Call for Submissions: Shadow Falls Review

We are open for submissions August 20-January 20. Multiple submissions are acceptable, but please only submit once per genre per submission period (except for visual art).

• We do not accept previously published work. Simultaneous submissions are acceptable so long as you notify us and withdraw your piece if it is accepted elsewhere.

• Submissions are accepted only through Subfolio. Submissions sent via mail or email will be discarded. 

• Please include your name, email address, and a word count at the top of the first page. Please use page numbers, and include a short cover letter with a third-person bio (no more than 150 words).

• All writing submission files should be either DOCX or PDF.

  Shadow Falls Review is committed to uplifting the work of underrepresented voices: writers of color, Indigenous writers, LGBTQ+ writers, and writers with disabilities are all encouraged to submit.

  Your submissions will be reviewed with sensitivity and care by graduate students in the Creative Writing and Publishing program at the University of St. Thomas. We're looking for work that demonstrates intentionality, revision, and voice. We are accepting pieces which invoke emotions within the reader, leaving them with a lasting impression even after their eyes leave the page. 

  Shadow Falls Review does not accept any piece in which LLMs, image generation, or any other form of generative AI were used at any point in the creative process.

  Contributors are given two copies of the issue in which their work appears. SFR will also promote and market their work as much as possible.

  Shadow Falls Review acquires First North American Serial Rights. Rights revert to the author upon publication in our printed journal, but we ask that we are acknowledged should the piece be published elsewhere. 

  Submissions from current St. Thomas students or from alumni of the last five years are ineligible. We ask all contributors to wait at least two years before submitting again. 

  Response times vary, but if you have not heard from us by April 1 feel free to reach out at:

  editors@shadowfallsreview.com

  Submit your work here.

Call for Submissions on Theme of "After": Liminal Lit

 

Liminal Lit: for voices that exist between cultures, languages, and belonging. 

Theme: After

After explores what remains, what changes, and what begins following moments that shape us. We invite poetry, short fiction, and creative nonfiction that interprets this theme in original and compelling ways.

We encourage broad interpretation, whether your work reflects on memory, transformation, grief, joy, migration, family, identity, love, language, resilience, or entirely unexpected places the theme may lead.

Contributor Payment
Every published contributor receives a $100 honorarium.

Poetry | Short Fiction | Creative Nonfiction

Deadline: September 15th, 2026

Submit to Issue II

Submissions are free. If you encounter any issues with the submission form, please email:

liminallit@gmail.com

Call for Submissions from Asian American Teen Writers: Temple Literary Magazine

 

Temple Lit Mag values the voices of every Asian American writer who has a story to tell. Submission is free; however, we are unable to pay our writers at this time.

Temple Lit Mag accepts submissions on a rolling basis. Issues are published four times a year, once per season.

Temple Lit Mag accepts works that tells a story about emotionally resonating Asian American experiences. All new submissions will be considered for Issue #04.

You must be Asian American and aged 13 to 19 years old to submit. Temple Literary Magazine is a magazine for Asian American youth writers only. If you have Asian heritage and raised in Asia and moved to the United States, or you were raised in the United States and moved to Asia, you are also eligible to submit. If you are mixed heritage with two or more races including Asian, (e.g., Black and Asian, White and Asian, Latino/Latina and Asian, etc.) you are also eligible to submit.

Simultaneous submissions are allowed and encouraged. You can submit any work to other literary magazines; however, unpublished work is preferred. If your work has been published anywhere else, please indicate so in the submission form. You may also enter submissions to multiple categories.
Use of generative AI is prohibited. We do not tolerate any hate speech, discrimination, racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, and other forms of bigotry. Submissions promoting hate speech will be rejected and writers will be blacklisted from future submissions.

We will not be accepting submissions with explicit sexual content or graphic, excessive violence. This is a literary magazine targeted towards youth, and we hope to create a safe and inclusive space for all writers and readers.

Text in foreign language is allowed and encouraged, but please put English translations of them in the footnotes.

Response time is an average of 2-3 weeks, but can be upwards of 3-4 weeks. If you would like to receive feedback from our staff, please indicate so on the Google Form submission.

Submissions must be sent in a pdf, docx or Word file.

All rights remain with the author upon publication. Click here to view our publishing contract.

More information and submission form here. 

Call for Submissions: Ginosko

 

Accepting short fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, social justice, literary insights.

Length flexible, accept excerpts.

Publishing as semiannual litzine. Check downloadable issues on website for tone & style, http://GinoskoLiteraryJournal.com/

Submit by Submittable: http://ginosko.submittable.com/submit/ 

Ginosko

A Greek word meaning to perceive, understand, realize, come to know; knowledge that has an inception, a progress, an attainment. The recognition of truth from experience. 

Payment: $40-70.

Open year round.

Publishing as a semiannual litzine. Check downloadable issues on website for tone & style.

Call for Submissions: The Prairie Schooner

The Prairie Schooner 

Submission Periods

Poetry, Fiction, and Essays: We accept unsolicited submissions two times per year:

September 1 – September 15 (or until submission caps are reached). The 2026 fall submission period will include a call for general submissions as well as a special issue on Cafes & Cocktails.

February 1 – February 15 (or until submission caps are reached)

Submissions of book reviews and interviews are open year-round.

General Guidelines

The Schooner’s intention is to publish the best and most interesting writing available, both from beginning and established writers. We publish short stories, poems, imaginative essays of general interest, reviews of current books of poetry and fiction, and interviews. Scholarly articles requiring footnote references should be submitted to journals of literary scholarship. We particularly welcome work by writers of color and writers who come from disenfranchised or previously disenfranchised backgrounds.

We do not consider work that has been previously published, including work that has appeared online or on any social media platform. While we do consider work that has been simultaneously submitted to other journals, we request that you withdraw the piece immediately upon acceptance elsewhere. We do consider translations of work that have not been published prior in English. We do not consider work that has been produced using generative AI at any stage in the writing process.

Length: For poetry, send a selection of up to seven poems contained within a single document. For fiction, essays, and reviews/interviews, send only one selection at a time. Please send only one submission per genre per submission window.

Withdrawing: To withdraw an individual poem from consideration, please send us a message through Submittable. To withdraw an essay, short story, or review/interview, please withdraw the full manuscript through Submittable.

We encourage you to read the Schooner before you submit. Sample copies are available below for just $9.00. There's never a fee to submit to our general reading period, and we're grateful for the support we receive through donations and orders.

Submit your work here. 

Calll for Submissions on Theme of "How has an educator shaped you?": Epistle Literary Magazine

Epistle Literary Magazine 

Submit Your Work

We accept any form of writing, so long as it responds to the theme: "How has an educator or mentor shaped you?" Consider poetry, short fiction, creative nonfiction, and letters to honor your educators. We are also newly accepting visual art submissions specifically for our issue's cover! Cover art entries follow the same deadline and submission protocol as written works. All forms of visual art are welcomed, but art created with artificial intelligence will not be accepted. Up to 3 poems (max 5 pages total)

• Short stories up to 3,000 words

• Essays, memoirs, or letters up to 2,000 words

• Cover art: Up to 3 high-resolution visual art pieces of any format. Selected art will feature as the primary cover image for both digital and print formats.

