NewPages Blog :: Where to Submit

Happy Friday, writers!

With the rain comes a cool, windy break from the heat—but don’t worry, the 80s will be back soon enough. If you’re enjoying a brief respite from summer’s swelter, we hope you’re able to spend some time outdoors without the usual bug battalion.

Too chilly for your taste? It’s the perfect excuse to cozy up with your laptop and dive into your writing and submission goals. And if you’re not sure where to begin, NewPages has you covered with this week’s creative writing prompt and a fresh roundup of literary submission opportunities.

Inspiration Prompt: The Rusty Years

We often hear that life after 65 is the beginning of the “golden years”—a time of rest, reward, and reflection. A period when retirement brings freedom, joy, and the chance to finally enjoy the fruits of a life well-lived.

But what if that sheen is just a myth?

What if, instead of golden, these years are rusty?

Continue reading “Where to Submit Roundup: July 18, 2025”

Happy Friday!
Can you believe the month is already halfway over next week? Time really flies! With so much to do and so little time, I hope you’re finding moments to enjoy nature this summer with the people you love.

Don’t forget the essentials: sunscreen, bug spray, and plenty of water. Not a fan of plain water? Try flavored hydration drops—they’re especially helpful for those stubborn folks who resist staying hydrated. Cucumbers are also a great, refreshing option!

But I digress…

If you’re not able to get away just yet, NewPages is here to keep your creativity flowing. We’ve got fun writing and art prompts and submission opportunities to help you stay on track with your writing goals until you can shift to vacation mode.

🧠Inspiration Prompt: Face Pareidolia

Sounds intense, right? Face Pareidolia—is it a condition? A disease? A new form of body dysmorphia? Actually, it’s nothing scary at all.

Face pareidolia is the brain’s quirky tendency to see faces in everyday objects. Ever looked up at a cloud and seen not just a bunny or a dragon, but the face of a wise old wizard? Or maybe your pet rock “Bob” reminded you of Bob Ross, thanks to its spongey-looking “afro” and facial features?

Let your imagination run wild—what faces do you see in the world around you?

Continue reading “Where to Submit Roundup: July 11, 2025”

Happy Friday and Happy Independence Day!
Today is July 4, the day Americans celebrate Independence Day. Whether you’re staying cool at home or heading out to celebrate, NewPages has something for you. If you’re relaxing indoors, check out our fun writing prompt and submission opportunities to keep your creativity flowing. If you’re traveling or celebrating, no worries—our weekly roundup will be here when you’re ready.

Inspiration Prompt: Independence Day

Rather than focusing on traditional national independence celebrations, let’s explore a different angle. In 1994, country music artist Martina McBride released the powerful song “Independence Day,” written by Gretchen Peters. The song tells the story of a young girl whose mother, a victim of domestic abuse, takes a stand—marking a deeply personal and transformative “independence day” for them both.

This week, we invite you to reflect and soul search on the idea of personal independence.

What does your own “independence day” look like?

Maybe you finally left a toxic workplace or relationship.

Maybe you stepped into adulthood, fully independent from your family.

Maybe you overcame cancer or took control of your health after a pre-diabetes diagnosis.

Maybe you broke free from an addiction—whether to drugs, alcohol, or even something that seemed harmless but consumed you, like collecting rocks or scraps of paper.

Or, if you’d prefer to keep it fictional, imagine a world where independence is celebrated in a unique or unconventional way—or create a character who is desperately seeking freedom from something, anything—serious or seemingly silly, but deeply meaningful to them.

What would that journey look like?

Wishing you a safe, joyful, and creatively inspired holiday! When you’re ready, keep scrolling for this week’s roundup of submission opportunities.

Continue reading “Where to Submit Roundup: July 4, 2025”

Welcome to our June 27, 2025 writing prompt and submission opportunities roundup—your weekly dose of inspiration and places to share your work.

It’s the final full week of June—hard to believe the year is already half over, isn’t it? If you’re lucky enough to be getting a break from the heat vortex that’s been smothering much of the country in sweaty malaise and creative inertia, maybe now’s the time to hit the pool. Or, if it’s still too hot to think, stay inside and focus on your writing, editing, and submission goals.

This week, I was torn between which writing prompt to include in the newsletter versus our weekly roundup of submission opportunities—but in the end, I went with my gut.

