Writing Fellowship: Black Mountain Institute Shearing Fellowship

Shearing Fellowship
Applications will open September 15, 2024 and close at 11:59pm PT on November 1, 2024.

APPLY NOW 

For emerging and distinguished writers who have published at least one book with a trade or literary press, this fellowship includes:

• compensation of $46,500 paid over a nine-month period;

• a nine-month-long letter of appointment;

• eligibility for optional health coverage;

• office space in the BMI offices on the campus of UNLV;

• housing (fellows cover some utilities) in a unique and vibrant arts complex in the bustling district of downtown Las Vegas—home to The Writer’s Block, our city’s beloved independent bookstore; and

• recognition at BMI as a “Shearing Fellow.”

While there are no formal teaching requirements, this is a “working fellowship” located in Las Vegas. BMI’s visiting fellows will maintain office hours (10 per week), and will offer regular service to the community. In addition to the primary goal of furthering one’s own writing during their term in Las Vegas, visiting fellows are expected to engage in a substantial way with BMI’s community, in ways that connect to their interests and skills. Upon acceptance into the program, each fellow will craft a plan in partnership with BMI. This is equally weighted against the writing sample and proposed literary project for the residency. Here are some examples of activities a visiting fellow might pursue:

• Offer readings, craft talks, and other public presentations to the readers and writers of UNLV and Southern Nevada.

• Offer workshops or seminars.

• Curate events or programs.

• Provide support to one of BMI’s publications (e.g. judge contests or consult on editorial processes).

Please feel free to move beyond these examples in your application – BMI wants to find new ways to serve the Las Vegas community, especially beyond the UNLV campus.

Application details

Please submit: 

• A one- to three-page personal statement,* which includes 1) your interest in being part of the Las Vegas literary community, 2) a practical description of how you envision fulfilling your service hours and engaging the Las Vegas community, and 3) the writing project(s) you will work on while in residency.

• A writing sample (10 pages maximum,* double-spaced, 12 pt. font).

• A résumé or CV.

*Please respect the committee’s time by observing these guidelines and page limits.

Finalists will be asked to send copies of their books. (Applicants must have at least one book published by a trade or literary press.) Candidates are selected by a committee of staff and community members at BMI.

Writing Residency: Mesa Refuge

Mesa Refuge welcomes a diverse community of writers—both emerging and established—who define and/or offer solutions to the pressing issues of our time. Particularly, it is our priority to support writers, activists and artists whose ideas are “on the edge,” taking on the pressing issues of our time including (but not limited to): nature, environment and climate crisis; economic, racial and gender equity; social justice and restorative justice; immigration; health care access; housing; and more.

We especially want writers of nonfiction books, long-form journalism, audio and documentary film. Occasionally we accept poetry, fiction (Young Adult/Adult Literary), screenwriting and playwriting, photojournalism, personal memoirs (as a vehicle to tell a larger story) and graphic narrative. We tend not to accept academic writing. The potential impact and distribution of your project is also important.

We aim to support a diverse community of writers and welcome applicants that represent a broad spectrum of race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, immigration status, religion or ability. Please see our DEI statement for more information about our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion.

We have one application deadline during the year. The application is available on June 1, 2024 and the deadline is November 1, 2024 for residencies throughout 2025.

As a small nonprofit, our application fee of $50 helps underwrite the cost of application review. However, we do not want the application fee to be a barrier to apply. To request a fee waiver, please email us directly here.

The questions on our application are mostly short answer. We require one writing sample (max 2,000 words or 10 pages), a current resume, headshot photo and two references (we do not require letters of recommendation). Applicants will be contacted approximately 10 weeks after the application deadline.

Our residencies are two weeks long and there is no residency fee. Additional residency expenses like travel, transportation and food are your responsibility. Our facility accommodates three residents at a time.

Although we do not publicize summer residency dates, we often have 1-2 sessions available in the summer. Please note your interest in a summer residency in your application.

For more information, read our Frequently Asked Questions page, or contact us at:

info@mesarefuge.org

To apply, go here.

Call for Submissions from Working Class Writers: Blue Collar Review

 

Blue Collar Review

It helps to understand the general characteristics of working-class writing

Working-Class Writing is grounded in lived experience showing characters as human persons in a lived space, depicting our daily life including actual physical work and how it shapes our lives. It is written by, not about working people.

Working-Class Writing creates space for people to speak and represent ourselves, it includes speech idioms and dialects, curses and blessings.

Working-Class Writing is communal in nature. The individual "I" is speaking for the collective "We."

Readers can recognize themselves in the writing; it gives validation to their own stories and culture.

Working-Class Writing gives language to human suffering and grief. Economics forces are recognized thus giving validation to deep feelings often ignored by mainstream art.

Working-Class Writing has agency in the world, it tells or teaches us something and is useful.

Working-Class Writing includes forces of social and political history and their impact on human relationship.

Working-Class Writing challenges dominant assumptions about aesthetics. It breaks rules or conventions of form in favor of verity of experience.