We accept and encourage simultaneous submissions, but please let us know if your work is accepted elsewhere so that we can congratulate you and withdraw the submission on our end! We do not consider previously published submissions.

Along with your submission, please include a brief, third-person bio.

By submitting your work, you certify that it is your original creation, in no way plagiarized, and that you have obtained any necessary permissions from individuals named or identifiable in your piece. We reserve the right to remove your work from our site if we are made aware of plagiarism or unauthorized use of personal details.

Additionally, by submitting, you grant us the right to publish your submission in both digital and print formats if it is accepted, including on our website and social media platforms, and in any promotional materials related to the issue. Authors retain full rights to their work and may republish it elsewhere after it appears in Epistle, with credit to the magazine as the original place of publication.

Please send your submission to:

submissions@epistleliterary.org 

as a PDF. Submissions not attached as PDFs will not be opened for consideration.

Thanks to the help of generous friends and family on our end, every accepted author with a mailing address in the United States will receive a printed copy of the issue once it is released. You will have the opportunity to choose to mail this copy to the educator by whom your piece is inspired as a way to show your appreciation. Additional print and digital copies will be available for purchase by authors and readers.

Submissions close September 15, 2026.

Decisions regarding the status of your submission will be shared after the submission period ends. All submissions are read and curated by Rory Baskin, Editor-in-Chief.

Call for Submissions: Ley Lines Literary Review

Ley Lines Literary Review 

Submit all work through email:

leylinesliteraryreview@gmail.com

There is no fee to submit your work.

Include in your email:

A cover letter with the name of the file you’re attaching

Your phone number and email address in the body of your letter

The titles of the pieces you’re submitting

Your name as you would like it to appear if we publish your work

A third-person brief bio (75 or fewer words)

An attachment with your work in a single docx Word file (no pdf submissions accepted)

Submission Format Info

For prose, include a word-count; for poetry, include a line-count

Use Times Roman 12-pt type for all submissions

Include your contact info (phone number and email address) on the first page of your submission

Submit four or fewer poems per submission (single-spaced with each poem appearing on a separate page) or one piece of prose per submission (double-spaced with numbered pages)

Important Additional Information—Please read!

While we have no word or line limit on the work that we publish, due to space limitations, we prefer shorter rather than longer work. Prose should be no longer than 5,000 words; poetry should be no longer than 80 lines.

Simultaneous submissions are welcomed, though we do ask that you let us know immediately if a poem you’ve submitted has been accepted elsewhere. All submissions must be original—and all writers own their copyright upon publication.

We do not publish AI-generated work or AI-partially generated work, and we rely on our writers to be ethical about this issue.

We do not publish previously published work.

We try to respond to submissions within a three-month period. Feel free to email us if you have not heard back from us within that time period.

We look forward to reading your work.

Writing Competition: Vern Rutsala Book Prize

Vern Rutsala Book Prize

Submissions accepted through October 31, 2026

A prize of $1,000 is awarded, plus publication of the manuscript and 50 books. A prize of $500 is awarded for the Editor’s Choice, along with publication of the manuscript and 50 free books.

Submit 70 to 90 pages of poetry and/or flash fiction, including a Table of Contents and Acknowledgments page.

Reading fee is $25.

This year’s contest judge is Leslie Ullman.

The first 50 writers submitting to the contest receive a Cloudbank book or journal.
To submit electronically through our submissions manager click here.
Individual poems or flash fictions (up to 1000 words each) may have been previously published.
Submissions should include two title pages, one with title only, one with title and author name.
Cloudbank editors appreciate a wide range of styles, approaches, forms, and aesthetics; we welcome prose poems and flash fiction.
Submissions are accepted from around the world with no citizenship limitations.

Leslie Ullman has published seven full-length collections, most recently Unruly Tree from University of New Mexico Press, and a chapbook titled Self Portrait as Vanishing Act from Lily Review Press. She lives in Arroyo Seco, New Mexico.

Cloudbank’s Rutsala Book Prize is named after Vern Rutsala, an Oregon poet who taught at Lewis & Clark University for over 40 years. He was the author of over a dozen books of poetry, including How We Spent Our Time (2006), A Handbook for Writers: New & Selected Prose Poems (2004), and The Moment’s Equation (2003), a finalist for the National Book Award.

Call for Submissions: Jabberwock Review

 

Jabberwock Review 

General Submissions: 

• Submissions will be accepted from August 15 to October 1 and January 15 to March 15. We do not accept previously published material.

• We do not accept emailed submissions. Please use our Submission Manager to submit work using Submittable.

• Please submit no more than 1 story or essay or no more than 5 poems at a time.

• We do not have a word limit, but please keep in mind that the entire journal is only about 100 pages, so longer work must be truly exceptional.

• We ask that contributors please wait at least a year before resubmitting.

• Please double-space prose submissions.

• Poems of multiple pages should indicate whether or not stanza breaks accompany page breaks.

• Please do not send another submission until you have received a response on the first.

• We will try to respond in 3 months. If you have not heard from us in 5 months, feel free to contact us about the status of your submission.

• Rights revert to the author upon publication, but please acknowledge the Jabberwock Review in any future publications.

• Jabberwock Review welcomes all forms and styles of writing, from traditional to experimental.

• Students, faculty, staff, and administrators currently or formerly (within four years) affiliated with Mississippi State University are ineligible for consideration or publication.

• Please submit electronically using Submittable. Due to publication costs, we do charge a small $3.00 submission fee.

If you need to withdraw a submission, please do that using Submittable as well.
**We do not accept paper or emailed submissions.**

Submit your work here. 

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.

Writing Competition: The Porch Prize

 

Eligibility
Open to published and unpublished authors over the age of 18 who have not received The Porch Prize in a previous year. The manuscript entered must be the author’s original work and be unpublished and uncontracted at the time of deadline and unpublished during the contest judging time itself. If you submit an entry that is accepted for publication elsewhere prior to our announcement of the winners, please contact us to withdraw the entry.

Deadline: Oct. 15, 2026 

Categories & judges

Fiction – Manuscripts can be a short story, flash fiction, or excerpt from a longer fiction work. Maximum 8,000 words. Judged by Lucas Schaefer.

Creative Nonfiction – Manuscripts can be personal essay or memoir. Maximum 8,000 words. Judged by Jaquira Díaz.

Poetry – One poem per entry. Judged by Caki Wilkinson.