Since the end of 2023, I’ve been dealing with a new gut issue: acid reflux. It’s amazing what stress (and the bad eating habits that come with it) can do to your stomach on top of some newly discovered FODMAP issues. That got me thinking…

Writing Prompt: Gut Instinct

When the world is too loud, sometimes the only voice we can trust is the one rumbling in our gut. Whether it’s intuition, indigestion, or something in between, this week we invite you to write about your gut—literally or metaphorically.

• What if your gut had a voice?
• What if it was a character, a symbiote, a weather vane for your emotional climate?

As Ebenezer Scrooge once said in The Muppet Christmas Carol, “You may be an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of an underdone potato.”

Sometimes our ghosts—and our stories—start in the stomach.

And in the immortal words of Little Giants:
“I use these for acid indigestion.”
“What are we going to use them for?”
“Intimidation.”

If you know, you know. If you don’t…go watch Little Giants now.

Gut health is a serious topic, but maybe getting creative about our woes and maladies can bring some relief—if not physical, then at least mental or spiritual.

After going with your gut, keep scrolling to find a submission opportunity that speaks to it.

Continue reading “Where to Submit Roundup: June 27, 2025”

Today marks the first day of summer—the summer solstice. And in honor of both the season’s arrival and the oppressive heat that’s rolled in this week, what better way to get your creative juices flowing than by exploring one of summer’s more dramatic downsides?

We’re also back with a fresh roundup of submission opportunities to help you find a home for your work. So grab your laptop, a cold matcha latte, and head to your local library, bookstore, or that blessedly air-conditioned coffee shop—and dive in.

Writing Prompt: Stormy Weather

There comes a time in every life when the air turns thick and stale—when the heat presses down like a weight, and even the hum of a fan feels like a cruel joke. The energy to move, to think, to cook, evaporates. You sit, sweat pooling, praying for something—anything—to break the spell.

Then, it comes. A low rumble. A flicker of light. The sky cracks open and the storm rolls in—thunder shaking the windows, lightning slicing the sky, and finally, finally, a breath of cool air. Relief, wrapped in chaos.

Have you lived through days like these? When your clothes felt like damp rags and your mood was as volatile as the weather? When the phrase “it’s not the heat, it’s the humidity” became a personal mantra—or a punchline?

Or maybe you’ve never known that kind of oppressive summer. But can you imagine it? A world where the very air turns against you, where you long for the violence of a storm just to feel alive again. In our house, it was tradition to throw the curtains wide and marvel at the storm, even as the radio warned us to take shelter in the basement.

This week, we invite you to write about stormy weather—literal or metaphorical. Maybe your character is trapped in a sweltering city, waiting for the sky to break. Maybe the storm is emotional, a long-awaited release after a period of tension. Or maybe you want to explore a sci-fi world where humidity is weaponized and storms are currency. Perhaps you’ll craft a poem where the pacing mirrors that bated breath and sweet release.

Whatever your take, let the pressure build—and then let it pour. Then see below for places to submit your work.

Continue reading “Where to Submit Roundup: June 20, 2025”

Happy Friday! Whether you’re superstitious or skeptical, NewPages has your creative fuel—offering inspiration to jumpstart your writing along with submission opportunities to keep you busy. If Friday the 13th sends a shiver down your spine, maybe hold off on submitting until tomorrow. But today? Perfect for setting your plans in motion.

Writing Prompt: Demystifying 13

In honor of Friday the 13, why not embrace this as our prompt? Is thirteen a symbol of fortune or misfortune?

Throughout history, cultures have clashed over the meaning of this number. In Western traditions, it’s often associated with bad luck—especially on a Friday. Some link this superstition to the Last Supper, where Judas became the infamous 13th guest before the crucifixion. Others cite Norse mythology, where Loki disrupted a feast of twelve gods, leading to chaos. The thirteenth card in a Tarot deck is death.

But in many cultures, thirteen marks a positive transformation. Jewish tradition celebrates thirteen as the age of maturity with a bar mitzvah. In Mesoamerican civilizations, thirteen symbolized an important cycle in the sacred calendar, tied to cosmic order and spiritual growth. Even the ancient Egyptians viewed thirteen as a number of ascension in the afterlife.

Are these beliefs simply passed down without question, or do they reflect something deeper? For this prompt, explore how the number thirteen shapes luck, culture, or personal experience. Write about a character who defies superstition, a society built on the sacred power of thirteen, or a twist of fate where thirteen holds unexpected meaning. Write a poem reflecting on the ways thirteen has shaped your fortune—or misfortune. Craft a lyric essay unraveling superstition, questioning beliefs that may crumble under close scrutiny. Or…how about a tongue-in-cheek experiment where you test all things related to 13 and luck that you can and record the results?

