News from NewPages
It’s Valentine’s Day this week. Besides celebrating a romance or your family and friends, don’t forget to celebrate your love for literature by supporting your local indie bookstores and your favorite literary magazines and indie presses. If you would like to support NewPages more at this time, we do welcome donations of any size. You can also support NewPages by upgrading your free subscription to a paid one. The cost is only $5 a month or $50 for a year.
Our eLitPak for February has been filled with upcoming contests, literary events, writing programs, and more, so keep your eye on your inbox Wednesday evening for even more great lit and submission opportunities.
Keep up to date on the latest issues from your favorite literary magazines on the NewPages Magazine Stand. Recently added we have Salamander 55 which features the winners of their 2022 Fiction Contest, Hassaan Mirza and Mark Doyle. You can also dive into the Winter/Spring 2023 issue of Kaleidoscope: Exploring the Experience of Disability through Literature and the Fine Arts which features truths that are hard to swallow and others that are surprisingly sweet. Contributors include Jane Gabriel, Katherine Klimitas, Matt Fick, Fay L. Loomis, and Stephanie Harper to name a few.
Jelly Bucket is the print annual of the Bluegrass Writers Studio, the low-res MFA program of Eastern Kentucky University. Issue 12 features a special section dedicated to Indigenous Voices. Issue 13 of Dreamers Magazine features Rosalind Forster’s nonfiction piece “Counselling in Time of Covid: Healing from the Veranda” as well as the winners of the 2022 Flash Fiction Contest. River Heron Review has a double release available with Issue 6.1 and the River Heron Editors’ Prize. You can enjoy the winner and three finalists of their recent contest as well as works by Avery Gregurich, Alison Hurwitz, Lake Angela, Gary Thomas, and Ann Michael.
Don’t forget new issues are posted to the Magazine Stand throughout the week. Coming soon you can find more information on the latest issues of The Opiate and Poetry.
If you like discovering new literary magazines and learning more about them, then you will love Denise Hill’s New Lit on the Block series. Last week Chinchilla Lit was featured. This journal features poetry, prose, plays, scripts, and visual art by writers and artists ages 11 through 25. Learn more about Chinchilla Lit and stay tuned later this week to discover The Cloudscent Journal.
If you love books as much as you love literary magazines, you’ll enjoy the Book Stand which features new and forthcoming titles from indie and university presses. Coming in July 2023, discover H Warren’s debut collection Binded which discloses their reality of living nonbinary in the rural context of Alaska. Available this month from Wave Books, Rachel Zucker’s The Poetics of Wrongness is her first book of critical nonfiction. Zucker explores wrongness as a foundational orientation of opposition and provocation.
If you missed out on learning about these books in the last half of 2022, you are in luck! Jaya Stenquist’s Animal Afterlife was winner of the 2021 Airlie Prize and features the voices of near-extinct animals creating troubled echoes. If you have been following Richard Kostelanetz’s OUROBOROS series, the third installment, THIRDOUROBOROS is now available where you can enjoy words visually laid out in circles devouring themselves as they create themselves as afterimages.
Trevor Ketner’s The Wild Hunt Divinations: A Grimoire features 154 sonnets, each anagrammed line-by-line from Shakespeare’s sonnets. The book refracts these lines through the thematic lens of transness, queer desire, kink, and British paganism. Jennifer A. Reimer’s Keşke joins the ancient and the modern to the intense lyric experience of self-discovery. Clint Margrave’s latest collection of poetry, Visitor, travels to distant lands and familiar ones and asks the reader to let it in.
Keep checking back in during the week to discover more new books from Oisín Breen, J. A. Tyler, Al Ortolani, Phuong T. Vuong, Robert J. Miller and Robbie Ethridge, and Michal ‘MJ’ Jones.
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.
Get even more reading recommendations from our reviewers. Colm McKenna dives into Chilean Poet by Alejandro Zambra. McKenna finds “Zambra has crafted a glorious story, full of literary references and astute observations on family and growing up.”
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.
Below are this week’s writing contests, calls for submissions, and literary and writing events. Enjoy 20+ opportunities to get your work published or to enhance your writing craft. Paid subscribers get first and early access to these opportunities every Monday afternoon. Free subscribers receive access to these opportunities the following Monday afternoon.
Calls, Contests, & More
Here are the latest and featured calls for submissions and writing and book contests. Please note the ads featured here are paid listings. Subscribers with paid subscriptions receive early access to ads before they are posted to our site.