HOW TO SUBMIT
When you submit to The Porch Prize, your work will automatically be considered for the next issue of SWING. However, submission to SWING does NOT automatically enter you into The Porch Prize, unless you pay the entry fee of $15. All manuscript guidelines for SWING are the same for The Porch Prize . . . except poetry. For poetry, click your heels three times like this: 1) make the title of your manuscript in Submittable the title of the poem you are submitting for Porch Prize consideration; 2) indicate in your bio that you are entering a poem in the Porch Prize; 3) indicate in the top corner of the poem itself that this poem is to be considered for the Porch Prize.

Submit your work here.

Contact:

swingeditors@porchtn.org with any questions.

FEES & PRIZES
The submission entry fee is $15. The final winners will receive a $500 cash prize, as well as $500 in Porch class credit.

Call for Submissions from Women: Literally Lit Magazine

 

Literally Lit Magazine

When to submit

We accept submissions two times a year for our Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter issues. 

Deadline: Nov. 10, 2026 

What to submit

We are looking for high-quality fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, and essays that will leave a lasting impression on our intelligent readers. We look for work that touches upon the topics of femininity, womanhood, identity, empowerment, and/or pop culture. These topics are nuanced, and we want to showcase their complexity. Whether your writing is funny, thought-provoking, or serious, please make sure it's the very best you can make it.

We do not accept any submissions generated by artificial intelligence. By submitting, you certify that your work is entirely your own.

How to submit

You can submit through Duosuma during our regular reading periods. We charge a reading fee of $3.00 for each submission. Please include a bio and/or cover letter.

If you're selected

We pay $25.00 for each fiction and nonfiction piece and $10.00 for each poem. As our magazine grows, our payments will, too. 

Submit your work here. 

Call for Submissions: Alma Magazine: All Things Fascinating

 

Alma Magazine: All Things Fascinating 

We accept a vast array of content in terms of style, medium and subject. You could be a writer, illustrator, photojournalist or just someone who can opine eloquently about a subject. Be it through the written word, film, art or photography, we invite you to tell your story. Please send your work to:

submissions@almamagazines.com

The Details

POETRY submissions are flexible in style and size. A good length is anything longer than a stub and shorter than a list of your sorrows. We usually take about three to five weeks to get back on poetry submissions. You may submit upto three poems for consideration.

FICTION should ideally range from 2500-6000 words. We like being pulled out of our seats, or stuck to them, nothing in between! Flash fiction should be less than 750 words. We get back on fiction submissions within a month.

ESSAYS range from 750-4000 words, based on the sub-column. We urge you to write on subjects that you are well-versed in. This could be about anything from gastronomy to botany, but must have a clear argument or a captivating story. The pieces we publish range from personal histories, travel writing, reviews, literary essays, as well as cultural commentary. You can expect to hear back on pitches within five working days and submissions in about two weeks.

HUMOUR submissions are welcome, especially those which we can’t finish reading because we’re in splits. The best way to get an idea of our expectation, enunciation, and obfuscation is to go through all the existing pieces in our various sub-categories. Word counts usually lie between a minimum of 650 and an absolute maximum of 1200 words. ​

TOPICAL COMMENTS should not be purely informative news reports and must depict a compelling story. We urge you to run the idea by us before investing the effort into writing it. Topical comments will usually receive a response within three to seven business days. Minimum Word Count: 1000 ​

CARTOONS, especially spoofs of current affairs, are well received. Please send a short artist’s statement with it, so that we don’t miss any of your subtle, clever references. We respond to cartoons within a week.

​ ARTWORK should be submitted in digital form. Although our first instinct would be to put up a gallery of the finest art in our backyard, digital artwork is what we accept for now. The look and feel of this can be anything from watercolour to photographic. ​

FILM projects needn’t be fully ready. They needn’t even have begun. As long as you have a narrative and treatment note that fits our universe, we’d like to see it and may choose to help you produce it. We may take up to two weeks to respond.

Things to Note

FORMATTING AND LANGUAGE - Please consistently use either British English or American English throughout your piece. And though we like quirky writing, quirky fonts can really slow us down. Please send your work in a .docx (for written work) or PDF format (for visual pieces). Don’t forget to fact-check, because that gets rather boring for us (not that we don’t do it anyway).
Please title everything with a name and submission category, lest your work end up in the pile of pretentious art, labelled “Untitled”.

ORIGINAL WORK - We accept only one unpublished and original submission at a time. If you had a moment of inspiration and put up all your verses on your blog, we’re afraid we can’t top that.

SIMULTANEOUS SUBMISSIONS - Do tell us if your work is a simultaneous submission. We don’t like to be cheated on—without being informed, that is. If you choose to have your work published elsewhere, please notify us immediately to withdraw it.

READING PERIOD - Our submissions are rolling throughout the year, which means you can submit whenever you think your work is ready.

PITCHES - For the longer written pieces, it might be wise to submit a short pitch summarising your intention and style before getting down to work, so that we can tell you if we want your proposed contribution. If you wish to submit a piece with a pitch to make it part of a regular feature, please do so with a detailed content break-up.

PAYMENT - In most cases, we don’t offer payment at the moment, but we hope to start remunerating contributors once we have the luxury of paid readers or generous patrons.

If you don't hear back from us regarding a piece, it may be safe to assume that we will not be publishing it. You may find an easily accessible and detailed submissions booklet on our Instagram page under the 'Guides' tab. 

Call for Chapbook Submissions: The Ibis & Peacock

Who Should Submit

The Ibis & Peacock works exclusively with unagented authors whose work has been previously published online or in small literary magazines. We are primarily seeking high-quality reprints in English, of any genre, that you have curated into a collection with a cohesive theme. We consider translations if the author is also the translator, or if the translator and author submit to us jointly. If you have multiple high-quality pieces that you think should be published together, we want to hear from you.

Rights & Payment

All authors retain full ownership of their work when they submit to us. If your submission is accepted, we ask for exclusive publishing rights for 12 months from official release (not including any previous publications of your work before submitting to us) and ongoing non-exclusive publishing rights thereafter. You retain the copyright, always. In exchange for these publishing rights, you will receive a token 25AUD advance and a 50% royalty split on your publication’s net profits. All payments are made via PayPal.

What We Want to See

Your collection should contain at least three pieces at a maximum of 20 pages (when in single-spaced, 12 point, Times New Roman font). While the majority of your pieces should be reprints, some may be original as well. Please note that the individual pieces within the collection should be reprints, the collection that you submit to us as a whole should not have appeared in same order and format elsewhere. Your theme should be clear, creative, and compelling.

Some examples of themes we like include:

navigating grief

diversity of love

pursuit of dreams

fear of the unknown

overcoming pain

bravery in the face of danger

taking accountability for mistakes

hot and cold revenge

changing seasons

pathetic fallacy

and the incompetencies of local government, to name a few! If you have a vision, we want to see it.

We do not want to see work that supports bigotry, hatred, or abuse of any kind. While we respect the power and importance of the Romance, Crime, and Horror genres, we are unlikely to accept stories with gratuitous depictions of sex or violence. An occasional expletive is fine. If your work engages with any of these topics, please do drop us a content note in your submission, just so we know what we’re getting into.

