Call for Submissions: Oyster River Pages

 

ORP will accept submissions in the genres below for publication in its seventh annual issue from January 23 through May 31, 2024.

In general, simultaneous submissions are fine, but please contact us immediately if your work is picked up elsewhere. We request first serial rights, after which all rights revert to the author or artist. We do not reprint previously published work unless otherwise explicitly stated in the specific guidelines. Please include a 60-word bio with your submission and feel free to upload a photo with your submission.

We are especially eager to publish pieces that engage with the work of marginalized and decentered people—Black and Brown creators, LGBTQ+ creators, and creators of all levels of dis/ability, and to that end, we invite creators to self-identify in their submissions.

• Fiction: Please submit one story up to 6,000 words in .docx format. All work should be double-spaced.

• Emerging Voices Fiction: Please submit one short story up to 6,000 words in .docx format. Only one short story per submitter will be read and reviewed. All work should be double-spaced. Please include your full name, pseudonym or pen name, should you wish to use it for publication, and preferred email on the first page of the document. Please also include the title of your short story on the first page. Emerging Voices Fiction also accepts translated work. Please mention in your cover letter if you are submitting translated work and include the name of the translator.

• Creative Non-Fiction: Please submit creative non-fiction pieces that are no longer than 5,000 words in .docx format. All work should be double-spaced. Your name should not appear anywhere in the document.

• Poetry: Please submit up to three poems in .docx format. Each poem should start on its own page. Please note if a page break is also a stanza break. We do our best to respond to submissions in a timely manner. Sometimes, taking our time means your poem has made it through multiple rounds and is being seriously considered for publication. For this reason, please wait at least 6 months before inquiring about a submission. Duplicate poetry submissions within the same submission window will be automatically declined.

• Emerging Voices Poetry: Please submit up to 3 poems in one document of no longer than 10 pages total in .doc or .docx format. If your poem(s) require specific formatting, you may use .pdf to preserve the spacing. Each poem should start on its own page. Please note if a page break is also a stanza break. Please include your full name, pseudonym or pen name, should you wish to use it for publication, and preferred email on the first page of the document. Please also include the title(s) of your poem(s) with each poem. Emerging Voices Poetry does not accept translations at this time. Only one submission of poetry per submitter will be read and reviewed.

• Visual Art: Please submit photography or other visual arts that are saved at 300 dpi or greater. We reserve the right to crop or edit submissions in order to fit in print or on our webpage.

Additionally, ORP Soundings will publish reviews, interviews, profiles, commentary, or other innovative forms (including multimedia) that seek to highlight or critically engage with issues or works of literary, artistic, or cultural significance. Submissions should align with ORP's mission to amplify stories that speak to what it means to be alive in this world, works that move of out of ourselves and into other spaces, and voices who bring balance and diversity to historical institutions of power. For these reasons, we prioritize works that are published or produced independently, without the clout of corporate promotion.

Please note that Oyster River Pages will not publish any work that has been created, in part or in full, or in collaboration with generative artificial intelligence. Should we find that work published on our site has been created with the support of generative artificial intelligence, we reserve the right to remove such work from our site and rescind publication.

Submit your work here.

Writing Competition: The Bath Novel Award

The Bath Novel Award 2024 £5,000 international writing prize

The Bath Novel Award 2024 is a £5,000 international writing prize for unagented writers who are unpublished, self-published or independently published.

We are looking for adult and YA novels in every genre. Initial submissions are your opening 5,000 words and one-page synopsis of a manuscript which is complete at over 50,000 words.

The author of 2024’s winning manuscript, as judged by Catherine Cho, founder of the Paper Literary agency, will receive a £5,000 cash prize. The winner will also receive our beautiful Minerva trophy, based on the world famous sculpture in Bath’s Roman Baths.

Shortlisted writers win a compilation of award readers’ comments on their full manuscript. All listees win feedback on their opening pages from Cornerstones Literary Consultancy‘s editorial director. One longlistee will also win a place worth £1,980 on the 18 week virtual course Edit Your Novel the Professional Way from Cornerstones Literary Consultancy and the Professional Writing Academy.

Entries are open worldwide until 31 May 2024.

The entrance fee is £29.99 per novel with sponsored places available for writers on a low income. 

More information here.

Writing Competition: The New Michigan Press / DIAGRAM Chapbook Contest

The New Michigan Press / DIAGRAM chapbook contest announces our guidelines for 2024! We select the majority of our chapbook list each year from the ranks of the chapbook contest finalists, so this is the best way to get your work read. And what's more, it's all read blind. Plus you get a free chapbook just for entering and you get to know that your entry helps us do what we do.