Working-Class Writing builds a consciousness of shared class oppression, denial of rights, the exploitative nature of capitalism, and cultivates an ethic of militant class solidarity.

Working-Class Writing takes sides -- "Which Side Are You On?" it asks and then declares.

Poetry Submissions
Send no more than 5 poems.
Your name and address should appear on every page. Cover letter is helpful though not required. Self-addressed, stamped, size 10 envelope is required for response.

Prose Submissions
Short stories, essays and reviews are welcome. Due to space limitations,they should be 1,000 words or less in length. Writing should reflect a progressive working class perspective. Name and address should appear on every page. SASE required for response.

Send to:

Blue Collar Review

P.O. Box 11417

Norfolk, VA 23517

 

Though it is not required, it helps to see a sample issue in advance to get a better idea of what we are looking for. We do not accept simultaneous submissions.

 

Work not meeting guidelines may be returned or discarded.

Call for Submissions on Theme of "Animalia: What Animals Can Teach Us About Being Human": Bellevue Literary Review

Bellevue Literary Review seeks high-caliber, unpublished work, broadly and creatively related to our themes of health, healing, illness, the mind, and the body. We encourage you to read BLR before you submit.

Submission are OPEN for our upcoming theme issue on “Animalia: What Animals Can Teach Us About Being Human” until December 31, 2024. We will also be accepting general submissions at this time. We can’t wait to read your work!

Animalia: What Animals Can Teach Us About Being Human

BLR is seeking creative writing about the ways in which animals figure into our lives and the way they live theirs. Whether companion or wild, predator or prey, animals’ experiences of health can shine a light on our own. BLR invites submissions that explore how health and healing both transcend and interconnect species, and what this can teach us about being human.

Fiction/nonfiction word max is 5,000 words (though most of our published prose is in the range of 2,000-4,000 words).

Fiction: We seek character-driven fiction with original voices and strong settings. We do not publish genre fiction (romance, sci-fi, horror). We have only occasionally published flash fiction. While we are always interested in creative explorations in style, we do lean toward classic short stories.

Nonfiction: We are looking for essays that reach beyond the standard ‘illness narrative’ to develop a topic in an engaging and original manner. Incorporate engaging and creative analysis that allows anecdotes to serve a larger purpose. (Please, no academic discourses or works with footnotes. )

Poetry: We encourage poems that are accessible to a wide audience. Characteristics we look for are vivid writing, strong narrative, and rendering the familiar new. We encourage you to peruse back issues in our archive to get a sense of our ethos. Please submit no more than three poems. Each poem should be on a separate page within a single document.

We happily consider simultaneous submissions, but please inform us immediately if your work is accepted elsewhere.

Manuscripts can only be accepted electronically via Submittable.

Fiction and nonfiction should not exceed 5,000 words (double-spaced, please). Most of our published prose is in the range of 2,500-4,000 words, which allows us to publish more authors.

You may submit up to three poems as one submission. Each poem should be on a separate page within a single document. Poems can be of any length, though shorter poems allow us to include more poets in our pages.

There is a $5 fee per general submission but it’s waived for current subscribers. (If you are not a current subscriber, you can subscribe when you submit your work and take advantage of free submission.) These fees help BLR fund publication of the journal, but if it’s a hardship for you, please contact us.

We strive to provide several reviewers for each manuscript and kindly ask your patience in this necessarily slow process. But if you have not heard from us within five months, feel free to inquire about your manuscript.

BLR pays $75 for poetry and $150 for prose. Published authors will receive two copies of the issue in which their work appears, plus an additional 1-year subscription to BLR. There is an author discount for purchasing extra copies.

All submissions must be of previously unpublished work.* BLR acquires First North American rights, and the right to reprint in anthologies and online. After publication, all other rights revert to the author and the work may be reprinted as long as appropriate acknowledgement to BLR is made. 

Submit your work here.

Call for Submissions on Theme of "Kindness": WayWords Literary Journal

Issue 17: Kindness

Editors' tip: kindness comes in all shapes and sizes; show what happens when characters express kindness.

Submissions

Submissions must be in English and include the required Title Information (below).

Limits:

up to 5,000 words of fiction

two poems up to 15 lines each

Formatting:

Keep formatting professional, please: readable font, empty lines for scene breaks, empty margins, etc. You can find recommended settings on the Submissions page.

Title Information

Please add the following to the top left of your document body (not in the header margin):

Name or Pseudonym, email

Piece Title

WayWords

Word or Line Count

If your submission was previously published, please credit your publisher below your word/line count.

Accepted file types: .doc, .docx, .odt

Submissions accepted via email:

(submissions [at] writersworkout.net) (Change [at] to @ )

OR Dropbox OR Duosuma.

Live, unlocked Google Docs or Microsoft Word links are accepted via email.

We must be able to download your file. We will not request access and we are not responsible for locked docs.
Rights

​The Writer's Workout requests one-time, non-exclusive serial rights with worldwide distribution.

We accept simultaneous submissions, previously published works, and you retain the right to submit your work elsewhere after we publish it.

