The Fall 2020 issue of Willow Springs features Joseph Millar, Ramona Ausubel, Jessica Lee Richardson, Andrew Furman, Lawrence Lenhart. Plus Sarah Bates, Dmitry Blizniuk, Bruce Bond, Maggie Graber, Matthew Lippman, J. Estanislao Lopez, Owen McLeod, John A. Nieves, John Sibley Williams, and more.
This issue’s featured interview: “Digging for Gold,” an Interview with Don Kesterson by Terresa Cooper Haskew. Fiction by Ethan Forrest Ross, Michael L. Woodruff, NV Baker, and Rita Ariyoshi. Poetry by Steven Ablon, Mark Burke, Chris Capitanio, Llyn Clague, Shutta Crum, Darren C. Demaree, Craig Evenson, Barbara Greenbaum, Angela Gregory-Dribben, Katrina Hays, Scott T. Hutchison, and more. Also in this issue: a selection of book reviews.
We’re beyond excited to bring you new work from Alicia Ostriker, Diane Seuss, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Jos Charles, Yalie Kamara, David Naimon, and Jordan Jace. We’re also extremely excited to feature poetry by Asa Drake, Thomas Dooley, Mary Biddinger, Kevin Prufer, Maya C. Popa, Jordan Keller-Martinez, and more, prose by Emily Yang and Andreas Trolf, and art by Caroline Zhang, Taylor Wang, Ariel Kim, and others. Read more at The Adroit Journal website.
Deadline: February 2, 2021
NYQ Books is seeking submissions for an anthology to be titled Without a Doubt: poems illuminating faith. Submissions will remain open until February 2, 2021, but may close early should the anthology fill. We are seeking poems that explore faith rather than tell. We seek poems that demonstrate a new and fresh understanding of faith. Poems that rise above religion and redefine spirituality. Poets from any spiritual tradition are welcome. Nontheists and Freethinkers are encouraged to submit. Historically marginalized voices are especially welcome. We are not looking for poems that proselytize. Please see our webpage for complete guidelines.
Deadline: October 1, 2020
Submissions open for creepy and dark flash fiction, prose poetry, and art for the October 16th issue of Club Plum. Blood and monsters are welcome as long as you write them well, as are things felt but not seen. Fear in the silent spaces. Not quite sure if it is horror? Send it along. Staunchly non-horror pieces are welcome for this issue as well, but send sappy elsewhere. Send sad. Send strange. Send beauty that is destined to doom. See clubplumliteraryjournal.com for submission requirements.
Deadline: Rolling
Every year, the University of Arkansas Press accepts submissions for the Miller Williams Poetry Series and from the books selected awards the $5,000 Miller Williams Poetry Prize in the following summer. For almost a quarter century the press has made this series the cornerstone of its work as a publisher of some of the country’s best poetry. The series is edited by Patricia Smith. The deadline for the 2022 Prize is September 30, 2020. For more information visit uapress.com.
Application Deadline: January 1.
One of the first creative writing programs in the country, UNC Greensboro’s MFA is a two-year residency program offering fully funded assistantships with stipends and health insurance. Students work closely with faculty in one-on-one tutorials, take courses in poetry, fiction, publishing, and creative nonfiction, and pursue opportunities in college teaching or editorial work for The Greensboro Review. More at mfagreensboro.org.
The Greensboro Review invites submissions for our annual Robert Watson Literary Prizes in Poetry and Fiction. Send us your previously unpublished poems or stories, now through September 15! Winners each receive a $1,000 cash award and publication in the journal; subscribers submit for free. To learn more, read past winning works, and submit, visit: greensbororeview.org/contest/.
Gival Press is hosting four contests between 2021-2022: the Gival Press Novel Award, the Gival Press Oscar Wilde Award and the Gival Press Short Story Award, and the Gival Press Poetry Award. The Novel Award deadline will be May 30. 2022; the prize is $3k and book publication in 2023. The Oscar Wilde Award for the best LGBTQ poem deadline will be June 27. 2021; the prize is $500 and online publication. The Short Story Award deadline will be August 8, 2021; the prize is $1,000 and online publication. The Gival Press Poetry Award deadline will be December 15, 2021; the prize is $1K and book publication in 2022. For complete details on each contest, visit: www.Givalpress.Submittable.com.