Whether thirteen is a blessing or a curse is up to you—so grab your pen and explore! And don’t wait too long—June 15 is right around the corner, and plenty of submission opportunities are ending soon.

Continue reading “Where to Submit Roundup: June 13, 2025”

Welcome, June! After weeks of Mother Nature flip-flopping between chilly mornings and surprise heatwaves, it seems she’s finally made up her mind. Summer is here in full force. A gentle, much-needed rain gave the gardens a break—thankfully, no wild weather this time.

But this week brought a personal challenge: on Sunday, my grandfather took a fall and fractured his left shoulder. Fortunately, it happened after his birthday—and after our big Memorial Day celebration, when we were all together.

It’s a strange kind of gratitude, but it made me pause and think—sometimes, finding a silver lining in a tough situation is the only way to stay grounded. It reminded me of a line from A Smoky Mountain Christmas, where Dolly Parton’s character comforts a wary orphan, “It could’ve been better, but it could’ve been a whole lot worse.” That line stuck with me.

Writing Prompt: Finding A Ray of Silver Lining

Write about a time you had to find the bright side of a bad situation—what helped you shift your perspective, and what did you learn?

Whether it’s a small inconvenience or a major life event, we all have moments where optimism feels like a stretch—but those are often the stories that stick with us the most.

Not ready to get too personal? That’s totally fine. Try reflecting on a recent news story—can you find a silver lining? Or write about a time when optimism felt impossible. What helped you cope?

Ready to keep writing? Scroll down to explore different submission opportunities where your voice and story might find a home.

Continue reading “Where to Submit Roundup: June 6, 2025”

May is winding down, and the garden is in full swing—along with the critters who think your hard work is their personal salad bar. While NewPages can’t help you fend off deer, rabbits, or rogue field mice, we can supply a fresh dose of writing inspiration and a bounty of submission opportunities to keep your creative goals thriving.

✨ Heads up! June is just around the corner, and that means new deadlines are blooming. Be sure to check out our freshly updated Big List of Writing Contests—to help you plan your next round of submissions.

Writing Prompt: Deerstruction!

It never fails, does it? You sweat and toil—planting, fertilizing, watering, pruning—only to have your efforts thwarted by a gang of majestic, yet maddening, garden invaders: DEER. Or maybe it’s rabbits. Or field mice. Any adorable pest that turns your hard work into a buffet, razing carefully tended flowers, herbs, shrubs, and veggies to the ground… or yanking up plants with what feels like spite, only to spit them out.

Can you channel that frustration into a poem, story, essay, or hybrid piece? Or maybe it’s a metaphor for the writing process itself: you labor over your words, only to have readers or editors tear through your work in unexpected—and sometimes painful—ways, deconstructing your carefully crafted creation.

Use this prompt to spark something new—and then scroll down to explore this week’s submission opportunities.

Continue reading “Where to Submit Roundup: May 30, 2025”

It’s that time of the week again—Fri-yay! 🎉

NewPages is back with our weekly roundup of submission opportunities, plus a dose of creative inspiration to help get your ideas flowing. Kick off the long weekend with fresh prompts and venues to help you hit your writing and publishing goals.

Inspiration: Just Like ABC

Abecedarian poems can be tricky—finding the right rhythm and words for those tough letters like Q, X, and Z is no small feat. But what if you turned that challenge into a song?

Back in elementary school, we learned songs that celebrated Michigan’s history—from voyageurs and logging camps to sailing the Great Lakes. One song stood out: it listed reasons why Michigan was a great place to live, from A to Z.

That got me thinking: what if you created your own alphabetical ode to where you live? Try listing reasons—serious or silly—why your state, city, township, or province is wonderful. Or flip the script and list reasons you don’t love it. Maybe even do both for a fun contrast.

You don’t have to stick to song lyrics or poetry. This could become a children’s story, a young adult piece, a lyric essay, or even an adult picture book. Explore how the quirks and flaws of a place might actually be what makes it feel like home.

Stretch those creative muscles. And if you have kids, get them involved! It’s a great long weekend activity that might just spark something worth submitting.

Speaking of the long weekend—NewPages wishes you a wonderful and safe Memorial Day.

Continue reading “Where to Submit Roundup: May 23, 2025”