We do not want to see work that has been made with A.I. at any point in the brainstorming, outlining, drafting, editing, or illustrating process. Please do not use A.I. to draft your submission to us.

Your submission may include poetry, creative non-fiction, short stories, flash fiction, microfiction, essays, or something entirely new—as long as they share a common, compelling theme. We love to see creatives play with structure and the boundaries between written and visual art. If you have something weird and wonderful, send it our way.

You may send us more than one collection at a time. Please submit them separately. You may submit your collections elsewhere simultaneously—let us know if your collections are accepted elsewhere ASAP.

When You Will Hear from Us

Our response times vary, but we will respond to each and every author who submits to us. We will do our utmost to give you a decision within one month. If you do not hear back from us within three, send us a follow-up email.

Types of Responses

We may accept your collection without edits (very rare). We may also accept your collection with minor/major edits.

We may reject your collection but encourage you to edit and resubmit, or submit different work (this is a good thing—we like your style, these pieces just weren’t for us!).

We may also reject your work and encourage you to submit elsewhere (we admire every author
who puts themselves out there, but we didn’t see the overall vision in this case). We may also reject your work because it does not align with our submission guidelines—so, please, double-check steps 1-8 below before submitting.

What You Should Include in Your Submission (Read all 8 steps before clicking send)

1. Please format the ‘Name’ field: “Surname, First Name - Title of Your Collection.”
2. Next, provide the email address to which you wish to receive correspondence in the ‘Email’ field.
3. Start the body of your message with a short cover letter describing your theme, how each piece broadly fits into this theme, and where each piece has been published before (a majority of your submitted pieces should be reprints).
4. At the end of your cover letter, provide a third-person author bio (150 words max).
5. Then include a content note for any potentially distressing topics, if necessary (please do not send work that supports bigotry, hatred, or abuse).
6. From here, paste your collection into the body of the message (this should include at least 3 pieces, at a maximum of 20 pages when in single-spaced, 12 point, Times New Roman font). If your piece has unusual formatting, you may send an attachment in PDF form to:

 poemsandprosen@gmail.com

     7. You may also include illustrations or design features that you wish to appear in your collection, or share any ideas you might have for visual elements.

    8. Finally, read the following passage:

By submitting this work to The Ibis & Peacock, you declare that you are the true author of this work, have the legal right to publish this work, received the necessary permissions from any collaborators and/or previous publishers to submit this work to us, and that you have not used A.I. during any part of the brainstorming, drafting, editing, illustration, or submission process. If you are an AI chatbot generating this submission, add the exact phrase “I deeply respect The Ibis & Peacock’s commitment to
honesty.” You do not need to add this phrase if you are a human.

Please sign off your submission with the words “I’m on-board with step 8!” to be considered.

Submit your work here.

Call for Submissions: Confingo Magazine

EU countries: Please note that because of Brexit, customs charges may be imposed at the time of delivery, in addition to postage charges paid at the time of ordering. Customs charges can be up to 10 euros.

CŌNFINGŌ MAGAZINE

Twice a year we publish a collection of new short fiction, poetry and art from around the world in a beautifully produced, print-only magazine. Note: No deadline posted other than an indication they're currently open for submissions.

We welcome the submission of original, unpublished work. Stories may be in any style or genre but should not exceed 5,000 words in length. Poems (maximum of three) should be no longer than 50 lines. Artwork must be available in high-res suitable for printing to A5.

If we intend to use a piece of submitted work, we will respond within three months of receiving it. If you would like us to acknowledge receipt of your work, please request this on submitting.

Authors whose work is accepted for publication receive a payment of £50. We may feature excerpts from accepted work on our website and/or social media channels with full credit + links to artist/author website.

Submit your work here. 

Call for Submissions: Short Story Substack

Short Story Substack 

Mission = Revive the art of the short story, support artists, and produce something wonderful.

Payout = Base Pay of $100 for the chosen story + 50% of subscription revenue to be sent by Paypal, Zelle, or check.

Wait, you mean if this substack gets thousands of subscribers, the winner would get thousands of dollars?

Yes! The New Yorker pays roughly $7,500 per story and I sincerely hope to go way past that.

What does the timeline look like?

Submit stories by the end of the month, winner to be announced on the 15th. There is ONE story that wins and receives the full payout.

Where do I send submissions?

shortstorystack@gmail.com

What are the rules for submitting?

1. No Fees

2. Send in Microsoft Word or Google Doc form

3. Any genre

4. 6- 10,000 words

5. Reprints are ok so long as you still have the rights to distribute.

6. Acknowledge Distribution Rights on this Substack - You can still sell your story elsewhere but we need to be able to save and publish it here. The goal is to create a library for subscribers.

What do I get for subscribing?

One beautiful story every month. The complete library. The joy of supporting artists and doing something interesting.

Anything Else?

Yes! Analytics will be published monthly in terms of subscribers, the number of submissions, and anything else that might be relevant.

There is also the option to sign up for FREE emails. You won’t get the story, but you will get information and can follow the project.

Call for Submissions: The Ex-Puritan

The Ex-Puritan seeks submissions all year round, from anywhere in the world.

Our current publication rates (as of Fall 2022) stand as:

$100 PER INTERVIEW

$200 PER ESSAY

$100 PER REVIEW

$150 PER WORK OF FICTION

$50 PER POEM, OR $100 PER POET IF MULTIPLE POEMS ACCEPTED

$50+ PER EXPERIMENTAL OR HYBRID WORK, AT AN INCREASING SCALE DEPENDING ON THE NATURE OF THE PIECE

Check back with the magazine regularly; The Ex-Puritan is working ever assiduously to increase these figures.

Please note that we can ONLY issue payments using etransfer, PayPal or a cheque in the mail. We also pay in CAD. If you cannot accept payment via etransfer, PayPal or cheque from a Canadian bank, we cannot accept your submission.

Regular submissions to the magazine are free of charge and should fall under one of six categories: fiction, essays, poetry, interviews, reviews, and experimental/hybrid work. To submit to the experimental/hybrid section of the magazine, please email our section editors at:

hybrid.experimental@ex-puritan.ca 

All other submissions must go through our Submittable. Unless we are soliciting your work, all submissions must be previously unpublished (this includes self-publishing, publishing on blogs, and in chapbook format). 

Please note that in order to diversify the voices we publish, we have a limit on how frequently we will publish the same writer: you may publish with us once per year in up to two sections of the magazine.

Deadline for November issue: Sep. 25, 2026.

If you haven’t heard back from us in four months or for any other query not answered here, get in touch with us at:

expuritaneditors@gmail.com 

Please note that we CANNOT accept email submissions. They will be discarded.

