Stop by the NewPages Blog every Friday to find writing contests and calls for submissions from literary magazines, independent publishers, creative writing programs, and more, to help you figure out where to submit your work.
Wordrunner eChapbooks is celebrating 10 years of publishing with the release of their Spring 2020 anthology.
Writers can submit poetry, fiction, memoir, and creative nonfiction for this anthology through February 29. They want emotionally complex and compelling writing on any theme or subject that has not been previously published. $3 submission fee.
They pay accepted authors $5 to $25.
Literary magazine The Iowa Review hosts the Jeff Sharlet Memorial Award for Veterans. This writing contest is open to U.S. military veterans and active duty personnel. Writing can be in any genre and on any subject.
This year’s contest opens on May 1 and will be judged by Reginald McKnight, author of He Sleeps. The deadline to enter is May 31. First place receives $1,000 and publication in a forthcoming issue of Iowa Review. Second place receives $750 and three runners-up receive $500 each. Check out their site for full guidelines.
You can see the winners of the 2018 contest here: iowareview.org/blog/winners-fourth-veterans’-writing-contest. The 2018 winners were featured in the Spring 2019 issue.
This contest is made possible by a gift from the family of Jeff Sharlet (1942-69), a Vietnam veteran and antiwar writer and activist.
Literary magazine Nimrod has announced a new deadline for their annual Literary Awards. Instead of submissions being accepted through April 30, contest entries are now being accepted January 1 through April 1.
The Katherine Anne Porter Prize for Fiction and the Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry award $2,000 and publication to the first prize winners.
Nimrod accepts both snail mail and online entries. The $20 reading fee includes a one-year subscription. Check out their website for full submission information: artsandsciences.utulsa.edu/nimrod/nimrod-literary-awards/.
Don’t forget to update your calendars, writers!
Literary magazine Mudfish has announced it is now accepting submissions for its 15th Mudfish Poetry Prize. This year’s judge is Erica Jong, American novelist, satirist, and poet.
Mudfish is accepting both snail mail and email entries to the contest. You can submit up to 3 poems for $20. $3 fee for each additional poem.
Mail entries to Mudfish, 184 Franklin St, Ground Fl., New York, NY 10013 or email to [email protected]. Deadline to enter is March 15. On March 5, Mudfish announced they are extending the contest deadline to May 15, 2020.
Winners of last year’s contest, judged by John Yau, can be read in Issue 21 which is now available for pre-order.
The Southern Collective Experience, home of quarterly literary magazine The Blue Mountain Review, launched a “women only” poetry chapbook contest this past November.
The Women of Resilience Chapbook Contest’s goal is “to highlight not only the struggle, but a way to the light” as “time and again, women have shown tremendous resilience while overcoming hardship, be it personal, marital, financial, parental, medical, addiction, and personal self worth. In fact, the caverns women navigate to ‘find the light’ are often deep, and brutal.”
The deadline to enter the contest is March 31 with winners announced on April 15. First prize is $200 and chapbook publication. The winner will be interviewed in the Summer 2020 issue of The Blue Mountain Review. There is a $25 fee.
The judge of this year’s contest is Melissa Studdard, author of four books including I Ate the Cosmos for Breakfast and Six Weeks to Yehidah.
New Stories from the Midwest is celebrating its milestone 10th anniversary by presenting selections from previous volumes alongside new stories published in 2018 and 2019. Michael Martone is the guest editor for this volume.
Journals can submit up to six pieces of fiction published in 2018-19 for free. Writers can submit an unlimited amount of stories for $3/story.
A $100 prize is awarded to a story with exceptional power.
The deadline for nominations and submissions is February 1. All contributors receive two copies of the anthology and a discount on additional copies.
New Stories from the Midwest is published by New American Press, publisher of literary magazine Mayday and home to the New American Prizes, to help bring more visibility to “the flourishing crop of Midwestern writers who consistently produce work that is innovative, engaging, finely crafted, and strong in voice.”
Literary magazine The Massachusetts Review is kicking off the new decade with a special issue, the first of its kind for them. They seek new Native-authored fiction, nonfiction, and poetry for their first-ever issue with a Native focus.
Scheduled for publication in December 2020 to coincide with the 400th anniversary of the Plymouth Landing, guest editors include Tacey Atsitty (Amenorrhea), Laura Furlan (Indigenous Cities: Urban Indian Fiction and the Histories of Relocation), and Toni Jensen (From the Hilltop). Send queries and submissions for this special issue to [email protected].
MR, celebrating 60 years of publication, is a journal committed to social justice and equality and regularly publishes poetry, fiction, artwork, and essays. Check out their current call for submissions as well as their website to learn more about them.
The featured fiction piece in the Fall 2019 issue of Colorado Review is the winner of this year’s Nelligan Prize for Short Fiction: Bryna Cofrin-Shaw’s “Loss and Damage.”
Joan Silber selected the winner, and says of her selection: “How many writers could turn a conference on climate change into a very smart tale of sexual intrigue? It has ideas (all too rare in fiction), irony so good it’s unexpected, and great characters.”
Pick up a copy of the latest issue of Colorado Review to take in this story and the rest of the quality work inside the issue, or check out the winning piece online.
