Writing Competition: Tucson Festival of Books Literary Awards

Tucson Festival of Books Literary Awards

The 14th Tucson Festival of Books Literary Awards is now accepting fiction, nonfiction, and poetry for the 2026 competitions.

Deadline: October 31, 2025.

First-place winners in each category will receive $1,000. Second-place winners receive $500 and third-place winners $250. All winners will be awarded scholarships to the 2026 Tucson Festival of Books Masters Workshop in March, following the Tucson Festival of Books (tucsonfestivalofbooks.org).

The top 50 entrants will be invited to attend the Masters Workshop ($350). 

For information on the literary awards and the workshop, contact Meg Files at masters@tucsonfestivalofbooks.org

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

• Submit five poems of any length, a short story or novel excerpt, or a nonfiction piece or book excerpt per submission.

• Maximum length for prose is 5,000 words per submission.

• Label each submission’s genre along with the title: fiction, nonfiction, poetry.

• $20 entry fee per submission

• No limit to number of entries ($20 fee per entry)

• Categories NOT accepted: stories for children, academic or how-to nonfiction.

• Submit poems in a single document with appropriate page breaks (up to five poems per submission).

• Submissions must be in English and unpublished at the time of entry (self-published allowed).

• Writers must be age 18 or older.

• The author’s name must not appear anywhere on the manuscript. Include name and contact information in the “Cover Letter” box. Manuscripts with the author's name anywhere on them will be disqualified.

• Authors retain all rights to submitted work.

• Deadline: October 31, 2025

• Winners and the top 50 will be notified by December 22, 2025.

• First-, second-, and third-place winners in each category receive scholarships to the Masters Workshop, March 16-17. 2026. The top 50 finalists will be invited to attend the Masters Workshop ($350 fee).

More information: Meg Files:

 

masters@tucsonfestivalofbooks.org

 

Submit your entry here. 

Writing Competition: Peruga Press Prize

The winner of the Perugia Press Prize receives:

• Book publication and a $2,000 prize

• Twenty author copies and an ongoing discount of 50% off of the cover price for additional copies

• Time to work with the editor to create a book the poet loves, with input into book editing, design & promotion

• Support available from the Perugia Poet Liaison during publication and promotion

• Review copies and entry copies to a range of post-publication contests, provided and sent by the Press

• Some book launch events planned by the Press, with a partial travel stipend and reading honorariums provided

• Ongoing publicity support through our website, newsletter, and social media

• Exposure through Press attendance at local and national book fairs to promote the work of Perugia poets

Eligibility 

• Submissions are open to poets who are women, inclusive of gender-expansive identities. Because gender inequity still occurs in publishing, this is part of our explicit feminist mission.

• Perugia Press seeks to highlight marginalized and underrepresented voices in our publications, and to that end we encourage submissions written by poets of all abilities, ages, and sexual orientations, and from across all cultural, socio-economic, ethnic, racial, and religious backgrounds.

• Poets must have no more than one previously published full-length book. You are still eligible if you have published a poetry chapbook/s or books in other genres. You are still eligible if you have published more than one full-length poetry collection in a language other than English.

• Perugia Press welcomes diversity of expression in content, form, and language. We are open to considering hybrid manuscripts, including those incorporating visuals or created in collaboration.

• The work you submit must be your own and not plagiarized or AI-generated. If you used AI as a creative tool in composition, please note that in your cover letter and manuscript.

• Individual poems may have been published previously in magazines, journals, anthologies, and chapbooks, but the collection as a whole must be unpublished.

• Translations of the work of others and previously self-published books are not eligible.

• Submissions from poets living outside the U.S. are not eligible, though international submissions from poets based in the U.S. but away during our contest period are fine. As a small press, we are not able to support the promotion of our books on a global scale.

• Poets may not be a close friend or colleague of the editor/director as she facilitates the contest and takes part in the final decision about the winning manuscript. 

Deadline: Nov. 15, 2025 

Entry Fee: $15-$30 (See specific guidelines.) 

More information and submission portal here.

Call for Submissions: The Dublin Review

The Dublin Review welcomes submissions of fiction and non-fiction previously unpublished in the English language. We do not accept poetry submissions.

We especially encourage submissions from members of groups traditionally underrepresented in literary magazines and other cultural forums.

Our payment scale starts at €300 for pieces with a published word count of 2,500 and under, and increases based on word count.

If you wish to make a submission, please complete the online form. (We do not accept submissions by post.) After you make your submission, you will see a confirmation on screen, but you will not receive a confirmation email. We recommend that you make a note of the date of the submission for your own reference. We will read your submission and get back to you by email as soon as we can.

The Dublin Review is a quarterly magazine of essays, memoir, reportage and fiction. Founded and edited by Brendan Barrington, it is published in book format to a design by David Smith (Atelier, Dublin).

Call for Submissions: DASH Literary Journal

DASH is back!

