Call for Submissions: Augur Literary Society

Augur Magazine is open to both themed and unthemed fiction and poetry submissions from everyone, everywhere.

Tales & Feathers is open to short slice-of-life fantasy fiction submissions from everyone, everywhere.

October 1st-31st:

Both markets open to everyone internationally.

November 1st-15th:

Open exclusively to creators who are BIPOC, trans, and/or disabled.

Tales & Feathers will be open internationally during this time.

Augur Magazine will be open to Canadian citizens/permanent residents and/or those living on the land colonially known as Canada.

The themed call for Augur Magazine is for A NATURAL DESIRE. What does it mean to want and need? In this issue, we're looking for speculative stories and poems that explore:

• Raw connection

• Love and lust

• Desperately important platonic relationships

• Community in context

Especially when grounded in nature; flora; fauna; and other non-urban settings. Give us conflict and challenge; joy and celebration; and the spark of repair. Give us pieces that span genre from high fantasy to supernatural, from myth to body horror, from dreamy realism to deep scifi.

We are especially interested in pieces that explore desire from non-Western and Indigenous contexts, or interrogate the ways in which Western relationships are often tied to colonialism and extraction.

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Please query if you have not received a response by the end of January 2025.

Want to know if you’re a fit? Snag a digital subscription or a single issue from our store! Want to know what'll happen once you submit? Check out our article!

We do not accept AI-generated submissions. The actual text of your piece must be ideated and written by a human. Any piece found to be AI-written will result in a breach of contract, should your piece be accepted.

WHAT TO SEND AUGUR MAG
(Although we always love surprises)

Our perfect submission defies categorization—pieces that could be “too speculative” for CanLit or literary magazines or “not speculative enough” for speculative magazines. However, we also love a good genre romp, and will publish across many genres, including: 

• Fantasy

• Science fiction (softer side)

• Dystopia/utopia

• Apocalypse/post-apocalypse

• Slipstream

• Fairytales

• Fables

• Fabulism

• Magical realism (note: educate yourself before you claim this term)

• Dreamy realism

If you think you match our tone, give us a try. We recommend checking out our preview issue, free online, or grabbing an issue, to see what we’ve published before.

We accept multiple submissions and simultaneous submissions. Our goal is to respond to all submissions within eight weeks.

Our submissions system, Moksha, should send you a verification email within 24 hours. If you do not receive one, resubmit and send us an email letting us know what happened.

Text submissions should be formatted as follows: 

• Standard manuscript format

• .doc

• Without your name (for anonymous reading)

• Preferably, in size 12 Times or Times New Roman font

Finally: If you fit into our guidelines, don’t self-reject! Submit, submit, submit!

WHAT TO SEND TALES & FEATHERS 

Cozy short fantasy stories

Tales and Feathers is a home for cozy slice-of-life fantasy short stories.

Our ideal submissions look like this:

• Quiet character-driven storytelling

• Gentle moments

• Rich fantastical worldbuilding

• Everyday moments

• Stories that take place before or between or after the epic conflicts

• Stories that offer warmth, comfort, and possibility

We welcome stories written in any fantasy genre or genres, including stories that blur genre lines. We are especially interested in high fantasy, fairy tales, and myth.

We also welcome stories that have been translated into English and stories that engage with non-Western fantasy genre traditions.

If you think you match our tone, give us a try. We recommend checking out our preview issue, free online, or grabbing an issue, to see what Augur has published before (especially 5.1, their joy issue).

We accept multiple submissions and simultaneous submissions. Our goal is to respond to all submissions within eight weeks.

Our submissions system, Moksha, should send you a verification email within 24 hours. If you do not receive one, resubmit and send us an email letting us know what happened.

Text submissions should be formatted as follows:

• Standard manuscript format

• .doc

• Without your name (for anonymous reading)

• Preferably, in size 12 Times or Times New Roman font

Finally: If you fit into our guidelines, don’t self-reject! Submit, submit, submit!

Augur Literary Society pays $0.14 (CAD) per word and a flat $112.00 for flash fiction. More information and submission links here.

