Looking to connect with other writers and enjoy opportunities to move your craft forward? Here are two great writing events to help you out.
Chesapeake Writers’ Conference will be taking place June 19-25 at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. Enjoy a week of craft talks, lectures, panel discussions, readings, and daily workshops in fiction, poetry, songwriting, or creative nonfiction. Rolling deadline. Learn more at their listing.
Love thrillers and crime fiction? Killer Nashville International Writers’ Conference is happening August 18-21 in Franklin, Tennessee. You can register until the day of the event. They offer discounts and scholarships. Stop by their listing for full details.
Stop by the Magazine Stand this week to find new issues from Cutleaf, Arc Poetry Magazine, Poetry, Jewish Fiction .net, Carve, Memoir Magazine, and Ruminate. If you’re looking for a great summer read, don’t forget to dive into the new titles featured on our Book Stand, including Behind the Tree Backs by Iman Mohammed translated by Jennifer Hayashida, Chambers of the Heart by B. Morris Allen, Over the Moon…Gone: The Vanishing Act of Bess Houdini by Jan Zlotnik Schmidt, The End of Horses by Margo Taft Stever, and Singing at High Altitude by Jennifer Markell.
And don’t forget this is the week our eLitPak is mailed to current newsletter subscribers! Stay tuned Wednesday afternoon. And if you like what we’re doing at NewPages, please consider supporting our work.
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.
Last week we featured Ron Mohring’s review of House Bird by Robb Fillman, which struck the reviewer by “how often the poems express hesitation” and Carla Sarett’s review of Radio Static by James Hoch—a book she can’t stop reading now.
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
Oyster River Pages Seeks Submissions for Annual Issue
Deadline: May 31, 2022
Oyster River Pages is a literary and artistic collective seeking submissions for our annual issue that stretch creative and social boundaries. In addition to submissions of fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and visual arts, we also seek to promote new voices in our Emerging Voices Poetry and Emerging Voices Fiction sections. We believe in the power of art to connect people to their own and others’ humanity, something we see as especially important during these tumultuous times. Because of this, we seek to feature artists whose voices have been historically de-centered or marginalized. Please see our website for submission details.
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.
Chicken Soup for the Soul Wants Your Story for My Wonderful, Wacky Family!
Deadline: April 30, 2022
We all have them! Those eccentric, goofy, wacky, lovable, and oh-so-fun family members—the ones we tell all the stories about. They could be a parent or grandparent, an in-law, a brother or sister, an aunt, uncle or cousin. Share your true stories and poems about those family members. With love and appreciation, please. No mean-spirited stories wanted. If we publish your piece, you will be paid $200 plus 10 free copies of the book. Writing guidelines and more info at our website.
Paying Small Press, Driftwood Press Seeks Submissions
Driftwood Press is a paying small press specializing in fiction, poetry, visual arts, and comics. Whether you have short stories, novellas, single poems, poetry chapbooks, poetry full-lengths, or comic collections, we can't wait to take a look. We also offer our poetry submitters a premium option to receive an acceptance or rejection letter within one week of submission. We use submission fees to pay our writers, offering $400 for novellas and $500 for poetry collections; we offer year-round contests with medium to large awards, and our fiction contests have shorter response times than most press' contests. Please see our site for more details!
LIGHT Calls for Submissions: Art, Letters, Stories, Poetry, & More
Deadline: May 1, 2022
Leaders Igniting Generational Healing and Transformation (LIGHT) is calling for submissions of art, letters, stories, poetry, and other creative works for the first issue of our biannual literary journal in public health. We invite everyone to share their lived experiences of healing and health as a way to connect with each other using the dialogue, expressions, and language that you resonate with best. The deadline to submit is by May 1, 2022. Prize money (1st: $500, 2nd: $375, 3rd: $125) will be given to the top three contestants of each category. To learn more, please visit our website.
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!
Call for Literary Nonfiction submissions
Deadline: June 30,2022
Interim invites submissions of literary nonfiction, including essays that reflect literary movements in America and around the world. We invite writers from all parts of the globe—the Americas, Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Western and Eastern Europe, New Zealand, Australia, etc.—especially women writers, to submit to this special issue. If you have perspective on the evolution of the Gurlesque (the vibrant movement of women reclaiming their bodies) or any other newly established literary movement, we are especially eager to hear from you. We will consider original essays 1,500 to 5,000 words. $4 submission fee. Upload to Interim’s Submittable.
