To end this year, we bring you the final Book Stand of 2021. This month, we featured five titles.
In Animal Disorders, Deborah Thompson relates her own complicity in some of the disordered approaches to nonhuman animals. In Chris Linforth's The Distortions, we glimpse a pageant of characters struggling to understand their lives after the dissolution of Yugoslavia.
Art Essays, edited by Alexandra Kingston-Reese, is a passionate collection of essays on the visual arts written by award-winning writers such as Zadie Smith, Chris Kraus, Teju Cole, Orhan Pamuk, and Jhumpa Lahiri. Ra Malika Imhotep's gossypiin reckons with a peculiar yet commonplace inheritance of violation, survival, and self-possession.
Temple University Press has recently released Invisible People by Alex Tizon in paperback. This book collects the best of Tizon’s rich, empathetic accounts.
You have a little more time to submit to writing contests closing at the end of the month, and plenty of time to figure out where you’d like to submit next year. For ideas on where to send your work, visit our Big List of Writing Contests or see what upcoming deadlines are in our Classifieds.
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NewPages Blog
Stay caught up at our blog. There you can take in short reviews, contest & book award winners, book & literary magazine news, and cultural & political news.
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Calls, Contests, & More
Check out the latest and featured calls for submissions, writing and book contests, and more in the NewPages classifieds.
Calls for Submissions
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.
Take The Fruit Religion Abuse Anthology Seeks Subs
Extended Deadline: December 31, 2021
Take The Fruit, Flood The Desert: A Religious Trauma Anthology is accepting submissions. Did you question church doctrine and the way leaders/family members used it to lead you? How did the threat of eternal damnation affect you? Did you experience self-loathing or an inability to make decisions? What messages did the church give you about your relationship to your body, sex, and boundaries? How have you healed and reclaimed your identity? Send up to 3 pieces of any genre (Google or Word docs) up to 2,500 words total via email, with the subject “submission, Take The Fruit.” View our website for full guidelines and submissions email.
Sky Island Journal: Issue 19 (Winter 2022) Call for Submissions
Deadline: December 31, 2021
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 90,000 readers in 145 countries with a powerful, focused, 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 19 before midnight on December 31st, at our website.
Mistake House Magazine Seeks Submissions from Graduate & Undergraduate Writers
Deadline: March 15, 2022
Mistake House Magazine publishes fiction and poetry by students in graduate or undergraduate programs worldwide. We seek inventive work that speaks to the heart in a complex global context, including work expressive of documentary poetics. Submission window: October 15, 2021 to March 15, 2022. Submission fee $5. Guidelines at our website.
Call for Submissions: Storm Cellar
Deadline: Rolling
Storm Cellar seeks new and amazing writing and art for its spring issue! We are a journal of safety and danger, in many senses, in print and ebook formats since 2011. Send secrets, codes, adventures, mad experiments, and wild things. Black, Indigenous, POC, LGBTQIA+, disabled, neurodivergent, fat, border-straddling, poor, and other marginalized authors encouraged, bonus points for a Midwest connection. Now paying; limited no-fee submissions available each month. Full guidelines, F.A.Q., and Submittable link at our website.
Chestnut Review (“for stubborn artists”) Invites Submissions Year Round
Chestnut Review (“for stubborn artists”) invites submissions year-round of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, art, and photography. We offer free submissions for poetry (3 poems), flash fiction (<1000 words), and art/photography (20 images); $5 submissions for fiction/nonfiction (<5k words), or 4-6 poems. Published artists receive $120. Notification in <30 days or submission fee refunded. We appreciate stories in every genre we publish. All issues free online which illustrates what we have liked, but we are always ready to be surprised by the new! Catch up on recent issues and view our full guidelines at our website.
Heron Tree: Call for Submissions
Deadline: January 15, 2022
Heron Tree is open for submissions through January 15, 2022. We will read submissions and make decisions on a rolling basis. Accepted poems will be published individually online (one poem a week beginning in February 2022) and then collected in Heron Tree volume 9, which will be available as a free downloadable ebook. This special issue will be devoted to found poetry. See our detailed submission guidelines at our website.
Wood Cat Review | Emerging Voices from the Wild
Deadline: Year-round
We are a new literary journal looking for emerging writers and poets who capture the spirit and experience of life out-of-doors. Artists whose lives and work thrive in the mountains, forests, and along the open road. From Cascadia to Acadia, Voyageurs to Big Bend, and all the life in between, yours are the voices which speak to travel & adventure, triumph & disaster, challenge & hope, love & loss. Open submissions are accepted year-round for flash fiction, short fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Visit website for more information.
Workshops, Conferences, & Programs
18th Annual Palm Beach Poetry Festival
Event Dates: January 10-15, 2022
Event Location: Virtual
18th Annual Virtual Palm Beach Poetry Festival, January 10-15, 2022. Focus on your work with America’s most engaging and award-winning poets. Workshops with Kim Addonizio, Laure-Anne Bosselaar, Chard deNiord, Mark Doty, Yona Harvey, John Murillo, Matthew Olzmann, and Diane Seuss. One-On-One Conferences with Lorna Blake, Sally Bliumis Dunn, Nickole Brown, Jessica Jacobs, and Angela Narciso Torres. A special Craft Talk by Kwame Dawes, Special Guest Poet, Yusef Komunyakaa. Poet-at-Large, Aimee Nezhukumatathil. To find out more and purchase tickets, visit the festival's website.
