At the NewPages Blog readers and writers can catch up with their favorite literary and alternative magazines, independent and university presses, creative writing programs, and writing and literary events. Find new books, new issue announcements, contest winners, and so much more!
This issue fatures work by Janice N. Harrington, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Cindy Juyoung Ok, Danny Thiemann, and Zack Finch. Additional fiction by Siân Griffiths, Anu Kandikuppa, and Brendan Williams-Childs; nonfiction by Lauren Haldeman and Megan Baxter; and poetry by Diana Khoi Nguyen, Stella Wong, April Freely, Phillip West, Joshua Bennett, Bryce Emley, Chee Brossy, Ellen Samuels, Stacy Gnall, Dorothy Chan, and more. See a full list of contributors at the Colorado Review website.
The Arts & Letters Fall Issue is out! This issue features our annual prize winners, as well as fiction by E. A. Bagby, Emma Wunsch, and Brett Armes; flash fiction by Dog Cavanaugh and Andrew Kane; poetry by Michael Waters, Joshua Garcia, Anne Barngrover, Nicholas Samaras, Yerra Sugarman, Elisabeth Murawski, Arthur Vogelsang, and Kay Cosgrove; and creative nonfiction by Sonja Livingston and Kevin Callaway.
More info at the Arts & Letters website.
Bellevue Literary Review is celebrating 20 years of publication with Issue 41, the 20th Anniversary Issue! Founding Editor Danielle Ofri opens the issue with a foreword that details the journal’s beginnings.
“Pulling together an inaugural issue during the summer of 2001 was both heady and nerve-wracking, as we trod uncharted territory in everything from poetic sensibility and creative-nonfiction definition to font size and paper weight. We packed the first issue off to press in the first week of September and then the attacks of 9/11 occurred. Everything ground to a halt in New York City, logistically and emotionally. Not only could we not get our print run delivered, but we could hardly muster the spirit to find joy in any accomplishment. In the heavy pall of grief, everything else seemed inconsequential.”
Ofri goes on to recount how they moved forward and what happened in the wake of the tragedy of 9/11. In the following pages, readers can check out a 20th Anniversary Editorial Roundtable where “editors past and present, plus our founding publisher, [ . . . ] offer reflections on the BLR‘s founding and its evolution over two decades of publishing.” Check out the issue here.
The Winter 2021 issue of Rattle features the Rattle Poetry Prize winner and finalists.
Winner
“Encephalon” by Ann Giard-Chase
Finalists
“After My Teenager Tries to Kill Herself . . .” by Elizabeth Johnston Ambrose
“This Is How I Make My Money” by Heather Bell
“Do You Have Children?” by Susan Browne
“Follow Me” by Rayon Lennon
“Black Boys as Fireflies” by Dayna Hodge Lynch
“White Privilege Skydives with Black Guy in Appalachia” by Mary Meadows
“The Internet of Things” by Erin Murphy
“Exodus: Gilliam Coal Camp, West Virginia, 1949” by L. Renée
“Purgatorio” by Zella Rivas
“My Father Transformed by Dying” by Richard Westheimer
Subscribers to Rattle can vote for their favorite out of the finalists to determine the winner of the $5,000 Readers’ Choice Award. The voting deadline is February 1.
Gift yourself or someone special Creative Nonfiction goodies this holiday season. Until Friday, December 12, the literary journal is offering discounts on magazines, subscriptions, books, and merch.
Get books for as low as $8, back issues of Creative Nonfiction for $2.50 each, back issues of True Story for $1, 33% off one-year subscriptions, and up to 33% off merch.
Show off your love of CNF on your bookshelves or in your wardrobe and learn more about this limited time sale here.
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!
Continue reading “Weekly Round-up of Calls & Contests :: December 3, 2021”
The MFA in Creative Writing program at George Mason University combines acclaimed faculty with a welcoming community to be the place where you want to create literary art. With the new Watershed Lit: Center for Literary Engagement and Publishing Practice, we are here to develop your artistic and professional careers. Students can receive funding as Graduate Teaching Assistants or Graduate Professional Assistants. Be part of the rich cultural life at Mason, in Northern Virginia, and throughout the Washington, D.C., region. Check out a recording of our recent Online Open House! Just email MasonCW@gmu.edu to request access.
