June 15 is this Wednesday. Besides being the day our monthly eLitPak is hitting inboxes, it is also the day many contests have their deadlines. Don’t miss your chance to submit work to The MacGuffin’s Poet Hunt 27, Nimrod’s Francine Ringold Awards for New Writers, Philadelphia Stories’ Marguerite McGlinn Fiction Contest, and the 2022 Blue Lynx Prize for Poetry from Lynx House Press. Find more upcoming deadlines for writing contests and calls for submissions below or head on over to our Classifieds section.
Since it’s summer, hopefully you have time to catch up on recent and past issues of your favorite literary magazines. Head on over to our Magazine Stand to read up on new issues of print, online, and digital journals. Recently featured: Rathalla Review’s Spring 2022 issue, Poetry Magazine’s June 2022 issue (guest-edited by Esther Belin), Runestone Journal Volume 8, The Lake June 2022 issue, The MacGuffin’s Spring 2022 issue (coming with a double shot of Poet Hunts past and present), and AGNI Number 95 in which Sven Birkerts reflects upon a recent period of confinement.
How about some great titles available now or coming soon from indie and university presses? Get your copy of Pamela Uschuck’s Refugee which “confronts and explores xenophobia, sexism, gun violence, domestic violence, corporate greed,” and so much more. Speaking of poetry, enjoy Ariel Dorfman’s Voices from the Other Side of Death offering up poems written from the perspective of deceased historical figures and tender gravity by Marybeth Hollman which charts her quest for relationships to the more-than-human world.
In fiction, discover Shame by Grant Maierhofer - a book of autofiction and daring exploration of the potential and limits of memory and self; We Were Angry: A Novella & Stories by Jennifer S. Davis, the winner of the 2021 Press 53 Award for Poetry; and Benefit Street by Adria Bernardi which tells of a wide circle of friends as a war threatens and constitutional rights are daily eroded by an increasingly authoritarian regime.
If you enjoy nonfiction, check out John Nichols’ recent memoir: I Got Mine: Confessions of a Midlist Writer which features everything that went into making him a writer and eventually finding an outlet for his work. Stop by the Book Stand for even more titles.
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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, new issues of literary magazines, new and forthcoming titles, and cultural & political news.
In reviews, Ira Smith tackles Eli Cranor’s debut novel Don’t Know Tough. Not your typical football novel, Cranor “depicts a brutal slice of life in rural Arkansas where high school football is king and is all that matters.”
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.
Calls, Contests, & More
Check out the latest and featured calls for submissions, writing and book contests, and more in the NewPages classifieds. Please note the ads featured here are paid listings.
Calls for Submissions
CHESTNUT REVIEW 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!
Able Muse (Poetry, Prose, & Art) - Submission Now Open
Deadline: July 15, 2022
Able Muse is now accepting submissions for our forthcoming issue, Winter 2022/2023. Submit poetry, fiction, essays, book reviews, art, and photography. Submission opens yearly January 1 and closes July 15. Read our guidelines and submit at our website.
Sky Island Journal: Issue 21 (Summer 2022) Call for Submissions
Deadline: June 30, 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 100,000 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 21 before midnight on June 30th, at our website.
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.
Plus more calls for submissions at our website:
Book of Matches Seeks Submissions
Actual Left Seeks Fiction, Nonfiction Focusing on Social Justice
Feminist Literary Zine About Eve and Religion Submissions Open :: They Call Us
New Titles
New Book :: Refugee by Pamela Uschuck
Red Hen Press, Spring 2022. Refugee deals with political refugees, refugees from racism, from domestic violence, from environmental destruction and cancer—and their stories of cruelty and courage, hardship, and hope to overcome the most daunting of circumstances. This collection confronts and explores xenophobia, sexism, gun violence, domestic violence, corporate greed, environmental destruction and political tyranny. An ovarian cancer survivor, Pamela also writes about her own courageous confrontation with death.
Literary Events & Writing Programs
IWWG July 2022 Summer Writing Retreat on Boston's Beautiful North Shore
Event Dates: July 22-28, 2022. Event Location: Beverly, Massachusetts.