If you need to withdraw, please let us know.

This literary journal is published in digital and print. Contributors receive a digital contributor copy. The Writer's Workout is a registered nonprofit organization run by volunteers.

Call for Submissions on Theme of "The Unsaid": Belletrist Magazine

Now accepting submissions for Belletrist 7:

Sometimes the whole world feels made out of words. We hear them shouted across crowded rooms and whispered sweetly in the night. We pore over them on perfect-bound pages and peck them into glowing screens. And yet so often the true story gets told by the one thing left out. By the pregnant pause, full of knowing. Or the long email, erased and rewritten and rewritten again, but never sent. An ambiguous smile. Bad reception. Some confessions get caught in our throat.

Belletrist 7 is seeking these stories of the unsaid. We want fictions, poems, essays, and miscellany that make room for silence. Send us work that orbits the unwritten. We will quietly contain them in a compact hardcover edition.

PROSE: submit short fiction and nonfiction between 1000 and 6000 words. For Flash, submit up to three stories under 1000 words in one file.

POETRY: submit up to five poems in one file.

MISCELLANY: to be published anonymously, send us unsent emails, text messages, eavesdroppings, confessions, secrets, apologies, found objects like lost notes, crumpled up post-its, shredded docs, dedications inside used paperbacks, unnoticed notes in the corner of a textbook, or any old fragmented example of the unspoken, the unwritten, the unheard. Send as many as you like in one file. Author may chose for bio to appear in contributor’s notes.

GRAPHIC NARRATIVES, COMICS, IDEA DRAWINGS: submit works up to 30 pages to be printed in black-and-white.

Submit your work here.

Writing Competition: Narrative Fall 2024 Story Contest

Our fall contest is open to all fiction and nonfiction writers. We’re looking for short shorts, short stories, essays, memoirs, photo essays, graphic stories, all forms of literary nonfiction, and excerpts from longer works of both fiction and nonfiction. Entries must be previously unpublished, no longer than 15,000 words, and must not have been previously chosen as a winner, finalist, or honorable mention in another contest.

Narrative winners and finalists have gone on to win Whiting Awards, the Pulitzer Prize, the Pushcart Prize, and the Atlantic prize, and have appeared in collections such as Best American Short Stories, Best American Nonrequired Reading, and many others. View the recent awards won by Narrative authors.

As always, we are looking for works with a strong narrative drive, with characters we can respond to, and with effects of language, situation, and insight that are intense and total. We look for works that have the ambition of enlarging our view of ourselves and the world.

We welcome and look forward to reading your pages.

Click here to submit your work. 

Awards: First Prize is $2,500, Second Prize is $1,000, Third Prize is $500, and up to ten finalists will receive $100 each. All entries will be considered for publication.

Submission Fee: There is a $27 fee for each entry. With your entry, you’ll receive three months of complimentary access to Narrative Backstage.

All contest entries are eligible for the $5,000 Narrative Prize and for acceptance as a Story of the Week.

Timing: The contest deadline is November 26, 2024, at 11:59 p.m., Pacific Standard Time.

Judging: The contest will be judged by the editors of the magazine. Winners and finalists will be announced to the public by December 31, 2024. All writers who enter will be notified by email of the judges’ decisions, which will be final. The judges reserve the option to declare ties and to designate and award only as many winners and/or finalists as are appropriate to the quality of contest entries and of work represented in the magazine.

Submission Guidelines: Please read our Submission Guidelines for manuscript formatting and other information.

Other Submission Categories: In addition to our contest, please review our other Submission Categories for areas that may interest you.

Please note: We do not accept work that includes machine-generated text.

Call for Submissions: Thirteen Bridges Review

We want captivating writing. Show us your rhythmic sentences, vivid scenes, and nuanced characters. Give us poems that make us think, stories that make us feel.

There are no limits to creativity. We only ask for your best.

Our response time is anywhere from a few weeks to a few months. If you haven't heard from us after three months, feel free to query our managing editor at:

 

kquaney@aum.edu

Fiction and Creative Non-Fiction

We’re looking for well-crafted fiction and creative non-fiction. Please limit your submission to 2,000 words or ten pages, whichever is shorter. We'll consider longer stories on a case-by-case basis.

Poetry

Send us your best work. Please limit your submission to three poems and submit them as one document.

General Guidelines

- Please submit as Microsoft Word document only.

- We only accept work that has not been published previously.

- Submit one short story, three flash/micro pieces, or three poems at a time. If you already have material under consideration with Thirteen Bridges, please do not submit additional work until you have heard back from us.

- Simultaneous submissions are fine, but please notify us if your work has been accepted elsewhere.

- All accepted submissions will be considered for our debut print journal in spring 2025. Authors published in our print journal will receive a physical copy of that issue, postage paid.

- Authors published online will remain searchable in our archive after the initial run of their submission.

- Thirteen Bridges Review acquires first serial rights, including both print and electronic rights. Copyright remains with the author.

 

Submit your work here.