Writing & Book Contests
2022 William Saroyan International Prize for Writing
Deadline: January 31, 2022
Submissions are now being accepted for the 10th Saroyan Prize. The awards, co-sponsored by Stanford Libraries and the William Saroyan Foundation, are “intended to encourage new or emerging writers and honor the Saroyan legacy of originality, vitality, and stylistic innovation.” Two prizes of $5,000 each are given for works of fiction and nonfiction. Writers who have published four books or more are ineligible. Submit five copies of your work published between January 1, 2020, and December 31, 2021, with a $50 entry fee by January 31, 2022. Visit our website for complete eligibility and submission details.
2022 Press 53 Award for Short Fiction
Deadline: December 31, 2021
Press 53 Award for Short Fiction: First Prize $1,000, publication, and 50 copies (ten hardcover and 40 softcover) awarded to an unpublished collection of short stories. Press 53 Short Fiction Editor, Claire V. Foxx, will judge. Enter online through Submittable. Deadline: midnight, December 31, Eastern Time. Winner and finalists announced before May 1, 2022. Reading fee: $30. Complete information, plus a list of past winners at our website. Questions should be directed to Kevin Morgan Watson, Publisher and Editor in Chief via email or calling 336-770-5353.
The Crazyhorse Prizes in Fiction, Nonfiction, & Poetry
Deadline: January 31, 2022
From January 1st to January 31st, Crazyhorse will accept entries for prizes in fiction, nonfiction, & poetry. Winners receive $2,000 and publication; all manuscripts entered will be considered for publication. The $20 entry fee includes a one-year subscription. For more information and to see our judges, visit: our website.
2022 Colorado Prize for Poetry
Deadline: January 14, 2022
$2,500 honorarium and book publication: Submit book-length collection of poems to the Colorado Prize for Poetry by January 14, 2022 (we will observe a 5-day grace period). $25 reading fee (add $3 to submit online) includes subscription to Colorado Review. Final judge is Gillian Conoley; 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.
2022 Nelligan Prize for Short Fiction
Deadline: March 14, 2022
$2,500 honorarium and publication in the Fall/Winter issue of Colorado Review: Submit an unpublished story between 2,500 and 12,500 words by March 14, 2022 (we will observe a 5-day grace period). $15 reading fee (add $2 to submit online). Final judge is Ramona Ausubel; 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 Nelligan Prize, Colorado Review, 9105 Campus Delivery, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523-9105.
3rd Annual Short Short Story Contest to Support Literacy
Deadline: January 31, 2022
Ethos Literacy—a nonprofit literacy program—announces its 3rd Annual Short Short Story Contest. 100-word limit on one of these topics: chewing gum, horror movies, skyscrapers, or tubas. Cash prizes: Best in Contest: $250; Best Youth Prize (14 years or younger): $100; 4 Best of Category: $100; People's Choice $100. Publication in a digital magazine + webcast of winners reading their stories. Submission fee: $10. Proceeds support literacy programs for teens and adults. View full information at our website.
Interim Test Site Poetry Series Call for Manuscripts
Extended Deadline: January 1, 2022
We’re looking for manuscripts of at least 48 pages that engage the perilous conditions of life in the 21st century, as they pertain to issues of social justice and the earth. Because we believe the truth is always experimental, we’ll especially appreciate books with innovative approaches. Beginning in 2021 and going forward, Interim will be publishing two books in their Test Site Poetry 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 publication by the University of Nevada Press. View full guidelines here.
The Annual Memoir Prize for Books
Deadline: December 31, 2021
The second annual Memoir Prize awards Memoir and Creative Nonfiction book-length works of exceptional merit in the categories of traditional, self-published, and previously unpublished prose. Submit your full-length memoir on any subject matter for a chance to win cash and a feature in Memoir Magazine. The only contest of its kind dedicated exclusively to the Memoir genre accepts full-length books of memoir or narrative creative nonfiction, essay collections, or graphic narratives for consideration. No restrictions on length, type of publisher, or year of publication. Enter at the Memoir Magazine website.
Driftwood Press In-House Short Fiction & Single Poem Contests
Deadline: January 15, 2022
Submit soon to our In-House Short Fiction & Single Poem Contests! On the short fiction side, we're proud to announce that we've upped the award to $500 for the winning story and $150 for all runners-up! Winners and runners-up also receive publication, an interview, and an illustration that will appear alongside their story. All stories submitted are considered for publication by not one—but two editors, and response times are faster than usual. On the poetry side, all works are also considered for publication, with the runners-up awarded an interview, publication, and $50 per poem. The winner of the In-House Poetry Contest will receive $400, publication, a featured interview, and a commissioned illustration to appear alongside their work. Visit our submissions manager for full information.
Holden Vaughn Spangler Award Deadline Extended!
Extended Deadline: January 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. Deadline extended to January 15 for Spangler Award submissions. Submit up to three poems about a child or childhood, $5 fee payable by check or Venmo @rccmuse. Mail to RCC MUSE, Riverside City College, 4800 Magnolia Avenue, Riverside, CA 92506 or email. If emailing, send as attachment with “LastName – Spangler – Title” in the subject line (e.g., Smith – Spangler – “Summer”). Please include contact information. See full submission guidelines at our website.
Plus more contests at our website:
The 2022 Orison Prizes in Poetry & Fiction :: Orison Books