Deadline: Rolling
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.
Guest Post by Antonio Addessi.
In Anatomy of Want, Lee takes us deep into the intimacy between lovers, the memories they create, hold on to and try to forget but can’t. Through his talent for noticing the small details of everyday life, he arouses all of the senses, often on the same line or stanza.
In poems like “Compliments to the Cook” and “La Cocina,” Lee wafts the scents of fragrant food into our noses and holds up the spoon to our mouths to taste the poems coming off the pages. The longing to love and be loved is stitched tightly into each line as we’re carried through cityscapes with lively streets and dark bedrooms with empty beds all reminding us of lovers lost.
Anatomy of Want is an enticing and heartfelt ode to what it means to give part of yourself to the people you allow close to you. In it we see ourselves as the speaker, the holder of secrets and the teller of truths sometimes hard to swallow. The nostalgia exudes itself onto every page—evoked by memories of sorrow and loss, of growing up too fast and living in an often foreign feeling state that is strangely familiar. Its Americana places us deep in the heart of Manhattan’s subway systems and the long aisles of grocery stores filled with people that infinitely stay strangers. This book is definitely on the edge of what poetry is going to look and feel like for years to come. It is one that deserves to be read and reread for it’s intimate look at what being human truly is.
Anatomy of Want by Daniel W. K. Lee. Rebel Satori Press, 2019.
Reviewer bio: Antonio Addessi is a poet and writer living in New York City. He received his MFA from Columbia University (’20) and his debut book of poetry Sleeptalking, published by Rebel Satori Press, comes out April 2022.
Deadline: January 31, 2022
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.
CRAFT has announced the winners of its 2021 First Chapters Contest selected by guest judge Masie Cochran of Tin House. The winning entries will be published in December, so keep an eye out!
Congratulations to the winners, finalists, and honorable mentions. You can view the full longlist and honorable mentions here.
Winners
First Place: Sam Simas, We the Liars
Second Place: Sena Moon, Familiar Strangers
Third Place: Leigh Comacho Rourks, When We Drowned
Finalists
Vanessa Banigo, The Nigerwife
Catherine Carberry, Untitled
Catherine Con Morse, The Notes
C. Quintana, The Twisted Fate of La Media Luna
Steve Sanders, The Agreed Upon Facts
Kirsten Scott, Liberty Park
Amy Stuber, In a Dark Corner Shining
JJ Tan, Angels Unaware
Allison Torgan, Red State
John Vurro, Video Planet
Taylor Werner, What Empties As It Fills
Marie Williams (Nia Forrester), Those Less Fortunate
Registration Deadline: Rolling
Amherst Writers & Artists (AWA) workshops follow a proven method that affirms writers by building confidence, creating an atmosphere of equal exploration, and protecting confidentiality. AWA trains writers to uphold the AWA method and become workshop leaders who work with everyone from novice writers, who have been led to believe they have no voice, to experienced writers seeking to hone their craft. AWA-trained leaders have founded a number of incredible non-profits devoted to using writing to address social justice issues. See our website for more information.
Guest Post by Marc Martorell Junyent.
The border between current events and history is a blurry one. David Kilcullen and Greg Mills tread on both sides of this imaginary boundary in The Ledger: Accounting for Failure in Afghanistan. The co-authors have a long experience in Afghanistan working for the international military coalition in the country.
Throughout the book, they manifest their frustration for the chaotic evacuation of US citizens and Afghans that unfolded in August 2021. In their own words, “it would not have taken a rocket scientist to devise a better, more orderly, system.”
Their criticism extends to a much longer time period, however. According to the authors, the West never had a clear strategy in Afghanistan. By focusing on short-term goals, the troops and economic aid deployed to the country did not help build solid structures, but only delayed the collapse of a system based on clientelism, corruption, and the inclusion of former warlords.
