Carve Magazine – Spring 2021

The Spring 2021 issue features short stories by and interviews with Sydney Rende, Sam White, Kimm Brockett Stammen, and Caroline Kim. New poetry by Michael Quinn, Ruth Baumann, Will Thomas, and Mureall Hebert and nonfiction by Jory Pomeranz and Christie Tate. Prose & Poetry Contest winners: Mona’a Malik, Ryan Little, and Alisha Acquaye. Read more at the Carve website.

Call :: Chestnut Review, for Stubborn Artists, Reading for Fall 2021 Issue

Deadline: 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 $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! Currently reading for our Autumn 2021 issue to be published in October. chestnutreview.com

New Lit Mags added to the NewPages Guide to Literary Magazines in April 2021

Back from hiatus, Agave Magazine is a print publication showcasing contemporary art, literature, and photography for a modern readership. Ideal submissions develop subjects thoroughly giving us all the essentials—no more, no less. From editorial pieces to mixed genre, their contributors share insights on their creative processes alongside published pieces.

Founded in 2020, Coastal Shelf is a quarterly online literary magazine. Contemporary and eclectic, they crave close attention paid to language and a ‘larger takeaway’/analysis given to the events/themes. They love pieces with wittiness (but not light verse), quirkiness and layers. They also dig interesting uses of history and science.

The Lascaux Review, pronounced Las-coe, features fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction of literary quality. Lascaux has published work by Philip Appleman, Hélène Cardona, Joseph Fasano, Tony Hoagland, Lee Martin, Maggie Smith, Robley Wilson, and many other poets and writers. Annual contests are conducted in poetry, flash fiction, creative nonfiction, and short fiction.

Founded in 2017, MoonPark Review is a quarterly online journal publishing compelling, imaginative short prose, including flash (fiction/nonfiction) and prose poetry. Thirteen prose pieces (or thirteen writers) are featured each quarter, accompanied with original illustrations.

Nixes Mate is unafraid of punctuation; semicolons don’t frighten them. Not even a little bit. Since 2016, they have been featuring small-batch artisanal literature, created by writers who use all 26 letters of the alphabet, and then some. There are many paths to poetry. Walk with them one line at a time.

Okay Donkey likes the odd, the off-kilter, and the just plain weird. They also like the surreal, experimental, and the genre-bending. They strive to uplift and amplify underrepresented voices and always strongly encourage BIPOC and LGBT+ folks to submit their work.

Also added are print literary magazine Bacopa Literary Review, Blue Collar Review, Deep Wild: Writing from the Backcountry, Walloon Writers Review, and Workers Write! and online journals Decolonial Passage, Flare Journal, and WhimsicalPoet/WhimsicalArt.

Don’t forget to stop by our Guide to Literary Magazines to see the newly updated listings and remember we also have our Big List with even more journals!

About Place Journal – May 2021

“Geographies of Justice,” edited by Alexis Lathem with Richard Cambridge and Charles Coe. An extraordinary testament to extraordinary times: includes poetry from Susan Deer Cloud, Tammy Melody Gomez, Richard Hoffmann, Jacqueline Johnson, Petra Kuppers, and Danielle Wolffe; nonfiction from Teow Lim Goh, Andréana Elise Lefton, David Mura, Nicole Walker, and Catherine Young. Find more contributors at the About Place Journal website.

The Necessity of Human Myth

Guest Post by Adrian Thomson.

Jesse Lee Kercheval’s “The Boy Who Drew Cats” speaks both to our current time and to the necessity of human myth. Confined to a house in Uruguay as her children face quarantine in Japan, Kercheval connects to the hero of a Japanese fable, the titular drawer of cats, in an attempt to find solace within herself through her own artistic ventures.

This connection to cultural myth—and Kercheval does cement her own tale very concretely to the modern as well as the mythical—inspires the author in its assertions of safety, balance, and a sense of stability. The myth helps her recapture her own love of art and facilitates a return to  the page where flowers transform into felines. Kercheval does not uphold the myth as a perfect guideline, either—she comments upon it, accepting the good she sees there while acknowledging elements she appears to dislike.

But her inclusion of the fable also speaks to the wider purpose of human myth—as a necessity of the imagination to allow us to “visit” faraway places and to inspire. Kercheval places both within the story to generate trust that the world will get better, as well as trust in her own abilities.


The Boy Who Drew Cats” by Jesse Lee Kercheval. Brevity, January 2021.