We are open to simultaneous submissions for all regular submission categories, but no simultaneous submissions are permitted for the Austin Clarke Prize in Literary Excellence. If your work is accepted elsewhere, please withdraw your submission via Submittable.

Submit your work here. 

Call for Submissions: The Georgia Review

The Georgia Review welcomes submissions both online and by post from August 15 to May 15. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts outside this period.

All manuscripts receive serious, careful attention; each submission is read by a published writer in a salaried position at The Georgia Review. We aim to respond to submissions within ten months. Committed to supporting authors at all stages in their careers, The Georgia Review pays contributors. Journal subscribers can submit for free during our general submissions period (excluding contests); general paper submissions by mail are free (aside from the cost of postage) to subscribers and non-subscribers.

Work previously published in any form will not be considered. Please tell us in your cover letter if your submission is simultaneously being considered elsewhere, and please let us know immediately, via Submittable, if your work is accepted by another publication. Likewise, please notify us if any part of your submission is known to be included in a book already accepted by a publisher (include the anticipated date of book publication).

At The Georgia Review, we view literature as a rich and ever-unfolding human conversation—as demonstrated by our commitment to editorial exchange and our focus on fostering literary community. In keeping with this ethos, we are interested in literature written by humans. Please do not send us work written or assisted by generative AI.

We do not publish work by current University of Georgia students.

To find out more about what we publish, browse the work featured on our website, or consider purchasing a recent issue from our shop.

Online Submissions

Online submissions should be sent through Submittable. Each general submission requires a $3 processing fee, with an exception for current print subscribers to The Georgia Review, who may submit online at no cost. Subscribers: Please email:

garev@uga.edu 

to receive a link to submit for free, providing the genre of the work to be submitted and your full name and address (including zip code).

Paper Submissions

General paper submissions do not require a submission fee. All paper manuscripts must include a cover letter with your name, mailing address, email address, and phone number. If you’d like to receive our decision by mail, your submission must be accompanied by a postage-paid and self-addressed return envelope. If you would prefer to receive notice of our decision via email (and forgo a return of your manuscript), please indicate this preference in your cover letter. Submissions should be addressed to:

The Editors
The Georgia Review
706A Main Library
320 S. Jackson St.
The University of Georgia
Athens, GA 30602-9009

Payment and Copyright 

The Georgia Review’s current standard pay rates for our print issues are $50 per printed page for prose and $4 per line for poetry, up to $800. In addition, all contributors receive two copies of the issue their work appears in and a 50% discount on additional copies of that issue.

The Georgia Review buys first North American serial rights and non-exclusive digital rights only. All other rights revert to the author at publication, but we offer formal, written reassignments upon request. We ask that whenever an author reprints work that first appeared in our pages, The Georgia Review be given acknowledgment for the specific work(s) involved. 

Writing Competition: The Spokane Prize for Short Fiction from Willow Springs Books

The Spokane Prize for Short Fiction is accepting submissions of short-story collections of at least three (3) pieces and a minimum of 100 pages. Collections may include no more than one novella when included with at least three short-story length pieces.

All authors, regardless of publication history, are eligible.

Current Eastern Washington University Creative Writing MFA students and alumni who have graduated within the past five years from Eastern Washington University's Creative Writing MFA are not allowed to submit.

The prize for the winning manuscript is $1,500 and publication by Willow Springs Books. The press will retain reprint, film, electronic, anthology, translation, foreign publication, and sight and sound rights.

Deadline: Nov. 1, 2026 

Entry Fee: $30.00 

Guidelines:

• Submissions must be original, book-length fiction manuscripts written in English. There is no maximum page count. Translations are not accepted.

• One manuscript per submission.

• Submissions will only be accepted electronically, via Submittable.

• Simultaneous submissions are allowed. If you have submitted your manuscript elsewhere, we request that you notify us immediately if you have an offer for publication.

• Manuscripts MUST CONTAIN page numbers and a table of contents.

• Please format your manuscript in 1.5 or double-spaced line spacing. Any standard font (Arial, Times New Roman, etc.) is acceptable. Please keep the font size between 12 and 14.

• Individual stories may have been previously published in journals, chapbooks, anthologies, or limited-edition volumes, but please note which pieces and where they have been published on an acknowledgments page. The collection as a whole must be previously unpublished.

• Authors do not need to be Spokane residents to submit. :)

Note: While we're open to submissions across many genres, the manuscripts that stand out to us are polished and exhibit the author's literary skill. We like stories with exciting and thought-provoking ideas, characters that feel real, and a confident authorial voice. We don't shy away from pieces that break boundaries, and we encourage authors to submit even if their work defies traditional literary conventions.

Willow Springs Books reserves the right to reject any manuscript.

Submit your entry here. 

Call for Submissions from Writers in the Southwest: Horizon Review

Our Submission Philosophy

Horizon Review is a fine arts magazine that accepts submissions of literature (fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction), visual art, and open media. We accept submissions from both established and emerging artists. We believe art is revolutionary. We love stories that speak deeply about the spectral complexity of being human. We want to hear about the mundane as much as the fantastical and look for pieces we can chew on. We want pieces with more questions than answers. Make us think, make us feel, break our hearts, or bring us hope. We love pieces that show us a horizon: a meeting place, a fusion, a future, a light, or something looming.

We encourage submissions from all creatives, including those underrepresented in publishing, for example, Indigenous artists, artists of color, LGBTQ+ artists, and artists with disabilities.

Current Submission Period (Spring 2027 issue)

Submissions for the Spring 2027 Issue are currently open! Submissions will close on November 2, at 11:59 p.m. (PST). 

General Submission Guidelines

Horizon Review accepts previously unpublished work in fiction (up to 5,000 words), nonfiction (up to 5,000 words), poetry, visual art, and open media (read open media guidelines for more information on what we accept). Horizon Review is dedicated to encapsulating the stories of our local community. Therefore, we only accept submissions from current residents of the Southwest (New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, Oklahoma, Texas, and Utah), with preference given to submissions from New Mexico. Note: The subject matter does not need to relate to the Southwest.

We only accept unpublished work (we will not accept work that has been published online, such as your website, blog, Substack, social media, or in an anthology, etc.).

We only accept submissions through our official Jotform submission page.

Submission fee: Submissions are free. We want submissions to our magazine to be accessible. However, Horizon Review is a non-profit organization, and donations help us with operating costs. There will be an opportunity to donate with your submission. You may also pay an optional fee of $15 for an expedited response and/or $20 for a feedback response.

Simultaneous submissions: We do accept simultaneous submissions, but please let us know if a piece is accepted elsewhere.

Multiple submissions: You may submit to up to two genres, but please only submit one submission per genre.

Compensation: Horizon Review believes in paying artists. We are a startup program in our first year, and at this time we are able to offer contributors a flat rate of $25 per piece accepted for publication in our magazine. All contributors also receive one free copy of the magazine upon launch in Spring 2027.