Kilcullen and Mills argue that not inviting the Taliban to sit at the negotiation table in the 2001 Bonn Conference, convened right after their overthrow from power, was a key missed opportunity. The US ended up negotiating with the Taliban in the 2020 Doha Agreement from a much weaker position.
The Ledger is particularly strong in the anecdotical evidence it presents, based on the authors’ wide range of contacts among Afghan elites and Western officials. On the contrary, the reader would probably have welcomed a more consistent book structure. The continuous chronological and thematical shifts are often confusing and lead to redundancies.
When it comes to the immediate future of Afghanistan, Kilcullen and Mills defend the idea that the restoration of aid flows to the country is needed for both humanitarian reasons and maintaining a certain influence with the Taliban.
The Ledger: Accounting for Failure in Afghanistan by David Kilcullen and Greg Mills. Hurst, January 2022.
Reviewer bio: Marc Martorell Junyent graduated in International Relations and currently studies a joint Master in Comparative Middle East Politics and Society at the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen and the American University in Cairo. His main interests are the politics and history of the Middle East (particularly Iran, Turkey and Yemen). He has studied and worked in Ankara, Istanbul and Tunis. He tweets at @MarcMartorell3.
The Winter 2021 issue features our 11 Rattle Poetry Prize winners. The open section features the usual wide-ranging poems with humor and heart. These poems cover love, evolution, Robin Hood, and the DMV. The conversation section takes an unusual turn, where psychologist James Pennebaker discusses his lifetime of research on the benefits of expressive writing. Learn more at the Rattle website.
We’re excited to announce our beautiful new Chanukah issue! Here you’ll find 12 splendid stories, originally written in Yiddish, Hebrew, and English, and in honour of the upcoming holiday, one of them is a Chanukah story: “Rock of Ages.” Enjoy our new issue and, to those who celebrate, Happy Chanukah (and Happy Thanksgiving)! Now at the Jewish Ficion .net website.
Deadline: January 14, 2022
$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 write to Colorado Prize for Poetry, Center for Literary Publishing, 9105 Campus Delivery, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523-9105.
Let’s take a peek inside the newest issue of Hippocampus Magazine; inside, you’ll find essays and flash CNF such as: “Up” by Michelle Bailat-Jones, “Seeing Bone” by Emma Bruce, “Teeth” by Gavin Paul Colton, “How to Preserve a Body” by Lauren Cross, “What I Took After She Died in the Memory Care Wing” by Irene Fick, “Rewind” by Jennifer Fliss, “German Lessons” by Sue Mell, and more. See what else to expect in this issue at the Mag Stand.
A special portfolio of writing from the Arabian Gulf countries, fiction from a farm in Ireland, a retirement community in India, and the Basque Country in the 1960s, essays about Easter Island, living in Greece, and exploring the Southern Ocean, and poems by Tom Sleigh, Stephanie Dinsae, Vernita Hall, and Colin Channer.
More info at The Common website.
New issue of Baltimore Review with new poetry by Iqra Khan, Gerry LaFemina, Caroline Pittman, Dannye Romine Powell, Emily Franklin, Merna Dyer Skinner, John Glowney, and Janet Jennings; fiction by J.T. Robertson, Madison Jozefiak, Nicholas Maistros, and Justine Chan; and creative nonfiction by Brandon Hansen, Morgan Florsheim, and Kerry Folan.
More info at the Baltimore Review website.
In this issue, find the novella “Like a Bomb Went Off” by Kristopher Jansma. Stories by Mackenzie McGee, Nathan Curtis Roberts, Jonathan Starke, Ada Zhang, Matt Greene, Heather Monley, and Laurie Baker. Essays by Jehanne Dubrow, Dawn Davies, Jane McCafferty, Alex Chertok, Kirsten Reneau, Jai Dulani, and Sara Eliza Johnson. One long poem by Bruce Bond, and other poems by Felicia Zamora, Lara Egger, and more. Find more poetry contributors at the Alaska Quarterly Review website.