Reviewer bio: Adrian Thomson is a graduate student at Utah State University, currently working toward his MS by way of a thesis in poetry.

Contest :: The Conium Review 2021 Innovative Short Fiction Contest

blue cover with sketched open jaws with Animals Eat Each Other written in white capital lettersDeadline: June 1, 2021
The Conium Review 2021 Innovative Short Fiction Contest is open for submissions. The winner receives $500, publication in the next print edition, five copies of the issue, and a copy of the judge’s latest book. This year’s judge is Elle Nash, author of Nudes (SF/LD) and Animals Eat Each Other (Dzanc Books). June 1st deadline. $15 entry fee. Full guidelines here: coniumreview.com/contests/.

Contest :: May 31 Deadline for Flying South 2021

painting of buildings and mountains with flying south and book pages flyingFlying South 2021 Call for Submissions – $2000 in Prizes

Deadline: May 31, 2021
Don’t forget! $2,000 in prizes. From March 1 to May 31, Flying South 2021, a publication of Winston Salem Writers, will be accepting entries for prizes in Fiction, Nonfiction, and Poetry. Best in Category winners will be published and receive $500 each. One of the three winners will receive The WSW President’s Favorite award and win an additional $500. All entries will be considered for publication. For full details, please visit our website: www.wswriters.org/flying-south.

Call :: Driftwood Press, A Paying Market

banner with artwork showing mountains, woods, and a woman's headWe Pay Contributors: Driftwood Press Submissions Open

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

Contest :: The MacGuffin Poet Hunt 26 Open

Screenshot of The MacGuffin's 26th Annual Poet Hunt
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Poet Hunt 26, Judged by Indigo Moor, is Now Open!!

Deadline: June 15, 2021
Indigo Moor judges the MacGuffin’s 26th Poet Hunt contest, open April 1 through June 15! $500 first prize plus publication; up to two Honorable Mentions will also be published. All entrants receive one copy of this issue. Send no more than five poems per $15 entry fee. Include a cover page that lists your contact info and poem titles. On the following page(s), include your poem(s), beginning each poem on a new page devoid of personally identifiable information to preserve the blind review process. Enter via Submittable, or to enter by email or post, see full rules at schoolcraft.edu/macguffin/contest-rules.

New Letters Volume 87 Numbers 1 & 2

woman looking at a poster for a ballet performanceLiterary magazine New Letters publishes two double issues a year in print. Their Winter/Spring 2021 issue is now available for purchase and features fiction by Blair Hurley, Robert P. Kaye, Kirstin Scott, Anthony Varallo, and Leslie Blanco; essays by Carolina Avarado Molk, Emily Howorth, and Michaela Django Walsh; and poetry by Rebecca Foust, Jennifer Perrine, D.S. Waldman, Ted Kooser, Mihaela Moscaliuc, and Liane Strauss.

Also in this issue find the winners of their annual literary awards!

  • “Indigent” by Elizabeth Robinson, winner of the Editor’s Choice Award
  • Two poems by Mark Wagenaar, winner of the Patricia Clearly Miller Award for Poetry
  • “Lobu Hoteru” by Jacob R. Weber, winner of the Robert Day Award for Fiction
  • “Joan” by Rebecca Young, winner of the Beasley Jr. Award for Nonfiction

Their current awards in fiction, poetry, and nonfiction are open to entries through midnight CST on May 18! Check out the 2020 winners and don’t forget to pick up this issue and support the journal by subscribing!

Magazine Stand :: Wordrunner eChapbooks – 2021

Our theme for this issue is LOVE in all its painful, confusing, passionate, and joyous diversity. Featuring fiction by Louise Blalock, Margaret Emma Brandl, Ed Davis, Stefan Kiesbye, and Nick Sweeney; memoir by Jane Boch, Ruth Askew Brelsford, Laura Foxworthy, and Carmela Delia Lanza; and poetry and prose poems by Leonore Hildebrandt, Robert Murray, and Jacalyn Shelley.

Contest :: 2021 Raleigh Review Laux/Millar Poetry Prize open until 01 June 2021!