CARRYING OVER: A Special Issue of Interim Dedicated to Translation
Deadline: July 1, 2022
When Buddhism was first introduced to China, the monks who translated the Sanskrit texts made a choice that would affect the history of translation for two millennia. Their carrying over of Daoist terms made the completely “alien” ideas of the “Sutra of Forty-two Chapters understandable to Chinese readers, which sped-up the spread and acceptance of Buddhism in China by creating something new—the Zen school. Two thousand years later, when Ezra Pound was translating poems of Li Bai, he effectively rewrote those poems which became a crucial spark to jumpstart Modernism. Both the monks and Pound made decisions that some argue showed great disrespect to the original texts. The argument for literal and creative translation has raged since. To what does the translator owe her duty—to the presentation of the original, or to the transfer of the original into a local intelligibility, or, to both? Interim is looking for translations that are mindful of this intricate balance, for translations that are not afraid of music, or clever transfers of puns, translations that strive to reenact the original in universal language, as we believe that translation is in itself a fusion of cultures, and as such, always innovative. Submit through Interim’s Submittable. Guest edited by Xiaoqui Qui.
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.
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:
Awakenings Review Seeks Poetry, Fiction, & Nonfiction
Club Plum Seeks Works for July 2022 Issue
Signs & Symbols :: Superpresent
Writing & Book Contests
Tom Howard/John H. Reid Fiction & Essay Contest
Deadline: April 30, 2022
30th year, sponsored by Winning Writers, co-sponsored by Duotrope, and recommended by Reedsy. Submit published or unpublished work online to win $3,000 for the best story and $3,000 for the best essay. Ten Honorable Mentions will receive $200 each. Length limit: 6,000 words. Entry fee: $20. Top 12 entries published online. Judge: Mina Manchester. Learn more at our website.
Submit to the 2022 Spokane Prize for Short Fiction
Deadline: June 24, 2022
Willow Springs Books is accepting submissions for the 2022 Spokane Prize for Short Fiction. All authors are eligible regardless of publication history. Manuscripts must have a minimum of three (3) stories of fiction totaling at least 98 pages. The collection as a whole must be previously unpublished. Deadline: June 24, 20222. Prize: $2,000 plus publication. More information at our website.
Flying South 2022: Poetry, Fiction, Nonfiction Contest: $2,000 Prizes
Deadline: May 31, 2022
$2,000 in prizes. From March 1 to May 31, Flying South 2022, a publication of Winston Salem Writers, will be accepting entries for prizes in Fiction, Nonfiction, and Poetry. Best in Category winners will be published and receive $500 each. One of the three winners will receive The WSW President's Favorite award and win an additional $500. All entries will be considered for publication. For full details, please visit our website.
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.
$2,500 Prize + Publication
Deadline: May 22, 2022
New Letters invites you to submit a short story, essay, or poems to the New Letters Literary Awards. Winners in each genre receive $2,500 and publication in New Letters. All entries are considered for publication and must be unpublished. Winners will be announced mid-September 2022. Essay and fiction entries may not exceed 8,000 words; poetry entries may contain one to six poems. Multiple entries are welcome. For complete guidelines, visit New Letter's website.
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.
Sheila-Na-Gig Editions Poetry Chapbook Contest: Accepts Submissions May 1-31
Deadline: May 31, 2022
Sheila-Na-Gig Editions announces our second annual Poetry Chapbook Contest. Submit 20–40-page poetry manuscript (not including front/back matter) via Submittable. $500 prize + publication awarded. Reading Fee: $20. Familiarize yourself with the works on Sheila-Na-Gig online to get a sense of our aesthetic. We publish well-crafted free verse poetry and especially seek poems with excellent imagery and a strong sense of voice. Chapbooks should also include a consistent theme. Simultaneous submissions/previously published poems accepted if rights have reverted. Manuscripts are judged on the merits of the work alone. No author names allowed! Please read/follow all of the guidelines carefully at 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.
december Magazine seeks Submissions for our 2022 Curt Johnson Prose Awards
Deadline: May 1, 2022
december seeks submissions for our 2022 Curt Johnson Prose Awards in fiction and creative nonfiction. Prizes each genre—$1,500 & publication (winner); $500 & publication (honorable mention). All finalists will be listed in the 2022 Fall/Winter awards issue. $20 entry fee includes a copy of the awards issue. Submit 1 story or essay up to 8,000 words deadline May 1. Complete guidelines at our website.