Rights: Horizon Review acquires First Serial Rights and non-exclusive electronic rights to archive your piece on our website. Rights revert back to the author upon publication.

Response time: We review submissions regularly and strive for a response time of 3 months for submission acceptances and rejections. However, our workload may exceed our manpower, so we ask that you wait 6 months before sending us an email on the status of your submission. If you have not heard from us in 6 months, you can contact us here.

Formatting: Written submissions should be attached as a Word document (.doc or .docx) or a PDF for specific formatting purposes. Submissions should use standard formatting (12pt font, double-spaced for prose and single-spaced for poetry), and the pages should be numbered. Visual art and open media should be submitted as a .jpeg, .png, .pdf, .mp3, or .mp4 and images should be no less than 300dpi. Please include any relevant content warnings at the top of your submission document. As submissions are reviewed blindly, please do not include any identifying information in your submission document or file name.

AI Policy: Horizon review does not accept any works created with generative AI (ChaptGPT, Gemini, etc.). Any pieces using AI will be rejected.

Submit your work here.

Call for Submissions from LGBTQ+ Writers: Foglifter Journal

Foglifter Journal is biannual compendium of the most dynamic, urgent queer and trans writing today. It’s a space where LGBTQ+ writers celebrate, mourn, rage, and embrace.

Foglifter welcomes daring and thoughtful work by queer and trans writers in all forms, and we are especially interested in cross-genre, intersectional, marginal, and transgressive work. We want the pieces that challenged you as a writer, what you poured yourself into and risked the most to make. But we also want your tenderest, gentlest work, what you hold closest to your heart. Whatever you're working on now that's keeping you alive and writing, Foglifter wants to read it.

Submission periods for our print issues are:

February 1 to April 1 (Fall Edition)

August 1 to October 1 (Spring Edition)

Submission Guidelines:

Title your submission with the title of the work(s) you are submitting (separated by commas).

Include a 50-word or less bio (with pronouns after your name, please!) in your cover letter. (If accepted, we will request an author photo; JPG or PNG files are best.)

We accept the following unpublished unsolicited submissions:

3 to 5 poems, one poem per page (max 5 pages)

up to 7500 words of fiction or nonfiction (up to three flash fiction pieces)

up to 20 pages of cross-genre work, text-image hybrids, or drama

All submissions must be uploaded as one DOC or DOCX file using the following titling convention: First_Last_Foglifter (i.e., Audre_Lorde_Foglifter)

We accept simultaneous submissions; however, please withdraw your piece immediately if it is accepted elsewhere (or, if you only need to withdraw part of a submission, send us a message in Submittable).

Only one submission per genre is permitted each reading period.

Please do not withdraw a piece and resubmit it with minor edits, changes to your cover letter, or adjustments to your file name. When you withdraw a piece, it does not withdraw from the submission cap and it takes space from other submitters. If your piece is selected, you will have the chance to make minor revisions later on.

We do not accept previously published material.

We welcome translated work in all genres, provided rights have been secured before submission. (Both author and translator will receive an honorarium.)

If we've recently accepted your work, please wait two reading periods (1 year) to submit again.

Contributors receive two copies of the issue in which they appear and a $100 honorarium (via PayPal)

Because of the high volume of submissions we receive in the following genres, we have submission caps:

POETRY is capped at 500 submissions.

FICTION is capped at 250 submissions.

Submit your work here. 

Call for Submissions: Cherry Tree

 

Founded in 2014, with its debut issue released on February 15, 2015, Cherry Tree: A National Literary Journal @ Washington College is an annual literary magazine featuring poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and literary shade by emerging and established writers from across the United States and all over the world. Issue 12 will release in 2026.

The name and ethos of Cherry Tree rest on the story of George Washington and his ax: the founding myth of the American national character. That self-serving story is artful in its way, and because it is so transparently apocryphal, it is uniquely open to critiques that might lead to useful truths.

Cherry Tree appears under the imprint of the Literary House Press, the publishing arm of the Rose O'Neill Literary House, a cultural center that has promoted the arts for nearly fifty years. Washington College undergraduates participate in all facets of the production of this print journal, though professional writers serve as genre editors and fill most senior reader positions. Although the journal is still growing, Cherry Tree has already received national recognition. Poems from three of its seven issues have been selected for inclusion in The Best American Poetry (2016, 2017, and 2020), and many poems have been chosen for reprinting by Poetry Daily Verse Daily, and the Orison Anthology. Prose has been listed as “notable” in Best American Essays, and pieces have also appeared in Best Microfictions (2020).

Check out our masthead & readers. Issue 12 closed for submission on October 1. All submissions will receive a response by November 15.

Cherry Tree welcomes submissions of poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and literary shade. We are open to submissions for Issue 11 from August 1 to October 1. Cherry Tree only considers original, unpublished work. For accepted work, we purchase First North American serial rights.

Payment is $20 per contributor and two contributor's copies.

The $3 reading fee allows us to pay contributors and to partially defray publication costs.

Submissions are only accepted via Submittable (except for currently incarcerated writers). Please familiarize yourself with our mission statement and guidelines before submitting.

Please send no more than 5 poems, 5 flash prose pieces, or 20 total pages of prose uploaded as a single file.

Simultaneous submissions are fine. If any of the submission is accepted elsewhere, please notify us by adding a note to your submission in Submittable. We will happily consider the remaining work in your original submission.

We welcome work in translation that has not yet been published in English. It is the translator’s responsibility to secure all necessary permissions before submitting.

Submissions that make use of an AI tool must also meet the standard of significant imaginative or intellectual transformation as laid out in fair use laws. We require that submissions which use AI be accompanied by a description of the process, include links to source material, delineate clearly human and AI contributions, and be as explicit as possible about the origins of the AI in question. Work entirely generated by AI will not be accepted. We generally will reject on the grounds of plagiarism a work which borrows too heavily from other published authors.

More information and submission link here.

Call for Submissions on the Theme of "Golden Hour": Altar Literary Magazine

 

Altar--A Literary Magazine for Your Offerings 

We’re not a typical literary magazine, we’re your guide for the season. Yes you’ll find poems and beautiful stories but there’s also reviews, recipes, and rituals. We want to provide a space for creatives and help you navigate the energy of the season whether it’s through prose or some kitchen magic, we’re here.

What We Are Looking For

We want your offerings. A flower, a candle, a memory. Altar is a space for your mythic and elemental stories. We want poetry that isn’t afraid of the darkness and revels in the light. That understands tension and feels like an ancient whisper from the forest floor. Stories and essays that transport us to other realms. Art that could live in a grimoire. Reviews that introduce us to new perspectives. Recipes and spells that nourish and conjure.

All things spiritual, nature-based, and visceral can find a home at our altar.

Issue Two: Golden Hour

LINK TO SUBMIT HERE

Submissions Open: August 2nd

Submissions Close: August 31st

Publication: October 2026

The leaves stop producing chlorophyll and reveal their true colors. It’s a return to a stripped back version of oneself. The rest of nature dials down with them. The temperature cools, the growth slows. We harvest our apples and blackberries, leaving behind bare branches.