Calls for Submissions
Open Call for Poetry, Fiction, Nonfiction, & Craft Essays
Deadline: February 15, 2023
Allium, A Journal of Poetry & Prose publishes three issues each year: two online issues (Fall and Summer) and one print issue (Spring). Allium accepts simultaneous submissions, requests a maximum page length of five pages for poetry, fifteen pages (3,750 words, double-spaced, using a 12 pt. Times Roman font) for craft essays, fiction, hybrid, nonfiction, and creative nonfiction, and does not seek previously published work. We publish diverse creative voices, BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and neurodiverse communities that have been underrepresented in literature, and recognized and emerging writers. Our submission period begins October 15 and ends February 15. Visit Submittable.
Applause International Undergraduate Literary Journal Open For Submissions—Paying Venue
Deadline: February 14, 2023
Applause Issue 33: The (In)Evitable Ending. Evitable; adj. That admits of being avoided; avoidable. Applause is looking for the most interesting angles we can find as your work approaches its “evitable ending.” We begin knowing there’s an end, but the ending doesn’t have to be inevitable to satisfy the reader. Sometimes the end of “what actually happened” is really the poem, story, or essay’s beginning. Sometimes the piece decides the end. We’re looking for original poems, stories, essays, and visual art that showcases what happens when we avoid the avoidable. Imagine the ending. Avoid it. Send it to us.
Grants for Writers. Apply Now!
Deadline: February 15, 2023
If your writing explores issues and challenges of migration, immigration, or refugee experiences, you’re eligible to apply for the newly launched $7000 LANDO writer’s grants. The LANDO grants, in addition to the $7000 Courage to Write grants, are sponsored by The de Groot Foundation and are designed to encourage and support emerging writers writing in any genre. This year ten $7000 grants and up to ten Writer of Note $1500 grants will be awarded. Learn more and apply at our website. Applications close February 15, 2023.
Heron Tree: Call for Found Poetry Submissions
Extended Deadline: February 15, 2023
Deadline extended to 15 February 2023! We are accepting found poems composed from sources published in or before 1927. We are interested in any and all approaches to found poetry construction and erased or remixed texts. Accepted poems will be published weekly on the Heron Tree website starting in February 2023 and will be included in a free, downloadable PDF volume available later in 2023. No fee. For detailed submission guidelines, visit us at our website.
Seeking Positive Stories of Sexual Intimacy after Abuse
Extended Deadline: February 28, 2023
Submit to submissions@celebrationsofhealing.com by February 28, 2023. Are you a writer and survivor of sexual abuse? Since you began your recovery, have you begun to experience moments of meaningful, joyful, sexual or sensual intimacy and exploration? Celebrations of Healing would love to hear your stories of sexual awakening and/or reawakening. We want to publish them to inspire other survivors and give hope to those who are just beginning their recovery journeys. All sexualities and genders are encouraged to submit. Stories can be published under pseudonyms to protect privacy. Deadline extended to February 28, 2023. For more information, see the Celebrations of Healing website.
Plant-Human Quarterly Seeks Poems and Essays for Upcoming Issues
Deadline: Year-round
Plant-Human Quarterly reads year-round. We seek unpublished or published poetry and essays that explore the myriad ways writers manifest their relationship to the botanical world—whether through heavily researched pieces, keen observation, or more intuitive ways of knowing—that attempt to communicate across boundaries and approach a plant’s-eye-view of the world. Send no more than 5 poems or an essay of no more than 1500 words (flash essay or essay excerpt) in a single word document. Past contributors include Ellen Bass, Forrest Gander, Kimiko Hahn, Brenda Hillman, Jane Hirshfield, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Pattiann Rogers, Scott Russell Sanders, Arthur Sze. Submission guidelines at our website.
Consequence Reading Period Now Open
Deadline: April 15, 2023
The reading period for Consequence Volume 15.2 is now open. As always, we are after any and all literary work or visual art that deals with the human consequences and realities of war or geopolitical violence. We are especially interested in works of translation and fiction this time around. We also strongly encourage BIPOC and people from other under-represented communities to submit. Thank you. View submission guidelines.
Third Street Review Open for Submissions
Deadline: March 24, 2023
The Third Street Review, a new quarterly literary journal, is open for submissions until March 24, 2023. We are looking for fiction, nonfiction, and creative nonfiction of under 1000 words, as well as poetry, art, and photography. We are a paying market looking for under-represented and new creators. Send us your wild, weird, uncanny and unclassifiable, or more traditional work. Situated in Laguna Beach, CA, we are literally on the edge. View website for more info.
