Weekly Round-up of Calls & Contests :: December 3, 2021

Happy December! The year is nearly over with. Hopefully you have been able to keep up with your writing and submission goals. Take a look at the submission and craft advancement opportunities featured on NewPages this past week to help. Newsletter subscribers get an early peek, so subscribe today!

Calls for Submissions

You can view all active calls for submissions by visiting our website. Plus, if you have a young writer in your house, don’t forget you can find publications for them to submit to in our Young Writers Guide.

RCC MUSE Journal – Poetry and Prose Submissions Open. MUSE is especially looking to publish work from under- or misrepresented groups, such as people of color, disabled people, LGBTQ+, present/formerly incarcerated people, and others from a culturally and linguistically diverse background. Through Dec. 15: submit one short story or CNF 1500 words max; up to three poems. Mail to RCC MUSE, Riverside City College, 4800 Magnolia Avenue, Riverside, CA 92506 or email [email protected]. If email, send as attachment with “Last Name – Genre – Title of Submission” in the subject line (e.g., Smith – Prose – “In Summer”). Please include contact information. See full submission guidelines at rcc.edu/muse.

Take The Fruit Religion Abuse Anthology Seeks Subs. Take The Fruit, Flood The Desert: A Religious Trauma Anthology is accepting submissions. Did you question church doctrine and the way leaders/family members used it to lead you? How did the threat of eternal damnation affect you? Did you experience self-loathing or an inability to make decisions? What messages did the church give you about your relationship to your body, sex, and boundaries? How have you healed and reclaimed your identity? Send up to 3 pieces of any genre (Google or Word docs) up to 2,500 words total to [email protected], with the subject “submission, Take The Fruit.” Extended Deadline: December 31, 2021. www.amandaekwriter.com/take-the-fruit-flood-the-desert

Sky Island Journal: Issue 19 (Winter 2022) Call for Submissions. 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 90,000 readers in 145 countries with a powerful, focused, 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 19 before midnight on December 31st, at www.skyislandjournal.com.

Girls Right the World. Issue 6. Fiction, nonfiction, poetry, art, photography, comics, cross-genre, drama. No fee. Deadline: December 31, 2021. *Open to female-identifying writers ages 14-21.*

Jackie Bluu. letters i’ll never send anthology. Nonfiction, poetry, cross-genre. No fee. Deadline: December 31, 2021.

Vineyards Press. Heart of a Man Volume 2: Men & Work. Fiction, nonfiction, poetry, comics, cross-genre, narrative essay. No fee. Payment: $0.05/published word. Deadline: December 31, 2021.

Heron Tree: Call for Submissions. Heron Tree is open for submissions through January 15, 2022. We will read submissions and make decisions on a rolling basis. Accepted poems will be published individually online (one poem a week beginning in February 2022) and then collected in Heron Tree volume 9, which will be available as a free downloadable ebook. This special issue will be devoted to found poetry. See our detailed submission guidelines at herontree.com/how/.

Mistake House Magazine Seeks Submissions from Graduate & Undergraduate Writers .Mistake House Magazine publishes fiction and poetry by students in graduate or undergraduate programs worldwide. We seek inventive work that speaks to the heart in a complex global context, including work expressive of documentary poetics. Submission window: October 15, 2021 to March 15, 2022. Submission fee $5. Guidelines at www.mistakehouse.org/submit/.

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! chestnutreview.com

Atmosphere Press Reading Book Manuscripts in All Genres. 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 atmospherepress.com.

Call for Submissions: Storm Cellar. Storm Cellar seeks new and amazing writing and art for its spring issue! We are a journal of safety and danger, in many senses, in print and ebook formats since 2011. Send secrets, codes, adventures, mad experiments, and wild things. Black, Indigenous, POC, LGBTQIA+, disabled, neurodivergent, fat, border-straddling, poor, and other marginalized authors encouraged, bonus points for a Midwest connection. Now paying; limited no-fee submissions available each month. Full guidelines and F.A.Q. at stormcellar.org/submit and submit at Submittable.

Writing Contests

Don’t forget to check out all active contests on our website! Like to plan your submissions calendar in advance? The Big List of Writing Contests lists a variety of book, magazine, and chapbook contests by their deadline date. Plus don’t forget to go through our contests for young writers. The majority of those contests are free to enter.

2022 Press 53 Award for Short Fiction. Press 53 Award for Short Fiction: First Prize $1,000, publication, and 50 copies (ten hardcover and 40 softcover) awarded to an unpublished collection of short stories. Press 53 Short Fiction Editor, Claire V. Foxx, will judge. Enter online through Submittable. Deadline: midnight, December 31, Eastern Time. Winner and finalists announced before May 1, 2022. Reading fee: $30. Complete information, plus a list of past winners at www.press53.com/award-for-short-fiction. Questions should be directed to Kevin Morgan Watson, Publisher and Editor in Chief at [email protected] or 336-770-5353.

Acacia Fiction Prize: $1,200 + Publication. Send us your polished manuscripts of Short stories, Flash Fiction, Novellas or any combination totaling 45K to 75K words. Winner Receives $1,200, publication by Kallisto Gaia Press, and 20 copies. Runner-Up receives $100 and offer of publication under our generous contract. Gabino Iglesias is the final judge. Individual stories may be previously published. Original work. $25 to play. Submissions through Submittable only. All judging is ID concealed. See website for more info. Deadline: December 31, 2021.