The Prize $1000 plus 25 author copies AND of course publication; finalist chapbooks also considered for publication (we typically publish 3-6).

 The Entry Fee $25

 The Mailing Deadline May 15, 2024

What we want:

Interesting, lovely unpublished work (unpublished as a whole; individual pieces may be published already of course), prose or poetry or some combination or something between genres, 18-44 manuscript pages (no more than one poem per page if you're sending poems unless they are very, very short).

Images okay?

Yes, as long as you can obtain reprint rights for any images you include, unless they're in the public domain or qualify under the exemption for fair use. We do prefer images be in low-res for the manuscript to keep file size down (the submissions manager maxes out at around 9 megabytes), but we'll need high-res versions if your manuscript is selected for publication. ALSO: please don't send originals of anything, since we cannot return manuscripts.

Other questions?

It's fine with us if individual works have been published elsewhere, but the manuscript can't have been published as a whole before. Please include specific acknowledgments if any of the works have appeared elsewhere: tell us where individual pieces appeared, as we do sometimes consider submitted and unpublished individual pieces for possible publication in DIAGRAM.

We recommend that your manuscript be as coherent--as much a project--as possible. Not to say everything needs to be thematic or narratively related, but most of our winning chapbooks have a feeling of aesthetic unity or connection or resonance: we think chapbooks should make sense as chapbooks, and be more than the sums of their parts. Chapbook manuscripts do not necessarily have to be diagrammatic (though the diagrammers among us do enjoy those).

Co-authored manuscripts are fine.

Manuscripts that engage algorithmic writing tactics (cut-ups, collage, erasure, large language models, AI chatbots, autotranslation softwares, etc) are fine as long as you're up front about their use.

Submitting multiple manuscripts is fine with entry fees for each.

Simultaneous submissions are fine as long as you let us know ASAP if a manuscript needs to be withdrawn.

Please don't put your name/identifying info on the piece itself. If you send electronically, it'll be in the submitter info only, and that doesn't get forward to our readers. If you send via the mail, include a detachable cover page.

Email contest--at--thediagram.com with further questions if you have them.

More information and submission link here.

Call for Submissions on Theme of "Trash": subTerrain Magazine

 

Deadline: may 16, 2024

Hello, and thank you for sending your work to subTerrain magazine.

subTerrain publishes original fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, essays, and commentary three times a year. Submissions must be previously unpublished material. (Note maximum number of submissions per issue below.)

Feel free to interpret our themes in unique and unusual ways.

All other regular submission guidelines still apply, as below.

The following are some general guidelines (as always, we suggest READING an issue of the magazine to see what we're all about).

Submissions must be previously unpublished and be:

1. typed, double-spaced on 8 1/2 x 11 paper.

2. Fiction: a maximum of 3,000 words. (Max. 3 stories per issue)

3. Poetry: we no longer accept unsolicited poetry submissions (unless specifically related to one of our theme issues). Poetry should be single-spaced with stanza breaks. (Max. 5 poems per issue)

4. Creative Non-Fiction: a maximum of 4,000 words. (Max. 2 articles per issue)

5. Commentary (social or otherwise): a maximum of 4000 words. (Max. 2 articles per issue)

6. Photography & Illustration: we only accept solicited art and photography. Please forward us a link to your work;

7. Please do not send submissions via email; online submissions accepted through Submittable only (mailed submissions are still accepted as well.)

8. Please allow 6 months for a response, though we shall strive as always to respond sooner.

Payment rates for published submissions:

Poetry: $50 per poem

Prose: $.10 per word (to a maximum of $500.)

Submission fees:

Electronic submissions come with a $3.00 submission fee to help cover our Submittable account and thereby allow us to continue accepting online submissions.

Submit electronically here.

If you choose to submit by traditional mail, you will not be charged the submission fee. Mailed submissions can be sent to the address below.

*If submitting by mail, please identify on the front of the envelope the theme issue to which you're submitting.

subTerrain Magazine

P.O. Box 3008, MPO

Vancouver, BC V6B 3X5

Canada

Call for Submissions: The Maine Review

Note: Submissions open May 1, 2024

 

The Maine Review seeks outstanding contemporary fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, including works in translation and hybrid forms. We are pleased to publish new, emerging, and established writers, and are committed to supporting representation, innovation, and literary artistry.
We encourage submitters to read what we’ve published, and whatever you send our way, please carefully read our guidelines. Submissions that do not adhere to them may be unread.

 

We will not publish work that normalizes hatred of any marginalized group or individual, though submitted work may thoughtfully consider subjects of discrimination.

We do not publish academic papers or news writing.