Qua Magazine Seeks Submissions for Winter 2023 Issue
Deadline: March 5, 2023
Qua Literary and Fine Arts Magazine is a student-run publication of the University of Michigan-Flint. Founded over 50 years ago, we invite submissions of Fiction, Creative Nonfiction, Poetry, Visual Arts, Photography, etc. from anyone living in the state of Michigan. No submission fees. For the Winter 2023 issue, all submissions must be made by March 5th, 2023 here. (Art by Ra-Londa Southwell, published in the Qua Winter 2022 issue)
Woodcrest Magazine Call for Submissions
Deadline: March 10, 2023
With the events that occurred earlier this year regarding the Supreme Court's overturning of Roe vs Wade, we’ve had to participate in some difficult conversations regarding human rights, bodily autonomy, and protecting historically marginalized communities from being violated. We at Woodcrest invite you to participate in the conversation as we continue to navigate these issues moving forward. Please send us your poetry, prose, art, and photos so we can elevate the voices who have been affected but not heard. Please submit via our Submittable page.
Submit to Mistake House Magazine
Deadline: March 20, 2023
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, 2022 to March 20, 2023. Submission fee: $5. Guidelines at our website.
Dark Onus Lit Seeks Submissions Year Round
Deadline: Year-round
Dark Onus Lit is an experimental micro-zine, seeking submissions year-round. We publish micro-issues of poetry, flash fiction, short stories, artwork, and audio. We are seeking challenging and engaging work from around the world. View submission guidelines.
Exploration and Catharsis: Mental Illness and The Awakenings Review
Deadline: Year-round
The Awakenings Review is an award-winning literary magazine committed to publishing poetry, short stories, nonfiction, and photography by writers, poets, and artists who have a relationship with mental illness, either self, family member, or friend. Located in the Chicago area but international in scope, our print publication is one of the nation’s leading journals of this genre. While we are most interested in works of recovery and healing, at The Awakenings Review we are not averse to providing a forum and liberating experience of all manners of work, and a vehicle of insight for our readers. Refer to our submission guidelines at our website.
Club Plum Seeks Work for April 2023 Issue
Deadline: March 31, 2023
Club Plum publishes works from award-winning writers and artists from around the world as well as works from never-before published creators. We look for beautiful and surprising writing, strange writing from small, tortured spaces, and writing that bridges the personal and political. Send us your prose poems, your flash fiction, your flash nonfiction, your lyric essays and your dreamy art. See our guidelines at our website.
Wholeness: A Wising Up Anthology
Deadline: April 15, 2023
Wholeness is an emergent phenomena, real as life, breath, consciousness—and, like them, can't be explained or predicted by its component parts. It's that something more that heals and reveals possibilities we could not see before. It can change what follows. When and where have we experienced a sense of wholeness? How did we recognize it? How did it shift our ways of being in ourselves, with each other, with what lies beyond? Can it be described? Shared? Does it require a sense of wonder—or create it? Deadline 4/15/23. Fiction, creative non-fiction, memoir and poetry. Guidelines available at our website.
Literary Events
Tremont Writers Conference in Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Application Deadline: April 30, 2023
Event dates: October 25-29, 2023
Event location: Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont, Townsend, TN
Join renowned authors and professional park educators for a writers conference like no other. Set on a lush, secluded campus in America’s most-visited national park, this five-day intensive will be offered to a small group of selected writers. Faculty members Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle, Janet McCue and Frank X Walker will lead small-group workshops in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. MacArthur Fellow and Pulitzer Prize-winner Richard Powers will lead multiple sessions for the entire group. Writers will also join Tremont naturalists for guided explorations that tap into the region’s cultural and natural history to spark curiosity and wonder. Apply by April 30.
Write in Nova Scotia This Summer - ONE SPOT LEFT!
Event dates: July 24-28, 2023
Event location: Nova Scotia, Canada
Have you ever considered attending a writers retreat? Gain insight on your writing, deepen your craft, make new writer friends and best of all, gift yourself with a beautiful setting to hone your voice. Writing Coach & Author Lynne Golodner is hosting an intimate week-long writers retreat in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia July 24-28, 2023 and there's ONE SPOT LEFT. For information and to apply, visit retreat website.
Writing & Book Contests
The Anthony Grooms Prize in Short Fiction
Deadline: April 1, 2023
The Headlight Review Presents: The Anthony Grooms Prize in Short Fiction, a literary award honoring the work and literary contributions by former Kennesaw State MAPW Director, Anthony Grooms. Winning Entry will receive $250 and 25 free copies of their story (5.5” x 7.5”, saddle-stitch binding). Runners Up will be offered publication in The Headlight Review. The winner and runners-up will also receive a signed copy of Grooms’ book, The Vain Conversation. Entry fee $12 (via Submittable, payable by debit/credit card). Submission period: February 1 to April 1. For more details, go to our website.
