Call for Submissions: The tEmz Review

 

We are currently OPEN for journal submissions for Issue 32. We will remain open from June 1, 2025 to July 31, 2025.

AI Policy
There are legitimate artistic reasons to use AI. If you submit work to us that uses AI, be sure to clearly state in your cover message/letter the following:

a) The extent of AI use
b) The reason(s) for AI use

Submitting work containing AI-generated material without accurately disclosing the nature and extent of this content will result in a permanent ban on submitting to us.

Prose
We publish prose (fiction and creative non-fiction) up to 10,000 words long. We will consider pieces longer than 10,000 words, but they need to earn their length.

We pay $20 per piece.

If your piece is longer than 1000 words, please submit only one piece. If your pieces are fewer than 1000 words each, feel free to submit several pieces at once.

We are looking for innovative short fiction from diverse voices. Our preference is for the strange, the experimental and the boundary-pushing, but we are open to a wide range of styles and voices.

Poetry
We accept submissions of 1-8 poems, depending on the length of the poems.

We prefer poetry submissions to be 10 pages or fewer. You can certainly send us longer submissions, particularly if you are submitting a long poem, but longer submissions need to earn their length.

We pay $20 per batch of poems we publish.

Our preference is for innovative verse that pushes the boundaries of poetry, but we are open to a wide range of styles and voices.

Please submit only once per reading period.

Reviews and Interviews
We do not accept reviews or interviews submitted through Moksha. If you are interested in writing a review for us or placing an interview with us, please query us first at:

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

We are particularly interested in reviews of Canadian small press titles and of works in translation, and in interviews with the authors of this kind of work.

Simultaneous Submissions Welcome!
We welcome simultaneous submissions, provided you notify us and/or withdraw a piece that is accepted for publication elsewhere.

More information and submission portal here. 

Call for Submissions: Mudroom Magazine

 

Submissions are open! Send us your work through July 25.

General Guidelines

All issue contributors are paid 15 dollars! Our submission fee policy is as follows:

Standard Submissions are free! We try to respond to all free submissions within each submission period. Feel free to query after three months. 

Expedited Submissions are $3. We guarantee a response within one week for these submissions.

Simultaneous submissions are encouraged. If your work is accepted elsewhere, we just ask that you let us know immediately through email. We will not consider work with sexist, racist, homophobic, xenophobic, or ableist content. Your name should appear on your cover letter but not in the submission. Please only submit once per submission period.

All contributors are paid through Paypal. Please alert us in your submission if you require another method of payment.

POETRY GUIDELINES

MudRoom publishes poetry of all types. You can email poetry submissions to:

mud.room.submissions@gmail.com

To submit, please send 3-5 original, previously unpublished poems in a single .DOC/.DOCX .ODT or PDF file with one poem per page (eight pages maximum).

Indicate POETRY SUBMISSION in your subject line. Submissions without "Poetry Submission" in the subject line will be deleted. You may also include a brief cover letter/third-person bio in the body of your email.

PROSE GUIDELINES

Mudroom publishes fiction, essays, and essays in translation. You can email prose submissions to:

mud.room.submissions@gmail.com

To submit, please send a previously unpublished work no longer than 6,000 words in double spaced 12-point Times New Roman font. All works should be attached in a single .DOC/.DOCX .ODT or PDF file

Please indicate PROSE SUBMISSION in your subject line. Submissions without "Prose Submission" in the subject line will be deleted. You may also include a brief cover letter/third-person bio in the body of your email.

Cover Art GUIDELINES

Some issues of MudRoom are accompanied by cover artwork. You can email submissions to:

mud.room.submissions@gmail.com 

At this time, we are unable to offer expedited submissions for art.

For consideration of cover art, MudRoom accepts all mediums of artwork with the exception of AI-generated art, visual poetry, or reproductions of already licensed work. We are looking for art that reflects the energy of MudRoom. Feel free to look through our previous issues, reviews, and interviews to get a sense of MudRoom’s character before submitting.

Please submit up to 3 individual art pieces, including a high-resolution image of your artwork with your submission. If you are submitting photographs of your artwork (ex: ceramics, fiber arts, paintings), please consider lighting, angles, and framing of your art to best reflect the formatting of the magazine's digital publication. If you are submitting in multiple genres, please send your submissions in separate emails.

Whenever possible, art files should be titled with your last name and the name of the work to avoid confusion. (example: instead of: last_name_527.jpeg” manually name the file LastName_Title.jpeg). All art submissions should be JPGs, JPEGs, or PNGs.

In your submission, please include the following:

Your/Artist Name

Title of work

Medium

If you wish, you may also include a brief statement about your work.

Please note that accepted submissions may be modified to suit the cover layout and design.