Deadline: Open August 24 – September 21
The Hamilton Stone Review opens for submissions for the Fall 2020 Issue #43 on August 24, 2020 and closes September 21, 2020. Submissions may close early if the issue fills. Poetry submissions should be emailed only to Roger Mitchell at hsrpoetryroger@gmail.com with “HSR” in the subject line. Fiction and nonfiction submissions should be emailed only to Dorian Gossy at HSRproseDEG@gmail.com. For more information, please see www.hamiltonstone.org/hsr.html#submissions.
Deadline: October 1
Winners in fiction, poetry, and nonfiction receive a $5,000 cash prize, publication, promotion, and a virtual event to be determined. Submit one piece of fiction or nonfiction up to 8,500 words or up to 10 pages of poems. Regular entry fee: $25. All-Access entry fee: $30. Each entrant receives a one-year digital subscription to the Missouri Review (normal price $24) and the forthcoming digital short story anthology Strange Encounters, forthcoming from Missouri Review Books. (normal price $8.95). All-Access entrants receive full access to our ten-year digital archive. All entries considered for publication. Deadline: October 1. www.missourireview.com
Deadline: Rolling
Now reading for Volume Ten, our Winter/Spring 2021 issue. Please visit us to read our previous volumes filled with poems from poets the world over, from the first-published to the most acclaimed in literature. A unique voice is highly prized. Be bold, uncensored, take risks. Our hallmark is “STRONG Rx MEDICINE.” We are the home of the long poem! No restrictions as to subject matter, style, or length. Published biannually online. Submissions accepted through our online submission manager, Submittable; a submission fee is charged. theamericanjournalofpoetry.com
The MFA in Creative Writing at Minnesota State University, Mankato seeks to meet the needs of students who want to strike a balance between the development of individual creative talent and close study of literature and language. The program helps to develop work in the genres of fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry. Students typically spend three years completing coursework, workshops, and book-length theses.
Current faculty includes Robin Becker, Candace Black, Geoff Herbach, Diana Joseph, Chris McCormick, Richard Robbins, and Michael Torres. Recent visiting writers include Juan Felipe Herrera, Marcus Wicker, Leslie Nneka Arimah, Danez Smith, Layli Long Soldier, and Ada Limón.
Students have the opportunity to grow within a rich and active community of writers with the Good Thunder Reading Series, the Writers Bloc Open Reading Series, and working on literary magazine Blue Earth Review.
Stop by their listing at NewPages to learn more.
Beginning Dates: July 27; Virtual
Registration Deadline: Rolling
Don’t forget Willow Writers’ Workshops is going virtual this summer and fall! They are offering workshops, providing writing prompts, craft discussions, and manuscript consultations. All levels are welcome. Three different courses are being offered: Desire to Write? An Introduction to Creative Writing; Flash: Writing Short, Short Prose; and Writers Workshop on Thursday Nights, a six-week course focusing on short stories. Summer dates began July 27. The facilitator is Susan Isaak Lolis, a published and award-winning writer. For more information, check out willowwritersretreat.com.
New online publication based at Center for Spirituality, Dialogue, and Service (CSDS) at Northeastern University in Boston, Pensive, seeks work that deepens the inward life; expresses range of religious/spiritual/humanist experiences and perspectives; envisions a more just, peaceful, and sustainable world; advances dialogue across difference; and challenges structural oppression in all its forms. Also seeking work for feature section on Black Lives Matter. Send unpublished poetry, prose, visual art, and translations. Especially interested in work from international and historically unrepresented communities. No fee; currently non-paying. Submit 3-5 pieces via pensivejournal@gmail.com. Questions? Contact Alexander Levering Kern, co-editor or visit pensivejournal.com. Deadline: November 15, but submissions reviewed and accepted on rolling basis.
