Dots That Don’t Connect (But Still Inspire)
NewPages Newsletter #194: For those who see patterns everywhere—and know how to turn them into art.
Happy Monday!
We’ve finally caught a break from the 90-degree heat and heavy humidity—what a relief. It’s the perfect time to enjoy the outdoors without worrying about the heat or the lingering effects of northern wildfires.
And with a fresh wave of submission opportunities and great reads, you can soak up the late-summer air while still hitting your creative and reading goals for the year.
📩 ICYMI: August eLitPak Is Here
As the back-to-school season ramps up, don’t miss our August eLitPak—sent out last Wednesday! It’s packed with submission calls, new book releases, and upcoming writing and storytelling events to keep your creative momentum going.
📩 If this email gets cut off, click ‘View Entire Message’ at the bottom or head to Substack to read the full newsletter!
📚 Magazine News
Our sincerest apologies. Last week we accidentally posted the wrong information for Sky Island Journal’s Summer 2025 issue. Find the correct information plus even more lit mag goodies on our Magazine Stand:
Sky Island Journal – Issue 32 (Summer 2025)
Featuring flash fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction from global contributors like Andrei Atanasov, Catherine Kennedy, Marian Kilcoyne, Kimmy Chang, Jeffey Heath, and Katie Shapiro. This ad-free online journal offers a distraction-free reading experience.
Thorn & Bloom - Issue 2
With over two dozen contributors, this issue explores self-care and resistance through essays, poetry, and fiction—transforming storytelling into a tool for liberation and healing.
Later in the week, come back to the Magazine Stand to learn about:
River Heron Review - Issue 8.2
This issue showcases new poetry and an interview with Rosa Lane, alongside the 2025 Poetry Prize winners and finalists. Plus: generative workshops and a fall retreat, “Rewilding the Poem,” designed to help poets reconnect with their creative instincts.
📖 Book Pick of the Week
Editor Denise Hill is back with a fresh recommendation for our readers! This week, she spotlights a powerful new release that blends history, lyricism, and feminist inquiry.
Agrippina the Younger by Diana Arterian
(Northwestern University Press, June 2025)
Arterian reimagines the life of a Roman noblewoman through lyric and prose poems, weaving past and present into a haunting meditation on patriarchy, power, and historical erasure. With precision and empathy, she asks: What can lost voices teach us about our own time?
🔍 In Review
Craving a fresh new read? Check out the latest recommendations from our reviewers!
Fundamentally by Nussaibah Younis (review by Kevin Brown)
A comic debut following Nadia, a UN worker in Iraq, as she navigates deradicalization efforts and personal identity. Through her bond with refugee Sara, Younis critiques Western aid structures with wit and insight.
I Ask My Mother to Sing by Li-Young Lee (review by Aiden Hunt)
This chapbook gathers mother-themed poems from across Lee’s career, plus seven new works. Rooted in exile, memory, and maternal devotion, it’s a poignant entry point into Lee’s celebrated voice.
A Physical Education: How I Escaped Diet Culture and Gained the Power of Lifting by Casey Johnston (review by Kevin Brown)
Blending memoir and research, Johnston challenges diet culture and celebrates strength through weightlifting. Her story critiques societal norms while highlighting the transformative power of gym communities.
Coming Soon: Reviews of Heart, Be at Peace by Donal Ryan, Cursed Daughters by Oyinkan Brathwaite, The Real Ethereal by Katie Naughton, and Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood.
✍️ Inspiration Prompt: Painting the Mice
Correlation isn’t causation—but it sure makes a good story.
Did you know shark attacks and ice cream sales both spike in summer? Coincidence? Yes. Causation? Not quite. But the pattern is seductive—and dangerous when misunderstood… and it could make for a funny short story or comic, couldn’t it?
What happens when patterns deceive us?
We live in a world where data is abundant, but understanding is scarce. People see two things happen together and assume one caused the other. Fear spreads. Certainty calcifies. And maybe someone, somewhere, is painting mice to make the experiments work.
A coincidence becomes a conspiracy.
A trend becomes a truth.
A symptom becomes a scapegoat.
This prompt invites you to explore the tension between correlation and causation—the seductive power of patterns, the danger of assumptions, and the emotional fallout when we mistake one for the other.
Consider:
A character who builds their life around a false belief rooted in a misinterpreted pattern—or one who manipulates statistics to justify a personal or political agenda.
A society that spirals into fear from imagined connections—or a world where every coincidence is treated as divine causation.
A scientist, artist, or mystic haunted by ambiguity.
A visual piece that plays with misleading graphs, painted mice, or absurd experiments.
A poetic representation of data that tells two conflicting stories.
A collage or graphic narrative that juxtaposes real-world headlines with imagined consequences.
Create in any form: fiction, poetry, nonfiction, scripts, songs, graphic narratives, collages, or other art forms—and have fun interrogating the illusion of cause and the human need to make meaning, even when the dots don’t connect.
Looking for more inspiration? Stop by our Weekly Roundup of Submission Opportunities for more prompts.