Prime Number Magazine Awards for Poetry and Short Fiction
Deadline: March 31, 2023
$1,000 first prize in each category plus publication in Prime Number Magazine. Two Runners-up in each category also published in Prime Number Magazine. Reading fee $15. Poetry judged by Felicia Mitchell, author of Waltzing with Horses. Short Fiction judged by Dennis McFadden, author of Jimtown Road: A Novel in Stories, winner of the 2016 Press 53 Award for Short Fiction. Open January 1 to March 31. Submit online through Submittable. Details at the Press 53 website.
Cleaver's Form & Form-Breaking Poetry Contest
Deadline: March 31, 2023
Judge: Diane Seuss. $500 First Prize; $250 Second Prize; $100 Third Prize. Deadline: March 31. Show us your poems that hold up the perfect iambic pentameter of a Shakespearean sonnet or crash it on the rocks of free verse. Show us a villanelle with textbook patterning or show us the villanelle who just crashed her car. The one requirement is that your work engages with a form of poetry; whether it gets married to that form or breaks up at the last couplet is up to you. Prizewinners will be published in Cleaver's Fall Issue, September 2023. Finalists may also be offered publication. Visit website for more information.
2023 New American Poetry Prize
Extended Deadline: February 15, 2023
2023 NEW AMERICAN POETRY PRIZE. $1,500 and book publication. Final judge: Jamaica Baldwin, author of Bone Language (forthcoming 2023). Extended deadline: February 15, 2023. Minimum length: 48 pages (no maximum). Reading fee: $25. Online submissions only, please. Complete guidelines at the New American Press website.
New American Voices Award for Immigrant Writers
Deadline: March 31, 2023
The $5,000 post-publication book prize from Fall for the Book and the Institute for Immigration Research recognizes prose works that illuminate the complexity of the human experience as told by immigrants. Two finalists each will receive $1,000. All finalists will appear at the Fall for the Book Festival in October 2023. Past winners are Sindya Bhanoo, Patricia Engel, Lysley Tenorio, Melissa Rivero, and Hernán Díaz. $20 entry fee. Visit website.
Georgia Author of the Year Awards
Deadline: March 15, 2023
The Georgia Author of the Year Awards (GAYA) celebrates the best literature by Georgia writers. Published authors from or currently residing in Georgia are eligible for nomination. Awards in a variety of categories are announced and presented in June at the GAYA ceremony. We are interested in the following categories: Biography, Children's Book, Cookbook, Detective/Mystery, Essay, First Novel, LGBTQIA+, Graphic Novel, History, Inspirational, Literary Fiction, Memoir, Poetry Chapbook, Poetry Full-Length Collection, Romance, Science Fiction, Short Story Collection, Specialty Book, and Young Adult. Visit website for more info.
The Nimrod Literary Awards in Fiction and Poetry
Deadline: April 1, 2023
Submissions are open for the Nimrod Literary Awards, the Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry and the Katherine Anne Porter Prize for Fiction, with prizes of $2,000 and $1,000 and publication, as well as Awards Ceremony readings. Finalists and selected semi-finalists will be published and paid $10/page. For poetry, submit 3-10 pages; for fiction, one story, 7,500 words maximum. Manuscripts may be mailed or submitted online. Each entry must be accompanied by a $20 entry fee (additional $3 for online submissions), which includes a one-year subscription. Open internationally. Email nimrod@utulsa.edu or visit our website for complete rules.
2023 Able Muse Contests :: Submit Now (Poetry / Fiction / Poetry Manuscripts)
Deadlines: March 15 (Write Prize) & March 31 (Book Award)
2023 Able Muse Contests :: Submit Now—Write Prize (poetry & fiction): $500 each + publication. Final Judges: Chelsea Rathburn (poetry), Terese Svoboda (fiction); $15 entry; deadline: March 15, 2023. Book Award (poetry): $1000 + book publication. Final Judge: David Yezzi; $25 entry; deadline: March 31, 2023. Enter now—go to our website for details.
2023 Tennessee Williams Contests: Poetry & Short Story
Deadline: March 11, 2023
In commemorating Tennessee Williams’s 112th Birthday, the Tennessee Williams Museum in Key West, Florida, hosts a poetry and short story contest that is open to everyone. There is no specific theme for the 2023 writing competitions; however, your submission must in some way reference Tennessee Williams. Authors may choose to write about Williams, his family, one of his characters, or one of the actors/actresses who played a role in his plays or films. First place receives $200 while second place receives $100. Contests Information, Rules and Submission information can be found by visiting our website.
Find more great calls, events, and contests on our website.
The NewPages Classified section is updated throughout the week giving you news and info on the latest contest and calls.