Writing Competition: The 2026 Georgia Review Prose Prize

 

The 2026 Georgia Review Prose Prize is open November 1, 2025 to January 15, 2026, and will be judged by Kiese Laymon. The best short story and essay will both be published in The Georgia Review. The overall winner, chosen between the two, will receive $1,500. The runner-up will receive $600. All entries will be considered for publication. We invite writers from all backgrounds to submit.

Submissions must be sent either through Submittable between November 1 and January 15 or by regular mail postmarked within the same span of time. An entry should include either one short story or one essay. Only one entry per writer. No translations. 

Submissions cost $25. Simultaneous submissions are permitted; however, writers must notify us immediately if the work is accepted elsewhere.

Postal submissions: 

Include (1) a cover letter that provides your phone number and email address and (2) a check for $25 for your entry fee. 

Checks should be made payable to The Georgia Review, and envelopes should be addressed to:

The Georgia Review Prose Prize

The Georgia Review, Room 706A Main Library

University of Georgia

Athens, GA 30602-9009

If you’d prefer to be notified by post, please also include a self-addressed, stamped envelope; otherwise, we will notify you by email.

Please note that students, faculty, staff, and administrators currently affiliated with the University of Georgia are ineligible for the contest. Intimate friends, relatives, colleagues, and former or current students of a judge are also ineligible to enter.

We can’t wait to read your work!

Submit your entry here.

Call for Submissions on Theme of "Disability: The Revolution!": The Fiddlehead

Disability: The Revolution!

Special Issue Call for Submissions, Deadline November 30, 2025

Revolution: from the old French revolution, originally referring to the motion of the stars. Later versions of the word in the 15th century played on this sense of cyclical revolving — in the changing of the seasons, but also — crucially — the revolving of the wheel.

What does revolution look like from a disability standpoint? How do we remember that disabled writers just taking up space is revolutionary? How do we, as disabled writers, consider that question of the wheel and its many manifestations — literal, temporal, and symbolic? How do we celebrate it, remake, and open ourselves to the revolution, ongoing and future, that must usher in a more accessible world?

For our Summer 2026 issue, The Fiddlehead seeks work from disabled writers on the theme of revolution. You can interpret the theme as broadly as you like. If you identify as disabled and would like to answer this call, please submit! We would love to hear from you.

Send us your fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and review pitches that call for change — change in the world we know and change in the world that might come to be. How can the innovation that drives disabled experiences also help to drive a new and better world? What might a world beyond the revolution look like, especially for disabled people?

Imagine new worlds with us — worlds far away, and the world that waits close in our future.

The issue will be overseen by disabled author and activist Amanda Leduc, who will also serve as the fiction editor alongside poetry editor Phillip Crymble, nonfiction editor Therese Estacion, and reviews editors Grace R. Taylor and Christine Wu.

In an exciting first for The Fiddlehead we are creating audio narration for this special issue, and we are in conversation with the Centre for Equitable Library Access (CELA) to offer even more formats for maximum accessibility. 

Payment: $65CAD per page

Submit your work here. 

Writing Residency: Four Palaces Literary 2026 Residency

Four Palaces Literary 2026 Residency

Ends on Mon, Dec 1, 2025 1:00 AM

The Four Palaces Publishing Writing Residency offers one week of uninterrupted time and space for BIPOC and LGBTQ+ writers working in fiction, nonfiction, or poetry to focus on their craft in Dallas, Texas. The residency includes a private hotel suite for one writer for seven days and six nights, a $100 per day meal credit for lunch and dinner (covered by Four Palaces Publishing), daily breakfast and two complimentary beer or wine vouchers provided by the hotel partner Dallas Marriott Suites Medical/Market Center, and a $1,000 honorarium inclusive of travel and per diem. Residents may also choose to participate in an optional paid public engagement such as a reading, artist talk, or mini workshop.

This residency is open to emerging and mid-career writers who are at least 18 years old and currently based in the United States. Applicants should identify as BIPOC and/or LGBTQ+. Writers from all genres within fiction, nonfiction, and poetry are encouraged to apply, and we particularly welcome those who have not yet had the opportunity to attend a formal residency.

