News from NewPages
After a stressful few months, NewPages has launched a new version of our website. We hope you find the redesign helpful and easy to navigate. We have also tried to add some more options to our users to find things easier in our online guides. If you notice anything amiss, please don’t hesitate to contact us! One thing we are very happy to announce with this launch is that our website and blog are back together under one roof!
And we wanted to say a big thank you to those who supported NewPages with a donation or a paid subscription to our newsletter. Your support means the world to us.
The weather here in Michigan is getting downright frigid (and below freezing) which makes this the perfect time to grab up these issues of literary magazines and settle in for some good reading with your favorite hot beverage of choice.
Issue 78 of Rattle is their annual prize winner issue featuring L. Renée’s winning poem “Shoes” along with ten finalists and more great work. Issue 50 of Blink-Ink is themed “Country Roads” and includes 25 works, all 50 words or less. The Fall/Winter 2022 issue of Colorado Review features Mike Murray’s “Night Owls” which won the Nelligan Prize for short Fiction. Speaking of prize issues, the Fall 2022 issue of Raleigh Review features the winners of the latest Laux/Millar Prize: Allison Blevins and Joshua Davis.
In online journals, enjoy recent work on Terrain.org including poetry from Brian Turner, an interview with Gavin Van Horn, an excerpt of David Hinto’s new book, plus so much more! Don’t forget to stop by the Magazine Stand throughout the week for more issue releases from Cave Wall, Valley Voices, and many more!
Another great thing to do during the cold days of winter is put on your favorite sweater and grab one of these books. And don’t forget our Book Stand is updated throughout the week with new and forthcoming titles from independent and university presses!
Enjoy the long overdue volume of French poet Jacques Darras (translated into English by Richard Sieburth) John Scotus Eriugena at Laon and Other Poems. You can also enjoy Beatriz García-Huidobro’s Until She Goes No More which has been translated into English by Jacqueline Nanfito. The book “simultaneously maps the coordinates of the intimate story of a female teenager and the broader historical and socioeconomic reality of Chile in the early 70’s.” Olivia E. Sears has translated Ardengo Soffici’s work in Simultaneities and Lyric Chemisms which is being heralded as “‘a vital reconstruction’ of Italian Futurist poet Ardengo Soffici’s visual poetics.”
Urbanshee is Siaara Freeman’s retelling of fairy tales and mythological stories through a modern urban lens. Love spiritual literature? Orison Books’ Best Spiritual Literature, Volume 7 is now available and includes new, previously unpublished works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry by the winners of The Best Spiritual Literature Awards. Speaking of awards, The Woods by Janice Obuchowski was the winner of The John Simmons Short Fiction Award and is now available. This collection “explores the lives of people in a small Vermont college town and its surrounding areas.”
NewPages Blog
Stay caught up at our blog. There you can take in short reviews, contest & book award winners, book & literary magazine news, new issues of literary magazines, new and forthcoming titles, and cultural & political news.
Get help in deciding what to read next with help from our reviewers! Recently Jacob Taylor reviewed literary magazine Reckoning Issue 6 in which much “of the writing draws clear inspiration from recent social movements and the COVID-19 pandemic, making this publication both relevant and relatable.” Zackary Gregory gives his thoughts on George Estreich’s short essay “Plague Novel” which was published in Southern Humanities Review, and which uses Colson Whitehead’s novel Zone Out to make sense of Estreich’s lived experience through the outbreak of Covid-19.
Jack Bylund finds Christena Cleveland’s God is a Black Woman offers “hope for people in need of a God who truly loves amid the post-Trump rise in Christian hatred and nationalism” while Jackie Martin likes how the essays in Emily Maloney’s Cost of Living inspire “a multitude of reactions from melancholy to righteous anger to utter disbelief” without being “preachy or overwrought.” Elizabeth Robin finds Lightning Flowers: My Journey to Uncover the Cost of Saving a Life by Katherine E. Standefer “serves as a reminder that there is ‘hard work that lies before us,’ and it is our responsibility to change a broken system.”
If you’re interested in seeing your own review displayed on our blog, please check out our revised guidelines and consider submitting to NewPages today. It’s free.
Below are this week’s writing contests, calls for submissions, and literary and writing events. Enjoy 20+ opportunities to get your work published or to enhance your writing craft. Paid subscribers get first and early access to these opportunities every Monday afternoon. Free subscribers receive access to these opportunities the following Monday.
