Writing Residency: Mesa Refuge

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

info@mesarefuge.org

To apply, go here.

Call for Submissions from Working Class Writers: Blue Collar Review

 

Blue Collar Review

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Send to:

Blue Collar Review

P.O. Box 11417

Norfolk, VA 23517

 

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

 

Work not meeting guidelines may be returned or discarded.

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

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

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

Animalia: What Animals Can Teach Us About Being Human

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

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

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

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

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

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

Manuscripts can only be accepted electronically via Submittable.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Submit your work here.

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

Issue 17: Kindness

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

Submissions

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

Limits:

up to 5,000 words of fiction

two poems up to 15 lines each

Formatting:

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

Title Information

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

Name or Pseudonym, email

Piece Title

WayWords

Word or Line Count

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

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

Submissions accepted via email:

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

OR Dropbox OR Duosuma.

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

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

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

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

If you need to withdraw, please let us know.

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

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

Now accepting submissions for Belletrist 7:

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

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

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

POETRY: submit up to five poems in one file.

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

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

Submit your work here.

Writing Competition: Narrative Fall 2024 Story Contest

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

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

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

We welcome and look forward to reading your pages.

Click here to submit your work. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Call for Submissions: Thirteen Bridges Review

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

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

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

 

kquaney@aum.edu

Fiction and Creative Non-Fiction

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

Poetry

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

General Guidelines

- Please submit as Microsoft Word document only.

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

Submit your work here.