Raleigh Review 2021 Laux/Millar Poetry Prize bannerA firm deadline of June 1, 2021 at midnight EST.
The 2021 Laux/Millar Raleigh Review Poetry Prize is now underway. Dorianne Laux & Joseph Millar are the judges of the finalists. This contest closes to submissions on 01 June 2021 at midnight Eastern Standard Time. Our deadlines are firm at Raleigh Review. Top prize is $500. There is a $15 entry fee to submit, and all entrants will receive a free copy of the fall 2021 prize issue. raleighreview.submittable.com/submit

Call :: Send Your Best Stories in All Genres to Blue Mountain Review

The Blue Mountain Review flierSubmissions accepted year-round.
The Blue Mountain Review launched from Athens, Georgia in 2015 with the mantra, “We’re all south of somewhere.” As a journal of culture the BMR strives to represent life through its stories. Stories are vital to our survival. Songs save the soul. Our goal is to preserve and promote lives told well through prose, poetry, music, and the visual arts. Our editors read year-round with an eye out for work with homespun and international appeal. We’ve published work by and interviews with Jericho Brown, Kelli Russell Agodon, Robert Pinsky, Rising Appalachia, Nahko, Michel Stone, Genesis Greykid, Cassandra King, Melissa Studdard, and A.E. Stallings.

Don’t forget to read their February 2021 issue featuring the winners of the LGBTQ Chapbook Contest.

At the Intersection of Religion & Generational Conflict

Guest Post by Madeline Thomas.

When a combination of a Catholic upbringing and the unforgettable viewing of a commercial for The Exorcist sends a young girl’s mind to the inevitability of a personal demon possession, the first steps are taken on a path to parental disappointment. Jessica Power Braun’s “Black Alpaca” places readers at the intersection of religion, generational conflict, and closet-Jesus nightmares with sharp humor and unflinching honesty.

The essay, published in Hippocampus Magazine, works through the realities of fear and guilt in the Catholic Church, the slow movement away from your family’s religious identity, and the discovery of a poignant black alpaca painting in the context of Braun’s identities as a mother, wife, and daughter. Humor forms the heart of the piece, but the essay makes no attempt to pull away from what is both painful and real—forming a balance that cultivates both emotional impact and investment for readers.

In a time where I feel the need for constant breaks from the mire of news and the world in general, the humor and tone present in “Black Alpaca” provides needed relief. Braun utilizes her power in storytelling to craft something worth connecting with.


Black Alpaca” by Jessica Power Braun. Hippocampus Magazine, January 2021.

Reviewer bio: Madeline Thomas is a graduate student and writer at Utah State University.

Join Poor Yorick for Their Monthly Reading Series

skull on black and pink backgroundPoor Yorick is continuing their monthly reading series with a virtual open mic and fireside chat! This event features a sneak preview of upcoming special issue in honor of National Poetry Month, “The Poet’s Mask.” Several contributors will present their work on the theme of masks and masking on April 29.

Contact Brianna Paris ([email protected]) for a Microsoft Teams invitation.

“The Poet’s Mask” will be published on Friday, April 30 on Poor Yorick‘s website.

This event is brought to you by the editorial team at Poor Yorick: A Journal of Rediscovery, which is the online literary publication of Western Connecticut State University’s M.F.A. Program. The journal publishes poems, stories, essays, photo essays, and other innovative works about rediscovery, the lost and the found—what we bury, and what we dig up. The editor will be on hand at the open mic to talk submissions, too; if this sounds like your kind of publication, contact us!

Sponsor Spotlight :: Neon: A Literary Magazine

black and white photograph looking up at a wind turbineNeon: A Literary Magazine is a tiny biannual journal and chapbook press. It is one of the longest-running independent literary magazines in the UK which focuses on slipstream fiction, poetry, and artwork. They publish work that is fantastical, surreal, and which crosses the boundaries between science fiction, horror, and literary fiction.

Neon publishes in print and a range of digital formats. They allow you to set your own price for a digital copy. When you purchase a print subscription (they ship to anywhere in the world!), you can addon on of their chapbooks, too. Subscribe today!

Plus, if you’re a writer, Neon is currently open to submissions. The theme of the next issue will be “Cities.” They are a paying market.

Drop by their listing on NewPages to learn more.

West Trade Review Volume 12 Available for Preorder

West Trade Review Volume 12 cover

West Trade Review, formerly Encore Literary Arts Magazine, is accepting preorders for its 12th print issue due out in May of this year.

This issue features fiction by Sophie Nau, Reshmi Hebbar, Lex Chilson; poetry by Mercury-Marvin Sunderland, Tesa Flores, Hunter Boone, Stephanie Dickinson; plus art, interviews, and reviews. Check out their preview and don’t forget to order a copy today.