This issue of The Malahat Review features the 2020 Novella-Prize-winning “Yentas” by Rebecca Păpucaru, Daniel Allen Cox’s “The Glow of Electrum,” Mike Alexander’s “An Afternoon Gentleman,” Matthew Hollett’s “I’m Sorry, I Have to Ask You to Leave,” Ronna Bloom’s “Legend of Saint Ursula,” Alamgir Hashmi’s “Anywhere, 2019,” and Kate Felix’s “Beneath the Pond.” Also in this issue: Sarah Tolmie, Xaiver Campbell, Sarah Venart, Theressa Slind, Chris Banks, Daniel Sarah Karasik, Sarah Lord, Ron Riekki, Paul Vermeersch, and Alisha Dukelow. Plus, a selection of book reviews, and cover art by Sharona Franklin: “Mycoplasma.”
In the newest issue of Carve, find short stories by Caleb Tankersley, Danielle Batalion Ola, Ronald Kovach, and Kirsten Clodfelter, as well as interviews with the authors. New poetry by Jane Zwart, Abbie Kiefer, Collin Callahan, and James Ducat, and new nonfiction by Feroz Rather and Kabi Hartman. In “Decline/Accept,” is “Clean Kills” by Greg November. Read more at the Carve website.
The Writer’s Hotel‘s three writing conferences will be hosted virtually in October instead of in NYC like normal this year.
The All Fiction Writers Conference will take place October 14-20. The schedule has been redesigned to offer their attendees the very best service possible. Major workshops will be capped at nine people instead of their usual fourteen.
2020 faculty this year includes Rick Moody, Jeffrey Ford, David Anthony Durham, Robyn Schneider, Michael Thomas, Ernesto Quiñonez, James Patrick Kelly, Elizabeth Hand, Francine Prose, Saïd Sayrafiezadeh, Sapphire, Elyssa East, Kevin Larimer, Jennie Dunham, Steven Salpeter and TWH Directors Shanna McNair and Scott Wolven. Deadline to apply is August 22.
The Nonfiction Weekend Conference will be held October 1-5. Application deadline is August 28. Faculty includes Meghan Daum, Mark Doty, Carolyn Forché, Richard Blanco, Hisham Matar, Michael Thomas, Beth Ann Fennelly, Molly Peacock, Honor Moore, Saïd Sayrafiezadeh, Elyssa East, Jonathan M. Katz, Kevin Larimer, Stephen Salpeter and TWH Directors Shanna McNair and Scott Wolven.
The Poetry Weekend Conference will take place October 22-26. Deadline to apply is September 1. Faculty includes current U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo, Marie Howe, Heather McHugh, Terrance Hayes, Mark Doty, Cornelius Eady, Deborah Landau, Tim Seibles, Valzhyna Mort, Pádraig Ó Tuama, Camille Dungy, Javier Zamora, Alexandra Oliver, Kevin Larimer, Jenny Xie, TWH Directors Shanna McNair and Scott Wolven.
Originally titled Sojourn, Reunion: The Dallas Review is a literary magazine which has been publishing exceptional short fiction, drama, visual art, poetry, translation work, nonfiction, and interviews for over twenty years. Their mission is to cultivate the arts community in Dallas, Texas and promote the work of talented writers and artists both locally and around the world.
Reunion is published by The School of Arts & Humanities, home of the creative writing program of the University of Texas at Dallas. They publish an annual print volume as well as featuring a new piece of work monthly on their website. You can view past interviews with writers on their website as well.
Stop by their listing on NewPages to learn more.
MFA in Creative Writing at The Ohio State University is designed to help graduate students develop their talents and abilities as writers of poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. Graduate teaching assistants teach special topics undergraduate creative writing courses as well as first-year and second-year writing. Students also have the option to work as editors of the prize-winning literary magazine, The Journal, and to serve on the editorial staff of two annual book prizes.
All students are fully funded for three years in a program well known for its sense of community and a faculty that is committed to teach as much as they are to their own writer. Current faculty includes Kathy Fagan Grandinetti, Michelle Herman, Marcus Jackson, Lee Martin, Elissa Washuta, and Nick White. Recent writers who have visited the program include Tarfia Faizullah, Melissa Febos, Garth Greenwell, Dan Kois, Nicole Sealey, and Danez Smith.
The program also offers special topics in addition to the regular workshops so opportunities abound for students to experiment.
Stop by NewPages to learn more about the program.