Reconnect. Reimagine. Come can join the International Women’s Writing Guild for an exciting conference at Endicott College in Beverly, Massachusetts. The event marks the Guild’s 45th annual conference, with workshops ranging from three to five days and spanning fiction, nonfiction, poetry, memoir, and screenwriting. Very limited/partial funding available for those in need. Please email Michelle. We're also proud to offer a Virtual Track for those who can't physically attend but want to enjoy the IWWG experience. Visit website to learn more.
The Daphne Review Mentorship Program (Rising Seniors Only)
Deadline: Rolling; Event Dates: Session I: Late July - Early August, Session II + III: TBA; Location: Virtual. Mentorship Program (Rising Seniors Only)! Both mentee and mentorship are now open! Apply to the 2022 Daphne Online Mentorship Program! We will be selecting 5-7 students to work with professional writers on a 1on1 basis. Our students have benefited greatly over the years. They’ve used the time to work on their existing body of work to get them published by literary magazines, win awards at Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, PYAA and gain acceptance to top colleges! Recent Daphne mentees have been accepted to Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Stanford, Columbia, and top creative writing programs, e.g., Iowa, Kenyon, Juniper, and Emerson!
The Writers Conference of Northern Appalachia Inc. (WCoNA) Seeks Marketing Manager
Deadline: Rolling
The Writers Conference of Northern Appalachia Inc. (WCoNA), an annual writers conference and workshop, along with the Northern Appalachia Review, the premier literary journal dedicated to the writing of northern Appalachia, seeks a marketing manager. This is a volunteer position; the chosen candidate takes on a key role as a decision maker with two recognized and growing leaders in literary advocacy. More importantly, the role greatly contributes to the growth of an increasingly recognized and respected regional literature. For more information, visit the WCoNA website.
Writing & Book Contests
Swan Scythe Press Announces its 2022 Poetry Chapbook Contest!
Deadline: June 15, 2022
Swan Scythe Press announces its 2022 poetry chapbook contest. Entry fee: $18. We are accepting submissions from March 1 to June 15 (postmark deadline). Winner receives $200 and 25 perfect-bound chapbooks. The 2021 winner is Rae Gouirand for Little Hour. For full submission guidelines, visit the Swan Scythe Press website.
2022 Red Wheelbarrow Poetry Prize now Open for Submissions
Deadline: July 31, 2022
Red Wheelbarrow Poetry Prize 2022: Judged by Juan Felipe Herrera! $1,000 for first place and a letterpress broadside printed by Felicia Rice of Moving Parts Press, $500 for second, $250 for third. Top five published in Red Wheelbarrow Literary Magazine. Submit up to 3 original, unpublished poems. $15 entry fee. Deadline: July 31, 2022. For complete guidelines, see our submissions manager.
$1000 Poetry Micro Chapbook Contest
Deadline: July 31, 2022
MAYDAY Magazine invites you to send 8-12 pages of poems to be considered for the Editors' Choice Award, including $1000, publication at MAYDAY, and an author interview. Deadline: July 31. Early bird entry fee: $10 (May 1-June 15). Regular fee: $15 (June 16-July 31). Submit a unified manuscript filled with poems that have achieved a balance of both craft and story so seamlessly that we cannot look away. We welcome a diverse range of content and authors, including LGBTQ+, BIPOC, and international voices. For more details, visit our website.
North Street Book Prize for Self-Published Books
Deadline: June 30, 2022
Now in its eighth year, the North Street Book Prize is sponsored by Winning Writers. Self-published books in seven categories can win up to $8,000 plus additional benefits. Submit online or by mail. Winning Writers is a partner member of the Alliance of Independent Authors, and this contest is recommended by Reedsy. Entry fee: $70 per book. Free gifts from our co-sponsors for everyone who enters. Deadline: June 30. View guidelines here.
2023 Press 53 Award for Poetry
Deadline: July 31, 2022
$1,000 and 50 copies awarded to an outstanding, unpublished collection of poems of approximately 50 to 120 pages. Open to poets 18 years of age and older who live in the US or one of its territories. Tom Lombardo, Press 53 Poetry Series Editor, will serve as judge. Press 53 will publish the winning manuscript as a Tom Lombardo Poetry Selection; all prizes will be awarded upon publication. Deadline: Midnight Eastern, July 31, 2022. Winner and finalists announced on or before November 1. Reading fee: $30. Complete information at our website.
