Call for Submissions: The Maine Review

 

The Maine Review seeks outstanding contemporary fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, including works in translation and hybrid forms. We are pleased to publish new, emerging, and established writers, and are committed to supporting representation, innovation, and literary artistry.

We encourage submitters to read what we’ve published, and whatever you send our way, please carefully read our guidelines. Submissions that do not adhere to them may be unread.

We will not publish work that normalizes hatred of any marginalized group or individual, though submitted work may thoughtfully consider subjects of discrimination.

We do not publish academic papers or news writing.

We do not publish AI-generated work. Such work will be automatically declined.

General Guidelines:

• We accept submissions only through Submittable. Submissions must be previously unpublished in print and online.

• We encourage simultaneous submissions, but please withdraw your submission immediately if it is accepted elsewhere. If only part of a submission must be withdrawn, please notify us using Submittable's "message" function.

• We encourage submissions from writers of all backgrounds, including but not limited to LGBTQIA+ writers, BIPOC writers, female-identifying writers, unpublished writers, writers with disabilities, and economically marginalized writers.

• Please address cover letters to the appropriate genre editor. In prose submissions, please include your word count in your cover letter.

• We ask that contributors whose work we've published wait at least one year before submitting again.

• Please send only one submission at a time. We do not accept and cannot refund multiple submissions.

• Please allow us six months before querying.

Fiction and Nonfiction Formatting:

• 12-point Times New Roman font

• Double-spaced

• 1” margins

• Pages numbered

• Please include the word count in your cover letter

• One piece of 3,000 words or fewer (though we will consider longer works of exceptional merit) or three flash pieces no more than 1,000 words each

Poetry Formatting:

• 12-point Times New Roman font

• Single-spaced (or as you would like the poem to appear online)

• Pages numbered

• Maximum three poems, no more than five pages total

Submission Schedule:
We are open for nonfiction, fiction, and poetry submissions from May 1–May 21. We frequently open week-long free submission periods, during which general submission periods are paused. 

We publish issues biannually in the spring and fall, and nominate for Best American Short Stories, the Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, and other awards.

Submission Fees:

We are a nonprofit organization and ask writers to pay a $3 fee per submission, of which we receive $1.86. This fee directly supports our authors, editors, and programs, and helps cover Submittable costs. If this submission fee is a barrier, please email info@mainereview.com for a link to a fee-waived submission. No explanation is needed. *Please do not email us your submission.*

All donations are tax-deductible and direct donations of any amount are also welcome at mainereview.com/donate. No matter what you give, we are grateful for your contribution and support of our publication!

Writer Payment:

Fiction and Nonfiction writers receive a $25 honorarium per published flash (1,000 words or fewer) and a $50 honorarium for work 1,001 words or more.

Poets receive a $25 honorarium per published poem.

Submit your work here. 

Call for Submissions: Four Way Review

 

Four Way Review accepts poetry and fiction from both established and emerging authors. We look for work that demonstrates fine attention to craft while retaining a powerful and compelling voice. We want writing that showcases the imagination’s unique ability to refine the raw materials of human experience.

We encourage submissions from diverse voices.

Unsolicited submissions are considered year-round. Before submitting, please see our latest issue and ensure your work is a good fit. Please wait to hear back from us before submitting again.

We accept .pdf (preferred), .doc, and .docx. You may also include a cover letter with your contact information and a brief bio in the “comments” box. Simultaneous submissions are welcome, but please note this in your cover letter and let us know immediately if a piece is accepted somewhere else. Due to a high volume of submissions, we cannot respond individually to withdrawal requests.

In order to offer our writers a small honorarium, we now charge a small submission fee of $3 for part of the year. In January, April, August and November, all submissions are fee-free. During these months, we might close submissions for one or more genres, should the submission maximum be reached. This is done to ensure that our readers are able to read and respond to each submission in a timely manner.

Poetry

— We are interested in all styles and forms of poetry.

— We ask that writers submit poetry no more than three times per year, with three to five poems in a single submission.

— Please email us to withdraw individual poems.

Fiction

— We’re looking for finished stories that are both whole and surprising.

— Keep longer submissions below 6,000 words. Submit only one piece at a time and no more than three pieces a year.

— Short shorts should be under 1,000 words. You may submit up to three flash pieces in one submission.

Translation

— We are interested in all styles and forms of writing in translation.