Calls, Contests, & More
Here are the latest and featured calls for submissions and writing and book contests. Please note the ads featured here are paid listings. Subscribers with paid subscriptions receive early access to ads before they are posted to our site.
RCC MUSE art + literary journal – poetry and prose submissions open
Deadline: December 15, 2022
MUSE is especially looking to publish work from under- or misrepresented groups, such as people of color, disabled people, LGBTQ+, present/formerly incarcerated people, and others from a culturally and linguistically diverse background. Through DEC. 15: submit one short story or CNF 1500 words max; up to three poems. Mail to RCC MUSE, Riverside City College, 4800 Magnolia Avenue, Riverside, CA 92506 or via email. If email, send as attachment with “Last Name – Genre – Title of Submission” in the subject line (e.g., Smith – Prose – “In Summer”). Please include contact information. See full submission guidelines at the RCC Muse website.
Our Doors are Open
Deadline: Year-round
The Blue Mountain Review launched from Athens, Georgia in 2015 with the mantra, “We’re all south of somewhere.” As a journal of culture, the BMR strives to represent all life through its stories. Stories are vital to our survival. What we sing saves the soul. Our goal is to preserve and promote lives told well through prose, poetry, music, and the visual arts. We’ve published work from and interviews with Jericho Brown, Kelli Russell Agodon, Robert Pinsky, Rising Appalachia, Turkuaz, Michel Stone, Michael Flohr, Lee Herrick, Chen Chen, Michael Cudlitz, Pat Metheny, Melissa Studdard, Lyrics Born, Terry Kay, and Christopher Moore. View full information and submit here.
Open Call for Poetry, Fiction, Nonfiction, & Craft Essays
Deadline: March 15, 2023
Allium, A Journal of Poetry & Prose publishes three issues each year: two online issues (Fall and Summer) and one print issue (Spring). Allium accepts simultaneous submissions, requests a maximum page length of five pages for poetry, fifteen pages (3,750 words, double-spaced, using a 12 pt. Times Roman font) for craft essays, fiction, hybrid, nonfiction, and creative nonfiction, and does not seek previously published work. We publish diverse creative voices, BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and neurodiverse communities that have been underrepresented in literature, and recognized and emerging writers. Our submission period begins October 15 and ends March 15. Visit Submittable.
Applause International Undergraduate Literary Journal Open For Submissions—Paying Venue
Deadline: February 14, 2023
Applause Issue 33: The (In)Evitable Ending. Evitable; adj. That admits of being avoided; avoidable. Applause is looking for the most interesting angles we can find as your work approaches its “evitable ending.” We begin knowing there’s an end, but the ending doesn’t have to be inevitable to satisfy the reader. Sometimes the end of “what actually happened” is really the poem, story, or essay’s beginning. Sometimes the piece decides the end. We’re looking for original poems, stories, essays, and visual art that showcases what happens when we avoid the avoidable. Imagine the ending. Avoid it. Send it to us.
Third Street Review
Deadline: Rolling
Third Street Review is a new online literary journal for flash fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, art, and photography. We are a paying market and welcome work from writers and artists from all cultural backgrounds and experience levels. For complete submission guidelines, please visit our website.
Seeking Stories of Sexual/Sensual Exploration and Discovery Post-Abuse
Deadline: December 20, 2022
Celebrations of Healing is seeking autobiographical stories of meaningful, uplifting, sensual and/or erotic moments of intimacy and discovery written by people of all genders, sexualities, abilities, and ethnicities who have previously experienced sexual abuse. People who have not often seen themselves reflected in the existing discourse about sexual recovery are especially encouraged to submit. Submissions are due December 20, 2022. For more information, please see Celebrations of Healing website.
Sky Island Journal: Issue 23 Call for Submissions
Deadline: December 31, 2022
Sky Island Journal is an independent, international, free-access literary journal dedicated to publishing the finest poetry, flash fiction, and creative nonfiction. We publish accomplished, well-established authors—side by side—with fresh, emerging voices. We provide over 115,000 readers in 145 countries with a powerful, free-access, advertising-free literary experience that transports them: one that challenges them intellectually and moves them emotionally. We publish quarterly, and our average response time is 9 days. Every submission receives a prompt, respectful response detailing what we appreciated. Enjoy our previous issues and submit to our stunning Issue 23 before midnight on December 31st at our website.