Call for Submissions on Theme of "Soups & Stews": Deep Overstock

Deep Overstock was started in 2018 by booksellers who realized our coworkers were paid to shelve books, but were working on their own writing and had dreams of shelving their own books.

We created a journal that supported booksellers in that dream by opening a space to publish their writing and challenged them to write in genres they might not have tried before.

Each theme of our quarterly journal is based on a category that you can find in a bookstore. Writers and artists can interpret the theme as they see fit. Some interpretations might fit “on the shelf” as you would expect, some may not.

Though we have a strong commitment and focus on those in the book industry, we do accept work from writers and artists who work in any field.

As we continue to grow, we are now publishing full-length novels and longer works by booksellers and book industry workers.

The name Deep Overstock refers to books that are tucked away from where customers are able to get to. It is our goal to publish these “overstocked” ideas.

Current Theme Guidelines

Submissions for Issue 26: Soups & Stews are now open.
Submit your piece(s) by October 31st, 2024. The color of the cover will be Orange.

General Guidelines

We publish fiction, poetry, comics, art, images, medical reports, plays, essays, philosophies, sculptures, sounds, mushroom dataset analyses, magic spells, fairy tales, folklore, riddles, jokes, horoscopes, death-predictions, and more. Surprise us!

 We’re looking for pieces that fit the theme and also those that take a unique spin on it. We want to give “overstocked” ideas an audience.

We have open submissions on a rolling basis.
Winter Issue: Open July 1st through October 31st. Release: January.
Spring Issue: Open November 1st through February 28th. Release: May.
Fall Issue: Open March 1st through June 30th. Release: September.

Simultaneous submissions are fine, but let us know if the piece gets accepted elsewhere. We do not accept previously published works.

Include a short bio about you, your work, and your role as a bookseller, librarian, or book collection steward in the body of your email. If you have been published by Deep Overstock previously we will use your previously submitted bio unless you provide an updated one.

Submissions over 3000 words might not be considered.

Any work that uses artificial intelligence will not be considered.

Email:

submissions@deepoverstock.com

with your work attached and your bio in the body of the email.

More information on formatting and rights here.

Writing Competition: CRAFT Flash Prose Prize 2024

Flash prose, in all its invigorating variety, demonstrates an uncanny ability to speak to the core of the matter. Whether flash fiction or flash creative nonfiction, the heart and heat of the work must make themselves undeniably known. For the CRAFT 2024 Flash Prose Prize, Guest Judge Meg Pokrass offers flash writers some lively advice:

The key to making a reader care is in allowing the work to reflect our own human experience. A flash prose piece must contain dramatic urgency with which we, the reader, can connect with on a deep level. We care about characters who love messily, dream uneasily, and refuse to see their lives as hopeless. I will stand and cheer when a writer’s obsessions, worries, and dreams poke through every word. A piece may be technically brilliant—but what matters more is that it moves me. The successful flash prose writer must offer a personal vision, yet in doing so, illuminate the world we all share.

Submissions are open September 1 to October 27, 2024. 

Entries cost $20. 

Three winners will receive $1,000 each. Three additional editors’ choice selections will receive $200 each. Please carefully review our guidelines below—then send us your best flash prose!

GUIDELINES: 

• Submissions are open to all writers, emerging and experienced. CRAFT is a market for adult literary fiction.

• International submissions are allowed.

• Please submit prose work primarily written in English, but some code-switching/meshing is warmly welcomed.

• Please submit flash prose ONLY! We’ll review both fiction and creative nonfiction for this prize.

• Please adhere to the 1,000 word count maximum per piece (you may send up to two flash prose pieces per submission).

• We review literary work but are open to a variety of genres and styles. Our only requirement is that you show excellence in your craft.

• Please send previously unpublished work only—we do NOT review reprints, or even partial reprints, for contests (including any form of self-publishing, blogs, personal websites, social media, et cetera). Reprints will be automatically disqualified.

• We allow simultaneous submissions—writers, please notify us immediately and withdraw your entry if your work is accepted to be published elsewhere.

• The $20 reading fee per entry allows up to two 1,000-word flash prose pieces—if submitting two works, please send them in a SINGLE document.

• We allow multiple submissions—please submit each flash piece (or set of two pieces) as a separate submission accompanied by a separate entry fee.

• All entries will be considered for general publication in CRAFT.

• Please double-space your submission and use Times New Roman 12.

• Please include a brief cover letter with your publication history and any content warnings, if applicable.

• We do not require anonymous submissions, but the guest judge will review the fifteen shortlisted pieces anonymously.

• Writers from historically marginalized groups will be able to submit for free until we reach fifty free submissions. This free category will close when we reach capacity. No additional fee waivers will be granted—please submit early if you qualify. (This free category is now closed.)

• We do not discriminate on the basis of age, ancestry, disability, family status, gender identity or expression, national origin, race, religion, sex or sexual orientation, or for any other reason.

• Additionally, we do not tolerate discrimination in the writing we consider for publication: work we find discriminatory on any of the bases stated here will be declined without complete review.