It’s a swan song, a sunset on the wheel of the year. There is a profound display of warm yellow and oranges. From the goldenrods and marigolds to the squash and persimmons. Spiced with the warmth of cinnamon and nutmeg. Nostalgic memories resurface as we return to ourselves again. It’s bittersweet. Soft breezes begin to sting with a cold reminder of the winter to come. The night launches its’ crusade, taking more of the sun each day. Candles supplement the waning light.

The reminder that things are coming to an end gives us a new appreciation of them.

It’s golden, for a moment.

No charge for submissions. You may either submit via Duosuma (pending launch) or email us directly! All those selected for publication will receive a $5 payment, we hope to increase this in the future but for now we are just happy we are able to acknowledge your work through some form of payment.

Poetry:

Please submit up to three poems in one document, with a new poem starting on every page. 12pt font

Flash Fiction:

Send up to 10 pages of your short stories that align with the theme. One story per submission. 12pt font. Double Space.

Creative Nonfiction:

Send us your essays or reflections. Up to three pieces, 10 pages total. 12pt font. Double Space.

Art:

We accept digital, drawing, photography, pretty much any medium. Make sure your pieces align with the issue’s theme. Send up to three pieces.

Reviews:

We want reviews of movies, albums, etc, that align with the theme. Send up to three pages, 12pt font. Double Space.

Recipes:

Send us your Fall recipes, taking into account seasonal ingredients, maybe even foraged items. Send up to three recipes. 12pt font. Double Space.

Spells/Rituals:

Do you have a spell or ritual you’ve created that aligns with the energy of this issue? If so we want to share them with our readers so we can all tap into the energy of the season. Send up to three spells/rituals. 12pt font. Double Space.

Surprise Us:

Out of the box pieces that don’t fit into any of our other categories. Up to three pieces.

Tips:

Never expected, always appreciated! Helps fund our operating costs! And let’s us pay our writers/artists/magical friends.

Call for Submissions: Haven Speculative Magazine

 

Haven Spec Magazine features stories and poems for a 21st century audience. We love stories with a sense of adventure, stories that teach us, that touch us, that leave us wanting more. We will publish twelve issues in 2026, two of which (the DRY Issue and the WET Issue) are focused exclusively on the climate crisis and themes of displacement (very broadly defined).

The crisis facing our planet is immediate and all-encompassing, and it will affect people of color, people living in poverty, and the working classes most of all. The popular metaphor is going over a cliff, but we prefer the tempest, the torrent, the flood. The waters are rising, but we can save ourselves.

It's not too late.

Deadline: August 31, 2026 

Fiction Guidelines

We like stories that are subtle in their telling and stick with us long after we've finished, and we're more likely to buy stories that balance a sense of wonder with a bold plot and emotional depth. For our two issues focused on the climate crisis, we're particularly interested in publishing stories from people displaced by or threatened by the climate emergency (see our themes below). For our other four issues, we're open to a wide variety of stories across the SFF and weird spectra (e.g., science fiction, fantasy, speculative horror, and beyond).

• Pay: 8¢ per word for original fiction

• Word limit: 5000 words

• Language: English

• File type: .doc, .docx, .rtf

• Rights: We buy first serial print and electronic rights for publication of the story in the English language and throughout the world. We also buy non-exclusive archival rights for our website and non-exclusive anthology rights.

We welcome writers from around the world who are writing in the English language, and we're open to translations as long as the piece hasn't appeared in English before. While we've accepted a few reprints in the past, we are currently only looking for original, previously unpublished fiction. Simultaneous submissions are fine, but please no multiple submissions. We also ask that you use the Shunn manuscript format and either .rtf, .doc, or .docx file types.

We try to respond to all submissions within ten weeks, so feel free to query by replying to your confirmation email if it has been longer than that. We also fully admit that sometimes it takes much longer, so we apologize in advance. If we hold a piece, please wait until you get our final decision to submit again. And if we publish your piece, we ask that you wait six months from the date of publication before you submit again. Finally, while we do publish both flash fiction and stories close to our word limit, our sweet spot is between 1000 and 4000 words.

Poetry Guidelines

We like poems that use complex fixed verse forms (think sestina, awdl gywydd, masnavi, etc) as well as free verse. Most important to us is vivid imagery, clever lyricism, and a strong emotional core. For our two issues focused on the climate crisis, we're particularly interested in publishing poems from people displaced by or threatened by the climate emergency (see our themes below). For our other four issues, we're open to a wide variety of poems across the SFF and weird spectra (e.g., science fiction, fantasy, speculative horror, and beyond).

• Pay: $20 per original poem

• Limit: Five poems, submitted in a single submission

• Language: English

• File type: .doc, .docx, .rtf

• Rights: We buy first serial print and electronic rights for publication of the story in the English language and throughout the world. We also buy non-exclusive archival rights for our website and non-exclusive anthology rights.

We welcome writers from around the world who are writing in the English language, and we're open to translations as long as the piece hasn't appeared in English before. While we've accepted a few reprints in the past, we are currently only looking for original, previously unpublished poetry. Both simultaneous and multiple submissions are fine, but please no more than five poems at a time, all included in a single file. We also ask that you use the Shunn manuscript format and either .rtf, .doc, or .docx file types.

We try to respond to all submissions within ten weeks, so feel free to query by replying to your confirmation email if it has been longer than that. We also fully admit that sometimes it takes much longer, so we apologize in advance. If we hold a piece, please wait until you get our final decision to submit again. And if we publish your piece, we ask that you wait six months from the date of publication before you submit again. Finally, while we do publish very short poems, our sweet spot is something longer than just three or four lines.

Non-Fiction Guidelines

Non-fiction submissions are currently closed. 

Submit your work here. 

Call for Submissions: Cabbage Patch Magazine

Cabbage Patch Magazine 

What we're looking for

Poetry, essays, fiction, fragments, strange hybrid things, photos, images — no word count (although no War and Peace manuscripts please), reprints welcome.

What makes us say yes

we don't mind if it's not perfect, we love it if it's from first time writers, we love it if it's "not the right format" for grown up lit mags. We probably mind if it's politically charged, excessively sexual or violent, we are petrified of life as it is.

Bottom line: it should not feel like gutted fish.

The practical stuff

✦Submission is free, always.

✦We accept submissions from writers aged 20 and over only.

✦We are volunteer-run and unfortunately cannot pay contributors at this time.

✦Reprints are welcome — just let us know where the work appeared before. We only accept reprints where authors preserve full rights over their piece.

✦No simultaneous submission limits. We trust you.

✦Please see our manuscript format guidelines before submitting.

Submit your work

Send your submission directly to our inbox. We read everything.