Applications will be reviewed by a panel of writers and editors affiliated with Four Palaces Publishing. Selection will be based on artistic merit and strength of the writing sample, clarity and thoughtfulness of the project proposal, alignment with Four Palaces Publishing’s mission to amplify underrepresented voices, and the potential impact of the residency on the applicant’s creative growth.

Each application must include a short bio (150 words max), a project description (300 words max), a statement on how the applicant’s work aligns with Four Palaces Publishing’s mission (150 words max), and a writing sample of up to ten pages total in PDF or DOCX format. Poetry submissions may include up to five poems (ten pages maximum), and fiction or nonfiction submissions may include one piece or excerpt (ten pages maximum). Applicants should also complete all required form questions.

The application period opens October 13 and closes November 30 at 11:59 PM CST. Selected writers will be notified by January 16, and the residency will take place in Spring 2026 (specific weeks to be confirmed). Four Palaces Publishing is committed to fostering an inclusive and accessible residency experience. Applicants are encouraged to note any accessibility or accommodation needs in their submission.

Questions may be directed to:

frederick@fourpalaces.org 

Updates and announcements will also be shared on Instagram at @fourpalaces 

Submit your application here. 

Call for Submissions: Variant Literature

To be considered for our Winter 2026 issue, please submit between October 21 and December 4, 2025.

To be considered for our Summer 2026 issue, please submit between March 1 and April 14, 2026.

General

• Please submit only once per submission period unless otherwise invited.

• We do not accept e-mail submissions; all work must be submitted through Submittable.

• Please send all work in one file.

• We aim to respond to your work within two months; our average response time is closer to one month.

• Simultaneous submissions are fine, but please notify us immediately if your work is accepted elsewhere.

• We do not accept previously published works.

Poetry

There are no format restrictions. Limit your submission to 5 poems totaling no more than 10 pages.

Fiction

Authors should limit submissions to no more than 20 pages (5500 words).

Flash and Micro Series

Please send ONE piece of flash fiction or flash nonfiction (1200 words or less) or a connected series of THREE micros (250 to 400 words each).

What happened to the nonfiction genre?

If your nonfiction is less than 1200 words, submit to the flash genre. We are not looking for longer nonfiction.

Payment

We pay $10 per accepted story, poem, or micro series. We pay through PayPal.

Submit your work here. 

Call for Submissions on Theme of "Recursion": Infocalypse Press

Infocalypse Press is an Associate Member of the Community of Literary Magazines and Presses (CLMP).

We publish an electronic magazine quarterly — with new issues released on January 15, April 15, July 15, and October 15 each year. We remain open to submissions year-round, continuing to read and curate work through every season. We welcome experimental, unconventional, and interdisciplinary work from artists and writers at all stages of their practice.

Submissions to Infocalypse Press are always free, though tips are appreciated to help support our publishing and hosting costs. We accept simultaneous submissions of poetry, fiction, non-fiction, visual art, performance, and hybrid forms, but please notify us promptly if your work is accepted elsewhere. When submitting, you retain all rights to your work. If your piece is selected for publication, you grant Infocalypse Press first online publication rights and permission to archive your work permanently on our site. All rights revert to you upon publication, and you are free to republish your work elsewhere — we only ask that you acknowledge first publication with Infocalypse Press.

Issue One

Submissions for Issue One are now open through our Duosuma portal. There may be a small fee on some platforms to cover processing costs.

Issue One launches January 15, 2026, on a new theme exploring RECURSION in creative work. We seek fiction, poetry, essays, multimedia, and visual work that respond to one or more of the following questions:

When you look back, do you feel continuity with your past creative self — or does each era of your work belong to a different person entirely?

Do any classic forms or traditions (poetic, artistic, literary, or otherwise) still shape how you create?

Do you agree that creativity is an act of remixing — that all art is recursive in some way?

How does technology — digital tools, AI, or social media — feed back into your creative process?

Submit here. 

Call for Submissions from Maryland Writers: Artists from Maryland

Maryland Artist of the Month features Maryland-based artists on our website.

Starting in 2026, these features will occur during the following months: January, February, April, May, July, August, October, and November.

• 1 to 10 poems, each on a new page, as a .pdf or .doc/.docx file (max. 12 pages)

• 1 to 4 fiction or nonfiction pieces (maximum of 5,000 words total) each on a new page, as a .pdf or .doc/.docx file

• 1 to 5 pieces of visual art as separate .jpeg or .png files Attaching alt-text is appreciated (if doing so, put it in the cover letter), however we are also willing to work with you to create alt-text.