Rockvale Writers' Colony Announces a Fellowship Contest for Poets
Deadline: August 31, 2022
We’ve created a new fellowship opportunity for poets to share their important landscapes and environmental heritage. We’re interested in the natural spaces that have made meaningful marks upon lives, those places from which we cannot be separated no matter how far away we are. We want to know how that land speaks, and most of all, why it matters. One poet will win a 1-week residency at Rockvale Writers' Colony in College Grove, TN, plus a small stipend for food and travel. Read the guidelines here: Language of the Land Fellowship. Application fee is $30.
Poet Hunt 27 awards $500 and Publication
Deadline: June 15, 2022
Lynne Thompson judges the MacGuffin’s Poet Hunt 27, running April 1 through June 15! $500 first prize plus publication; up to two Honorable Mentions will also be published. All entrants receive one copy of this issue. Send up to five poems per $15 entry fee. Include a cover page that lists your contact info and poem titles. On the following page(s), include your poem(s), beginning each poem on a new page devoid of personally identifiable information to preserve the blind review process. Enter via Submittable or to enter by email or post, see full rules at our website.
First Book Prize—$1,500 and Publication
Deadline: July 7, 2022
Our fifth annual Marystina Santiestevan First Book Prize is open and accepting manuscripts. If you have a manuscript, give us a shot. Awarded annually to a poet writing in English who has not yet published a full-length poetry book, the Marystina Santiestevan First Book Prize champions poets who dance to their own tune not to be different but to be true. Previously unpublished manuscripts of 48-90 pages should be submitted through our Submittable page or via the USPS. Please visit our website for details.
The Francine Ringold Awards for New Writers: $500 Prizes
Deadline: July 15, 2022
Submissions are open for Nimrod’s Francine Ringold Awards for New Writers. The Ringold Awards offer prizes of $500 and publication for fiction and poetry. They are open only to writers with no more than two previous publication credits in their genre. For poetry, submit up to five pages; for fiction, one short story, 5,000 words maximum. The contest is open internationally. All honorable mentions will also be published and paid at our normal rates. Manuscripts may be mailed or submitted online via Submittable. Each entry must be accompanied by a $12 entry fee. Email us or visit Nimrod's website for complete rules.
2022 Marguerite McGlinn Fiction Contest, First Place: $2,500!
Deadline: June 15, 2022
Our contest this year will be judged by author and critic, Camille Acker. We’re looking for previously unpublished fiction of up to 8,000 words. The deadline is June 15, 2022. First place is $2,500 with an invitation to an awards dinner. Second place $750. Third place $500. The winning stories will be published in the Fall print issue of Philadelphia Stories, with all entrants receiving a complimentary copy. All authors currently residing in the United States are eligible, a Philadelphia connection is not necessary. We especially encourage submissions by writers from underrepresented groups and backgrounds. There is a $15 reading fee for each story submitted. We can’t wait to read your stories! You may submit your work on our website.
2022 New American Fiction Prize
Deadline: June 15, 2022
Winner receives publication contract including $1,500, 25 copies, and promotional support. Final judge is WEIKE WANG, author of Joan Is Okay (Random House 2022) and Chemistry (Knopf 2017). All full-length fiction manuscripts are welcome, including novels, novellas, collections of stories, flash fiction, short-shorts, and linked collections. Full-length fiction manuscripts tend to be at least 30,000 words. There is no maximum length. To submit, please access our convenient online submission manager. Entry fee: $25.
Submit to the 2022 Blue Lynx Prize for Poetry
Deadline: June 15, 2022
Lynx House Press seeks submissions of full-length poetry manuscripts for the annual Blue Lynx Prize for Poetry. The winner will receive $2,000 and publication. Entries must be at least 48 pages in length. The fee for submitting is $28. Previous judges include James Tate, Yusef Komunyakaa, Dorianne Laux, Dara Wier, Melissa Kwasny, and Robert Wrigley.
Driftwood Press Adrift Chapbook & Short Story Contests
Deadline: July 15, 2022
Driftwood Press' Adrift Chapbook Contest and Adrift Short Story Contest return this year, featuring poetry guest judge Carl Phillips and fiction guest judge Allegra Hyde. Winners receive $1,000 and $500, and runners-up receive $200-400 depending on the genre. The deadline is July 15th! Check out past winners for sale on our website and submit today.
Plus more writing contests at our website:
The Heartland Review Press 2022 Chapbook Contest
Submit to the 2022 Spokane Prize for Short Fiction :: Willow Springs Books