Happy New Year! Start off your year on the right foot by getting your work out there. Let us help you find open calls for submissions and contest entries, as well as the right literary magazines and presses for you.
Is 2022 the year you take steps to go back to school or start attending writing events? Both our Guide to Writing Conferences & Events and our Guide to Graduate Creative Writing Programs are arranged by state.
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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.
Don’t forget to let NewPages know what you’ve been reading in a short review for publication at our blog, too. Check out our guidelines here, and recent reviews here.
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.
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 are our website.
Palooka Seeks Chapbooks, Prose, Poetry, Artwork, Photography
Palooka is an international literary magazine. For over a decade we've featured new, up-and-coming, and established writers, artists, and photographers from around the world. We're open to diverse forms and styles and are always seeking unique chapbooks, fiction, poetry, nonfiction, artwork, photography, graphic narratives, and comic strips. Submissions open year-round. Head on over to our website for full guidelines and to submit.
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.
Kings River Review Call for 2-Year College Student Submissions
Deadline: April 1, 2022
The Kings River Review publishes artwork, creative nonfiction, short fiction, and poetry of current 2-year community college students. Submission Deadlines: April 1 for the spring issue and October 15 for the fall issue. Submission requirements: up to 5 pieces of artwork and photography sent as .JPEG files; creative nonfiction and fiction of up to 3,000 words; and up to 5 poems. Go to our website for full submission guidelines.
Allium: Call for Submissions
Deadline: April 1, 2022
Allium are flowering plants that include hundreds of species. Alliums vary dramatically in size, shape, and color, and are cultivated as both vegetable and ornament. They naturally resist taxonomy. Our Allium aspires to create a similar resistance by publishing diverse creative voices, BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and neurodiverse communities that have been underrepresented in literature, recognized and emerging writers, and a variety of forms and genres from the traditional to the experimental. Allium accepts simultaneous submissions, requests a maximum page length of five pages for poetry; fifteen pages for fiction and nonfiction. No previously published work. Visit Submittable for full guidelines and to submit.
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.
Plus more calls for submissions at our website:
The New Verse News Seeks Current Events Poetry
Split Rock Review Seeks Submissions for Issue 18
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.
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.
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.
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.
2022 Prime Number Magazine Awards for Poetry and Short Fiction
Deadline: March 31, 2022
$1,000 first prize in each category plus a Pushcart Prize nomination. Winners and two Runners-up in each category published in Prime Number Magazine. Reading fee $15. Poetry judged by Faith Shearin, author of Lost Language and others. Short Fiction judged by Jubal Tiner, author of The Waterhouse and founding editor of Pisgah Review. Open January 1 to March 31. Submit online through Submittable. Details at our website.
$1200 Prize each! Fiction & Poetry Deadline Extended through 1/24/22!
Extended Deadline: January 24, 2022
Extended deadlines for the Acacia Fiction Prize and Saguaro Poetry Prize! Each winner receives $1,200 and publication + 20 copies. Fiction Judge is Gabino Iglesias. Poetry Judge is Wendy Barnes. Send us your polished manuscripts. See our website for full details.
Plus more writing contests at our website:
The Roadrunner Review: Free Submission for Art & Writing Contest
Burnside Review Book Prize