Chatham’s MFA in Creative Writing grows from Rachel Carson ’29, a creative writer known for her social conscience. Our students treat writing as a public act with the power to effect meaningful change. Their ideas, convictions, and writing matters. Our students think deeply about their spaces and identities. They look within then connect to the world with care and intention. Concentrations include travel writing, nature writing, food writing, publishing, social engagement, and pedagogy to complement the MFA degree with genres in poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and children’s writing (low-residency only). Additionally, we offer an on-ground full-residency program and a low-residency program.
Issue 43 of Nimrod International Journal is all about award winners! Check out the winners and finalists of the Katherine Anne Porter Prize for Fiction and the Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry.
The Katherine Anne Porter Prize for Fiction
First Prize
“White Black People” by Celine Aenlle-Rocha
Second Prize
“The Inventories” by Paula Closson Buck
Honorable Mentions
“A Dolphin in Pain” by Rachel Furey
“God Is In Your Body” by Rachel Reeher
Finalists
“Wife Of; or, What Does It Mean to Be Haunted?” by Jennifer Blackman
“The Southern Part of the State” by Teresa Milbrodt
“Thug” by Edvin Subašić
The Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry
First Prize
“Spell for Patience” and other poems by Emily Rose Cole
Second Prize
“Now” by Julie Marie Wade
Honorable Mentions
“Vanishing Point” and other poems by Laura Apol
“Like a Friend” and other poems by Francesca Bell
“Everything I Love I Want to Consume” and other poems by Angela Sucich
Deadline: January 15, 2022
Background: The contest is in honor of Emma Howell who was born in Portland, Oregon, and died in 2001, at the age of twenty. She left behind a single volume of poetry: Slim Night of Recognition. This prize is an effort to promote the publication of young poets, to honor Emma’s memory, as well as honor the time and effort her father, Christopher Howell, former Director of Willow Springs Books, has put into our press. Prize: $2,000 + manuscript publication. Eligibility: Poets 35 years old and younger who have not yet published a book-length poetry manuscript. Submit: bit.ly/3aE00R3.
Get ready to add new books to your holiday wish list! Check out this month’s featured Book Stand titles.
Running Out of Words for Afterwards by David Hargreaves gives voice to cycles of desire, loss, and renewal.
Temple University Press has just released Invisible People by Alex Tizon in paperback. This book collects the best of Tizon’s rich, empathetic accounts.
The linked stories in Cara Blue Adams’s precise and observant You Never Get It Back offer elegantly constructed glimpses of the life of main character Kate.
You Better Be Lightning by Andrea Gibson is a queer, political, and feminist collection guided by self-reflection.
Also this month on the Book Stand, find new and forthcoming releases from Diode Editions including Dorothy Chan’s Babe, Shanta Lee Gander’s Ghettoclaustrophobia, and Kendra DeColo & Tyler Mills’ collaborative chapbook, Low Budget Movie.
You can learn more about each of these New & Noteworthy books at our website. Click here to see how to place your book in our New & Noteworthy section.
Guest Post by Mille King.
Patrick Ness’s A Monster Calls represents the term ‘tear-jerker’; it explores themes of pain, loss, and guilt in a real and relatable way. It is clear that Conor, the protagonist, sees himself as a monster for wanting the pain he is going through to be over, even if this means losing his mother. This guilt manifests in a physical monster who he believes visits him but no one else can see. The monster helps Conor through his pain and helps him discover emotions even Conor didn’t know he had.
Ness shows how guilt comes from deep down and we often can’t acknowledge it because we cover it with lies and believe what we want to believe, even when we don’t actually fully believe it. This is a beautiful journey of self discovery and I loved every moment of it.
A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness. Walker Books / Candlewick Press, May 2011.
Reviewer bio: My name is Millie King, I am an English literature major and read not only for school, but for fun too! I always struggled with dyslexia so reading was hard for me but I have overcome those obstacles and am an avid book reader!
