Call for Submissions on Theme of Water and Waterways: Saranac Review

Founded in 2004 as a print journal and published by students and faculty in the creative writing program at SUNY Plattsburgh, with the help of guest editors and readers, Saranac Review has relaunched as an online-exclusive publication. Our production schedule is dependent upon availability of personnel to teach our Editing and Publishing seminar.

We only accept submissions through Submittable during our reading periods; please do not email us your work. We will open again for Submissions on September 8. Check Submittable for more information.

Saranac Review pays $60 to each contributor whose work is selected and featured. (Please note: we charge a $3 fee to help keep our publication afloat. We do not consider work by current SUNY Plattsburgh students, faculty, or staff.)

We hope to be a good home for your beautiful, exciting, and surprising writing and art. We want to celebrate work by new and emerging writers, especially writers traditionally underrepresented in the publishing industry. Send us work you love, and we’ll feel lucky to consider it.

For Issue 20, we are especially (but not only) interested in writing and visual art about water and waterways, both literally and figuratively, and we're looking at this theme broadly:

Water as resource and source

Waterways as sites of movement and migration

Water and waterways as paths to connection, inspiration, and community

Please Note: You may submit to more than one genre, but we ask that you submit only once per genre. (If you receive a pass on a submission, please wait until the next open reading period to submit again in that genre.) We do not consider work by current SUNY Plattsburgh students, faculty, or staff.

Saranac Review pays $60 to each contributor whose work is selected and featured.

Our submission portal will remain open through October 31.

We look forward to reading your work!

Writing Contest and Call for Submissions from Undergraduate Students: Polaris Literary Magazine

Submissions are now OPEN for the 2024-2025 edition of Polaris. 

Deadline: Feb. 1, 2025

Note: Only previously unpublished work will be accepted. Polaris will only accept work from undergraduates.

We look forward to receiving your submissions!

Prizes awarded in each genre:

1st Place – $50
2nd Place – $25

Prizes are awarded by genre editors.

Winners will be published in Polaris and all contest entries will be considered for publication.

There is no monetary compensation for general acceptances. Only prize winners will receive the previously mentioned amounts.

Submission Guidelines: 

Fiction: Up to 2,500 words, open to anything with an interesting voice including absurdist, experimental, flash, et cetera. Multiple submissions of fiction will be accepted if all works together meet or are under the word count.

Poetry: Submit 1-3 poems, free verse, experimental, prose poetry, et cetera. If you do not include at least one poem in your submission, it will automatically be rejected.

Nonfiction: Up to 2,500 words, humor, travel narrative, et cetera. Multiple submissions of nonfiction will be accepted if all works together meet or are under the word count.

Visual Art: Up to 3 works per artist, .TIFF or .JPEG files, all media are acceptable. Artists should also include a Microsoft Word document containing their name, the titles and media of works submitted, and a brief artist’s statement. Keep in mind, if you want to be considered for the cover, our journal is horizontal.

Due to our magazine being only print, we cannot accept videos or media alike.

*Please do not attach any media in your nonfiction, fiction, or poetry submissions. Any other media besides the submission will not be published.

Please include a cover sheet that includes the following: Author’s name (should not appear anywhere else on the document)

• Brief author biography

• Genre & Title of Work(s)

• Permanent Mailing Address

• E-mail Address

• Phone Number

• Affiliated Undergraduate Institution

Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but the author must notify us immediately if his/her work is accepted for publication elsewhere. Contributors will be notified if their submissions were accepted by Polaris via e-mail.

Authors may submit to no more than two genres at a time.

Again, only previously unpublished work will be accepted. Submissions without cover sheets or from non-undergraduate students WILL NOT be accepted.
Tips For Success

Our aesthetic changes from year to year as our editorial staff turns over. However, we love fiction, poetry, non-fiction, and visual art of many kinds. We are open to traditional and experimental work. We also firmly believe that all aspects of the complex experience of being human are available to artists. However, we ask that you not submit work that glorifies sexism, homophobia, racism, transphobia, or sexual violence. Additionally, please do not submit AI generated work.

Fiction: Please feel free to submit fiction of all kinds, from literary realism, to mystery, horror, fantasy, science fiction, or experimental work, as long as it fulfills our other requirements.

Poetry: Please feel free to submit both free verse and formal poetry, as long as it fulfills our other requirements. We also note that our magazine is shaped like a postcard, so poems that rely on a form that is laid out over a whole standard page are not a good fit for our magazine.

Non-fiction: Please feel free to submit non-fiction of all kinds, as long as it fulfills our other requirements, with the caveat that we are not a research journal, so this isn’t an appropriate venue for an academic paper.

Visual art: Please feel free to submit visual art of all kinds, as long as it fulfills our other requirements.

Send questions to:
Fiction:

polarisfiction@gmail.com

Poetry:

polarispoetry@gmail.com

Creative Nonfiction:

polarisnonfiction@gmail.com

Visual Art:

polarisvisualart@gmail.com 

For general questions, contact us at:

onupolaris@gmail.com

Submission link here.