Writing Competition: The Test Site Poetry Prize

2024 will be the seventh year of The Test Site Poetry Series. Thanks to a generous gift, we’re delighted to announce that in 2024 and going forward, Interim will choose two winning books for the series—one title publicized as the winner of The Test Site Poetry Series and the other as the Betsy Joiner Flanagan Award in Poetry. Both winners will receive $1,000 and their books will be published by the University of Nevada Press.

Interim editors and poets Claudia Keelan and Andrew S. Nicholson serves as series editors. The winning book will be chosen by Claudia Keelan and an advisory board, which includes poets Sherwin Bitsui, Donald Revell, Sasha Steensen, and Ronaldo V. Wilson.

We're looking for manuscripts that engage the perilous conditions of life in the 21st century, as they pertain to issues of social justice and the earth. The winning book will demonstrate an ethos that considers the human condition in inclusive love and sympathy, while offering the same in consideration of the earth. Because we believe the truth is always experimental, we'll especially appreciate books with innovative approaches.

Along with Witness and The Believer, Interim is affiliated with Black Mountain Institute and housed in the Department of English at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Established by the late Wilber Stevens in 1944, Interim is one of the longest-running "little" literary magazines in the country.

Please submit manuscripts through:

Submittable https://interimmagazine.submittable.com/submit

with a $25 reading fee.

The deadline for submissions is December 15, 2024. The winning manuscript is announced in February and published in the fall of 2025.

Submit your entry here.

Writing Competition: Cloud Bank's Vern Rutsala Book Prize

Vern Rutsala Book Prize

Cloudbank’s Vern Rutsala 2025 Book Contest is open for submissions. Submissions are accepted through October 31, 2024. 

A prize of $1,000 is awarded, plus publication of the manuscript and 50 free books.

Submit 60 to 90 pages of poetry and/or flash fiction, including a Table of Contents and Acknowledgments page.

Reading fee is $25. Submissions are accepted from around the world with no citizenship limitations.

• The first 50 writers submitting to the contest receive a Cloudbank book or journal.

• To submit electronically through our submissions manager click here.

• Submissions should include two title pages, one with title only, one with title and author name.

• Cloudbank editors appreciate a wide range of styles, approaches, forms, and aesthetics; we welcome prose poems and flash fiction.

Call for Submissions: New England Review

We are open for submissions in all genres from March 1 through May 1 and September 1 through November 1. We may close before the end of the period if we receive more than our allotted number of submissions, so it’s best to submit early.

UPDATE for September 2024: When we open on September 1, we will begin taking submissions for our November 2025 “emerging writers and translators” feature. We will dedicate half of a special double issue (Vol. 46.3-4) to those who have not yet published a book or have a book under contract. Eligible writers and translators can indicate their interest in being considered for that feature when they submit.

What we’re looking for.
We welcome submissions in fiction, poetry, nonfiction, dramatic writing, and translation in all genres.

For translations, please confirm that translation rights are available and submit under the genre that best represents the work.

We only accept writing that has not been published previously, whether in print or on the web.

Please send only one submission at a time, across all genres, including translations. Do not resubmit work, even if it has been revised, unless it has been requested by the editors. Simultaneous submissions are accepted in all genres, but please be sure to withdraw your submission immediately upon acceptance elsewhere. We attempt to respond to submissions within twelve weeks, but it can take longer.

We welcome and encourage submissions from writers of every nationality, race, religion, and gender, including writers who have never been affiliated with an MFA program and whose perspectives are often underrepresented in the literary world.

We suggest that NER authors wait about a year after their most recent publication until they submit again (e.g., If you were published in spring 2024, please wait until spring 2025 to submit new work).

What you get.
Payment for work published in the journal is $20 per page ($50 minimum), plus two copies of the issue in which the work appears and a one-year subscription to the print or e-book edition.

For online publication in NER Digital, payment is $50 and a one-year subscription to the magazine.

Your cover letter—just the facts.

Your cover letter should provide contact information and state the genre, title, and word count (for prose) of the submission, as well as any salient information about you—e.g., previous publications, never before published—or about your piece.