• AI-generated submissions will be automatically disqualified.

• Unless you’ve already secured the necessary permissions, please do not include quoted song lyrics in your submitted work. Paraphrased lyrics are allowed, however, as are older lyrics that have already passed into the public domain.

• Any work that does not adhere to these guidelines will be automatically disqualified.

We are always happy to help if you have questions. Email us: 

contact@craftliterary.com

AWARDS:

The writers of the three winning pieces will receive: $1,000 each;
a bundle of the Rose Metal Press Field Guides;
and publication in CRAFT, with an introduction by the guest judge as well as an author’s note (short craft essay) to accompany the piece.

The writers of the three editors’ choice selections will receive: $200 each;
and publication in CRAFT, with an introduction by our editorial team as well as an author’s note (short craft essay) to accompany the piece. 

 FINE PRINT: 

• Friends, family, and close associates of the guest judge are not eligible for consideration for the award.

• Our collaboration with editorial professionals in the judging and awarding of our contests does not imply an endorsement or recognition from their agencies, houses, presses, universities, et cetera.

• As we only consider unpublished writing for contests, and will publish the winning pieces in April 2025, anything under contract to publish prior to July 2025 should not be entered.

Submit your entry here.

Fellowship: The Kenyon Review

The Kenyon Review invites applications for a two-year residential post-graduate fellowship in creative writing beginning in August 2025. During these two years, fellows will undertake a significant writing project and teach one course per semester in the Kenyon College English Department, contingent upon departmental needs. 

Fellows will also assist with creative and editorial projects for The Kenyon Review. Fellows are required to live in the local community and are expected to participate in the cultural life of Kenyon College. Fellows to hold no other teaching, graduate study or fellowship obligations. 

Qualifications include an MFA in creative writing, or a PhD in creative writing, English literature, or comparative literature. The degree must be completed between January 1, 2019 and September 15, 2024. Qualified candidates will also have teaching experience in creative writing and/or literature at the undergraduate level. A history of publication in literary journals is expected. 

The Kenyon Review will provide an annual $42,000 stipend, plus health benefits. 

To apply, candidates should visit the online application site found at http://careers.kenyon.edu. A complete application will be composed of 

1) a one-page cover letter; 

2) an 8-10 page writing sample; 

3) a one-page course proposal for an undergraduate introductory-level multi-genre creative writing class; 

4) a Curriculum Vitae; 

5) an unofficial transcript; and 

6) two (2) letters of recommendation, one of which must directly address the applicant's teaching ability. All application materials must be submitted electronically through Kenyon's employment website. 

Review of applications will begin on September 23, 2024, and will continue until the position is filled. Completed applications must be received by October 18, 2024 to guarantee full consideration.

Call for Poetry Submissions: The Shore

The Shore is an online poetry publication seeking cutting, strange, and daring work from new and established poets alike. We want poems that explore the worlds of things and ideas, that recognize the liminality, the shifting of everything around us and our ability to name a thing whole. We want poems that press and push and ache and recede. Send us your best. We publish 4 times a year, once each season.

Our reading period is currently: OPEN

Submissions for ISSUE TWENTY-FOUR: WINTER 2024 are open until December 1.

Submission Guidelines:

To submit, email 3-5 poems in a single document in .doc or .docx format to:

theshorepoetry@gmail.com

with the subject line: “Last Name_First Name THE SHORE submission” with a cover letter and third-person bio included in the body of the email. Any submissions that do not follow these guidelines will be discarded.

We accept simultaneous submissions as long as you notify us if the piece is accepted elsewhere, but we do not accept reprints. Upon acceptance, please withdraw your poems from other consideration. We ask that you please only submit once per reading period. We also ask that former contributors please wait a year from their date of publication to submit again.

We have weekly editorial meetings, so our usual response time is 1-10 days. Since we do not hold submissions between reading periods, no submission reply should take more than about 60 days.

Call for Submissions: New England Review

Thinking of submitting to New England Review?
We are open for submissions in all genres from March 1 through May 1 and September 1 through November 1. We may close before the end of the period if we receive more than our allotted number of submissions, so it’s best to submit early.

UPDATE for September 2024: When we open on September 1, we will begin taking submissions for our November 2025 “emerging writers and translators” feature. We will dedicate half of a special double issue (Vol. 46.3-4) to those who have not yet published a book or have a book under contract. Eligible writers and translators can indicate their interest in being considered for that feature when they submit.

What we’re looking for.
We welcome submissions in fiction, poetry, nonfiction, dramatic writing, and translation in all genres.

For translations, please confirm that translation rights are available and submit under the genre that best represents the work.

We only accept writing that has not been published previously, whether in print or on the web.

Please send only one submission at a time, across all genres, including translations. Do not resubmit work, even if it has been revised, unless it has been requested by the editors. Simultaneous submissions are accepted in all genres, but please be sure to withdraw your submission immediately upon acceptance elsewhere. We attempt to respond to submissions within twelve weeks, but it can take longer.