Call for Submissions: ellipsis...literature and art

ellipsis… literature and art is a nationally and internationally recognized journal published by the students of Westminster University since 1965.

Past ellipsis… contributors include Karen an-Hwei Lee, Jeanne Marie Beaumont, Monica Berlin, Nickole Brown, BJ Buckley, Lisa Fishman, Karen Garthe, Matthew Gavin Frank, Elton Glazer, William Greenway, Andrea Hollander, Elizabeth Murawski, Bianca Stone, and Elaine Terranova.

New issues of ellipsis… literature and art are published each April.

We accept original English language submissions in poetry, short fiction, creative non-fiction, drama, and art. Submit poems in one document, please. Our submission period is August 1 through November 15 for poetry, short fiction, drama, and creative non-fiction. We accept art submissions from August 1 through January 31.

Please include a 75 word contributor’s note and your address, telephone number, and email address.

Simultaneous submissions are welcome but withdraw your submission immediately if your work is accepted elsewhere. Note that we do not republish pieces, including work online.

We usually pay $10 per poem and page of visual art, and $3 per page of prose, plus two free copies of the issue. We cannot pay international contributors.

Submissions cannot be accepted via email.

Submit your work here.

Call for Submissions from Quebec Writers Ages 14-21: Quist

Quist is a new online magazine from the Quebec Writers’ Federation featuring the prose and poetry of Quebecers aged 14-21. Quist aims to showcase young writers with bold voices and fresh perspectives. We particularly welcome submissions by youth from diverse backgrounds, including BIPOC writers, LGBTQIA+ writers, those experiencing poverty and/or homelessness, writers for whom English is not their first language, as well as disabled and neurodivergent writers.

 

Give us your ghost stories and your gritty realism, your space operas and your mind-bending experimentalism! We want love poems and nature poems, poems about existential despair and poems about the contents of your fridge. Amaze us!

We accept:

• Short fiction: one story of no more than 3500 words.

• Flash fiction: up to three short stories, no more than 750 words each.

• Creative non-fiction: one piece of no more than 3500 words.

• Poetry: up to four poems. Each poem should not exceed 40 lines. Alternatively, you can submit fewer poems as long as the total number of lines does not exceed 160.

• Art: up to five original artworks per submitter, up to 25 MB total. If submitting multiple artworks, please include an image list with your submission that includes the work’s title, date, and medium (if applicable). You can also include artist statements or additional contextual information (optional).

Quist pays $75 for each accepted submission of written work, which can include groups of poems or flash fiction. Please note that this amount covers the entire submission, not each individual piece.

Although we are working on providing monetary compensation to our arts contributors, we are unfortunately unable at this time to pay for artwork published in Quist. In lieu of payment, featured artists will be offered professional development opportunities, such as

• A one-on-one mentorship meeting with our arts editor

• An interview with our editor-in-chief or arts editor, to be published alongside your art

• The opportunity to attend the launch in December and to present your work

Deadline: October 1, 2024  

 

Submission portal and more information here.

Call for Submissions on Theme of "Bloodlines: Lineage, Inheritance, and Legacy": The Santa Fe Literary Review

The Santa Fe Literary Review (SFLR) is published annually by the Santa Fe Community College. An in-print literary journal, SFLR features work by local, national, and international writers and artists. We use Submittable, an online submissions platform, for all submissions. From July 15 to November 1 each year, we invite submissions of poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction, and visual art. In recent issues, we’ve proudly featured the work of such writers as Tommy Orange, Layli Long Soldier, Kirstin Valdez Quade, and Darryl Lorenzo Wellington.

Our submissions period opens July 15, 2024, and closes November 1, 2024.

Our suggested theme for our 2025 issue is “Bloodlines: Lineage, Inheritance, and Legacy.” SFLR accept submissions of poetry, dramatic writing, fiction, creative nonfiction, and visual art. SFLR editors notify writers and artists of editorial decisions by December 25 each year. If you’ve submitted work and have not heard a reply by January 1, feel free to email us at:

sflr@sfcc.edu 

to request an update. During our submissions period, we accept submissions for free through Submittable, but first, please review the SFLR guidelines for prose, poetry and visual art. 

For your copy of the SFLR, visit any of the three public library branches during the months of August and September. You can also pick up a complimentary copy at the Santa Fe Community College Library or in the Office of Liberal Arts. Or, view all of our issues online.

SFLR aims to promote a diverse range of writers and artists, and to present a wide variety of stories, styles, and cultural perspectives. We’re especially committed to promoting voices that aren’t always empowered in the publishing world, so if you’re a writer of color, an Indigenous person, a non-native English speaker, a female, a person with a disability, a member of the LGBTQIAPK+ community, a trauma survivor, or anyone else frequently silenced or ignored by the modern media, please submit.

If you have questions, comments, or suggestions, please email SFLR at:

sflr@sfcc.edu

Submit your work here.

Calll for Submissions: Wild Peach Magazine

Wild Peach Magazine publishes work by unpublished and emerging creators, and features profiles and interviews with all kinds of people that thoughtfully explore the varying approaches to being a human.