After a hiatus, DASH is returning with our next expected publication in late spring of 2026.

Published annually, DASH Literary Journal is based out of the California State University, Fullerton (CSUF) Department of English, Comparative Literature, and Linguistics. DASH is created through a class entitled English 515: Proofreading, Editing, & Journal Production. This unique aspect brings a team of editors together to curate the submissions that DASH receives, which allows each submission to receive more attention (typically 3-4 readers) than many literary journals. The team of editors also design all facets of the journal.

Open to general submissions since 2008, DASH has published national and international poetry, fiction, creative non-fiction, micro-literary criticism, hybrid texts, and artwork by authors and artists of all levels of experience, from first-time submitters through well-published creators.

While the works themselves cover a diverse range of topics, themes, and styles, successful DASH submissions are brief, concentrated expressions of creativity, with an emphasis on brevity.

Brandi Wells (bwells@fullerton.edu) is the Faculty Adviser. Please email them with any questions, but note that submissions must be made through our submission manager.

Our regular reading period is now open and closes March 1. Decisions will be made by May with a late spring publication.

Submissions will only be accepted through the submission site. 

We accept only previously unpublished work.  

Fiction:

· Submit 1 story up to 2000 words. Submit only 1 story per reading period. Previously unpublished work only.

Poems:

· 30 lines or fewer per poem. Submit up to 5.

Fiction, Nonfiction, Criticism:

· 2000 words or fewer, double-spaced. Submit 1.

Art:

· Digital images, 300 dpi. as TIFF or JPEG attachment.
Do not send original artwork.

Hybrid:

· Surprise us.

Authors receive a copy of the published journal.

Rights revert to author on publication. 

Submit your work here.

Writing Competition: Wren Press Poetry Prize

Contest judge: Sandra Beasley This contest is for a book-length poetry collection and is open only to poets who have had no more than two full-length poetry collections published. Manuscripts being submitted may not have been published or self-published in print or online as a whole. Manuscript should be single-spaced and paginated with a minimum of 54 pages of poems, each poem beginning on a new page. This is an anonymous submission. Do not include author name or identifying information anywhere in the manuscript. Please place this information in the Cover Letter field of your Submittable submission. Acknowledgement of previously published individual poems may appear in the cover letter or in the manuscript itself. Simultaneous submissions are okay, but please withdraw your manuscript if it is accepted elsewhere. 

Prize is publication and a $1000 advance against royalties.

Current or former colleagues, current or former extended-length students, and close friends or family of the contest judge are not eligible.

Submissions will be open until November 15 or until we receive 300 total submissions.  

 

We anticipate reaching the 300-submission cap by November 1, so we encourage you to submit early. 

 

There is no entry fee for this contest, but as a nonprofit press, we appreciate your donations to help us compensate our readers and staff. However, donations are not required, and neither the readers nor the final judge will know whether or not a submitter has donated.

 

Submit your entry here. 

Call for Submissions: Skipjack Review

 

These waters are eclectic, baby, sometimes irreverent and odd, but mom loves us anyway—Mother Nature, that is. And we love her. That’s why everything we publish at Skipjack Review shares a reeling concern for the world around us.

Send us your truths. Send us your untruths. Send us your tales of victory. Send us your tales of whoa—like that time you flipped your canoe, lost all your gear, and spent a night roughing it and wondering if you could fight off a pack of coyotes with a rock. (Whoa!) We’re interested in writing and art that slays real-world red herrings in our day-to-day lives. If it pokes holes in preconceived notions, bursts bubbles, offers insight, or makes light where, otherwise, darkness might prevail, we want it to—and we want it, too!

Skipjack Review invites submissions of fiction, poetry, nonfiction, interviews, graphic narratives, translations, and hybrid works year-round. We publish three issues annually: two free, online issues, and one print anthology. We are now a paying market, although our pockets are still pretty shallow. Simultaneous submissions are encouraged, but please let us know if work submitted this way is accepted elsewhere. Submissions accepted via Submittable.

Guidelines

Prose

Fiction and creative nonfiction should be limited to one standalone short story, essay, or hybrid work, double-spaced, up to 5,000 words in length. Skipjack Review primarily publishes literary fiction and narrative nonfiction, but we love breaking this rule for cli-fi and slipstream stories and experimental works that blur genre conventions. Please include a word count at the top of your submission or in your cover letter.

Poetry

Writers are encouraged to submit up to 5 poems per submission, max ten pages. While we prefer modern poetry forms, we are open to anything, even, on occasion, eccentric limericks, sonnets, and haikus.

Visual Art and Graphic Narratives

All visual art, graphic narratives, comics, etc. should stand alone as a complete story or thought. Alternatively, we also consider suites of small-ish doodles and art, up to five pieces per submission. Please submit comics as a PDF. You may submit any combination of black and white or full color. We may ask for a higher resolution upon acceptance.