Expedited Submissions

For expedited submissions, please support us on kofi, and then in the subject line of your submission, add the word EXPEDITED. For poetry submissions, this would look like POETRY SUBMISSION EXPEDITED, and for prose submissions would appear as PROSE SUBMISSION EXPEDITED. All donations go toward paying our contributors.

We do not currently offer expedited submissions for art.

Please feel free to email us at:

mud.room.mag@gmail.com

if you have any questions.

Rights

We require First North American Serial Rights. Following publication, all rights revert to the author, but we ask that MudRoom is credited in subsequent reprints. In addition, we reserve the right to edit submissions in accordance with the rules of our style guide.

Call for Submissions to Anthology from Trans/GenderQueer Writers: Off the Topic Publishing

DEADLINE: June 30, 2025, at midnight Pacific Time.

Submit poems, flash fiction, short stories, creative nonfiction, essays, and unclassified other writing of any style and theme.

The work must be written by a trans/genderqueer person. Collaborative work is okay, as long as all authors are aware of the submission. If accepted, all authors will need to sign a contract. At least one of the authors must be trans/genderqueer.

Poems: Submit up to 3 poems in a single file submission. No more than 30 lines per poem, not including the title or blank lines between stanzas.

Flash Fiction: Submit up to 3 pieces in a single file submission. No longer than 500 words, not including the title. Different word processors and websites count words differently. If your piece is slightly over in the counter we use, it may still be accepted.

Short Stories (Fiction): Submit 1 piece. 501-2500 words, not including the title.

Creative Nonfiction: Submit 1 piece. Maximum 2500 words, not including the title.

Essays: Submit 1 piece. Maximum 2500 words, not including the title.

Other Formats: Submit 1 piece. Please provide a short paragraph at the top of your file briefly explaining your vision for this piece.

Payment: $20 CAD + an equal share of sales. You’ll need to create a Draft2Digital account for this, if you don’t already have one. You can choose to waive your share and donate it. You will also receive a digital copy of the anthology. 50% of profits will go to supporting organizations that fight for trans and LGBTQIA+ rights. The other 50% will be divided equally among contributors and the publisher.

Simultaneous Submissions: Yes. Please immediately inform us if your piece is accepted elsewhere. If we really like it, we may still wish to publish it. If so, we will discuss which rights you are giving the other publication and see if we can make it work.

Multiple Submissions: Yes, sort of. You can submit once per category (see above). That means you can submit a maximum of 6 separate times. Please follow the guidelines for each category.

Format: We aren’t too hung up on formatting. Just make it easy for us to read. 

No PAGES files.

DOC or DOCX preferred.

PDF accepted for poetry or any text requiring special formatting.

Please title your file as follows: Title – Author Name (My Beautiful Story – Wry Ter).This title must match the title in the document and in your submission form. No exceptions (minor typos are fine).

All submitters will be contacted. It might take a while, since a single reader will be going through all the submissions. If you haven’t heard from us by the end of 2025, feel free to (politely) query.

Submit your work here. 

Call for Submissions: Flash the Court

Hi. It’s me. I’m the Court. Flash me.

Five hundred words or fewer, please. Fiction or nonfiction, I don’t care, and I don’t dissemble. No need to define genre, truly truly. We’re all rebel writers here.

I also dngaf about arc. Your evil main character persists in her evil ways? More power to her. Your plot thickens but never coalesces? Whatever. That’s life. I’m great with fragmentation. I’m happy with hybridity. I’m all about an unresolved ending.

So give me your misguided but earnest conversations, your steamy scenes, your personal polemics. Give me your queer, your diverse, your dream. Come one, come all—just keep it short and snappy and sassy. Lyricism and lingering language welcome. Prose poetry is perfect. Transgression is even better.

Unfortunately, at present, in order to keep the lights on, I must charge a $5 reading fee per submission. Publications, however, will always be paid $50 apiece. Find breathtaking work here on Flash the Court every Saturday until forever.

Want to try something new? Try it here. With me.

More information and submission link here. 

Writing Competition: The Coniston Prize from Radar Poetry

The Coniston Prize 

Ends on Fri, Aug 1, 2025 10:00 PM

Entry Fee: $20.00

*This year's judge is acclaimed poet Diane Seuss*

The winner of the Coniston Prize will receive $1,000 and publication. Up to 10 finalists will also be awarded $175 and publication. The winner and finalists’ work will be featured in the Coniston Prize Issue, published annually in October.

Submissions are open June 1 - August 1. We notify all entrants before October 1. The entry fee is $20.

Submit 3-5 previously unpublished poems in a single document through our submissions manager, totaling no more than 10 pages. You may include a cover letter and brief bio in the comments box. Multiple submissions are acceptable with additional reading fee.

This award recognizes an exceptional group of poems. We therefore suggest that you submit poems that are intentionally cohesive in some way, whether connected by subject matter, theme, voice, style, or imagery.

Please remove all identifying information from your document. All contest submissions will be read anonymously.