Plus, don’t forget to swing by their listing on NewPages to learn more about them.

World Literature Today – Spring 2021

World Literature Today’s spring issue, “Redreaming Dreamland,” gathers the work of 21 writers and artists reflecting on the centennial of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, including Patricia Smith, Joy Harjo, Jewell Parker Rhodes, and Tracy K. Smith. Additional highlights in the issue include a special section on Chinese migrant workers’ literature; an essay on how Giannina Braschi’s work keeps “popping up” in pop culture; fiction from Belarus and Iraq; plus reviews of new books by Najwan Darwish, Cixin Liu, Olga Tokarczuk, and dozens more.

Sky Island Journal – Spring 2021

Sky Island Journal’s stunning 16th issue features poetry, flash fiction, and creative nonfiction from contributors around the globe. Accomplished, well-established authors are published—side by side—with fresh, emerging voices. Readers are provided with a powerful, focused literary experience that transports them: one that challenges them intellectually and moves them emotionally. Always free to access, and always free from advertising, discover what over 80,000 readers in 145 countries already know; the finest new writing is here, at your fingertips.

Chestnut Review – Spring 2021

The springtime brings a sense of renewal: feeling the sun beginning to heat up and shedding the cocoon of cold winter nights. Spring offers the opportunity to get out and discover something new. At Chestnut Review, we are also experiencing a turn, a closing of our second volume and anticipating our third. This issue features work by Cutter Streeby, Gretchen Rockwell, Rebecca Poynor, Zackary Medlin, Lorette C. Luzajic, Satya Dash, Fatima Malik, and more. See what else can be found in this issue at the Chestnut Review website.

Contest :: Carve Magazine Raymond Carver Contest

Screenshot of NewPages April 2021 eLitPak flier for CARVE Magazine
click image to open full-size flier

Deadline: May 15, 2021
Carve Magazine‘s Raymond Carver Short Story Contest is open April 1 – May 15. Accepting submissions from all over the world, but story must be in English. Max 10,000 words. Prizes: $2,000, $500, $250, + 2 Editor’s Choice $125 each. All 5 winners published in Fall 2021 issue and reviewed by lit agencies. Entry fee $17 online. Guest judge Leesa Cross-Smith.

Alaska Quarterly Review – Winter 2021

In this issue, find special Memoir as Drama feature “Dialogue Box” by Debbie Urbanski. Also in this issue: stories by Emily Mitchell, Elizabeth Stix, Cara Blue Adams, JoAnna Novak, and more; essays by Emma Hine, Catalina Bode, Nicole Graev Lipson, and Josh Shoemake; and poetry by Emily Nason, Rose DeMaris, Dorsey Craft, and others. Find more contributors at the Alaska Quarterly Review website.

The Power of Fiction

Guest Post by Elle Smith.

Michael Keenan Gutierrez explores the meaning of truth and the power of fiction in his essay “Lies I’ll Tell My Son.” Gutierrez starts the reader grounded in fact. His great grandfather, Red, was a bookie: “This is true.” Then the details of Red’s life grow murkier. The story of Red winning a WWI draft card in a poker game sounds dramatic enough it might have come from a movie. Red’s birth certificates and draft cards have different dates and names. Gutierrez’s uncle proclaims, “They were all a bunch of fucking liars.”

Gutierrez has heard that we aren’t supposed to lie to children “except about Santa Claus and death.” But what is the purpose of the lies that build such fantastic family lore? The tales are in contrast to a more recent generation that lived “the standard formula of work, retirement, and death.” The lore of Red paints the world as “more magical than a paycheck and a mortgage.”

Gutierrez resolves to tell his son the tales of his family and “shade the truth in fiction.” What about the hard truths about life and death? Well, Gutierrez explains: “I’ll let him figure out heaven on his own.”


Lies I’ll Tell My Son” by Michael Keenan Gutierrez. 805 Lit + Art, February 2021.

Reviewer bio: Elle Smith is a graduate student at Utah State University.

When Gaps Become Story

Guest Post by Mark Smeltzer.

“We don’t know much about Mr. Otomatsu Wada of Unit B in Barrack 14 in Block 63 of the Gila River Relocation Center,” Eric L. Muller admits at the start of his essay, “The Desert Was His Home.” This lack of knowledge does not deter Muller from examining the pain and power of absence, as well as how deep research becomes an avenue for creative discovery.