Buy this book from our affiliate Bookshop.org.
2022 Kallisto Gaia Press Saquaro Poetry Prize flier 
Deadline: December 31, 2021
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
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.
18th Annual Virtual Palm Beach Poetry Festival is taking place January 10-15, 2022. Focus on your work with America’s most engaging and award-winning poets. Workshops with Kim Addonizio, Laure-Anne Bosselaar, Chard deNiord, Mark Doty, Yona Harvey, John Murillo, Matthew Olzmann, and Diane Seuss. One-On-One Conferences with Lorna Blake, Sally Bliumis Dunn, Nickole Brown, Jessica Jacobs, and Angela Narciso Torres. A special Craft Talk by Kwame Dawes, Special Guest Poet, Yusef Komunyakaa. Poet-at-Large, Aimee Nezhukumatathil. To find out more, visit www.palmbeachpoetryfestival.org. There’s still time to purchase tickets to individual events and apply for a one-on-one conference!
Guest Post by Shaelynn Long.
Marie Rutkoski’s The Midnight Lie is a riveting combination of a society rooted in socioeconomic and hierarchical issues and a young woman who believes the life of crime she has chosen was, in fact, her choice. When the main character, Nirrim, discovers that the rules that were seemingly in place to keep her safe are doing more than that, she partners up with a gorgeous traveler, Sid, to find out more about the magic within the places she’s been kept from.
The story has it all: excitement, a love interest, magic, and mystery. It would also be remiss not to mention the LGBTQ nature of the romantic plotline, which is told beautifully. Overall, the story is worth the read, especially if you’re seeking something rooted in the fantastical that still discusses the problematic nature of the relationships between those who have and those who do not.
The Midnight Lie by Marie Rutkoski. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, March 2020.
Reviewer bio: Shaelynn Long is a Michigan-based author who spends the majority of her free time consuming all the books she can, often while surrounded by her three dogs. She is the author of Blur, Work In Progress, and Dirt Road Kid. You can find more about Shaelynn at her website.
Buy this book from our affiliate Bookshop.org.
Adroit Journal‘s Adroit Prizes are awarded to two undergraduate or secondary students annually. The 2021 judges were Carl Phillips and Samantha Hunt.
Winners receive $200 and publication. Runners-up and finalists also receive publication. You can read the pieces now in Issue 39 released in October.
Stephanie Chang | Poetry | Kenyon College, ‘25
Enshia Li | Nonfiction | Stanford University, ‘22
Amal Haddad | Fiction | Swarthmore College, ‘22
Delilah Silberman | Poetry | Bennington College, ‘21
Aluna Brogdon | Fiction | Williams College, ‘26
Eliza Browning | Poetry | Wheaton College, ‘22
David Emeka | Fiction | The Federal University of Technology – Owerri, ‘21
Aidan Forster | Fiction | Brown University, ‘22
Jack Goodman | Poetry | Walter Payton College Preparatory School, ‘22
Sharon Lin | Poetry | Massachusetts Institute of Technology, ‘21
Sofia Montrone | Fiction | Columbia University, ‘21
Jackson Neal | Poetry | University of Wisconsin – Madison, ‘23
Ngoc Pham | Poetry | Macalester College, ‘21
Kit Pyne-Jaeger | Fiction | Cornell University, ‘21
Clara Rosarius | Fiction | Oberlin College, ‘23
Kyle Wang | Poetry | Stanford University, ‘22
The Fall 2021 issue of Weber features a Bernard DeVoto Subfocus which includes an interview with Mark DeVoto, as well as work by Mark Harvey, Nate Schweber, David Rich Lewis, Russell Burrows, and Val Holley. Also in this issue: poetry by Christian Woodard, Eric Paul Shaffer, Stephen Lefebure, Taylor Graham, Joseph Powell, Angelica Alain, and more; and essays by Adam M. Sowards and Ralph Hardy. Find fiction contributors at the Weber website.