$1,200 & Publication – Saguaro Poetry Prize. Send us your polished manuscripts of original contemporary poetry totaling 28 to 48 pages. Winner receives $1,200, publication by Kallisto Gaia Press, and 20 copies. Runner-Up receives $100 and offer of publication under our generous contract. Guest judge to be announced. Individual poems may be previously published. Original work. $25 to play. Submissions through Submittable only. All judging is ID concealed. See website for more info. Deadline: December 31, 2021.

The Society of Classical Poets 2022 Poetry Competition. The Society of Classical Poets is accepting entries to the 2022 Poetry Competition with a first prize of $2,000. Submit one to three poems. Poems must contain meter (beginners and students may simply count syllables). See website for tutorials. Rhyme and other traditional techniques are encouraged as well, but not required. Submission fee: $20. High School Prize: $200. Submission fee $5. Translation Prize: $100. No submission fees. visit www.ClassicalPoets.org for full details. Deadline: December 31, 2021.

The Annual Memoir Prize for Books. The second annual Memoir Prize awards Memoir and Creative Nonfiction book-length works of exceptional merit in the categories of traditional, self-published, and previously unpublished prose. Submit your full-length memoir on any subject matter for a chance to win cash and a feature in Memoir Magazine. The only contest of its kind dedicated exclusively to the Memoir genre accepts full-length books of memoir or narrative creative nonfiction, essay collections, or graphic narratives for consideration. No restrictions on length, type of publisher, or year of publication. Deadline: December 31, 2021. Enter at memoirmag.com.

Writer’s Relief, Inc. 2021 WaterSedge Poetry Chapbook Contest. Poetry. $20 fee. Prize: $500, publication in print & ebook, 25 author copies. Judge: Maryfrances Wagner. Deadline: December 31, 2021.

Interim Test Site Poetry Series Call for Manuscripts. We’re looking for manuscripts of at least 48 pages that engage the perilous conditions of life in the 21st century, as they pertain to issues of social justice and the earth. Because we believe the truth is always experimental, we’ll especially appreciate books with innovative approaches. Beginning in 2021 and going forward, Interim will be publishing two books in their Test Site Poetry 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 publication by the University of Nevada Press. Extended Deadline: January 1, 2022. www.interimpoetics.org/test-site-poetry-series

2022 Colorado Prize for Poetry. $2,500 honorarium and book publication: Submit book-length collection of poems to the Colorado Prize for Poetry by January 14, 2022 (we will observe a 5-day grace period). $25 reading fee (add $3 to submit online) includes subscription to Colorado Review. Final judge is Gillian Conoley; friends and students (current or former) of the judge are not eligible to compete, nor are Colorado State University employees, students, or alumni. Complete guidelines at coloradoprize.colostate.edu or Colorado Prize for Poetry, Center for Literary Publishing, 9105 Campus Delivery, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523-9105.

2022 William Saroyan International Prize for Writing. Submissions are now being accepted for the 10th Saroyan Prize. The awards, co-sponsored by Stanford Libraries and the William Saroyan Foundation, are “intended to encourage new or emerging writers and honor the Saroyan legacy of originality, vitality, and stylistic innovation.” Two prizes of $5,000 each are given for works of fiction and nonfiction. Writers who have published four books or more are ineligible. Submit five copies of your work published between January 1, 2020, and December 31, 2021, with a $50 entry fee by January 31, 2022. Visit our website for complete eligibility and submission details: library.stanford.edu/saroyan.

3rd Annual Short Short Story Contest to Support Literacy. Ethos Literacy—a nonprofit literacy program—announces its 3rd Annual Short Short Story Contest. 100-word limit on one of these topics: chewing gum, horror movies, skyscrapers, or tubas. Cash prizes: Best in Contest: $250; Best Youth Prize (14 years or younger): $100; 4 Best of Category: $100; People’s Choice $100. Publication in a digital magazine + webcast of winners reading their stories. Submission fee: $10. Proceeds support literacy programs for teens and adults. Deadline: January 31, 2022.

Crazyhorse. Crazyhorse Prize. Fiction, nonfiction, poetry. $20 fee (includes 1-year subscription). Prize: $2,000 and publication per genre. Deadline: January 1-31, 2022.

Muskegon Community College. 10-Minute Play Competition. Drama. $10 fee. Prize: Live staged reading, $100 audience favorite cash prize. Deadline: February 4, 2022.

2022 Nelligan Prize for Short Fiction. $2,500 honorarium and publication in the Fall/Winter issue of Colorado Review: Submit an unpublished story between 2,500 and 12,500 words by March 14, 2022 (we will observe a 5-day grace period). $15 reading fee (add $2 to submit online). Final judge is Ramona Ausubel; friends and students (current or former) of the judge are not eligible to compete, nor are Colorado State University employees, students, or alumni. Complete guidelines at nelliganprize.colostate.edu or Nelligan Prize, Colorado Review, 9105 Campus Delivery, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523-9105.

Orison Books. 2022 Orison Prizes. Fiction, poetry. $25 fee. Prize: $1,500 and book publication. Judges: Rajiv Mohabir, Tania James. Deadline: April 1, 2022.