Simultaneous/Multiple Submissions

We accept and encourage simultaneous submissions but ask that you promptly inform us if your work is accepted elsewhere. We won’t be mad; we’ll be happy for you. However, please wait at least three months after receiving a response before submitting again. Additionally, please do not send another submission if you already have an active submission.

Works we do not consider: 

• Congrats! But we do not accept previously published work at this time. This includes blogs, social media, etc.

• Please do not submit book-length works at this time.

• Nature is scary, but we will only entertain a specific brand of spooky: getting lost on a hike through Mark Twain National Forest, poetry or prose detailing animal calls at night, the terrors of climate change, etc. Skipjack does not publish outright horror.

• We don’t accept works with copyrighted materials of any kind. As an independent journal, we do not have the funding to pay for copyrighted material.

• Nature is beautiful and fun, but we do not accept erotica or fan fiction either.

Other Considerations: 

• Please use standard formatting, more or less

• If your work warrants a trigger warning, please provide one

• We try to respond to submissions within three months, but if you haven’t heard from us after six months feel free to drop us a line at:

 skipjackreview@gmail.com

• Because Submittable charges us a small fee for each submission we receive, please wait three months after receiving a response before submitting again unless submitting a tip jar or feedback submission.

Acceptances

Accepted works will appear in Skipjack Review and/or on the Skipjack Review website and will be considered for The Dead Herring Prize . Additionally, we nominate contributors for Best-of Net, the Pushcart Prize, and, when possible, other such honors.

Payments

We pay .01 cent/word, minimum $5, via PayPal or Venmo. Additionally, The Dead Herring Prize is awarded annually to one contributor from the previous year whose work slays real-world red herrings in our day-to-day lives. All accepted stories, poems, prose, comics, notes, doodles, whispers, and whimsy published by Skipjack Review during the calendar year are considered for this $100 prize. 

The Fine Print

Skipjack Review obtains exclusive first serial rights in English to publish your work in our literary magazine in print, online, and/or electronic versions, as well as promotional, nonexclusive anthology and archival rights. All applicable rights revert back to you following publication, and at all times you retain the copyright to your work. Skipjack Review reserves the right to remove content from issues following publication.

Skipjack’s Purpose

We are a journal about environment in every sense of the word. Beginning at birth, each of us is bound to our environment. From pollution of the earth to pollution of the mind to server farm statistics to gardening on Mars… We’d publish a modernized rendition of War and Peace, follow that up with a pretty haiku about flowers, and the next minute release some weird sci-fi in the vein of Flowers for Algernon—so long as at the heart of each is a deep concern for the world around us. For a deeper dive into the kind of writing and art we publish, check out our archives.

Submit your work here.

Call for Submissions: Invisible City

 

Invisible City Literary Journal

 

Submit writing and visual art that encourages us to see the world from a new perspective or angle. Urge us to consider something we may not have previously imagined. We’re eager to read your work.

Submissions are open! 

 

Deadline: Nov. 1, 2025 

 

Please familiarize yourself with our guidelines below. We compensate our contributors with a $20 honorarium per published piece.

General Guidelines

• We only consider previously unpublished works. No exceptions. Thank you.

• We do not accept submissions via email or postal service. You can submit your work to us through our submission manager. If you run into any technical difficulties while uploading your submission, please contact us at:

 invisiblecity@usfca.edu

• We do accept simultaneous submissions. However, we ask that you notify us as soon as possible if your work is accepted elsewhere.

• We have a 5,000 word limit for all prose. Flash is welcome; for regular-issue submissions you may submit up to three flash pieces (less than 1,000 words each) in a single document.

• If you’re submitting poetry, please submit no more than three poems. The best things come in threes: Olympic medals, wishes, Cerberus heads.

• At this time, we do not accept novel excerpts, unless they can function as stand-alone stories.

• If we publish your writing, we ask you to please wait three reading cycles before submitting again. For example, if your work is accepted in the Spring 2025 cycle, you will be eligible for Spring 2028 submissions. This waiting period allows us to best honor our mission of giving space to new voices.

• We accept visual art submissions on a rolling basis. We do not mandate a waiting period following art publications.

• Please submit your art in either .PDF or .PNG format. If you would like to submit multiple pieces for consideration, you may upload a .ZIP file, or include a link to a portfolio.

• We will not accept photos of artwork taken by a smartphone— please scan any physical copies.

• We do not accept written submissions from current students at the University of San Francisco. Alumni may submit.

• All honorariums associated with an international address will be made by wire transfer. If you are an international resident, in order to be paid the honorarium you must have a bank account in your own name. The bank account cannot be in a family member’s, friend’s, or in any other person’s or entity’s name. Otherwise, the honorarium will not be processed. Also include the SWIFT or IBAN code associated with your country on the paperwork we require to complete the honorarium request.

• Please include content warnings when and where applicable.