In the “Awards” issue: fiction by Paula Closson Buck, Jennifer Blackman, Teresa Milbrodt, and more; poetry by Emily Rose ole, Francesca Bell, Angela Sucich, Kate Kingston, Adrie Rose, Jessica Pierce, Carolyn Oliver, Zack Lesmeister, Liz Marlow, Mara Adamitz Scrupe, Laura Apol, Connor Yeck, Christina Hutchins, Amy Miller, Caroline Earleywine, Gail Gudd Entrekin, Cynthia White, Dan Albergotti, Harley Anastasia Chapman, Kyoko Uchida, John Blair, and lots more.
More info at the Nimrod website.
Published recently at Memoir Magazine is work by Stephen Palgon, Hilarie Pozesky, Natalie Coufal, Nick R. Robinson, Charlotte Wilkins, Heidi Morrell, D.M. Henning, Sylvie Beauvais, Jen Waldron, Jacqueline Regan, Diane de Anda, Spencer Soule, Sharmila Voorakkara, Emma Rose, and more. Now at the Memoir Magazine website.
Featured art by Harald Gaski and Máret Ánne Sara. Essays by Melissa Chadburn, Ananda Devi, Moncia Judge, Worapoj Panpong, George Sand, Jennifer Kwon Dobbs & Shuchi Saraswat, and Isaac Yuen; and fiction by Cristina Rivera Garza, Diaa Jubaili, Tasnim Qutait, Barbara Sutton, Che Yeun,and others. Check out poetry contributors at the AGNI website.
The Masters Review has announced the winners of its 2021 Flash Fiction Contest judged by Stuart Dybek.
In first place, we have Tanya Perkins with “Agora é Sempre” in which “a mere thousand words encompasses oceans complete with their currents, riptides, rogue waves. and rolling plastic.”
In second place, is “Play That Again” by John Glowney. “As the title suggests, an odd set of piano lessons becomes a story that is also about music and emotion, and youth, and the recognition of beauty.”
Candice May’s “How to Develop (Film)” took home third place with its use of modernistic techniques that never overwhelm the underlying story.
You can read all three pieces on The Masters Review‘s Blog.
Don’t forget, The Masters Review has two contests currently open to submissions: Novel Excerpt Contest (deadline 11/30) and the Chapbook Open for Emerging Writers (deadline 12/31).
Catalyze your writing in 2022 and meet with a success unexpected in common hours. Uncommon Hours 2022 monthly virtual class + generative writing community features 10 live classes on craft, publishing, and productivity. Boost your skills with craft tips; support yourself as a writer with self-care practices; and find out how to query agents, write book proposals, pitch editors, and submit to journals.
Deadline: February 1, 2022
Apply now to Georgia College’s MFA Program in Fiction, Poetry, and Creative Nonfiction. We believe in the transformative power of language—prose and poetry. Our program at Georgia College is a small, community-centered, and fully-funded MFA program that values and promotes inclusive and diverse learning opportunities both inside and outside the creative writing classroom.
We are proud to announce our 3rd annual Story Foundation Prize is now open! The winner will receive $1,500 and publication in our summer 2022 issue for a single short story. Submit one short story of up to 10,000 words via our Submission Manager. Our entry fee is $25. Each entrant receives a one-year subscription (three issues) to Story. Deadline: December 15.
Virtual festival takes place January 10-15, 2022. Focus on your work with America’s most engaging and award-winning poets. Workshops with Kim Addonizio, Laure-Anne Bosselaar, Chard deNiord, Mark Doty, Yona Harvey, John Murillo, Matthew Olzmann, and Diane Seuss. Apply to attend a one-on-one conference by December 1. Special Craft Talk by Kwame Dawes, Special Guest Poet Yusef Komunyakaa. Poet-at-Large, Aimee Nezhukumatathil. Find out more at our website.