General Guidelines:

• We accept submissions only through Submittable. Submissions must be previously unpublished in print and online.

• We encourage simultaneous submissions, but please withdraw your submission immediately if it is accepted elsewhere. If only part of a submission must be withdrawn, please notify us using Submittable's "message" function.

• We encourage submissions from writers of all backgrounds, including but not limited to LGBTQIA+ writers, BIPOC writers, female-identifying writers, unpublished writers, writers with disabilities, and economically marginalized writers.

• Please address cover letters to the appropriate genre editor. In prose submissions, please include your word count in your cover letter.

• We ask that contributors whose work we've published wait at least one year before submitting again.

• Please send only one submission at a time. We do not accept and cannot refund multiple submissions.

• Please allow us six months before querying.

Fiction and Nonfiction Formatting:

• 12-point Times New Roman font

• Double-spaced

• 1” margins

• Pages numbered

• Please include the word count in your cover letter

• One piece of 3,000 words or fewer (though we will consider longer works of exceptional merit) or three flash pieces no more than 1,000 words each

Poetry Formatting:

• 12-point Times New Roman font

• Single-spaced (or as you would like the poem to appear online)

• Pages numbered

• Maximum three poems, no more than five pages total

Submission Schedule:
We are open for nonfiction, fiction, and poetry submissions from January 1–March 31, May 1–June 30, and September 1–November 30. We frequently open week-long free submission periods, during which general submission periods are paused.

We publish issues biannually in the spring and fall, and nominate for Best American Short Stories, the Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, and other awards.

 

Submission Fees:

We are a nonprofit organization and ask writers to pay a $3 fee per submission, of which we receive $1.86. This fee directly supports our authors, editors, and programs, and helps cover Submittable costs. If this submission fee is a barrier, please email info@mainereview.com for a link to a fee-waived submission. No explanation is needed. *Please do not email us your submission.*

All donations are tax-deductible and direct donations of any amount are also welcome at mainereview.com/donate. No matter what you give, we are grateful for your contribution and support of our publication!

 

Writer Payment:

Fiction and Nonfiction writers receive a $25 honorarium per published flash (1,000 words or fewer) and a $50 honorarium for work 1,001 words or more.

Poets receive a $25 honorarium per published poem.

 

Submit your work here.

Call for Submissions on Theme of "Rural Living": The Gilded Weathervane

The Gilded Weathervane is looking for poems, stories, essays, artwork, and photography that is grounded in the beauty and experience of rural living in its variety of expressions.

General Guidelines

The Gilded Weathervane considers only previously unpublished work. We are published in the fall and spring and accept submissions year round. We do accept simultaneous submissions, but please let us know immediately if your work has been accepted elsewhere. Submission is free, and manuscripts must be submitted electronically via this link: https://forms.gle/aKVMnvSHA3zpT5vd8

 Manuscript Preparation

Each submission should include a cover letter and a short bio, no longer than 150 words. If citations are needed in any of the submissions, please follow MLA Guidelines. We prefer PDF or Word doc submissions.

Fiction

Short stories should be double spaced and no longer than 6,000 words. We also accept flash fiction (no genre fiction, please). Please submit only one longer story at a time. You may submit 3-4 pieces of flash-length prose.

Essays

Essays should be double spaced and no longer than 6,000 words. We also accept flash-length essays. We are particularly interested in creative nonfiction (memoir and personal essays). Please submit only one longer essay at a time. You may submit 3-4 pieces of flash-length prose.

Poetry

Submit 4-6 poems for us to consider in your poetry submissions. Please do not submit entire poetry manuscripts/collections.

Artwork/Photography

Please send only high resolution images as a PNG or JPEG. Art may not be an AI image.

Call for Submissions on Themes of "Environmental Justice": Reckoning 9

Reckoning 9 is open for general submissions! There is no specific theme for this issue; if your work concerns any aspect of environmental justice, from food sovereignty to ocean plastics to industrial cleanup to Indigenous rights, we want to see it. In fact, we look forward most eagerly to perspectives none of us has thought of. Please help us learn and understand.

The editors for the issue will be C.G. Aubrey, Priya Chand, and Catherine Rockwood, with help and support from the rest of the wonderful and brilliant Reckoning staff.

As always, we are seeking art, poetry, short fiction, and creative nonfiction up to 20,000 words in length, in particular from Indigenous, Black, Brown, queer, trans, disabled, neurodivergent and/or otherwise marginalized writers and artists from everywhere, and we pay $50/page for poetry and art, 10c/word for prose.  

Deadline for this issue is the solar equinox, September 22, 2024.

Full guidelines are here. Please submit?