not query about your submission until at least three months have passed.

Please be kind and professional in your correspondence with us.

When you submit your work to Copper Nickel you’re adding yourself to our contact list and consenting to receiving infrequent emails about our book prize, subscriptions drives, etc.

Payments

Poetry & Prose: $30 per printed page. 

Poetry payments have a minimum of $50 and a maximum of $150.

Prose payments have minimum of $50 and a maximum of $250. 

Translation Folios: $150 flat rate.

All published authors also receive two copies of the issue in which their work appears + a one-year subscription. 

International writers please note: all payments sent overseas are subject to a 30% tax, which is withheld on the front end. This is beyond our control.

Call for Submissions from Undergraduate Students: The Blue Route

 

The Blue Route is OPEN for submissions from August 15- November 15, 2026.

The Blue Route is an online undergraduate literary journal run by students and faculty at Widener University. We publish short fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction written by undergraduate writers from any school other than our own.

NOTE: We do not accept AI generated work.

WHO CAN SUBMIT: Undergraduate Students: Only previously unpublished work of current undergraduate writers will be considered. In order to verify your status as an undergraduate, we ask that with your submission you send along the email of a faculty member from your department. Until we gain confirmation of undergraduate status from this reference, we will not be able to publish your work.

Statement on Inclusion. While we gladly welcome works from all undergraduate writers (besides Widener), we specifically encourage submissions from underrepresented groups, including BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and neurodivergent writers, as well as writers with disabilities.

Note to Widener Students: At this time, work from Widener students will not be accepted. Widener students are invited to submit their work to Widener Ink, the university’s print journal.
Frequency of Submission: If your work has been published in The Blue Route, please wait at least one issue before submitting again.

WHAT TO SUBMIT:

We want good, highly imaginative writing about contemporary life as you see it. We’re not interested in romance, detective, horror, sci-fi, and other genres, unless the piece somehow rises above the conventions associated with those types of writing. We’re also not interested in writing that clichéd, overly influenced by TV or film, features flat characters, emphasizes end rhyme above all else, and/or exhibits a general insensitivity to the beauties and subtleties of language. No pornography. No racism. No sexism. If you use profanity, remember a little goes a long, long way.

As stated above, we DO NOT accept previously published work. However, we DO accept simultaneous submissions, but please notify us immediately if your work is accepted elsewhere. Our response time is about three months.

PROSE: Submit 1-3 pieces of fiction or creative nonfiction totaling no more than 2500 words.

Payment: 25 dollars.*

OR

POETRY: Submit up to 3 poems.

Payment: 25 dollars.*

*An important note about payment: Payment is issued through our university’s business office in the form of a check. We are sorry to say that we are unable to provide payment in any other form.

To increase your chances of acceptance, be sure to 1) carefully follow submission guidelines and 2) read a few recent issues of The Blue Route to get a sense of the kind of work we publish.

HOW TO SUBMIT:

Please write “Poetry–Your Name” or “Fiction–Your Name” or “Creative Nonfiction–Your Name” or “Artwork-Your Name” in the subject line of your email.

In a similar manner, please make your name as well as the genre of the piece clear in the title of the file(s). Send your work in an attachment in .docx format.

PLEASE DO NOT put your name anywhere on your submission. Instead, in your submission email, provide the following information:

• Name (First and Last)

• Pronouns

• School (full name of college or university you currently attend)

• Title of Submission(s)

• Name and Email of Faculty Contact for Enrollment Verification

• A Brief Biography (No more than 100 words and written in the third person.)

Send all poetry and prose submissions to:

wutheblueroute@gmail.com

Submissions that do not follow the directions above may be deleted.

Writing Competition: The 2027 Alice James Award

The 2027 Alice James Award is currently open to submissions

The Alice James Award welcomes submissions of full-length, previously unpublished poetry manuscripts from emerging as well as established poets. Entrants must reside in the United States.

The winner of the 2027 Alice James Award will receive $2000, book publication, and distribution through Consortium. In addition to the winning manuscript, one or more additional manuscripts may be chosen for publication as the Editor’s Choice.

For details on submission guidelines and how to send a hardcopy submission during the open season, review our guidelines below: 

Guidelines for Manuscript Submission: 

• Screening for the Alice James Award is blind. Because of this, no contact information is allowed within your manuscript, including within the filename, if electronically submitted. Electronic submissions will have contact information collected via Submittable, which is hidden from our screeners. Hardcopy submissions must include a separate title page, which lists the title of your manuscript and contact information (name, address, e-mail address, and phone number).

