May Blossoms: Literary Seeds and Springtime Reads
NewPages Newsletter #179: Planting Literary Seeds: May's Fresh Picks and Updates
Happy May (and happy Cinco de Mayo). For the Midwest that means that farmers are hitting the fields at last to plant the early crops. The weather is still giving us whiplash, rain, and high winds. It would be great to see it nice and steady…and warm…for a while, wouldn’t it? Speaking of gardens, NewPages has plenty of updates and literary seeds to watch grow and bloom below.
New in the NewPages Literary Magazine Guide
We’re excited to welcome eMerge Magazine to the Guide! Founded in 2017 by Charles Templeton, eMerge publishes avant-garde poetry and short fiction that push boundaries. While general submissions are closed for now, their annual poetry contest opens in June. Learn more about eMerge here.
They join outstanding journals like:
The Meadow (reopening for submissions in August)
Hiram Poetry Review (publishing continuously since 1966)
OffCourse Literary Journal (celebrating their 100th issue!)
Obsidian: Literature & Arts in the African Diaspora (Read their latest issue, 49.2 Outta Sight! Sonic Bodies in the Galaxy of Black Listening)
📚 Browse more journals in the NewPages Literary Magazine Guide.
Are you a literary magazine editor?
Learn how you can list your publication with NewPages and connect with readers and writers across the literary community.
Speaking of journals…
Swing by the Magazine Stand to explore the latest issues from your favorite literary magazines—or discover a new favorite waiting for you!
First off, it’s time to introduce you to a seedling of a journal, Tween Magazine. To help combat tech fatigue and the negative effects of social media, Tween is a good old-fashioned print journal offering girls a screen-free chance to engage, learn life skills, build confidence, and find inspiration.
Then dive into the Spring 2025 issue of The Missouri Review, themed “Outsiders.” Enjoy the winners of the 2024 Jeffrey E. Smith Editors’ Prize, plus debut fiction by Jeffery Brady! Last, but definitely not least, enjoy the Spring 2025 issue of Sheila-Na-Gig online. This volume contains work by Editors’ Choice Award winner Vincent Caseragola along with 44 other new and returning contributors.
Come back later this week to see what’s blooming with the latest issues from The MacGuffin, Sky Island Journal, and Wordrunner eChapbook.
If you are a book afficionado…
Learn more about What Book Press, an imprint of Los Angeles’s Glass Table Collective. Founded in 2009, this indie press offers a genre-bending catalog of bilingual poetry, eco-fabulist science fiction, magic journalism, collaborative texts, hybrid forms, and graphic narratives. Their second annual Gronk Nicandro First Book Prize is currently accepting submissions!
📚 Discover even more indie and university presses in our Guide to Publishers.
Are you an indie or university publisher?
Learn how you can list your press with NewPages and connect with readers and writers across the literary community.
While it is fascinating to watch things grow…you do need something to do in the downtime right? Our reviewers have your back!
Kevin Brown reviews No Less Strange or Wonderful: Essays in Curiosity. This collection contains essays ranging from 1 to 30 pages, often with illustrations Greene has either drawn or recovered from books from the past 400 years or so. With work in the tradition of Montaigne, enjoy Greene’s journey as her curiosity leads her to places many writers never arrive.
Meanwhile, Aiden Hunt covers Medieval English historian Dan Jones’ dramatic Henry V: The Astonishing Triumph of England’s Greatest Warrior King. This biography is written in present tense and follows Henry from his youth as the son of a Duke not in line for the throne to a warrior print and heir, and finally to glorious king and conqueror. The book does cover the violence of the times, so not for the faint of heart.
You can come back to the blog later in the week to learn more about Meditations: The Assorted Prose of Barbara Guest and devour more reviews of Police Against the Movement by Joshua Clark Davis and Melody Glenn’s Mother of Methadone: A Doctor’s Quest, A Forgotten History, and a Modern-Day Crisis.
Inspiration
If you could create a literary magazine, what would it look like?
✏️ Name: What would you call it? Is it bold, mysterious, poetic, quirky, or an inside joke?
✏️ Theme: Would your magazine have a strong theme (like eco-poetry, surreal short stories, speculative fiction in poetic forms, or narratives from overlooked voices)?
✏️ Style: What kind of work would you seek out? Traditional forms? Experimental hybrids? Art alongside text? Maybe new video or audio forms?
✏️ Model: Would you build it in the spirit of a journal you admire—or design something you wish existed in the literary world?
Now start writing! Create a story where the narrator decides to create a journal and how that ultimately changed their lives. Or maybe a poem as a dream sequence of imagining “what if I started a journal”? How about an essay describing the process or an interview series where you learn the sheer amount of work and planning that really needs to go into it?
Now flip the question:
Imagine writing a poem, short story, or essay titled:
"The Reason I Decided Not to Start a Literary Journal"
Maybe it’s exhaustion. Maybe it’s a funny encounter with a slush pile. Maybe you fall in love with the dream of a magazine, but life (or writing) calls you in another direction. Maybe, just maybe, you are afraid reality could never live up to that dream you have created.
What’s the story behind walking away—or maybe walking toward something else entirely?