Online submissions.
Please submit your work through Submittable, our online submissions portal. The small fee we charge for online submissions helps to support New England Review in its mission to publish writers at all stages of their careers. You can submit for free if you purchase a subscription or renewal at the time of submission. If the submission fee presents a financial hardship, please email us.

You can check on the status of an existing submission on Submittable. If it says “new” or “in progress,” that means we have not yet made a decision about the piece. If you have other submission queries, send us an e-mail and we will respond as soon as possible.

Paper submissions.
We allow paper submissions for writers who for any reason are unable to use Submittable. Please do not send your only copy, as we cannot be responsible for lost or damaged manuscripts, and include a letter-size self-addressed, stamped envelope (SASE) for our reply only. There is no fee. Please do not send paper submissions outside of our open submissions periods or they will be returned unread. Our mailing address is New England Review, Middlebury College, Middlebury, VT 05753.

Categories
Fiction: We are looking for short stories, short shorts, novellas, novel excerpts (if they can stand alone), and translations. The word limit is 20,000, though most of what we publish is shorter than 10,000 words. Please send only one piece at a time, unless the pieces are very short (under 1,000 words), in which case send up to three. Reminder: do not resubmit a story that you’ve sent in the past unless it has been completely rewritten. Please double-space and include word count on the front page or cover letter.

Poetry: We publish long and short poems, including translations. Please send no more than six poems at once, and upload them as a single file. If you need to withdraw part of your submission, please simply add a note to your submission in Submittable.

Nonfiction: We publish a broad range of nonfiction, including interpretive and personal essays, critical reassessments, cultural criticism (art, film, etc.), travel writing, environmental writing, and works in translation. The word limit is 20,000, though most of what we publish is shorter than 10,000 words. Please double-space and include word count on the front page or cover letter.

Dramatic Writing: We are looking for short plays, monologues, and screenplays, up to 5,000 words. Please consider that the work must read well on the page. Please double-space and include word count on the front page or cover letter.

Call for Submissions on Theme of "Coming of Age": Shooter Literary Magazine

Shooter publishes themed print issues twice a year, and runs competitions for poetry during the first half of the year and short fiction during the second half of the year. We also run a monthly flash contest online.

General submission guidelines are as follows:

Writers:

Writers should send short stories and non-fiction of 2,000-6,000 words and/or up to three poems on the theme Coming of Age, adhering to the guidelines below, by the deadline of October 20, 2024.

We’re looking for stories, essays, memoir and poetry on anything to do with the transition to adulthood: first love, hormonal angst, Saturday jobs, brushes with the law, experimentation, gaining independence, losing virginity. Literary reflections on books that made an impact during late adolescence would make particularly welcome essays. Tales of college and first steps on the career ladder are also relevant.

The theme is open to wide interpretation, but please adhere to the submission guidelines. In addition to thematic relevance, we seek engaging, elegant writing that maintains a high literary standard.

Documents should be in Word format, 1.5 or double spaced, with word count indicated at the end of the (prose) piece. Please submit only one piece of prose and/or up to three poems per issue.

Please include a brief biography in your email, noting any prior publishing experience, and send work to:

submissions.shooterlitmag@gmail.com

by October 20th.

Simultaneous submissions are fine but please let us know if your work is accepted elsewhere. Any non-fiction or journalistic work selected for publication will be fact-checked. All work must be previously unpublished either in print or online.

Successful writers can expect to hear from us within a few weeks of the deadline, if not before; all other submitters will be informed of the outcome within two months.

Artists:

Shooter seeks original artwork for its covers. Artists should email examples of their work or a link to their online portfolio to:

artwork.shooterlitmag@gmail.com

We take note of promising illustrators on a rolling basis but, if you have work or a style you feel is particularly relevant to an upcoming theme, please draw our attention to it. Artwork will be used as cover illustration for the magazine, plus detail use on the inside pages and on Shooter’s social media.

Rights:

Shooter acquires first rights for print and online/e-book publication and reserves the right to publish work that has appeared in the magazine on its website and related social media.