We welcome and encourage submissions from writers of every nationality, race, religion, and gender, including writers who have never been affiliated with an MFA program and whose perspectives are often underrepresented in the literary world.

We suggest that NER authors wait about a year after their most recent publication until they submit again (e.g., If you were published in spring 2024, please wait until spring 2025 to submit new work).

What you get.
Payment for work published in the journal is $20 per page ($50 minimum), plus two copies of the issue in which the work appears and a one-year subscription to the print or e-book edition.

For online publication in NER Digital, payment is $50 and a one-year subscription to the magazine.

Your cover letter—just the facts.
Your cover letter should provide contact information and state the genre, title, and word count (for prose) of the submission, as well as any salient information about you—e.g., previous publications, never before published—or about your piece.

Online submissions.
Please submit your work through Submittable, our online submissions portal. The small fee we charge for online submissions helps to support New England Review in its mission to publish writers at all stages of their careers. You can submit for free if you purchase a subscription or renewal at the time of submission. If the submission fee presents a financial hardship, please email us.

You can check on the status of an existing submission on Submittable. If it says “new” or “in progress,” that means we have not yet made a decision about the piece. If you have other submission queries, send us an e-mail and we will respond as soon as possible.

Paper submissions.
We allow paper submissions for writers who for any reason are unable to use Submittable. Please do not send your only copy, as we cannot be responsible for lost or damaged manuscripts, and include a letter-size self-addressed, stamped envelope (SASE) for our reply only. There is no fee. Please do not send paper submissions outside of our open submissions periods or they will be returned unread. Our mailing address is:

New England Review

Middlebury College

Middlebury, VT 05753

 

More information here.

Call for Submissions: The Massachusetts Review

What kinds of writing are you looking for?

We seek a balance between established writers and promising new ones. We're interested in material of variety and vitality relevant to the intellectual and aesthetic questions of our time. We aspire to have a broad appeal; our commitment, in part regional, is not provincial. "Inspired pages are not written to fill space, but for inevitable utterance; and to such our Journal is freely and solicitously open." —Ralph Waldo Emerson

N.B. Submissions from authors who are Black, Indigenous, or People of Color will be accepted year-round; however, outside our regular reading period, when the online submission manager is shut down, all submissions from BIPOC writers should be sent by regular mail or emailed to:

massrev@external.umass.edu

Nonfiction: Articles and essays of breadth and depth are considered. Since its inception, in 1959, the Massachusetts Review has provided a literary space that engaged and challenged society, provoked political and social change, and published under-represented voices. We also publish discussions of leading writers, of art, music, dance, and drama, and analyses of trends in literature, science, philosophy, and public affairs. One essay per submission, with a maximum of 20 pages or 7500 words. Please include your name and contact information on the first page. We encourage page numbers.

Fiction: We are interested in all styles and subjects, from flash fiction and experimental writing to historical and realist fiction; we do typically favor work that focuses more on the world than the self. We consider one short story per submission, a maximum of 20 pages or 7500 words. Please include your name and contact information on the first page, and we encourage page numbers.

Performance: Most work on performance is featured online, to take advantage of the multimedial potential of digital publication. We also occasionally publish short-form performance scripts as well as excerpts from longer works in the print magazine, up to 30 pages per issue.

Poetry: A poetry submission may consist of up to 6 poems. There are no restrictions for length, but generally our poems are less than 100 lines. Please include your name and contact on every page.

Hybrid: A hybrid submission may cross genres with fiction, nonfiction, poetry, or art. We consider one such text per submission, with a maximum of 30 pages or 7500 words. Please include your contact information on the first page; we encourage page numbers.

Translation: Fiction, poems, or essays are accepted. The above guidelines for essays, fiction, and poetry should be followed, and a copy of the translated text should be submitted along with the translation. Before submission, the translator should have researched who holds the rights and, ideally, have secured permission to publish. N. B. Translations will be accepted year-round; however, outside our regular reading period, when the online submission manager is shut down, submissions should be sent by regular mail or emailed to massrev@external.umass.edu.

Art: We publish one visual artist per issue, and most visual art is solicited. We are happy to consider submissions & will try to respond promptly. One portfolio per submission, a maximum of 8 pages We do not hire illustrators to illustrate our fiction or prose pieces, they run without illustration. Please include your name and contact information on the first page, and we encourage page numbers.

Also please note: Essays, fiction, hybrid, poetry, and translation manuscripts should be submitted separately. No mixed submissions please.

Are there any genres or topics that you do not consider?

We publish book reviews online, but not in the print magazine.

When is your reading period?

Submissions are NOT accepted from May 1 to September 30. Mailed submissions received during this time will be held for the next reading period. The electronic submission database will reset once all manuscript decisions have been made, and any work submitted within the subsequent reading period will require an account reactivation.

Due to extenuating circumstances, we are currently experiencing a heavy backlog in submissions. Please allow our readers six months to respond to your submission. We apologize for the delay and appreciate your patience!

Do you accept simultaneous submissions?

