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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.
Kings River Review Call for 2-Year College Student Submissions
Deadline: October 15, 2022
The Kings River Review publishes artwork, creative nonfiction, short fiction, and poetry of current 2-year community college students. Submission Deadlines: October 15 for the fall issue and March 15 for the spring issue. Submission requirements: up to 5 pieces of artwork and photography sent as .JPEG files; creative nonfiction and fiction of up to 3,000 words; and up to 5 poems. Go to our website for full submission guidelines.
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!
BreakBread Magazine Looking for Work From Young Creatives
Deadline: Rolling
BreakBread Magazine is a magazine for all young creatives between the ages of 13 and 25. We are always looking for vivid, timely poetry, nonfiction, short stories, comics, and visual arts (photography, illustrated narratives, and hybrid work) that explore new directions in arts and letters. Submissions are always free. Visit Submittable to send us your work. Check out our website for more information.
Palooka Seeks Chapbooks, Prose, Poetry, Artwork, Photography
Palooka is an international literary magazine. For over a decade we’ve featured new, up-and-coming, and established writers, artists, and photographers from around the world. We're open to diverse forms and styles and are always seeking unique chapbooks, fiction, poetry, nonfiction, artwork, photography, and graphic narratives. Submissions open year-round. Visit the Palooka website.
Cherry Tree Now Open for Submissions!
Deadline: October 1, 2022
Cherry Tree: A National Literary Journal would like to read your fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction through October 1, 2022. All accepted work is also considered for our distinctive Literary Shade section. Contributors receive $20 and 2 copies of the issue in which their work appears. Our $3 reading fee helps us to pay contributors and 10% of those fees will be donated to Minary's Dream Alliance, a community nonprofit organization with strong mentorship programs for at-risk youth. (The editors make a matching donation.) For more about what we're looking for and to read our guidelines, please visit our website.
Pensive Seeks Submissions for Spring 2023 Issue
Deadline: November 15, 2022
Pensive: A Global Journal of Spirituality & the Arts, innovative online publication from Northeastern University, welcomes unpublished poetry, prose, visual art, translations. Visit the Pensive website; submit via Submittable February 1-May 15 or August 1-November 15. No fee. Historically underrepresented and international voices encouraged. Recent contributors include Baca, Bruchac, M. Collins, Chess, Cording, Espada, Glancy, Hoffman, Lea, Marchant, D.S. Martin, MEH, Metres, Piercy, Samaras, Sholl, and more. Spring issue is opened-themed, with special section on spiritual responses to current events & voices from "inside” and “outside" (e.g. incarcerated, homeless, refugee communities, and their allies).
Qua Magazine Seeks Submissions for Fall 2022 Issue
Deadline: October 2, 2022
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, and Photography from anyone living in the state of Michigan. No submission fees. For the Fall 2022 issue, all submissions must be made by October 2, 2022 here.
Sky Island Journal: Issue 22 (Fall 2022) Call for Submissions
Deadline: September 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 115,000 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 22 before midnight on September 30th, at our 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). 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.
Driftwood Press - Anthology & Book Manuscript Submissions Open Now
Driftwood Press is happy to share a plethora of submission opportunities for writers and artists! For our yearly print anthology, we are looking for poems, short stories, comics, and visual art that will wow our readers, accepted as both contest and normal submissions. We are a paying market, and our published writers also get to take part in bespoke interviews about their work! Driftwood is also on the hunt for amazing book-length titles to grow our catalogue. If you have a novella, poetry collection, comic collection, or graphic novel manuscript, we would love to read it! If you have any writing or art that fits the above call, Driftwood Press would be honored to read it. Visit us here for our Submittable page, and we encourage you to follow us on social media (@driftwoodpress) to learn about even more submission opportunities!
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
Tom Howard/Margaret Reid Poetry Contest
Deadline: September 30, 2022
20th year, sponsored by Winning Writers. Win $3,000 for a poem in any style and $3,000 for a poem that rhymes or has a traditional style. Total prizes: $8,000. The top two winners will also receive two-year gift certificates from our co-sponsor, Duotrope (a $100 value). Both published and unpublished work accepted. Winning entries published online. Submit 1-3 poems for a $20 entry fee. Length limit: 250 lines per poem. Judged by S. Mei Sheng Frazier. This contest is recommended by Reedsy. Winning Writers is one of the "101 Best Websites for Writers" (Writer's Digest, 2022). See past winners, advice from the judge, and submit online at our website.
