New Submission Opportunities and Great Lit
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Happy October! Tis the season of pumpkin spice, apple picking, and all things spooky. With the start of a new month, don’t forget to check out our Big List of Writing Contests for October deadlines and beyond. Looking for more submission opportunities? Fear not, we have you covered below.
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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. As a NewPages subscriber you receive early access to ads before they are posted to our site.
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.
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!
LIGHT Seeks Creative Submissions: Win Prize & Publication
Deadline: November 1, 2022 by 11:59PM CST
LIGHT is calling for submissions for the second issue of the LIGHT Journal, a biannual literary journal in public health that connects, creates, and curates content for the public by the public. We are interested in learning how everyone views healing in mental health through art, letters, stories, and poetry following the pandemic and invite everyone to share their lived experiences of healing and health. There is no entry fee! Prize money (1st: $500, 2nd: $375, 3rd: $125) will be given to the top three contestants of each category. Visit our website to learn more and to submit via Submittable.
Superpresent is Seeking Submissions of the Theme FOOD
Deadline: November 15, 2022
Superpresent is seeking submissions for its Winter 2023 issue. The theme is Food. Food not only in the literal sense but also in the metaphorical sense. What feeds us? What feeds our mind? What do we feed others? What do we hunger for? All food for thought. We are are seeking poetry, short stories, essays, experimental art, video, sound art, all forms of visual art as well as asemic writing, textual, and recipes. Visit site to learn more.
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.
Literary Events
Affordable Poetry, Publishing, & Critique Workshops
Deadline: Year-round
Caesura Poetry Workshop aims to support, inspire, educate, and energize poets of all backgrounds through affordable monthly Zoom workshops hosted by award-winning poet, editor, and writing coach John Sibley Williams. Workshops include poem analysis, active group discussion, writing prompts, and plenty of writing time. Upcoming classes include: Writing Evocative Love Poems (September 17, 11am-1:30pm PT), Elegy: Writing Poems of Loss (October 2 & 9, 11am-1:30pm PT), two group critique classes (Fridays in October and Sundays in November), and others. Manuscript critiques and regular coaching to keep you writing and inspired also available. More information at the Caesura Poetry Workshop website.
Writing & Book Contests
$1,000 + Publication: New Letters Editor's Choice Award
Deadline: October 17, 2022
The New Letters’ Editor’s Choice Award is now accepting entries for experimental work that crosses the traditional boundaries of genre and form. Enter your hybrid work—your lyric essays, prose poems, short-shorts, collages, micro-memoirs. . . whatever you’re doing that’s experimental, that defies easy categorization. The maximum word count is 8,000 and entries must be previously unpublished. The winner will receive $1,000 plus publication in New Letters. Visit the New Letters website for guidelines and to enter online via Submittable.
MAYDAY Creative Nonfiction Prize
Deadline: November 1, 2022
$1,000 award and publication. Extended Deadline: November 1, 2022. To submit, send an essay (2,000–7,500 words) exploring the theme of “Disappearance” (of people, places, things, etc.). Final judge: Darin Strauss, bestselling author of several books, including the National Book Critics Circle Award-winning memoir Half a Life and most recently the acclaimed novel The Queen of Tuesday: A Lucille Ball Story. Reading fee: $20. Online submissions only, please. Complete guidelines at the MAYDAY website
The Missouri Review's 32nd Annual Jeffrey E. Smith Editors' Prize
Extended Deadline: October 15, 2022
DEADLINE EXTENDED. The Missouri Review invites entries for its 32nd annual Jeffrey E. Smith Editors’ Prize. Winners receive $5000, publication, and promotion. Fiction or nonfiction entries up to 8,500 words, poetry entries up to 10 pages. Regular entry fee: $25. All-Access entry fee: $30. All entrants receive a 1-year digital subscription to the Missouri Review and a digital copy of Missouri Review Books’ sixth offering, Hello, I Love You, featuring previous contributors. All-Access entrants receive the same plus access to the past decade of digital issues of TMR. All entries considered for publication. Guidelines and further info here. Deadline: October 15.
2023 Press 53 Award for Short Fiction
Deadline: December 31, 2022
2023 Press 53 Award for Short Fiction is awarded to an outstanding, unpublished collection of short stories. Reading Fee: $30. Award: $1,000 cash advance, publication, and fifty copies (35 softcover/15 hardcover). Enter: Submit online with Submittable or by mail from September 1–December 31, 2022. Press 53 short fiction editor in chief Claire V. Foxx will serve as the only judge. Winner and finalists announced by May 1, 2023; advance review copies sent to major reviewers and outlets; publication in May 2024. Complete details at Press 53's website.
Fifth Annual Open Book Prize—$1,500 and Publication
Deadline: November 1, 2022
Our fifth annual open book prize is accepting manuscripts. If you have a manuscript or know someone who does, please give us a shot. Open to any poet writing in English regardless of previous publication record, the prize seeks to represent the best contemporary writing in high-quality editions of enduring value. Prospective entrants are encouraged to familiarize themselves with Conduit, which champions originality, intelligence, irreverence, and humanity. Previously unpublished manuscripts of 48-90 pages should be submitted through our Submittable page or via the USPS. Please visit our website for details.