Deadline: December15, 2021
The 20th Gival Press Poetry Award, with a prize of $1,000 plus book publication in 2022, deadline is December 15, 2021. Original, unpublished manuscripts of 45+ pages in any style are acceptable. Visit: Submittable for complete details, to pay $20 reading fee, and to upload your manuscript.
This year’s co-winners were Judy Juanita of Oakland, CA. and Schuyler Dickson of Houlka, MS. Their respective books will come out in June. The deadline for the new contest is December 31. Please see our website for details. And see our forthcoming books, also. Credit cards accepted for all book purchases.
Deadline: December 31, 2021
TCW is especially inviting artwork to grace the next cover and interior sections of Volume 36 under the 2021 theme: “Disruption, Disguise and Illuminations.” Increasingly, as history meets day to day experiences, epiphanies unfold. And as we self-interrogate the disruption motifs in many of these illuminations, the roots of prevailing disruptions emerge, complicated by disguise. We’re exploring the widest permutations.
A book flies away as soon as it’s completed, defining a pivotal point in the life-arch of the protagonist. A Quiver in the Purlieu, by Amit Verma is a work of magical realism, a coming of age story in the context of the ever expanding universe.
Extended Deadline: January 1, 2022
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. www.interimpoetics.org/test-site-poetry-series
Guest Post by Raymond Abbott.
This book is not new, so what you get is not new fiction as the title suggests. New Fiction from New England was published in 1986 by Yankee Books in Dublin, New Hampshire. Twenty-nine stories and not a clunker in the bunch. All were originally published in Yankee Magazine back when Yankee published stories (fiction). It no longer does, and it is lesser in my opinion as a magazine for no longer doing so. The editor then was Deborah Navas, a skillful writer in her own right.
If you’re looking for variety, and solid storytelling, you will get it here, in abundance, that is if you can find a copy. But do try!
New Fiction From New England edited by Deborah Navas. Yankee Books, 1986.
Reviewer bio: Raymond Abbott lives in Louisville, Kentucky.
Started in 2020 to help bring writers and audiences together in celebration of newly created work, #ObsidanVoices is back with three new events! All events are virtual and free to attend. You do have to register, still, though.
First off is Radiant Youth. Taking place November 19th at 6PM CST, this event is a reading and conversation celebrating Issue 46.2. Lineup includes Sandra Jackson-Opoku, Alex Jennings, C. Liegh McInnis, Chinonye Omeirondi, and Kristina Kay Robinson. Moderator of the event is Danielle L. Littlefield.
Next is Suppose Sorrow Was a Time Machine – a reading and conversation celebrating Obsidian 47.1. This will take place virtually on December 3 at 6PM CST. Moderated by Sheree Renée Thomas and Nandi Comer, the lineup features Sheree L. Greer, Michal “MJ” Jones, Shayla Lawz, Christian Loriel Lucas, and Daniel B. Summerhill.
Lastly, we have Heirloom: Preserving HBCU Futures – a reading and conversation celebrating Obsidian 47.2. This will take place online December 10 at 6PM CST. Moderated by Sheree Renée Thomas and featuring Reynaldo Anderson, Roman Johnson, Tony Medina, Carmin Wong, and more.
If you’re interested in submitting to Obsidian: Literature & Arts in the African Diaspora, they have extended the deadline to submit to their Gender Queer/Genre Queer Playground Special Issue. Ronaldo V. Wilson is the issue’s guest editor. Submissions due by January 1, 2022.
Extended Deadline: December 31, 2021
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 takethefruitanthology@gmail.com, with the subject “submission, Take The Fruit.” Don’t forget the deadline to submit has been extended to December 31! www.amandaekwriter.com/take-the-fruit-flood-the-desert
Deadline: December 15, 2021
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 muse@rcc.edu. 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.
Deadline: January 15, 2022
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/.
Deadline: November 30, 2021
Issue #3 of Abandon Journal is open for submissions until 11/30/21. The theme is “Abandon Time” (interpret that as you wish). No fees for general subs. Accepting just about anything, as long as it is created with abandon, and we pay our contributors. See abandonjournal.com/submissions for full guidelines.