— We ask that writers submit work no more than three times a year, adhering to our guidelines for poetry, fiction and nonfiction (i.e., no more than three to five poems in a single submission and keeping prose below 6,000 words).
— If possible, please include the original piece with your translated submission.

— Please confirm that you have obtained permission, either from author or rights holder, to publish the translation.

Creative Nonfiction

— We’re looking for pieces that surprise us, pieces that push at the corners of the form.

— Keep longer submissions below 6,000 words. Submit only one piece at a time and no more than three pieces a year.

— We do accept flash nonfiction. These should be under 1,000 words. You may submit up to three flash pieces in one submission.

All submissions must be previously unpublished. We request first North America serial rights for any work that we accept. All rights revert to the author upon publication, though we ask that you acknowledge Four Way Review if the work is published elsewhere.

You can withdraw your work using our submissions manager. To withdraw part of a submission, email us at:

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

We try to respond within 90 days. Please note that our submissions manager is separate from the manager for Four Way Books. We will not respond to manuscript submissions.

We accept submissions through our online submissions manager. Unsolicited email submissions will be discarded unread.

Call for Submissions: The Celestial Glossary Literary Magazine

Submissions Open May 1st!

The first 100 submissions are free, after we have reached our limit there will be a $3 dollar fee to submit. This fee will be used to help us pay our authors.

Estrella House Publishing accepts work from new and established authors. Our interests are in poetry that questions and maintains a sense of beauty, narrative or not. We want fiction with an intriguing narrative or characters. Nonfiction should leave us seduced and thoughtful.

Whatever you write, bewitch us! Allow us to be absorbed in your world.

We do not, and will not, accept any works that promote any form of hatred, bigotry, or violence.

Likewise, AI-generated works will not be considered nor accepted. Please do not send it in

Format
Length Fiction and creative nonfiction: 1 piece up to 7,000 words
Comic strips: up to 15 pages
Visual art submissions: up to 4 per submission
Poetry: up to 5 poems per submission

Please only submit once per open call.

Genre

While we do not limit around genre, certain genres will have a lower chance of success. Those genres are:

Sci-Fi
Erotica
Mystery
Thriller
Technical Specifications

Please submit your manuscripts in any legible 12-point font with double-spaced paragraphs, page numbers in the footer, and 1-inch margins.

Please ensure that all written submissions are in one document.

On page 1 please include the author’s name, submission title, genre, and 75 character bio.

If you are writing in genre fiction, please make a note of that genre as well.

How to Submit

We consider submissions online via submission portal only. Snail or e-mail submissions will not be considered.

We do not consider unsolicited submissions via email.

Simultaneous Submissions

We are happy to consider manuscripts that have also been submitted elsewhere. Though, please notify us immediately if your work is accepted by another journal.

Rights

Estrella House Publishing reserves First North American Rights to any work that is published on our platform.

We do not accept any work that has been previously published in a literary or arts journal, forum/archival site, or an online blog.

Payments

We are excited to pay our authors. Estrella House utilizes a revenue share system where authors get a portion of ad revenue generated from views to their work and a portion of submission fees. Because we are a new publication, we cannot yet guarantee any flat rates.

Fees

We are submission fee free for the first 100 writers. After that, we will have a small $3.00 fee to help pay our writers.

We offer a fee waiver for people who identify as a historically marginalized group. To apply: email us with the subject line: Fee Waiver – Your Name.

Submit your work here.

Call for Submissions: Epiphany

 

We hope that when you read Epiphany, you'll get a sense of the great variety of stories, poems, essays, and genre-bending work that we like, and the themes to which we keep returning. We hope that you'll enjoy and connect with the work of your fellow writers, and that you'll feel you're a valued part of our community, rather than another writer sending beloved work into the unsympathetic void. We hope you'll see what makes us different.

***

Submissions for our Fall/Winter print issue are open May 1–June 15.

Submissions for our Spring/Summer print issue are open Nov 1–Dec 15.

Applications for our Fresh Voices Fellowship are open Sep 15–Nov 1.

Submissions to our Breakout Prize are open March 1–April 15.

In print, we pay $75 per poem and $175 per essay or story. Online, we pay $50 per poem and $150 per essay or story. Art payments are made on a sliding scale. Those facing financial hardship may request a fee waver via the contact form on our website. (In order to keep the contest sustainable for our editors, readers, and organization, there is a limit of 50 fee waivers available for the Breakout Prize.)