2023 New American Poetry Prize
Deadline: January 15, 2023
2023 NEW AMERICAN POETRY PRIZE. $1,500 and book publication. Final judge: Jamaica Baldwin, author of Bone Language (forthcoming 2023). Deadline: January 15, 2023. Minimum length: 48 pages (no maximum). Reading fee: $25. Online submissions only, please. Complete guidelines at the New American Press website.
Interim Poetics: The Test Site Poetry Prize
Deadline: December 15, 2022
Interim will choose two winning books for the series—one title publicized as the winner of The Test Site Poetry Series and the other as the Betsy Joiner Flanagan Award in Poetry. Both winners will receive $1,000 and their books will be published by the University of Nevada Press. Submit by: December 15. Visit Interim Poetics website.
A High School for Creative Writers: Win a Scholarship
Deadline: Sunday, November 6, 2022
Join a high school that values the arts, and nurtures your creative writing talent. Enter the Virginia B. Ball Creative Writing Competition for the possibility of a full-tuition scholarship to attend Interlochen Arts Academy’s creative writing program. The contest is open to all students in grades 8-11 during the 2022-23 school year. Students must submit writing samples in two of the following genres: Fiction, Poetry, Spoken Word, Personal Essay/Memoir, Screenwriting, Playwriting, Comics, and Experimental/Unclassified Writing. Visit our website for more information.
Cutthroat, a Journal of the Arts 2022 Literary Contests
Deadline: November 1, 2022
August 31-November 1, 2022 Reading/Submission Period; 2022 Joy Harjo Poetry Prize, Barry Lopez Nonfiction Prize, Rick DeMarinis Short Story Prize $1300 First Prize, $300 Second Prize, Honorable Mention. Judges: Jacqueline Johnson, Poetry; Laura Pritchett, Short Story; Deborah Miranda, Nonfiction. Go to our website and submit poems and stories through our online submission manage on Contests Page. Submit up to 3 poems (100 line limit/one poem per page) or one short story or one creative nonfiction piece (5000 word limit/double spaced) in 12 point font. NO AUTHOR NAME ALLOWED ON ANY MS. $25 nonrefundable entry fee per submission. Reading Period: August 31, 2022- November 1, 2022. UNPUBLISHED WORK ONLY!
Up to $1000 for Fiction or Nonfiction Story
Deadline: November 15, 2022
Megacity Review (MCR) is currently holding its inaugural writing contest in both fiction and nonfiction. Underrepresented voices, new and existing authors, as well as people of color and their allies are encouraged to apply. MCR is a non-profit literary arts journal with a focus on the impact and influence of major cities on culture and community. The journal is distributed online and through NFT beginning in January 2023. Please visit our website for details.
Find more great calls, events, and contests on our website:
Awakenings Review Seeks Poetry, Fiction, & Nonfiction
The New Verse News Seeks Current Events Poetry
Sunspot Lit Open Call for Prose, Poetry, Art, Graphic Novel
RABBLE REVIEW - Leftist Arts & Letters - Fall 2022
Cloudbank Book Contest
About Place Journal Call for Submissions: Center of Gravity
The NewPages Classified section is updated throughout the week giving you news and info on the latest contest and calls.
News from NewPages
Looking for a complete list of recently released titles by genre? You can now view our Books Received list for October. Several of these titles are highlighted throughout the month on our Book Stand, too.
Recently featured Book Stand titles include Jeff Vande Zande’s Rules of Order which was written in a fever dream during the first five weeks of the 2020 COVID lockdown and tells the story of a community activist who lives in what could be the last remaining high-rise building on the wrecked planet. Also available is Never Catch Me by Darius Simpson. This debut collection of poetry centers on Black boyhood in the midwest and familial disintegration over time.
A timely book, Maya Marshall’s debut All the Blood Involved in Love meditates on womanhood with and without motherhood. Selected Poems by Takuboku Ishikawa is a selection of Ishikawa’s youthful poems along with a complete imagining into English of his final collection known as Grieving Playthings, Sad Toys. Dancing for Our Tribe: Potawatomi Tradition in the New Millennium covers the history of the Potawatomis who were the most treatied Native American tribe in North America and how they have maintained or restored their rich cultural heritage despite their numerous hardships.
Want to check out the latest issues of great literary magazines? Dive into the Magazine Stand which recently featured the Fall 2022 issue of Willawaw Journal. The issue features contributors (22 men and 19 women) from 22 states and four countries. Twenty-six of the forty-one poets are first-time contributors. Also featured is Kenyon Review’s September/October 2022 issue which includes the winner and runners-up of the 2022 Patricia Grodd Poetry Prize for Young Writers: Sophie Bernik, Madison Xu, and Myra Kamal.
Don’t forget to stop by the NewPages Blog throughout the week to discover more new titles and magazine issues.
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, we had two reviewers cover poems. First, Hayley Davis covers “two striking poems by Maria Zoccola” which can be found in Booth online. Next Aimee L. tackles Barbara Hamby’s "Ode on My Nightingale” which made the reviewer feel reassured and realized “how life shines in the darkness—in the ‘derivative of sin.’” You can read Hamby’s poem in 32 Poems’ Spring/Summer 2022 issue.
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.