Payment:

Upon publication, writers will be paid £25 per story and £5 per poem. Stories that fall below the requested minimum of 2,000 words will be paid at poetry rates. Artists will be paid £25 for use of their work as magazine illustration. UK contributors will receive both payment and a copy of the issue in which their work appears; non-UK contributors may choose either cash payment or a copy of the magazine.

Call for Submissions: The Adroit Journal

WE ARE NOW A PAYING PUBLICATION!!

THANKS TO THE GENEROUS SUPPORT OF OUR DONORS, THE ADROIT JOURNAL PAYS $100.00 TO ALL FICTION & CREATIVE NON-FICTION CONTRIBUTORS AND $50.00 TO ALL POETRY AND ENLIGHTENMENT CONTRIBUTORS, AS WELL AS OUR ISSUE COVER ARTIST. 

Deadline: Nov. 2, 2024

NOTE: We have heard from some submitters that they receive a security notice upon visiting Submittable. The good folks at Submittable let us know that this security concern usually has to do with a user’s browser not being up to date and suggested if the issue persists to ensure your browser is the most current version. They assured us the webpage is, in fact, secure. Finally, they suggested using the following link to submit: https://adroit.submittable.com/submit.

We consider submissions sent via Submittable. Writers with disabilities or impairments may submit via Submittable or email; these writers may submit to editors[AT]theadroitjournal[DOT]org. Otherwise, we are not open to email submissions, and are not open to submissions sent via post.

When we are open to submissions, please note that we are open to simultaneous submissions (so long as you classify them as such & promptly let us know if they’re accepted elsewhere). Please ensure that you use the MESSAGES tab on Submittable and not the NOTES tab, as the Notes tab is exclusively for your own reference. 

Prose - up to 3 pieces at a time, 9,000 words maximum (across pieces).
Poetry - up to 6 poems at a time, no length limits.
Art - up to 6 pieces at a time, both black/white & color accepted.

Click here to read our current issue, available online.

Submit your work here.  

Call for Submissions: Lowestoft Chronicle

We consider a variety of genres. Preference will be given to humorous submissions with an emphasis on travel. All submissions must be original work in English. We do not consider previously published work, which includes work publicly displayed on message boards, social networking websites, and your personal website. Simultaneous submissions are okay, provided you let us know immediately if your piece is accepted elsewhere. Once published in Lowestoft Chronicle, any subsequent publication of your piece should include the credit “first published in Lowestoft Chronicle.”

 

Reading Schedule: Issue #60: September 1st, 2024 — November 15th, 2024

Fiction: Submit manuscripts of any genre up to 3,000 words for consideration. Avoid sending stories with a word count in excess of 3,000 words. In contrast to my Humanities schoolteacher, who would place exam papers on a grocery scale and grade according to weight, at Lowestoft Chronicle we always give priority to shorter manuscripts. However, unless it is poetry, bite size submissions under 100 words will probably be considered too slight for our scales and will likely be rejected.

Poetry: We accept all forms of poetry, but please only submit one or two of your very best poems per reading period.

Non-Fiction: Narrative non-fiction, commentary, slice of life and memoirs are welcome. Humorous pieces are especially welcome. Please keep submissions under 3,000 words.
Submitting

Send work as plain text in the body of an email, or as an attachment, and please include your name, pseudonym (if used), the title of your work, and a brief bio. Please state whether it is fiction, non-fiction, or poetry, as it is not always obvious. All submissions should be directed to:

 

submit@lowestoftchronicle.com

 

We will try to respond to submissions in a timely manner, but please allow 30 days for a reply. If you haven’t heard back from us after this time, please email us with your query and include the title of your work in the subject line. Due to recent arm wrestling defeats our bank manager, Devron, has claimed “dibs” on all our profits, and so at present Lowestoft Chronicle cannot provide payment to contributors. If circumstances change (i.e. one of our staff actually beats him) we will let you know.

 

Rights

Upon acceptance, Lowestoft Chronicle assumes first publication rights for 30 days from publication, after which all rights revert back to the author. However, we reserve the non-exclusive right to include your work in our archives and anthologies, electronic or print.