In order to keep the contest sustainable for our organization and our community, we are capping paid submissions at 300 per genre, and are offering 50 fee waiver applications to writers facing financial hardship. Our fee waiver cap of 50 has been reached. Please refrain from submitting fee waiver requests for this opportunity.

You can stay up to date on submission windows, as well as events, news, and opportunities by signing up for our newsletter by or following us on Instagram, Facebook, X, Bluesky, or Threads.

Before submitting to Epiphany, familiarize yourself with recent work we have published by checking out our website, buying a digital subscription, which provides full access to our current issues and 20+ year archives, or by subscribing to our print magazine.

Submit your work here. 

Call for Submissions on Theme of "Lifeline": Caesura 2026

Welcome to Cæsura 2026, this year’s theme is: LIFELINE.

What helps you feel grounded? How do you remember what you know? We live life with a constant sense of urgency and it is hard to filter through the chaos. What or who is your filter to calm, inspiration, and or radical joy?

Is your lifeline a pet or a nostalgic hideaway? Do you start your day humming a melody that you consider your own personal theme song? Maybe your lifeline is found in the pages of a favorite author. Maybe it is the joy you get from watching a bird visit a bird feeder.

It can be a turn of phrase from a loved one or an internal vow to avoid personal pitfalls. Maybe it’s the irony of a well crafted punchline that reminds you that hope exists because it makes you laugh. Maybe it is simply knowing that your child made it home safely at the end of a long day.

So, What is your Lifeline?

We accept submissions from March 15th–June 1st 2026 for the general public, June 15th 2026 for Poetry Center San Jose Members.

We have a print and online edition. During the submission process, you will be asked if you want to be considered for print, online or both. Submissions may be published on one format or the other. We rarely print pieces in both editions.

We accept unpublished work only. No reprints.

No AI submissions: We currently do not accept work from artificial intelligence (“AI”) generators or similar.

Simultaneous submissions are welcome. If your work is accepted elsewhere, please email:

caesura@pcsj.org 

to withdraw the whole or part of your submission.

Submissions sent to our email address will be disqualified.

Only one submission per genre per reading period.

Please do not mix genres together when submitting. Submit again for different genres.

All work must be submitted blind (no identifying information in the file). If identifying information is in the file, the submission is disqualified.

All written submissions should be in 12-point font. Garamond, Times New Roman, Georgia, Arial fonts okay.

Accepted file formats:

Writing: .doc, .docx, or .pdf

Visual Art: .pdf

Genres & Requirements

Poetry

• Submit up to 3 poems.

• Each poem may be up to 32 lines.

• All poems should be in one document.

Prose (Fiction, Nonfiction)

• Submit up to 3 pieces.

• Each piece may be up to 2,500 words.

• All prose pieces should be in one document.

Visual Art

• Submit up to 3 pieces

• All visual art disciplines are welcome, including:

Ceramics

Crafts

Drawings

Paintings

Mixed media

Digital art

All art should be in one document.

For the print edition, artwork may be reproduced at 6×9 inches or 12×9 inches depending on layout needs.

Response Time: We strive to set out responses 8 to 12 weeks after the end of the submission period. For inquires, please email:

caesura@pcsj.org

Submit your work here. 

Writing Residencies: PRAx Public Lands Collaborative Residency

Deadline: June 1, 2026

Location: Cabin at Shotpouch Creek

The Public Lands Collaborative Residency supports creative teams engaged in storytelling projects that have the potential to help re-imagine and shape the future of public lands in the United States.

Rooted in the belief that storytelling is a powerful tool for stewardship, the residency offers space, time, and financial support for residents to develop a project about public lands that leads to public engagements such as readings, publications, workshops, or collaborative community projects.

America’s public lands span more than 600 million acres of mountains, deserts, forests, and shorelines. From iconic National Parks to remnant prairies, from beloved recreation areas to critically important wildlife refuges, these lands are one of the largest shared experiments in collective stewardship on Earth.

Public lands remind us that democracy extends beyond human communities to include the soils, waters, and species with whom we share this continent. These lands are living systems and civic institutions, shaped by the push and pull between conservation and exploitation, recreation and restoration, and legacies of dispossession and the promise of shared stewardship. In this ever-shifting context, every trail, forest, and canyon can become a site of negotiation and debate. The stakes are high.

In a time of ecological and cultural transformation, these lands call us to rethink stewardship — not as ownership or control, but as an ongoing conversation across generations, disciplines, and cultures. Public lands invite questions about who belongs, who decides, and what values guide our shared future.