We cannot pay artists for Maryland Artist of the Month features at this time. If this changes, we will announce it as soon as possible.

Maryland Artist Micro Collections

We are excited to see your micro collections! We view micro collections as collections of writing, visual art, or some middle-ground between the two that do not exceed 15 pages of content. This page limit excludes the following: front/back covers, tables of contents, blurbs, acknowledgements sections, artist bios, and epigraphs/dedications.

We digitally publish 2 to 4 micro collections during the following months: March, June, September, and December.

Submit a single .pdf or .doc/.docx file with a title page and your content. If we choose to work with you, we'll ask for the rest from you.

If you are accepted, you will receive the following:$10 USD (paid through Zelle or PayPal)

Digital publication on Artists from Maryland's Ko-Fi page (sold at a base cost of $4 USD)$2 USD per digital copy sold, plus any extra tips people choose to pay.

• No AI-created works.
• No discriminatory, gory, or excessively sexual content. When in doubt, submit your work with content warnings. Our editor-in-chief loves art about intimacy, but there is a limit! Gory and excessively macabre works are especially hard sells for our editor-in-chief.
• We do accept previously published pieces, but only if you have permission from the previous publisher. Specify this in your cover letter. We also allow pieces from Artists from Maryland to be published elsewhere after the fact, with credit!
• We do accept simultaneous submissions. Specify this in your cover letter, and notify us immediately if part of your submission is accepted elsewhere so we can congratulate you.
• We request the nonexclusive rights to publish your works with us. Artists maintain the right to republish the work they publish with us, elsewhere, after our publication.
• Submissions are currently rolling and open for Maryland Artist of the Month features, and for Maryland Artist Micro Collections.
  

If rejected, feel free to send more work immediately!

Submit your work at the following link:

 

https://duotrope.com/duosuma/submit/artists-from-maryland-5gqiX

For any questions, contact us at:

 

artistsfrommaryland [at] gmail [dot] com (Change [at] to @ and [dot] to . )

Call for Submissions on Theme of "Oceans": Emerald City Ghosts

Oceans (Open November 1-20): We want to feel the melancholy of the waves lapping on shore and the violence of the breakers. While we aren’t in need of siren or mermaid stories and poems at this point, we would love to read about other terrifying ocean creatures. Maybe you’re creating your own legend in which narwhals go on a killing spree. Maybe you’re writing cosmic horror, and the whales are here to herald the end of the world. This is a great time for horror with a dash of folklore and magical realism. Don’t forget that we do surf in the Pacific Northwest—it’s just really cold. As always, we want ghost stories! Lighthouses will be hard sells, just because of their ubiquity in paranormal horror.

Submission Guidelines

What We Love

Ghost stories of any kind. We also love monster stories (especially if it’s an obscure monster or a monster created by you.) We like cults and forests and things that live under the sea. Stories should have a paranormal element.

What We Don’t Want

Gratuitous or explicit sex. In fact, we aren’t really into the romance subgenre at all (though we are always up for a subtle and character-driven love story).

Anything hateful. Just don’t.

Anything AI-generated.

Genre and Style

We primarily publish flash fiction (up to 500 words), short stories (up to 2,000 words), poetry (up to about 50 lines, but we prefer under 20), and book and movie reviews (up to 1,000 words). If your work doesn’t quite fit these parameters, feel free to submit anyway! We’ll make exceptions for the right piece!

Your stories and poems absolutely don’t have to be set in the Pacific Northwest! That being said, we do tend to favor our grungy, rainy, coastal vibes, and we appreciate it if you work those elements into your story (OR you give us such a strong sense of place that we fall in love with your setting and start thinking about beginning a “Big Apple Ghosts” or “Windy City Ghosts” zine!)

Do We Pay?

Unfortunately, no. We will, however, link to your social media profiles, website, and Substack.

Reprints and Simultaneous Submissions

Reprints: got a previously published piece that deserves a second chance at life? We accept reprints as long as you hold the rights.

We accept simultaneous submissions. Let us know if you are published elsewhere!

Next Steps

You must be subscribed to our substack (free!) in order to be considered. Subscribe and submit here.