Event Dates: August 27, October 8; Virtual
Deadline: Rolling
New six-week virtual seminar offered by The Poetry Lab, Submit It Like You Mean It: All You Need to Know to Successfully Submit Poetry for Publication. Reliable, effective submissions strategy with in-depth guidance on cover letters, bio statements, simultaneous submissions, where to submit, how to create a tracking sheet, and much more. Our goal is to demystify the path to publication with practical tools and insider knowledge in friendly environment. Registration fee $85 and includes one-month subscription to Duotrope. Scholarships are available. First session begins August 27. Learn more at thepoetrylab.com/submit-it.
Deadline: September 15, 2020
Apple Valley Review is reading submissions of short fiction, personal essays, and poetry for the Fall 2020 issue (Vol. 15, No. 2). Flash fiction, prose poetry, fabulism, and translations are welcome. Pieces from the journal have later appeared as selections, finalists, and/or notable/distinguished stories in Best American Short Stories, Best American Essays, Best Microfiction, Best Small Fictions, Best of the Net, Best of the Web, storySouth Million Writers Award, and Wigleaf‘s Top 50 (Very) Short Fictions. Published work is automatically considered for our annual editor’s prize. The current issue, previous issues, and complete submission guidelines are available online. www.applevalleyreview.com
Fledgling online literary magazine Grand Little Things is a journal that embraces versification, lyricism, and formal poetry. Founded in 2020, they feature new poems on a rolling basis. They have recently published work by Dawn Corrigan, Chris Bullard, Brian Yapko, Liana Kapelke-Dale, Peggy Landsman, Ken Gosse, Dan Campion, and P.J. Martin.
They like all formal poems from the sestina to the couplet to sonnets to villanelles and seek to feature new, established, and emerging poets. They also publish blank or free verse poems that utilize traditional poetic techniques.
They believe “language is small. It’s just markings that we’ve assigned meaning to. However, that meaning fills the entirety of our universe.”
Swing by their listing on NewPages to learn more and don’t forget they are open to submissions.
The Awakenings Review is an annual lit mag committed to publishing poetry, short story, nonfiction, photography, and art by writers, poets and artists who have a relationship with mental illness: either self, family member, or friend. Our striking hardcopy publication is one of the nation’s leading journals of this genre. Creative endeavors and mental illness have long had a close association. The Awakenings Review publishes works derived from artists’, writers’, and poets’ experiences with mental illness, though mental illness need not be the subject of your work. Visit www.AwakeningsProject.org for submission guidelines. Check out our latest issue featuring work from Lora Keller, Cornelia A. Blair, Jennifer Fulco, Judith Levison, Jacalyn Shelley, Janet Garber, Aden Ross, Shao Wei, Fred Yannantuono, Jean Tucker, Alan Sugar, and more.
The Michener Center for Writers is the only MFA program in the world that provides full and equal funding to every writer, yet it is the extraordinary faculty and sense of community that most distinguishes them. Theirs is a three-year, fully funded residency program with a unique interdisciplinary focus. While writers apply and are admitted in a primary genre—fiction, poetry, playwriting, or screenwriting—they also study a secondary genre during their time in Austin.
Enrolled students have no teaching duties, allowing them to fully commit themselves to their writing. Only 12 writers are admitted to the program each year so that faculty have ample time to devote to every writer. Current faculty includes Joanna Klink, Lisa Olstein, Roger Reeves, Dean Young, Edward Carey, Oscar Casares, Peter LaSalle, Bret Anthony Johnston, Elizabeth McCracken, Deb Olin Unferth, Stuart Kelban, Richard Lewis, Cindy McCreery, Beau Thorne, Annie Baker, Liz Engelman, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Kirk Lynn, and KJ Sanchez.
Writers also have the opportunity gain professional editing experience with literary magazine Bat City Review; a collaborative process between the Michener Center for Writers, the New Writers Project, and Studio Art.
Stop by their listing at NewPages to learn more.
Deadline: September 30, 2020
We love image-driven poetry that is both bold and vulnerable. Send us 1-3 poems in a single document through Submittable. Every submission is given careful consideration and is read by multiple editors. We care about your work! We also love blending poetry with art and music. All accepted poems are paired with an original piece of art and 5 are chosen for a musical response. Please read all guidelines carefully. We read blind, so no names on the uploaded poems please. To submit, visit: rockvalereview.com/submissions/.