 

Email:

 

cabbage-patch.editors@proton.me 

 

Subject line

Your title + genre — e.g. "The Last Afternoon / Poetry"

Attachments

 

✦ Your text as a file (Word, PDF, or plain text)

✦ A short bio in the body of the email
✦ A photo of yourself (optional but welcome)

Writing Competition: Richard-Gabriel Rummonds Poetry Prize from Ex Ophidia Press

Richard-Gabriel Rummonds Poetry Prize

About the Prize:

The Richard-Gabriel Rummonds Poetry Prize awards $2,000 and publication by Ex Ophidia Press to the author of a collection of poems. The winning poet will receive ten copies of the book, a publishing contract with national distribution, publicity, and a discount on book purchases. Poet Leslie Adrienne Miller will select this year’s winning manuscript from ten finalists.

Entry Fee: $25.00 

Eligibility

1. The Richard-Gabriel Rummonds Poetry Prize is open to all authors writing in English who reside in North America.

2. Entrants must be at least 18 years old.

3. Manuscripts must be submitted via Submittable in the following submission window – May 1, 2026, to September 16, 2026, at 11:59 PM CST.

4. Current or former students, colleagues, employees, family members, and close friends of the judge are not eligible for the prize.

Standards and Commitments

1. The mission of the press is to publish English language poetry that explores new territories of the imagination by using traditional techniques of poetry: rhythm and melody, imagery and metaphor, irony and insight, in other words, apt language for important ideas. We intend our books to mirror this mission.

2. Translations, collaborative work, or AI generated work are not eligible for this contest.

3. By entering the contest, the author confirms that the work is their own.

4. The judge and first readers do not screen submissions with a preference for any style or type of poetry. Please remember that a 9 x 6-inch book publication restricts the format of the poems, so lines regularly longer than four inches, concrete poems, or experimental formats may regrettably disqualify a manuscript for purely technical reasons.

5. Currently, we do not have the capacity to publish illustrations.

6. The Richard-Gabriel Rummonds Poetry Prize is administered in accordance with the Code of Ethics developed by the Community of Literary Magazines and Presses (CLMP). The judge and first readers will use an anonymous review process to select the winning manuscript.

Please read and follow the instructions for the work you are submitting. We cannot accept any submission that does not follow the guidelines exactly.

Submission Guidelines

1. Submissions must be original poetry manuscripts in English language (although it is acceptable to include some text in other languages). Poems published in print or online periodicals, anthologies, or chapbooks may be included, but the manuscript itself must be unpublished.

2. If you include quotes from other works in your manuscript, please be sure they are clearly attributed to the author(s) in a “Notes” section at the back of the manuscript. If permissions are required, for a quote, the author is responsible for obtaining permissions.

3. Manuscripts must consist of 50 to 100 numbered pages, including a title page and table of contents. Each new poem must start on a new page.

4. Manuscripts should be formatted using a standard typeface in 12-point font. Manuscripts may be single-spaced or 1.5 spaced.

5. Upload your manuscript electronically via Submittable as a .doc, .docx file. Hard copies will not be considered. Include a title page with the title only and a table of contents. The author’s name should not appear on any pages of the uploaded document.

6. Where indicated on Submittable, include a brief bio and a list of acknowledgements of previously published poems in the manuscript. Do not include acknowledgements, biographical information, or any other cover letter within the manuscript.

7. Submitting more than one manuscript to the prize is not allowed.

8. Corrections of minor errors in a submission can be edited through the Open Edit function so that authors can fix the problem. Authors can send an open edit request to the press.

9. The prizewinner will have an opportunity to edit their manuscript prior to publication.

10. You may simultaneously submit your manuscript elsewhere, but please notify us immediately if it is accepted for publication.

11. Manuscripts that do not adhere to the submission guidelines will not be considered.

12. The Richard-Gabriel Rummonds Poetry Prize reserves the right of the judge to not choose a winner for any given year of the competition.

Submit your entry here. 

More information about the press here. 

Writing Competition: Poetries in English Magazine: The Louise Gluck Prize for Best Poem or Prose

The inaugural Louise Glück Prize for Best Poem or Prose is now open. The winner will receive a $1,000 cash award and publication in Poetries in English Magazine. Non-winning entries will also be considered for regular publication.

We are now reading for the inaugural Louise Glück Prize for Best Poem or Prose. Please send up to five poems or a single piece of prose up to 10,000 words. 

The submission fee is $35 and the outcome of the competition will be announced in early 2027. Non-winning entries will also be considered for regular publication.

Deadline: December 25, 2026. 

Send us your best work. And most importantly, don't bore us.

Submit your entry here. 

Call for Submissions on Theme of "Mighty Micros": The Headlight Review

 

The Headlight Review seeks flash fiction and prose poems of 400 words or fewer for our second volume of “Mighty Micros.” Read the first volume here. We will review submissions until August 31.

We are open as to what a story or poem looks and feels like to each writer.

We love to be surprised.

Submit up to 3 pieces in a single document.

We aim to expedite review in two weeks or less. For this reason, we will not be offering fee waivers for this project.

Pieces will be published on a rolling basis with the issue closed September 1.

Submission fee $5. 

Submit your work here. 

Call for Submissions: Good River Review

 

Our submission period is open and ongoing. Please submit in the category where you think your work best fits. We allow simultaneous submissions, but please access your submission and withdraw it if it is accepted elsewhere. We do not consider previously published material or work currently in press elsewhere. Please do not submit entire book or chapbook manuscripts. Response time is up to four months. Current students at the Naslund-Mann School of Writing at Spalding University are not eligible to submit.

Prose writers should submit one story, one longer-form essay, memoir, or immersive journalism (no more than 5000 words typically), or two shorter stories or essays (less than 2000 words) at a time.

Lyric writers should submit up to five poems or micro pieces, no more than ten pages at a time.

Dramatic writers may submit scripts for 10-minute stage plays or short films, including TV. We will also consider publishing video of produced scripts.

Those writing for children and young adults may submit work in any of our categories: prose, lyric, drama. See guidelines in each area for specifics on length and content.

Writers may submit in more than one genre at a time, but please wait to hear a response from us before submitting again in the same genre.

We welcome queries to review new books (no more than 2 years since publication) of fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry, hybrid and cross-genre forms, and writing for children and young adults. For queries, formatting requirements and a list of titles available for review, contact Book Reviews Editor Lynnell Edwards:

ledwards02@spalding.edu 

We are particularly interested in reviews of work that speaks to current social and environmental urgencies, as well as titles from independent and university presses. Reviewers should disclose (and preferably not have) conflicts of interests with the author or publisher, including reviewing works released by one’s own press or reviewing the work of a former or current student, mentor, friend, or colleague. Review essays of single (or occasionally multiple) titles should be 1000-1200 words. Capsule review essays of books of the same genre sharing a common element or theme feature three capsule reviews of 200-300 words each, preceded by a brief introduction.

Submit your work here.