It’s officially summer. The weather still can’t make up its mind if it wants to be summer or not, but it is still an excellent time to grab your favorite lit mag or book (or find a new favorite!) and sit outside to read. It’s also a perfect time to sit outside and write. Don’t forget with June ending there are several contests and calls for submissions nearing their deadlines as well as more contests open and accepting submissions. You can view a full list of contests with July deadlines here.
And don’t forget these journals and presses have submission periods ending June 30: Interim (literary nonfiction), Club Plum (July 2022 issue), redrosethorns (Connection/Community issue), Sky Island (Issue 21), and Periculum Press (Queer Pagan fiction anthology). Contests with June 30 deadlines include the North Street Book Prize for Self-Published Books and Sunspot Lit’s Rigel 2022 contest. See below for more submission opportunities!
And while working out where you want to submit, grab The Malahat Review Issue 128 featuring their Open Season Award Winners, Still Point Arts Quarterly Summer 2022 issue with the theme of “Gardening: An Instrument of Grace,” or Rattle Issue 76 which features a “Tribute to Prisoner Express,” a non-profit program based in Ithaca, NY, which sends books into prisons.
Love online journals? You don’t want to miss out on Good River Review Issue 3 which closes with two essays on the writing life from the new anthology Creativity & Compassion: Spalding Writers Celebrate 20 Years, The Dillydoun Review June 2022 issue, Arkana Issue 12, Glassworks Spring 2022 issue (also available in print!), elsewhere Issue 22, or Bending Genres Issue 27. Stop by the Magazine Stand throughout the week for more issues to add to your shelves (virtual or physical).
Bulk up your summer reading lists with new books from Laynie Brown, Translation of the Lilies Back into Lists, which playfully employs the list poem and delivers poems which evade genre; James Smith’s The Lowly Negro recently published by Revolutionary Books, a new imprint of Artvoices Books; Nina Carey Tassi’s Love’s Universe: New & Selected Poems; and Christopher Locke’s Without Saints, runner-up for the Monadnock Essay Collection Prize.
And while summer officially just started, don’t forget to check out these titles which will be releasing this fall: Almost: My Life in Theater, a memoir by Roselee Blooston; summonings, poetry by Raena Shirali; and Wendy Videlock’s poetry collection Wise to the West. Remember you can stop by the Book Stand throughout the week to find more new and forthcoming titles.
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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, James Scruton gives his thoughts on Christopher Moore’s follow-up to Noir, Razzmatazz which is “equal measures of screwball comedy, hard-boiled mystery, and X-Files-like otherworldliness.”
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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
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!
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.
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.
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 Rrequirements: 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.
Sky Island Journal: Issue 21 (Summer 2022) Call for Submissions
Deadline: June 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 100,000 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 21 before midnight on June 30th, at our website.
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.
Submit for Interim's Print Issue
Deadline: September 1, 2022
Interim is looking for poems, art, essays and short fiction devoted to music for the 2022 Print Issue. We’re interested in work that is not so much “about” music, but rather enacts or composes, it. Send 3-5 poems, an art work, essay, and/or short fiction to Claudia Keelan, Editor of Interim through our Submittable.
Plus more calls for submissions at our website:
Split Rock Review Invites Submissions for Issue 19
Split Rock Press Seeks Poetry Chapbook Submissions
Wordrunner eChapbooks Seeks Mini-Fiction Collections
Global City Review Seeking Fiction, Nonfiction, and Poetry Submissions
Literary Events & Writing Programs
The Daphne Review Mentorship Program (Rising Seniors Only)
Deadline: July 11, 2022; Event Dates: Session I: July 25 - August 15, Session II: September 5-26, III: November 7-28, 2022; Location: Virtual. Mentorship Program (Rising Seniors Only)! Both mentee and mentorship are now open! Apply to the 2022 Daphne Online Mentorship Program! We will be selecting 5-7 students to work with professional writers on a 1on1 basis. Our students have benefited greatly over the years. They’ve used the time to work on their existing body of work to get them published by literary magazines, win awards at Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, PYAA and gain acceptance to top colleges! Recent Daphne mentees have been accepted to Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Stanford, Columbia, and top creative writing programs, e.g., Iowa, Kenyon, Juniper, and Emerson!
Writing & Book Contests
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.
$1000 Poetry Micro Chapbook Contest
Deadline: July 31, 2022
MAYDAY Magazine invites you to send 8-12 pages of poems to be considered for the Editors' Choice Award, including $1000, publication at MAYDAY, and an author interview. Deadline: July 31. Early bird entry fee: $10 (May 1-June 15). Regular fee: $15 (June 16-July 31). Submit a unified manuscript filled with poems that have achieved a balance of both craft and story so seamlessly that we cannot look away. We welcome a diverse range of content and authors, including LGBTQ+, BIPOC, and international voices. For more details, visit 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.
The Francine Ringold Awards for New Writers: $500 Prizes
Deadline: July 15, 2022
Submissions are open for Nimrod’s Francine Ringold Awards for New Writers. The Ringold Awards offer prizes of $500 and publication for fiction and poetry. They are open only to writers with no more than two previous publication credits in their genre. For poetry, submit up to five pages; for fiction, one short story, 5,000 words maximum. The contest is open internationally. All honorable mentions will also be published and paid at our normal rates. Manuscripts may be mailed or submitted online via Submittable. Each entry must be accompanied by a $12 entry fee. Email us or visit Nimrod's website for complete rules.
Submit to the 2022 Blue Lynx Prize for Poetry
Extended Deadline: July 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.
Driftwood Press Adrift Chapbook & Short Story Contests
Deadline: July 15, 2022
Driftwood Press' Adrift Chapbook Contest and Adrift Short Story Contest return this year, featuring poetry guest judge Carl Phillips and fiction guest judge Allegra Hyde. Winners receive $1,000 and $500, and runners-up receive $200-400 depending on the genre. The deadline is July 15th! Check out past winners for sale on our website and submit today.
Cleaver's Summer Lightning Flash Contest for Fiction & Nonfiction
Deadline: August 1, 2022
Show us what strikes you and lights up your summer! Whether it’s fiction or nonfiction, we’re excited to see your compact and commanding work, up to 500 words. Judge: Meg Pokrass. Prizes: $500 first; $250 second; $200 third. Prizewinners will be published in Cleaver’s Winter Issue. Finalists may also receive a publication offer. For more info and guidelines, visit our website.
$1500 each plus Publication - Poetry & Short Story
Deadline: August 20, 2022
Kallisto Gaia Press sponsors two annual prizes of $1,500 each and publication in Ocotillo Review. Zoë Fay-Stindt will judge the Julia Darling Memorial Poetry Prize; Jen Knox will judge the Chester B. Himes Memorial Short Fiction Prize. Submit up to three poems of no more than 65 lines each or a story of up to 4,200 words with a $20 entry fee, which includes a copy of Ocotillo Review, by August 20. Visit Submittable for guidelines. Proceeds are donated to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Disease and the MD Anderson Foundation for Breast Cancer.
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.
Plus more writing contests at our website:
The 2022 Best Spiritual Literature Awards
Gival Press Short Story Award