Throughout this essay, Muller lays out the facts about this one Japanese-American, among many, held prisoner in the U.S. during World War II. Muller uses what little is known of this man to sketch out a rough but potent portrait of his life. Most notable was Wada’s “two-year-old mystery” marked by the refrain “We don’t know” that Muller uses until Wada’s fate is revealed.

This essay demonstrates how seamlessly and naturally a story can incorporate the many don’t knows and can’t knows inevitable in research. It is even possible, as “The Desert” shows us, how the gaps in a subject’s life can become the story. This piece can be found in Issue 74 of Creative Nonfiction.


The Desert Was His Home” by Eric L. Muller. Creative Nonfiction, Winter 2021.

Reviewer bio: Mark Smeltzer is a graduate student in Utah State University’s English Department. His area of specialization is in poetry.

April 2021 eLitPak :: May 1 Deadline for december 2021 Curt Johnson Prose Awards

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Submit Now!

december Magazine seeks submissions for our 2021 Curt Johnson Prose Awards in fiction and creative nonfiction. Prizes each genre: $1,500 & publication (winner); $500 & publication (honorable mention). $20 entry fee includes a copy of awards issue. Submit 1 story or essay up to 8,000 words from March 1 to May 1. For complete guidelines visit our website.

View the full April 2021 NewPages eLitPak newsletter here. Don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter to get weekly updates on lit mags, presses, writing programs, literary events, and more along with the monthly eLitPak newsletters.

April 2021 eLitPak :: Flying South 2021 Prizes

Screenshot of NewPages April 2021 eLitPak flier for Flying South
click image to open full-size flier

Flying South 2021 will be accepting entries for prizes in Fiction, Nonfiction, and Poetry. Best in Category winners will be published and receive $500 each. One of the three winners will receive The WSW President’s Favorite award and win an additional $500. All entries will be considered for publication. For full details, please visit our website.

View the full April 2021 NewPages eLitPak newsletter here. Don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter to get weekly updates on lit mags, presses, writing programs, literary events, and more along with the monthly eLitPak newsletters.

April 2021 eLitPak :: CARVE Magazine 2021 Raymond Carver Short Story Contest

Screenshot of NewPages April 2021 eLitPak flier for CARVE Magazine
click image to view full-size flier

Carve Magazine‘s Raymond Carver Short Story Contest is open April 1 – May 15. Accepting submissions from all over the world, but story must be in English. Max 10,000 words. Prizes: $2,000, $500, $250, + 2 Editor’s Choice $125 each. All winners published in Fall 2021 issue and reviewed by lit agencies. Entry fee $17. Guest judge Leesa Cross-Smith.

View the full April 2021 NewPages eLitPak newsletter here. Don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter to get weekly updates on lit mags, presses, writing programs, literary events, and more along with the monthly eLitPak newsletters.

Call :: NOMADartx Review Seeking Works Contemplating Maintenance

NOMADartx logoNOMADartx Review Seeks Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, Art, Interviews, & Reviews

Deadline: Rolling
NOMADartx is an emerging global creative network dedicated to sharing and amplifying creative potential, regardless of genre. NOMADartx Review curates fresh voices that address creativity and creative process via visual art, fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, interviews, critiques, and reviews. Our “Industry Specials” column also provides a place for contemporary creatives to share wisdom about building success in their fields of practice. We currently consider work that addresses these themes in any way, and we have a special call currently for work that contemplates the idea of “maintenance.” More information at our submissions manager.

Call :: Oyster River Pages Seeks Work Stretching Creative & Social Boundaries

Oyster River Pages logoOyster River Pages Seeks Submissions for Annual Issue

Deadline: May 31, 2021
Oyster River Pages is a literary and artistic collective seeking submissions of fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and visual arts that stretch creative and social boundaries. We believe in the power of art to connect people to their own and others’ humanity, something we see as especially important during these tumultuous times. Because of this, we seek to feature artists whose voices have been historically decentered or marginalized. Please see www.oysterriverpages.com for submission details.

Ruminate – Spring 2021

From the editors: In the face of the immense grief that surrounds us, for this issue Ruminate Magazine editors decided to explore What Remains. “Everything is held together with stories,” writes the acclaimed author Barry Lopez, who died this past year, a few months after the Holiday Farm Fire destroyed his house and archives. “That is all that is holding us together. Stories and compassion.” This issue features the winners of our 2020 Broadside Poetry Prize: Michael Dechane and S. Yarberry.