The objective of Nzuri (meaning Beautiful/Fine in Swahili) is to promote the artistic, aesthetic, creative, and scholarly work consistent with the values and ideals of Umoja community. African American and Other Writers and Artists are urged to submit their best written or artistic work for consideration. Check out open submission opportunities for Nzuri Journal of Coastline College at nzuriumojacommunity.submittable.com/submit. We are now accepting submissions in all categories for the Fall 2020 and Spring 2021 issues. Essays and fictional pieces should be a maximum of 4,000 words. Website: nzuriJournal.com.
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 $100 and a copy of the annual anthology of four issues (released each summer). 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! Check out the Summer 2020 issue featuring work by Victoria Nordlund, Juliana Chang, James Owens, Wolff Bowden, Steven Ostrowski, Rick Rohdenburg, Richard Newman, Elisabeth Sharber, Carrie Albert, Angelica Esquivel, Adriana Morgan, Jamie Tews, Erin Little, and William Crawford. chestnutreview.com
In this issue of upstreet, Vivian Dorsel interviews David Jauss. Fiction by Joseph Bathanti, Lee Martin, Midge Raymond, and more; nonfiction by Mason Cashman, Barbara Haas, Jericho Parms, and others; and poetry by Jennifer Barber, Vincent Bell, Patricia Clark, and more.
The Spring 2020 issue is here and it features the winner of the Crazyshorts! Short-Short Fiction Competition (“Spinning Stories” by Bailey Cunningham) alongside outstanding stories, essays, and poems by Rebecca Morgan Frank, Afabwaje Kurian, Iheoma Nwachukwu, W. Scott Olsen, Ira Sukrungruang, Amy M. Alvarez, and more. Read more at the Crazyhorse website.
In the Winter 2020 issue of Cimarron Review: poetry by Allison Hutchcraft, Jennifer Funk, Toshiaki Komura, Amy Bilodeau, Monica Joy Fara, Darren C. Demaree, Laura Read, Isabelle Barricklow, Amber Arnold, Meriwether Clarke, Amie Irwin, Ben Swimm, Sophia Parnok, Brooke Sahni, Will Cordeiro, and Patrick Yoergler; fiction by Nancy Welch, Dan Pope, and Michael Deagler; and nonfiction by R Dean Johnson and Jon Volkmer.
Deadline: Year-round
The Center for Creative Writing has been guiding aspiring writers toward a regular writing practice for more than 30 years. Our passionate, published teachers offer inspiring online writing courses in affordable six-week sessions, as well as one-on-one services (guidance, editing) and writing retreats (virtual for 2020). Whatever your background or experience, we can help you become a better writer and put you in touch with the part of you that must write, so that you will keep writing. Join our inclusive, supportive community built on reverence for creativity and self-expression, and find your way with words. Creativewritingcenter.com.
Have you visited the latest issue of Baltimore Review yet? In the Summer 2020 issue, readers can find the latest contest winners.
Flash Fiction
“Telephone” by Cara Lynn Albert
Flash Creative Nonfiction
“Kept Miniature in Size” by Ellie Roscher
Prose Poetry
“Absence Archive” by Anita Olivia Koester
Check out the full new issue, or spend some time just taking in the contest winners. Either way is a great way to spend some of your Sunday.
Radar Poetry is an online literary magazine devoted to publishing poems from both established and emerging writers. The journal was founded in 2013 by Rachel Marie Patterson and Dara-Lyn Shrager. Each issue features pairings of poetry and visual art, selected by the editors and contributors. They seek to feature visual art that interprets, reimagines, or responds to the poem with which it appears.
Issues are published quarterly and the founders and editors also host workshops and retreats.
Each year, Radar Poetry hosts the Coniston Prize. This award is open to female-identifying poets writing in English. The prize is currently accepting submissions through September 1. This year’s judge is Ada Limón. The winning poet receives $1,500 and publication. $10 reading fee.
Issue 27, published in July, features poetry and art by Lauren Camp, Walker Evans, Jen Jabaily-Blackburn, Dante DiStefano, Honour Mack, Martha McCollough, Jack Delano, and more.