Dark Onus Press seeks Unsolicited, Micro-sized Manuscripts starting 1.1.23
Dark Onus Press is an experimental, secular, independent publishing house which produces short volumes of poetry, short stories, flash fiction, and artwork. We are open year-round, read blindly, do not charge reading fees and do not charge you for your first batch of books if you publish with us. We are a micro-publisher of experimental work, publishing print books and ebooks. Our response time is two months. It is our mission to stay small and stay afloat for many years to come. We are self-funded and independent, intending to publish new and established authors and artists. Submissions open 1.1.23. View submission guidelines.
Dark Onus Lit is seeking Submissions for Inaugural Issue - Open 1.1.23
Dark Onus Lit is an experimental, secular literary magazine which puts out micro-issues of poetry, short stories, flash fiction, audio and artwork. We are open year-round, read blindly, and do not charge reading fees. We appreciate dark-themed work. Our response time is 3 weeks. Please review our Masthead and Submission Guidelines pages for our leanings. We are looking for experimental, challenging work for our inaugural issue. Submissions open 1.1.23.
Yard Sale: Blink-Ink Issue #51
Deadline: January 15, 2023
Be it the multi-family neighborhood tag sale, some pretentious “Estate Sale,” some jumbled pre-dumpster offerings in the driveway, or two pair of socks and half a bottle of strawberry shampoo for sale on your dorm’s front steps. All this could be yours. Bargains, treasures and oddities to be perused. Speaking of oddities, check out your fellow browsers. Tell us your best unpublished stories of approximately 50 words about yard sales and their kin. Submissions open December 1st, 2022 through January 15th, 2023. No attachments, poetry, or bios please. Send submissions in the body of an email to blinkinkinfo@gmail.com.
L'Esprit Seeks Consciousness-Forward Fiction and Criticism
L’Esprit Literary Review seeks submissions for Issue Two, forthcoming online in April 2023. L’Esprit publishes consciousness-forward fiction and thought in the fearless, revolutionary tradition of High Modernism. We accept stories, essays, reviews, and criticism. Payment is a modest honorarium. Send us bold, unconventional writing investigating the turbulent underworld of the mind. We pride language-driven work that is fueled at the sentence level. We are especially interested in seeing more criticism/autotheory/literary commentary. We are also seeking pieces inspired by or commenting on the work of Virginia Woolf and James Joyce for our commemorative Quarterly in January. Now open to translations. View submission guidelines.
Atmosphere Press Reading Book Manuscripts in All Genres
Deadline: Rolling
Atmosphere Press currently seeks book manuscripts from diverse voices. There's no submission fee, and if your manuscript is selected, we’ll be the publisher you’ve always wanted: attentive, organized, on schedule, and professional. We use a model in which the author funds the publication of the book, but retains 100% rights, royalties, and artistic autonomy. This year Atmosphere authors have received featured reviews with Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, and Booklist, and have even appeared on a giant billboard in Times Square. Submit your book manuscript at our website.
Literary Events
Apply Now for the Looking Glass Rock Writers' Conference
Deadline: December 15, 2022
Event Dates: May 18-21, 2023
Event Location: Brevard, North Carolina
Located in the mountains of western North Carolina, the May 18-21, 2023 Looking Glass Rock Writers’ Conference will explore the theme “A Sense of Place” with faculty Camille Dungy, Jamie Ford, and Margaret Renkl leading workshops on poetry, fiction, and nonfiction writing. A partnership between the Transylvania County Library and Brevard College, the annual conference consists of writing workshops for select participants and community readings by the workshop leaders. Workshops are limited to 12 participants and scholarships are available. Acceptance is competitive and based on manuscript evaluation. There is no charge to apply. For more information visit our website.
Uncommon Hours: Design and De-stressify the Writing Life
Deadline: Year-round
Event Dates: Beginning January 11, 2023, monthly on second Wednesdays
Event Location: Virtual
Tap into the science of productivity for creative people. Gain emotional fortitude and mindful resilience. And write those beautiful pages with us. Join our warm and welcoming Uncommon Hours community, which is alive with writers and creatives like you who want to finish their passion projects—and do it by activating their joy, imagination, and inner wisdom. Find out how potent the combination of contemplation, creative visualization, and solidarity with a creative, supportive community can be. Second Wednesdays at 6 p.m. Mountain Time via Zoom.