Here’s what you should know before pitching us: We never charge a fee to submit

• We accept multimedia submissions including writing, art, comics, illustrations, and photography; we also publish film/music projects, but will only consider them from an initial pitch

• All work submitted should be original and unpublished

• Simultaneous submissions are allowed! We just ask that if your work is accepted elsewhere you withdraw it from consideration promptly

• We read and respond to every submission, so please be patient – we’re a small team and get a large volume of pitches – it may take a while to get back to yours, but we will. If you haven’t heard from us within 8 weeks you can (gently) follow up.

• If you want to volunteer as a reader or guest editor, we’d love to hear from you (click here please).

Below we’ve outlined some things we like to see, and some we really don’t, but these are guidelines, and if you’re unsure we welcome you to submit anyway.

Submit |
We’re pining for

Hyper-local narratives; unexpected pairings of art/music/literature; unsophisticated photography; personal obsessions, beliefs, or commentary on anything that matters to you; sharp, witty takes on flash-trends; playful/critical reflections on the past; stories from behind-the-scenes (of anything); on-the-ground dispatches from unexpected or unusual places; short fiction; how-to’s for messy/absurd moments; sharp, insightful manifestos; any review of a book/music/film/product that is highly subjective.

 

We’re not excited about 

 

Self-indulgent introspection; positions that are incompetent, unkind, or evil; unhelpful “everything is doomed” pessimism; motivational platitudes; evidence claims with no reference to the original research; “wellness”; bad faith recommendations; mean-spirited criticism; capitalism/environmental think pieces on Taylor Swift; capitalism/environmental think pieces on Leonardo Dicaprio; anything that writes off or disregards people you disagree with; wanton/thoughtless violence; indecisive viewpoints.

 

Send your pitch to:

 

pitch@wildpeach.org

• Attach your 1-2 page proposal as a docx or PDF.

• If you’re interested in covering an event/release/occasion, keep in mind that we sometimes commission pieces far in advance, and plan to send your pitch 3-6 months ahead of time.

• If you want to submit a film/audio project, send us your 3-4 paragraph pitch describing the format, and the story.

Submit your story to:

story@wildpeach.org

• Fiction and non-fiction stories (no word limit).

• We publish narrative non-fiction, reviews, flash fiction, and short stories.

• For fiction, we accept all/most genres; we look for character-driven pieces.

• Please include a short bio in the body of the email, and attach your work as a docx or PDF titled “title_lastname_firstname.”

• Cover letters are nice, but not required!

Send your art/poetry/photos to:

 

art@wildpeach.org

• Include a short bio in the body of the email.

• For poetry – attach poems as one docx or PDF file.

• For art and photography – you’re welcome to submit finished work or pitch your idea with examples of your previous work.

Interviews

 

We do a lot of interviews at Wild Peach. It’s kind of our thing. In every issue, we feature a big profile on one neat individual where we get to know their story and preoccupations a little more than usual. We call this series How to Be a Human Being. These people are chosen either because we think they’re cool/apprehensive/witty or because you do. Send us someone you want to see featured using this form.

 

What we pay

$100-500 for essays
$100-500 for fiction stories
$25 for poems
$50 for reviews
$50-700 for original art/comics/illustrations/photos
$25-200 for reprints

If your work is accepted we’ll send you our publication agreement and payment details. We also pay for original film/music projects – if your pitch is accepted, we’ll forward you paperwork and payment rates. For written pieces, we may request rewrites or light edits before publishing your work.

Call for Submissions: Toronto Journal

What do we publish?

We publish short stories from anywhere in the world.

We will also consider non-fiction pieces that are either set locally or explore some local history (Toronto, GTA, and surrounding). See the Stories from the City category, and the Toronto Feature category, respectively, for some examples.

Who do we publish?

We are firm believers in the idea that the writing should speak for itself. It’s irrelevant to us whether you’re a new writer or an established writer. All submissions to Toronto Journal are anonymous.

Compensation

We pay $50 per piece. All published writers will also receive a printed copy of the issue in which they appear.

Submission Guidelines

1. Do not include your name or email on the pdf or word document with your content.
2. Do not include a cover letter with your work.
3. Word limit is 7,500 words.
4. No strict formatting requirements besides legibility.
5. Simultaneous submissions are ok. Please let us know if your work is accepted elsewhere.
6. If your work is selected for publication, Toronto Journal has first serial rights only, and the author retains all other rights to the work.
7. We cannot accept any work that has been published previously in English, either in print, online, in audio format, or otherwise.
8. Should we happen to accept multiple pieces from the same author for a given issue, the accepted pieces may be postponed to subsequent issues. 
9. If you are submitting for the Summer issue, expect to hear back from us by April 30th each year. If you are submitting for the Winter issue, expect to hear back from us by October 31st each year. If you don’t hear back from us, please get in touch: submissions@torontojournal.com.
   

We are currently accepting submissions for our Winter 2025 issue. Deadline: 1 October 2024.

Submit your work here.