Deadline: October 31, 2020
Our third annual open book prize is accepting manuscripts. If you have a manuscript or know someone who does, please give us a shot. Open to any poet writing in English regardless of previous publication record, the prize seeks to represent the best contemporary writing in high quality editions of enduring value. Prospective entrants are encouraged to familiarize themselves with Conduit, which champions originality, intelligence, irreverence, and humanity. Previously unpublished manuscripts of 48-90 pages should be submitted through our Submittable page or via the USPS. Please visit www.conduit.org/book-prizes for details.
Deadline: September 1, 2020
There is under one month left to submit to the Tiny Fork Chapbook Series. The Hunger Journal has expanded to include The Hunger Press, starting with the Tiny Fork Chapbook Series. We believe art and literature is eternally important, and we want to use this opportunity to welcome new writers and readers into The Hunger community by producing well-designed, dynamic, hand-bound chapbooks. We welcome poetry, prose, and hybrid manuscripts of 15–40 pages. For more details on the Tiny Fork Chapbook Series and submission process, please go to www.thehungerjournal.com/tiny-fork-chapbooks.
Send us your zany, innovative best fiction, poetry, and CNF. We publish bimonthly, and year round. We at Bending Genres also host monthly weekend workshops and retreats. Visit www.bendinggenres.com to check out Issue 15 which features work by Gary Fincke, Ilse Griffin, Max Heinegg, and more.
Deadline: August 31, 2020
Haunted Waters Press now seeking submissions for consideration in Tin Can Literary Review—our upcoming fiction anthology celebrating the works of new, emerging, and seasoned authors. We seek stories told in as little as 500 words and as many as 12,000. Contributors to be paid $250 per published story. Also seeking works of fiction, poetry, and flash for paid print publication in the 18th issue of From the Depths and for 2020 HWP Awards. Details: www.hauntedwaterspress.com. Visit the HWP Contributor Showcase to learn more about our published authors and poets: www.hauntedwaterspress.com/contributor-showcase.
trampset, an online literary journal of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction, seeks new submissions on a rolling basis. They want your best brain, your beating heart. Send that good human stuff their way. They are a paying market and pay $25 per accepted piece. They have 50 free submissions a month through Submittable as well as Tip Jar and Quick Response options. Visit our submissions page: trampset.org/submissions-6e83932b0985.
Visit this month’s Plume featured selection: “From Lewisburg to Syracuse: An interview with Bruce Smith by Chard deNiord.” Sydney Lea, in nonfiction, writes “Inviting the Reader: Narrative Values, Lyric Poems” and Donovan McAbee reviews Kontemporary Amerikan Poetry by John Murillo.
The August issue of The Lake features Rey Armenteros, Robert G. Cowser, Rhienna Renèe Guedry, Stella Hayes, Karen McAferty Morris, Anthony Owen, Fiona Sinclair, Shelby Stephenson, Hannah Stone, Grant Tarbard. Reviews of Oz Hardwick’s The Lithium Codex, Jeffrey McDaniel’s Holiday in the Islands of Grief, and J.R. Solonche’s The Time of Your Life.
The latest issue of Colorado Review features fiction by Jessica Treadway; nonfiction by Jennifer Genest; and poetry by Saretta Morgan, M.A. Cowgill, and Matthew Gellman. See other contributors at the Colorado Review website.
Deadline: September 7, 2020
Award-winning print & online Into the Void is open to submissions of fiction, flash, creative nonfiction, poetry, & visual art for Issue #17 through September 7. Payment is $10 per poem/flash/art or $20 per long-from prose piece, a contributor copy, & a one-year online subscription. No theme, & no reading fees until Submittable monthly limits reached. Send us something that makes us feel alive. Details: intothevoidmagazine.com/submissions/.
Deadline: October 15
Speckled Trout Review is planning a special print issue on the theme of CRISIS for its Fall 2020 (2.2) publication. In a lifetime we experience crises of the heart, the mind, and the body, as well as global crises—the present COVID-19 pandemic, racial unrest and social injustices, natural catastrophes, and many others that leave indelible impressions. We want to hear from poets whose speakers come out stronger after a crisis. The deadline is Oct. 15. Please read the guidelines carefully before submitting. Specific guidelines can be found here: speckledtroutreview.com/2019/08/04/welcome-to-my-blog/.