During the Public Lands Collaborative Residency, we invite residents to explore questions like: How does caring for the land reflect how we care for one another? How does caring for and managing these lands reflect who we are and who we aspire to be? How do public lands shape our cultural identity and our sense of what is possible in a changing world? How can collaborative inquiry across disciplines help us imagine alternative futures for public lands?

The residency takes place at a cabin on a 70-acre nature reserve that reflects a long-standing commitment to shared stewardship. Residents are invited to be in relationship with the land as both refuge and inquiry site while they reflect, ask questions, and shape their collaborative work.

The Public Lands Collaborative Residency is open to interdisciplinary collaborative pairs. One person in the pair must be a creative writer. The other person in the pair may be: An artist working in any discipline (e.g., visual arts, performing arts, sound, etc.)
Someone working in the humanities (e.g., historian, philosopher, theologian)
Someone working in ecology or a related science field
Another writer working in a distinct field (e.g., a creative nonfiction writer working with a poet, a fiction writer working with a policy writer)

The pair must demonstrate a work trajectory that addresses environmental issues or involves place-based inquiry, either through previous solo or collaborative projects.

We encourage applications from people whose work is informed by lived experience, cultural knowledge, or long-term engagement with place, including Indigenous, rural, and historically underrepresented communities. Applicants must be based in the U.S. and at least 18 years old at the time of application.

Selected residents will receive: 

• Exclusive use of the Cabin at Shotpouch Creek for up to three weeks from August 2026 to September 2027. The residency can be consecutive (i.e., three full weeks) or broken into shorter stays (e.g., three residencies of one week each). While most of these stays should include overlapping residency time with both collaborators present (the space has two bedrooms), some days may be split between the pair. For instance, two weeks are completed together, but each resident might complete a third week solo.

• Please read about the Cabin at Shotpouch Creek to make sure the space works for your collaboration.

• An honorarium of $3,000 per recipient, which may be used to cover travel costs to the Cabin at Shotpouch Creek during the residency period(s) and travel to Corvallis for the public event.

• Professional documentation of outcomes and promotional support for related events.

• A culminating opportunity for public presentation at PRAx at Oregon State University (e.g., participation in an exhibition, reading, performance).

Additional funding for shipping artwork to PRAx for an exhibition if needed.

More information and application link here.

Writing Competition: Willow Springs Press Spokane Prize in Short Fiction

 

 Entry Fee: $20.00**

**Discounted submission fee ($10 off) through May 15th, 2026.

Deadline: Nov. 2, 2026 

The Spokane Prize for Short Fiction is accepting submissions of short-story collections of at least three (3) pieces and a minimum of 100 pages. Collections may include no more than one novella when included with at least three short-story length pieces.

All authors, regardless of publication history, are eligible.

Current Eastern Washington University Creative Writing MFA students and alumni who have graduated within the past five years from Eastern Washington University's Creative Writing MFA are not allowed to submit.

The prize for the winning manuscript is $1,500 and publication by Willow Springs Books. The press will retain reprint, film, electronic, anthology, translation, foreign publication, and sight and sound rights.

Guidelines:

• Submissions must be original, book-length fiction manuscripts written in English. There is no maximum page count. Translations are not accepted.

• One manuscript per submission.

• Submissions will only be accepted electronically, via Submittable.

• Simultaneous submissions are allowed. If you have submitted your manuscript elsewhere, we request that you notify us immediately if you have an offer for publication.

• Manuscripts MUST CONTAIN page numbers and a table of contents.

• Please format your manuscript in 1.5 or double-spaced line spacing. Any standard font (Arial, Times New Roman, etc.) is acceptable. Please keep the font size between 12 and 14.

• Individual stories may have been previously published in journals, chapbooks, anthologies, or limited-edition volumes, but please note which pieces and where they have been published on an acknowledgments page. The collection as a whole must be previously unpublished.

• Authors do not need to be Spokane residents to submit. :)

Note: While we're open to submissions across many genres, the manuscripts that stand out to us are polished and exhibit the author's literary skill. We like stories with exciting and thought-provoking ideas, characters that feel real, and a confident authorial voice. We don't shy away from pieces that break boundaries, and we encourage authors to submit even if their work defies traditional literary conventions.

Submit here. 

Willow Springs Books reserves the right to reject any manuscript.