Reluctantly. It is the author's responsibility to notify editors immediately once a manuscript is accepted elsewhere.

Do you accept multiple submissions?

No.

Prose manuscripts are limited to one submission at a time. Poetry submissions cannot exceed six poems per submission. Authors must await decision notification before submitting again in the same reading period.

Do you pay for contributions?

At the time of publication, we pay a $100 honorarium for work published in a single issue. Authors also receive two complimentary contributor's copies.

I'm mailing my submission, how should I submit work?

There is no charge for mailed submissions. All prose manuscripts should be typed and double spaced.

Fiction and Non-fiction submissions should include name and address on the first page of the manuscript with page numbers. Poetry should include name and contact information before each title of a poem. The Massachusetts Review is a non-profit journal, and it is impossible for us to acknowledge receipt of manuscripts unless a self-addressed stamped postcard is enclosed with your submission. The Massachusetts Review is not responsible for lost manuscripts. No manuscript can be returned or query answered unless accompanied by a self-addressed stamped envelope.

Please read a copy of MR before submitting work. We cannot offer free sample copies, but you may order current or back issues here. We do not accept manuscripts via fax.

I'm submitting electronically, how should I submit work?

Read this first!

All submissions should include name and contact information on every page of the manuscript. A suggestion is to include this information in the header or footer. All prose manuscripts should be typed and double-spaced. We strongly encourage Fiction and Non-fiction to include page numbers.

All poems, a maximum of six per submission, should start on a new page and be included in one document. Multiple submissions will not be accepted.

Please read a copy of MR before submitting work. We cannot offer free sample copies, but you may order current or back issues online. Click here to purchase a copy.

Please note that there is a $3.00 fee to submit electronically per reading period. In addition to maintaining the database, the fee was designed with the intention of diminishing your submission costs. The process will require a one time account set-up per reading period. We accept Visa, Master Card, or Discover; payment is made via Commerce Manager.

The electronic submission provides continuous access to check on the status of your submission. To withdraw specific poems or prose from consideration, please email the managing editor at:

massrev@external.umass.edu 

Should you choose to withdraw your submission for any reason, no refund will be provided.

You will receive a one time account set-up confirmation e-mail, a submission receipt confirmation e-mail every time you submit, and, once our editors read your submission, a notification of decision e-mail.

Click here to begin the electronic submission process.

Address for mailing submissions:

The Massachusetts Review
400 Venture Way
Hadley, MA 01035

Call for Submissions: HOOT: a postcard review of mini prose and poetry

We accept fiction, non-fiction, memoir, poetry, and book reviews year-round. Graphic fiction/non-fiction is also welcome, but it must fit on a postcard. We publish only one (1!) piece in print form each month– we publish 1-4 pieces in our online issue.

We accept work three times a year: from January 1st to March 1st, June 1st to August 1st, and October 1st to November 27th –you can expect to hear from us within a month to six months if we’re on schedule, which we are about 50% of the time. Even though it may take us a spell to get back to you, we offer personal feedback – especially upon request. Please email us directly with questions or concerns 

ALL PROSE: <150 words. We’re not going to count them, but…we mean it.
ALL POETRY: <10 lines (if it’s more, be open to “creative reformatting”), but still <150 words. Remember, it has to fit on a postcard!
BOOK REVIEWS: These will be published online, or on the back of a postcard when possible. Still <150 words. Must be of a recently published book (within the last year). The book must be published by an independent or small press. You are welcome to query before submitting if you would like our feedback on the book you are reviewing. If you would like your book reviewed by us, please send a query letter to:

info@hootreview.com.

Only two pieces per submission, please. If your work is accepted, please wait a year until you re-submit. If your work is rejected, please wait six months to re-submit (only because we publish so few pieces). We accept reprints, but please state that the piece has been previously published in your submission. Simultaneous submissions are, of course, allowed–but please let us know if your work is placed elsewhere.

We will read all types of work. However, we especially like work that is audacious, surprising, and energetic. Furthermore, we want this postcard to be shareable. As you’re submitting, remember the Refrigerator Rule. Ask yourself: “Would someone want this hanging on their fridge?” Work that’s about the depressingness of gloomy alcohol clinking on the bottom of a shadowy glass in the gloaming after a father’s death wouldn’t work as well hanging from a fridge or tucked playfully in someone’s lunchbag.

That said, if you’ve got some melancholy work that is surprising and zesty and GOOD then we would be very excited to check it out.

See our “ISSUES” page to read samples of the work we have published in the past.

Note: We do not solicit work. Every submission we receive is given the same consideration, and is read by at least two, but up to four people, and often out loud (while we consume delicious items, like raspberry tart and/or dumplings.)

Other Stuff

You have to be okay with having your work ‘creatively’ formatted—so that it will both look cool and fit on a postcard. Which means—we might paint the words on some wood and photograph them, or photo-edit the words onto an interesting-yet-appropriate thing, like a medicine bottle label, or a paper napkin, etc. If you are submitting a poem, this sometimes means we have to change line breaks…though we try not to do this, and we always do it tastefully (at least, we think so.) Do not submit your work if you are not okay with this.