• Do not include any preambles, bios, or acknowledgments within your submitted manuscript.

• Manuscripts must have a numbered table of contents.

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

• Manuscripts must be typed in no less than 12-point font, paginated, and 48 – 100 pages in length (single-spaced). For hardcopy submissions, we accept double-sided manuscripts.

• Individual poems from the manuscript may have been previously published in magazines, anthologies, or chapbooks of less than 25 pages, but the collection, as a whole, must be unpublished.

• Translations and self-published books are not eligible.

• No multi-authored collections, please.

• Entry fee for the Alice James Award is $30 for online and hardcopy submissions. Checks or money orders for hardcopy submissions should be made payable to Alice James Books.

Manuscripts may be submitted online or by regular mail. 

Mail hard copy entries to: 

Alice James Books, Alice James Award
Auburn Hall, 60 Pineland Drive
Suite 206
New Gloucester, ME 04260

Online submissions, click here to submit during our reading period.

More information here.

Writing Fellowship: The Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers

CLICK HERE FOR THE 2027-2028 FELLOWSHIP APPLICATION. The deadline to apply is Friday, September 25, 2026, 5pm EDT.

The Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers is an international fellowship program open to people whose work will benefit directly from access to the collections at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building—including academics, independent scholars, and creative writers (novelists, playwrights, poets). Visual artists at work on a book project are also welcome to apply.

The Center appoints 15 Fellows a year for a nine-month term at the Library, from September through May. In addition to working on their own projects, the Fellows engage in an ongoing exchange of ideas within the Center and in public forums throughout the Library.

A Cullman Center Fellow receives the use of an office with a computer, full access to the Library’s physical and electronic resources, and a stipend of $90,000.

Writing Competitions: The Dzanc Books Prize for Fiction

The Dzanc Books Prize for Fiction recognizes daring, original, and innovative novels. A $5,000 advance and publication by Dzanc Books will be awarded to the winner. This year’s judges are Alyssa Quinn (Habilis), Alan Michael Parker (Bingo Bango Boingo), and Ruyan Meng (One Is Three).

Qualified submissions will include:

New, upcoming, and established writers alike. Agented submissions are also eligible

Previously unpublished novel-length manuscripts (generally over 40,000 words, but there is no hard minimum)

Not qualified submissions:

• Children's books, and YA are not qualified. We encourage you to familiarize yourself with the type of work we publish by browsing through our recently released titles.

• Previously released and/or self-published titles

Please submit the following materials to the Prize for Fiction submittable form:

• The full manuscript as a PDF, Word, .doc or .docx

• A brief synopsis

• Author bio

• Author contact information

• All agency contact information (if applicable)

• $25 entry fee

Submissions open from March 1st - midnight Sept 30.

Simultaneous submissions are permitted. We will not accept physical submissions.

Writer-in-Reseidence: Fishtrap Writers-in-Residence

Rolling Deadline

The last act in mastering your craft is giving it away.

Are you an experienced teaching artist looking to spend time immersed in the community and beauty of rural Wallowa County? Fishtrap Writers-in-Residence have the opportunity to get some creative work done and help inspire local writers of all ages through teaching in local schools, sharing a public reading, and offering your own Fishtrap writing workshop.

A Fishtrap Writer in Residence lasts from 5 -7 weeks and includes a stipend, travel allowance, and lodging. While you are here, Fishtrap will work with you to schedule up to 40 hours of classroom time in Wallowa County schools. You will be asked to lead a one-day adult workshop as part of our local writing workshop series, and have the opportunity to hold a public reading event at Fishtrap’s new home in the historic Bowlby Building. The rest of the time is yours to use to write, explore the county, and connect with the many local writers in the Fishtrap community.

Who Should Apply

If you are an experienced professional writer who is looking for an opportunity to have time dedicated to creating work and inspire young writers, we want to hear from you. This program is designed to create space for you to work while giving back to remote, rural Wallowa County. Since a Fishtrap Writer-in-Residence will be spending significant time in Wallowa County schools, proven teaching and classroom management experience, especially at the secondary level, is required. Please contact us to learn more.