Simultaneous submissions are acceptable, but we cannot refund contest fees if you have to withdraw all or part of your submission. Multiple entries are acceptable with an additional fee.

Eligibility

The Coniston Prize is awarded to women poets. Any poet who identifies as a woman is eligible. This includes trans, non-binary, and other gender expansive womxn.

If you know the editors or our judge personally, you should not submit your work. This includes current or former students of the editors or the judge.

Submit your entry here. 

Writing Competition: Prairie Schooner

Creative Nonfiction Essay Contest

Ends on Fri, Aug 1, 2025 11:00 PM

Our annual summer nonfiction contest opens May 15th to all types of creative nonfiction essays up to 5,000 words.

The winner will receive $1,000 and publication in our Spring 2026 issue.

This year's guest judge is Aimee Nezhukumatathil.

Aimee Nezhukumatathil is the author of the New York Times best-selling illustrated collection of nature essays, WORLD OF WONDERS: IN PRAISE OF FIREFLIES, WHALE SHARKS, & OTHER ASTONISHMENTS, which was chosen as Barnes and Noble’s Book of the Year and named a finalist for the Kirkus Prize. She also wrote four previous poetry collections: OCEANIC, LUCKY FISH, AT THE DRIVE-IN VOLCANO, and MIRACLE FRUIT. With the poet Ross Gay, she co-authored the chapbook LACE & PYRITE, a collaboration of epistolary garden poems. Her writing appears twice in the Best American Poetry Series, The New York Times Magazine, ESPN, Ploughshares, American Poetry Review, and The Paris Review.

Entries will consist of three parts: a cover letter, the essay manuscript, and the entry fee.

Cover Letter: In the cover letter, include the submission's title and your contact information, including e-mail address, phone number, and mailing address. Your name and contact info must not appear anywhere within the manuscript itself (double-check headers and footers!).

Essay Manuscript: The contest is open to all types of creative nonfiction essays up to 5,000 words. We're interested in reading imaginative essays of general interest. (Scholarly articles requiring footnote references should be submitted to journals of literary scholarship.) Manuscripts should be double-spaced and use a standard font, and, again, the submitter's name and contact info should not appear within the manuscript itself.

Entry Fee: Each submission must be accompanied by the $20.00 fee, which includes a copy of the Spring 2025 issue of the Schooner in which the winning essay will appear.

Multiple submissions are welcome and encouraged, but a separate entry fee must accompany each submission. Simultaneous submissions are acceptable, provided you withdraw your work promptly should it be accepted for publication elsewhere. We do not consider work that has been previously published anywhere, including online publications.

This contest is administered anonymously. Editorial Assistants, Assistant Nonfiction Editors, the Guest Judge, and the Editor in Chief of the Schooner are not privy to submitters' identifying information.

If you have a problem with your submission, please write to Managing Editor Jessica Poli at:

prairieschooner@unl.edu

Submit your entry here. 

Writing Competitions: Bellevue Literary Prizes

 

The BLR Prizes award outstanding writing related to themes of health, healing, illness, the mind, and the body. Winners are published in the spring issue of Bellevue Literary Review. For each genre, first prize is $1000 and honorable mention is $300. 

• Goldenberg Prize for Fiction, judged by Joan Silber

• Felice Buckvar Prize for Nonfiction, judged by Nicole Chung

• John & Eileen Allman Prize for Poetry, judged by Patricia Spears Jones

Click here to learn more about this year’s judges.

• 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.

Submissions for BLR Prizes are open until July 1, 2025. 

• 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/nonfiction word max is 5,000 words (though most of our published prose is in the range of 2,000-4,000 words.) Please submit no more than three poems. Each poem should be on a separate page within a single document.

• Do not put your name or other identifying information on the manuscript document (or in the filename) so that the submissions can be read blindly. No cover letter needed.

• Students/friends/colleagues/relations of a judge are not permitted to enter submissions to that judge’s genre.

• There is a $20 fee per contest submission. Contest submission qualifies you for a 50% discount on a BLR subscription. (The fee helps BLR fund the contest and the journal, but if it’s a hardship for you, please contact us.)

• Winners from each genre (poetry, fiction, nonfiction) receive $1000. Honorable mentions from each genre receive $300.

• Winners will be published in BLR Issue 50 in Spring 2026.

• All contest submissions are automatically considered for general publication as well. (No need to submit in both categories!)

• 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.

• Contest winners are usually announced in November. Decisions for the rest of Issue 50 will be made by the end of the year.

(*For BLR, “published work” means published in print in North America, or published on the Internet in electronic journals, e-zines, academic websites, and other “public” or “official” websites. Works posted on personal blogs or websites will be considered on a case-by-case basis. We ask that authors be honest about web postings. If a work is discovered to have been posted or published elsewhere–and not openly acknowledged by the author in advance–we will remove it from consideration.) 

Enter here.