Calls, Contests, & More
Ready to submit your work or attend a literary event? Here’s a preview of this week’s 84 opportunities to get involved.
The Headlight Review presents the Anthony Grooms Prize in Fiction
Deadline: August 31, 2025
First prize of $750 is awarded to the winning writer, along with 20 copies of the winning chapbook, published by The Headlight Review Press. The chapbook will be perfect-bound and feature a four-color cover. Submissions will run through August 31. Manuscripts are not to exceed 12,500 words. The content may include a single story, multiple stories, multiple flash stories, or a stand-alone novel excerpt. Finalists will be revealed by October 15 and will be judged by the esteemed author James Cherry. Visit site to learn more.
The Branches Fall 2025 Call for Submissions - VOICE
Deadline: September 13, 2025
The Branches is seeking submissions of previously unpublished written and visual work for our fall 2025 theme VOICE. We are especially interested in cultural criticism, personal essays, and book/movie discussions and also publish poetry, short fiction, art, and photography on the theme of VOICE. We recommend reading some of our previous issues (click issues on our website) to get a feel for what we publish. Give us your big ideas and small thoughts, the ways you’re interacting with and understanding the world. We love Joan Didion, C. S. Lewis, Ada Limón, Susan Sontag, Flannery O’Connor, Patti Smith, and (hopefully) you! Off-theme submissions welcome. Visit website.
2025 Jeffrey E. Smith Editors’ Prize
Deadline: October 1, 2025
The Missouri Review invites short fiction, poetry, and nonfiction submissions for the 2025 Jeffrey E. Smith Editors’ Prize. Winners receive $5000 and publication in the Spring 2026 issue of TMR. Entrants receive a 1-year digital subscription and a digital copy of Mix and Match: Stories of Sex & Marriage. Fee: $25. All entries considered for publication. Learn more here.
The Willow Springs Magazine Surrealist Poetry Prize
Deadline: October 1, 2025
The Willow Springs Magazine Surrealist Poetry Prize, $1,000 and publication in Willow Springs magazine, is awarded for a surrealist poem. Michael McGriff will be the final judge. Submit up to 3 poems for a $15 entry fee. The deadline is October 1st. Visit our website for guidelines.
Two Weeks. One Plush Bathrobe. Zero Interruptions.
Deadline: October 6, 2025
Imagine two glorious, all-expenses-paid weeks at a hotel to do nothing but write in solitude. Free room service. A housekeeping staff. A breakfast bar. Your own TV remote. The sun rising over the Great Miami River (aka the Dayton Riviera). And — most importantly — a “Do Not Disturb” sign. Applications for the Erma Bombeck Writers’ Workshop’s A Hotel Room of One’s Own: The Erma Bombeck Humorist-in-Residence Program will be accepted Sept. 2-Oct. 6. The package is worth approximately $5,000. The experience? Priceless. Cash prizes also will be awarded to finalists and honorable mentions. Forbes says this "may be the best writer's residency in the country." Fee: $30. Learn more here.
Vern Rutsala Book Contest $1000 Prize
Deadline: October 31, 2025
A prize of $1,000 is awarded, plus publication of the manuscript and 50 free books to the winner of the Vern Rutsala Book Contest. Submit 70 to 90 pages of poetry and/or flash fiction, including a Table of Contents and Acknowledgments page. Reading fee is $25. Electronic and postal submissions are accepted from around the world with no citizenship limitations. The first 50 writers submitting to contest receive a Cloudbank book or journal. Everywhere, Everywhere by Jeffrey Bean was the winner of the 2025 Contest. For complete guidelines go to Rutsala Book Prize page on the Cloudbank Books website.
Palooka Seeks Chapbooks, Prose, Poetry, Artwork, Photography
Deadline: Year-round
Palooka is an international literary magazine. For fifteen years we’ve featured new, up-and-coming, and established writers, artists, and photographers from around the world. We’re open to all forms and styles and are always seeking unique chapbooks, poetry, fiction, nonfiction, artwork, photography, and graphic narratives. Submissions open year-round. palookamag.com
Plant-Human Quarterly Seeks Poems and Essays for Upcoming Issues
Deadline: Year-round
Plant-Human Quarterly reads year-round. We seek unpublished or published poetry and essays that explore the myriad ways writers manifest their relationship to the botanical world—whether through heavily researched pieces, keen observation, or more intuitive ways of knowing—that attempt to communicate across boundaries and approach a plant’s-eye-view of the world. Send no more than 5 poems or an essay of no more than 1500 words (flash essay or essay excerpt) in a single word document. Past contributors include Ellen Bass, Forrest Gander, Kimiko Hahn, Brenda Hillman, Jane Hirshfield, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Pattiann Rogers, Scott Russell Sanders, Arthur Sze. View submission guidelines at our website.
Want even more opportunities? Upgrade to a paid subscription for exclusive early access to submission calls and events!
🌞 Until Next Time...
Here’s to finding meaning in the mess—and knowing when not to trust the graph. Thanks for reading and we hope this week brings you clarity, creativity, and a few good surprises.
—The NewPages Team
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to NewPages Newsletter to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.