$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: October 1, 2022
$1,000 award and publication. Deadline: October 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
Deadline: October 1, 2022
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 1.
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.
2022 George Garrett Fiction Prize
Deadline: September 30, 2022
Established in 1998, The George Garrett Fiction Prize highlights one full-length novel or collection of short stories. Since 2019 the Prize comes with a $1,000 advance and publication. 2022 Judge is Vi Khi Nao. This contest is open to any writer in any stage of their career. Submissions are accepted through Submittable only. Deadline to submit is September 30th. Entry fee is $28. Full rules and guidelines can be found on TRP's Submittable or at the TRP website.
2022 X. J. Kennedy Poetry Prize
Deadline: September 30, 2022
Established in 1998, The X. J. Kennedy Prize highlights one full-length collection of poetry per year. Since 2019 the Prize comes with a $10,000 advance and publication. 2022 Judge is Kimiko Hahn. This contest is open to any poet in any stage of their career. Submissions are accepted through Submittable only. Deadline to submit is September 30th. Entry fee is $28. Full rules and guidelines can be found on TRP’s Submittable or at the TRP website.
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!
Baltimore Review Winter Contest - 1,000 words or less
Deadline: November 30, 2022
Baltimore Review Winter Contest – No theme! Flash fiction and CNF. Prose poems. One, two, or three works in a single submission, but no more than 1,000 words total. We want to wonder at how you abracadabra so few words into magic. We want to be amazed and maybe a little jealous of how you do that. $300 awarded in each category. All entries considered for publication, with payment for accepted work at our regular rate. $8 contest fee. Final judge: Destiny O. Birdsong. Deadline: November 30. Visit our site, read some of the fine work there, then submit.
Find more great calls, events, and contests on our website:
Vilas Avenue Open for Poetry Submissions to Issue Three
table//FEAST Literary Magazine Now Seeking Subs for Issue 2
WhimsicalPoet Seeks Poetry/Art/Flash Fiction for the January 2023 Issue
Welcome all Fans of the Twilight Zone! :: borrowed solace
The NewPages Classified section is updated throughout the week giving you news and info on the latest contest and calls.
News from NewPages
Want a guide to literary magazines with recently published issues? The September 2022 round-up of New & Noted Lit & Alt Mags is now available to make sure you don’t miss out. You can learn more about some of these issues by stopping by the NewPages Magazine Stand.
Coming this week, find Bullets into Bells which has committed to publishing one new piece about the scourge of gun violence every week starting with “Black Marker” by Claire Hsu Accomado and “On Facts, the ABCs, and Lands of the Lost” by Jen Schneider. Issue 15 of The Shore is here to herald in autumn with crisp, new poems by Michael Emmanual, Jill Crammond, Ali Wood, and many more; the Fall 2022 issue of The Georgia Review features an art portfolio from the exhibition Returns: Cherokee Diaspora and Art; Issue 70 of Cholla Needles features 11 poets: Juan Delgado, Bettina T. Barrett, Bray McDonald, Cati Porter, Fernando Fidanza, Kathy French, Michale H. Brownstein, Tobi Alfier, Mark T. Evans, Marlene M. Tartaglione, and Roger G. Singer; and Hippocampus’ September/October 2022 issue features interviews with Sabine Hossenfelder and Linda Murphy Marshall as well as Kristen Paulson-Nguyen’s Writing Life column “How a Lit Mag Can Grow You.”
In books, discover Talk Smack to a Hurricane available this month from IceFlow Press; due out in November, House of the Nine Devils: Selected Bohemian Tales by Johannes Urzidil collects and translates into English for the first time some of the most renowned Bohemian stories by Urzidil. Also coming in November is Max Belcher’s The Illuminated Burrow: A Sanatorium Journal which he began writing in 1937 and follows a narrator forced to confront the power and limitations of memory as he attempts to capture the last moments of life. Coming in October, find Dessa’s Tits on the Moon a collection of “stage poems,” many of which Dessa performs at her legendary live shows. Stop by the Book Stand to learn more about each title.
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, Saga tackles the suspenseful and thought-provoking We Won’t Be Here Tomorrow by Margaret Killjoy which features a cast of queer characters facing flesh-eating ghouls, murderous time travelers, post-apocalyptic militias, and more mundane threats.
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.