Deadline: September 30, 2020
18th 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. Fee: $15 per poem. Length limit: 250 lines. Judged by S. Mei Sheng Frazier, assisted by Jim DuBois. This contest is recommended by Reedsy as one of the best of 2020. See past winners, advice from the judge, and submit online at winningwriters.com/tompoetry.
Submissions accepted year-round.
John Updike once said, “Creativity is merely a plus name for regular activity. Any activity becomes creative when the doer cares about doing it right, or better.” At Driftwood Press, we are actively searching for artists who care about doing it right, or better. We are excited to receive your submissions and will diligently work to bring you the best in full poetry collections, novellas, graphic novels, short fiction, poetry, graphic narrative, photography, art, interviews, and contests. We also offer our submitters a premium option to receive an acceptance or rejection letter within one week of submission; many authors are offered editorships and interviews. To polish your fiction, note our editing services and seminars, too. www.driftwoodpress.net
Rockvale Review was founded in 2017 as an online journal devoted to “bold and vulnerable poetry.” They publish work from new, emerging, and established writers and feature image-driven poems that are hard-edged and finely crafted. They do offer optional print editions of their issues which are released in May and November of each year.
They have a unique feature where every poem accepted for publication is paired with a piece of art created by a Featured Artist. A Featured Musician will also craft music to respond to several of the poems in each issue. In doing so, Rockvale Review produces a journal that speaks beyond words, moving into the visual and auditory layers of the human spirit.
Their sixth issue was published in May 2020 and features work by Travis Stephens, Ivo Drury, Kate Deimling, Shannon Wolf, M.G. Hofmann, Wendy Drexler, and more. Stop by their listing at NewPages to learn more.
Black Warrior Review is a biannual print literary magazine that has been publishing exciting established and emerging literary talents since 1974. The journal is published by the students in The University of Alabama’s MFA Program in Creative Writing.
In an effort to do their part and stand in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, they have gathered donations to launch an effort to provide free contest submissions for up to 400 Black writers to their annual writing contest. This will not be a one-off initiative, but a sustained effort they will continue into the future. In their July 28 announcement, the BWR staff stated “This is part of a much larger effort/wish of the BWR staff to do away with contest fees, but an undertaking such as this has to start somewhere, and in this pivotal moment this is our focus.”
They recognize this effort alone is not enough and are doing their best to continue to prioritize ways in which they can make their journal a more equitable place where all Writers of Color can feel welcomed and supported.
The 2020 contest judges are Paul Tran, Lucy Corin, Mayukh Sen, and C Pam Zhang. Categories are Poetry, Fiction, Nonfiction, and Flash. The winners of Fiction, Nonfiction, and Poetry will receive $1,000 and publication in the Spring 2021 issue. The Flash winner will receive $500 and publication in the Spring 2021 issue. Deadline to submit is September 1.
Deadline: Rolling
Grand Little Things is open for submissions! Visit us at grand-little-things.com/submission-information/ for more info! GLT is looking for formal poetry (think sonnets, villanelles, etc.) or blank/free verse that uses traditional poetic techniques. Open to never-been-published-writers and up and comers, as well as established writers. No fee required.
Guest Post by Susan Kay Anderson
Witness.
Fred Marchant views the inexplicable and gives us the air it breathed in his poems in Said Not Said. I have been looking at this book, reading it, studying with Marchant, and looking at it again for the past three years. Most of that time I worked as a graveyard-shift custodian cleaning university buildings. Now, I live at my parents’ and take care of the both of them during the days of the pandemic. What Marchant sees in his life is revealed in this book. He sees what is not fair. He sees reality but events he cannot control. Here we are in 2020: sitting ducks. Marchant’s poems get into the feeling of this but also access the profound stability of peace and understanding. In “Fennel” he writes:
At the end maybe you were thinking
of Whitman and his claim that dying
was luckier than we had supposed.
Or not. Or not. Here is the bee . . .
Marchant shows us that nature with a capital N intercedes, maybe not to change the course of events he witnesses, but to carry an event to another place, a different emotion. Continue reading “Witness. Vulnerable. Mystery.”