Call for Submissions: Peatsmoke Journal

Great news! We are open for free submissions from January 1st - February 28th, 2022! We’re excited to read your work!

We accept previously unpublished poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. Simultaneous submissions are fine, but please let us know right away if your work is accepted elsewhere. You can include a cover letter full of amusing tidbits about you or of fascinating trivia you learned from a podcast recently, but we are not interested in reading a list of the journals your work has appeared in. What is important to us is that you are sending us writing that feels urgent and necessary, work that is ready to go out for a stroll in the world. As a journal, we are committed to publishing diverse voices of all kinds.

We know how nerve-wracking it can be to check your inbox every morning, hoping to hear back from a journal, so we do our best to make our turnaround time as quick as possible. We will try to respond to every submission within two months, if not sooner. Please do not send more than one submission in any genre until you have heard back from us.

Unfortunately, we have had to begin charging for submissions. We are a two-person volunteer staff with a limited budget, and this charge will cover only our costs for running Submittable. However, we want to ensure that submitting to Peatsmoke remains accessible to all. If you are unable to pay the $3 submission fee, please send us an email at:

editors@peatsmokejournal.com 

letting us know, and we will waive your submission fee. Also, we offer free submissions for marginalized writers, as it is so important to us to support the words of those who have been traditionally underrepresented in the writing community.

Submit your work here. 

Call for Submissions: NonBinary Review

Zoetic Press publishes NonBinary Review, our award-winning themed quarterly lit journal. Each issue revolves around a specific theme, but we're asking contributors to go beyond the old familiar media tropes.

We're looking for work we can read with our whole body - work that gives us goosebumps, makes us see the world differently, has the tang of authenticity, makes us sit up and listen, and smells like....something. This analogy got out of hand. What we're saying is that we're not looking for re-hashes of images or stories we've read before. We want contributors to explore every facet of our themes, really getting in between the cracks, in the corners, all the forgotten places that no one ever thinks to explore. We want to read work that makes us think "I never would have thought of this, and yet, it's so fitting!"

What we're NOT looking for is work that centers violence, rape, misogyny, racism, ableism, or degrading stereotypes of any kind. We know you're not that kind of writer, but we thought it should be said.

NonBinary Review accepts reprints, but we do ask for previous publication details so they can be credited.

We can only accept ONE submission per author/artist. You are free to submit as many as you like (following guidelines), but once we have accepted a piece, the rest will be declined. It's not that we don't love you. It's that we're poor, and this can get expensive.

We're currently seeking submissions for:

Person First in an Identity First World (open 12/1/2021 through 4/30/2022)

Person First in an Identity First World Visual Art (open 12/1/2021 through 4/30/2022)

Shared Worlds (open 9/1/2021 through 1/31/2022)

Shared Worlds Visual Art (open 9/1/2021 through 1/31/2022)

PAYMENT

NonBinary Review pays 1 cent per word for prose, and a flat fee of $10 for poetry (singular poems or a suite), payable upon receipt of the signed publication contract. NonBinary Review accepts previously published work as long as the original publication is clearly credited. All contributors will receive a complimentary .pdf copy of the issue in which their work appears.

Writing Competition: 2022 Nelligan Prize for Short Fiction

2022 Nelligan Prize for Short Fiction

Deadline: March 14, 2022

$2,500 honorarium and publication in the Fall/Winter issue of Colorado Review

Submit an unpublished story between 2,500 and 12,500 words by March 14, 2022 (we will observe a 5-day grace period).

$15 reading fee (add $2 to submit online)

Final judge is Ramona Ausubel; friends and students (current or former) of the judge are not eligible to compete, nor are Colorado State University employees, students, or alumni.

Complete guidelines at:

nelliganprize.colostate.edu or:

Nelligan Prize, Colorado Review

9105 Campus Delivery, Colorado State University

Fort Collins, CO 80523-9105.

Call for Submissions on Theme of "Martial Arts": Clinch

Submit to Clinch—A Martial Arts Literary Magazine

Deadline: April 1, 2022

Martial Arts is one of the fastest growing industries in the world. Yet, in the literary community, there isn’t anywhere to give it a voice—until now. At Clinch, our goal is to bring the martial arts and creative writing communities together. Or, at least, get the two acquainted. So send us your work that displays the good, bad, and eccentric qualities of martial arts.

If it’s good writing, and encompasses martial arts/combat sports—including boxing—in any way, shape, or form, we want it. Show us your submission game.

Our website. 

Call for Submissions: Works Progress

Works Progress Calling for Fiction Submissions

Deadline: Year-round

We are a brand new Substack publishing short fiction about anything bigger than yourself: stories about astronauts, ICU nurses, politics, protests, alternate histories, big-world calamities, juicy personal dramas and the people who experience them. Fiction with dynamic characters who do interesting things. We don’t think stories should be slogs. We do not publish quiet stories about divorce.

We pay our writers.

Submit via email:

worksprogress.submissions@gmail.com

 and visit our archives here.

Writing Competition: The Eliud Martinez Prize

The Eliud Martinez Prize

Deadline: January 31, 2022

Inlandia Books announces the Eliud Martínez Prize for a first book in fiction or creative nonfiction by a Hispanic, Latino/a/x, or Chicana/o/x writer.

Winner receives $1,000 + book publication.

Submit via Submittable November 1 through January 31.

$15 reading fee  

The Eliud Martinez Prize was established to honor the memory of Eliud Martínez (1935-2020), artist, novelist, and professor emeritus of creative writing at University of California, Riverside. "Our literary expression occupies a place within our American national literature, and among the literatures of the world.”—Eliud Martinez

Call for Submissions: Feels Blind Literary

Feels Blind Literary is Open for Submissions for Issue #7

Deadline: March 6, 2022

Feels Blind Literary, a publication featuring work from artists and writers who are nonbinary or identify as women, is currently accepting art, photography, fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and plays. Issue #7 will launch in time for AWP where we will have a table and host an off-site reading.

All profits from our small fee go to organizations like the Richmond Community Bail fund, though submissions are free every Monday, as it’s important to us that cost is not a barrier to access for our contributors. We nominate for the Best of the Net and Pushcart. Dazzle us with your best!