Writing & Book Contests
RCC MUSE literary journal – Holden Vaughn Spangler Award for a poem about a child or childhood
Deadline: December 15, 2022
MUSE is especially looking to publish work from under- or misrepresented groups, such as people of color, disabled people, LGBTQ+, present/formerly incarcerated people, and others from a culturally and linguistically diverse background. Winner receives $200 and publication in Spring 2023 edition of RCC MUSE. $5 submission fee, by check payable to “RCC MUSE” or Venmo @RCCMUSE. Submit up to 3 poems about a child or childhood, through Dec. 15: Spangler Award, RCC MUSE, Riverside City College, 4800 Magnolia Ave., Riverside, CA 92506. Also accepting submissions via email. Please email attachment (prefer .doc) with "LastName – Spangler Award – Title" in the subject line. Do not put submissions in the body of the email. Please include contact information. IG: @rccmuse. See full submission guidelines at our website.
2023 Press 53 Award for Short Fiction
Deadline: December 31, 2022
2023 Press 53 Award for Short Fiction is awarded to an outstanding, unpublished collection of short stories. Reading Fee: $30. Award: $1,000 cash advance, publication, and fifty copies (35 softcover/15 hardcover). Enter: Submit online with Submittable or by mail from September 1–December 31, 2022. Press 53 short fiction editor in chief Claire V. Foxx will serve as the only judge. Winner and finalists announced by May 1, 2023; advance review copies sent to major reviewers and outlets; publication in May 2024. Complete details at Press 53's website.
2023 New American Poetry Prize
Deadline: January 15, 2023
2023 NEW AMERICAN POETRY PRIZE. $1,500 and book publication. Final judge: Jamaica Baldwin, author of Bone Language (forthcoming 2023). Deadline: January 15, 2023. Minimum length: 48 pages (no maximum). Reading fee: $25. Online submissions only, please. Complete guidelines at the New American Press website.
Interim Poetics: The Test Site Poetry Prize
Deadline: December 15, 2022
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. Submit by: December 15. Visit Interim Poetics website.
DISQUIET Literary Prize
Deadline: January 2, 2023
Submissions are now open for the DISQUIET Prize for writing in any genre. Three winners will be published in Granta.com (fiction), NinthLetter.com (nonfiction) or The Common (poetry). One grand prize winner will receive a full scholarship, accommodations, and travel stipend to attend the eleventh annual DISQUIET International Literary Program in Lisbon taking place June 25 – July 7, 2023. Runners-up and other outstanding entrants will also be considered for financial aid. Submission fee: $15. Visit website.
2023 Colorado Prize for Poetry
Deadline: January 14, 2023
$2,500 honorarium and book publication: Submit book-length collection of poems to the Colorado Prize for Poetry by January 14, 2023 (we will observe a 5-day grace period). $25 reading fee (add $3 to submit online) includes subscription to Colorado Review. Final judge is Felicia Zamora; friends and students (current or former) of the judge are not eligible to compete, nor are Colorado State University employees, students, or alumni. Complete guidelines at our website or Colorado Prize for Poetry, Center for Literary Publishing, 9105 Campus Delivery, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523-9105.
Diverse Voices Book Prize
Deadline: January 15, 2023
Sponsored by Grand View University and the English Department. Recipient must be a person of color from the United States. Open to fiction, nonfiction, or poetry. The winning manuscript will be published, 100 copies will be awarded, and the winner will be flown (continental U.S.) and housed two nights in Des Moines, Iowa for a book signing and reading in mid-April. Selections made February 1. Book announcement in mid-April. No entry fee. Please submit all manuscripts as a single-spaced Word (.docx or .doc) document with a short 100-word biography (in the body of the email) to Dr. Paul Brooke at pbrooke@grandview.edu. We consider a full-length collection of poetry to run 70-100 pages, while a prose collection/novel to run 35,000-80,000 words. Learn more here.
The Goldilocks Zone 2022
Deadline: December 19, 2022
Inspired by the search for Goldilocks Zone planets, Sunspot Lit is looking for one short story, CNF, artwork, poem, graphic novel, or script that combines excellence with appeal. Literary and genre works accepted; feedback available. Winner receives $200 plus publication. See guidelines for submission details. Closes December 19, 2022. Entry fee is $9.50. Enter through Sunspot’s Submittable form or Duotrope.
Find more great calls, events, and contests on our website.
The NewPages Classified section is updated throughout the week giving you news and info on the latest contest and calls.