Because of how few pieces we publish, it might take a considerable amount of time (like…a long long time) to get the piece live. If you do not hear from us about an acceptance for too long a time please email us and don’t message through Submittable. Email us at: 

info@hootreview.com

We are often asked about what informs our decision regarding publishing a piece on a postcard versus publishing it in our online issue. Choosing pieces for postcards vs. online is not a matter of “which ones we like best.” We love all of the pieces we publish. Factors include- what pieces we have for other months (we try to balance poems and prose, as well as keep style and content varied from postcard to postcard), appropriateness for sharing (see the Refrigerator Rule above), and illustration potential (both imagery and length of the piece factor here, as longer pieces are much harder to work with.)

In general, if you do not hear from us for a long time please email us and (again) don’t message through Submittable. Email: 

info@hootreview.com

Payment: Unknown amount.

Submit your work here.

Call for Submissions: Augur Literary Society

Augur Magazine is open to both themed and unthemed fiction and poetry submissions from everyone, everywhere.

Tales & Feathers is open to short slice-of-life fantasy fiction submissions from everyone, everywhere.

October 1st-31st:

Both markets open to everyone internationally.

November 1st-15th:

Open exclusively to creators who are BIPOC, trans, and/or disabled.

Tales & Feathers will be open internationally during this time.

Augur Magazine will be open to Canadian citizens/permanent residents and/or those living on the land colonially known as Canada.

The themed call for Augur Magazine is for A NATURAL DESIRE. What does it mean to want and need? In this issue, we're looking for speculative stories and poems that explore:

• Raw connection

• Love and lust

• Desperately important platonic relationships

• Community in context

Especially when grounded in nature; flora; fauna; and other non-urban settings. Give us conflict and challenge; joy and celebration; and the spark of repair. Give us pieces that span genre from high fantasy to supernatural, from myth to body horror, from dreamy realism to deep scifi.

We are especially interested in pieces that explore desire from non-Western and Indigenous contexts, or interrogate the ways in which Western relationships are often tied to colonialism and extraction.

---

Please query if you have not received a response by the end of January 2025.

Want to know if you’re a fit? Snag a digital subscription or a single issue from our store! Want to know what'll happen once you submit? Check out our article!

We do not accept AI-generated submissions. The actual text of your piece must be ideated and written by a human. Any piece found to be AI-written will result in a breach of contract, should your piece be accepted.

WHAT TO SEND AUGUR MAG
(Although we always love surprises)

Our perfect submission defies categorization—pieces that could be “too speculative” for CanLit or literary magazines or “not speculative enough” for speculative magazines. However, we also love a good genre romp, and will publish across many genres, including: 

• Fantasy

• Science fiction (softer side)

• Dystopia/utopia

• Apocalypse/post-apocalypse

• Slipstream

• Fairytales

• Fables

• Fabulism

• Magical realism (note: educate yourself before you claim this term)

• Dreamy realism

If you think you match our tone, give us a try. We recommend checking out our preview issue, free online, or grabbing an issue, to see what we’ve published before.

We accept multiple submissions and simultaneous submissions. Our goal is to respond to all submissions within eight weeks.

Our submissions system, Moksha, should send you a verification email within 24 hours. If you do not receive one, resubmit and send us an email letting us know what happened.

Text submissions should be formatted as follows: 

• Standard manuscript format

• .doc

• Without your name (for anonymous reading)

• Preferably, in size 12 Times or Times New Roman font

Finally: If you fit into our guidelines, don’t self-reject! Submit, submit, submit!

WHAT TO SEND TALES & FEATHERS 

Cozy short fantasy stories

Tales and Feathers is a home for cozy slice-of-life fantasy short stories.

Our ideal submissions look like this:

• Quiet character-driven storytelling

• Gentle moments

• Rich fantastical worldbuilding

• Everyday moments

• Stories that take place before or between or after the epic conflicts

• Stories that offer warmth, comfort, and possibility

We welcome stories written in any fantasy genre or genres, including stories that blur genre lines. We are especially interested in high fantasy, fairy tales, and myth.

We also welcome stories that have been translated into English and stories that engage with non-Western fantasy genre traditions.

If you think you match our tone, give us a try. We recommend checking out our preview issue, free online, or grabbing an issue, to see what Augur has published before (especially 5.1, their joy issue).

We accept multiple submissions and simultaneous submissions. Our goal is to respond to all submissions within eight weeks.

Our submissions system, Moksha, should send you a verification email within 24 hours. If you do not receive one, resubmit and send us an email letting us know what happened.

Text submissions should be formatted as follows:

• Standard manuscript format

• .doc

• Without your name (for anonymous reading)

• Preferably, in size 12 Times or Times New Roman font

Finally: If you fit into our guidelines, don’t self-reject! Submit, submit, submit!

Augur Literary Society pays $0.14 (CAD) per word and a flat $112.00 for flash fiction. More information and submission links here.