Calls, Contests, & More
Below is a small preview of this week’s 59 writing contests, calls for submissions, and literary and writing events.
Tremont Writers Conference in Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Application Deadline: May 15, 2025
"Pairing a writing workshop with the mountains: I couldn’t have imagined anything more perfect." - Sarah, previous participant. "I was reminded to use ALL of my senses, to be observant, and then articulate the experience." - Kim, previous participant. “The thing that stands out to me about the Tremont conference is that the Great Smoky Mountains is not simply a setting for the program - it is an integrated feature." - Pulitzer Prize-nominated poet and conference leader Maurice Manning. Applications are now open for the third annual Tremont Writers Conference, taking place this October inside Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Join renowned authors Crystal Wilkinson, David Joy, Karen Spears Zacharias, and Maurice Manning for an intensive five-day retreat for writers of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Financial aid is available. Learn more and apply.
Submissions Open for Housatonic Book Awards
Deadline: July 18, 2025
The Housatonic Book Awards are now accepting submissions of all books published in 2024. Authors or agents are welcome to submit poetry, fiction, and nonfiction manuscripts for consideration in the HBAs. All manuscripts will be reviewed by a committee and the winners will be notified in October 2025. Each award carries a $1,000 honorarium and $500 travel stipend in exchange for the author appearing at either WCSU's fall or summer writing residency. Entering a title implies the author’s willingness to attend the WCSU MFA residency to host a 2-hour workshop. We look forward to considering your work! Learn more here.
Darrel Alejandro Holnes judges Poet Hunt 30!
Deadline: June 15, 2025
The MacGuffin’s Poet Hunt 30 awards a $500 grand prize and publication! Up to two Honorable Mentions also published. Guest Judge Darrel Alejandro Holnes will make the final selections. Entrants receive one copy of the issue containing the selected poems. Send five poems per $15 entry fee. Include your contact info and poem titles in a cover letter or via the Submittable form. Personally identifiable information should not be included on the poems themselves to preserve the anonymous review process. Enter via Submittable; or to enter by post, see full rules at our website.
2025 Cow Creek Chapbook Prize
Deadline: May 15, 2025
Have a small poetry collection that you're ready to get out into the world? We're currently accepting submissions for this year's chapbook contest! The Cow Creek Chapbook Prize is a poetry chapbook contest brought to you by Pittsburg State University. We're open to all styles and subjects. As long as the poems challenge and capture the imagination, we want to see them. The winning poet will receive $1,000 and 25 author copies. This year's judge is Rebecca Gayle Howell. Deadline: May 15, 2025. More guidelines and submission portal can be found at our website.
$7,500 in Awards + Publication in New Letters
Deadline: May 19, 2025
New Letters invites you to submit fiction, essays, or poetry to the New Letters Literary Awards. Winners receive $2,500 for best essay, $2,500 for best poetry, and $2,500 for best fiction, and publication in New Letters. All entries are considered for publication and must be unpublished. Winners will be announced mid-September 2025. Essay and fiction entries may not exceed 8,000 words; poetry entries may contain one to six poems. For complete guidelines, visit our website.
Swan Scythe Press Announces its 2025 Poetry Chapbook Contest!
Deadline: June 15, 2025
Swan Scythe Press announces its 2025 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 2024 winner is Aida Zilelian for Dissonance. For full guidelines, visit our website and submissions manager.
Made from Midnight: Poetry and Short Fiction Wanted for Anthology
Deadline: June 6, 2025
Poets in the Pines welcomes you to our debut anthology, Made from Midnight. We are a small collective of writers, poets, and editors seeking short prose and poetry for this upcoming collection. Themes like death, rebirth, aging, grief, transitional spaces, the supernatural, or whatever else death evokes for you are all welcome. Exceptional writing, vivid imagery, and bone-chilling emotions wanted; magic desired. Please see our detailed submission guidelines, FAQ, and more information on our submission form located through the link below. Fate is unfurling a timid, open hand out to you... will you take it? Submit here.
The Branches Spring Issue Release Party
Deadline: May 18, 2025
Join us on Sunday May 18th to celebrate the release of the Spring 2025 issue of The Branches with readings from authors, print copies, and a potluck lunch in Central Park in New York City. The Branches is a journal of literature, cultural criticism, and visual art. Instead of making silos for creative expression, theological meditation, popular media, and intellectual thought, The Branches is interested in the overlap of all of these. Please see our website for our fall issue, our socials (Substack etc.). If you plan to come, please bring a dish to share if able. We'll be in the Heckscher picnic area. You can RSVP via here.
Salamander 2025 Fiction Contest, Judged by Helen Phillips
Deadline: June 1, 2025
Salamander's annual fiction contest will accept submissions of short stories up to 30 pages or 7500 words from May 1 - June 1. First prize will win $1000 and publication; second prize is $500 and publication. Helen Phillips will judge. Entry fee of $20 includes a one-year subscription. Find more information and enter at our website. Questions: email us.
Please note: only paying subscribers get access to all 59 submission opportunities! You can become a paying subscriber for only $5 a month and get early access to submission opportunities and events before they go live on our site.
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