PFN - Blood & Bourbon Seeking Submissions on the Theme of Home
2024-04-28 08:00 - 17:00 (America/Toronto) | Blood & Bourbon
What is Home?

Where is home? Is it a place, a feeling, a kinship with a group of people, or your mother’s heart? Do you feel far from it or near? Did you move or stay in the same city for your entire life? Do you regret one or the other? Is it a house, an apartment, or a backpack? Do you keep it neat or messy? Do you care to call something “home”?
We want to read about all of it.

Submissions

Blood & Bourbon is here to showcase all things hard, gritty, and raw. That time you got in a bar fight, that time you went to an S&M club, that time you had an opinion that sparked a heated argument over a family dinner. We’re actively seeking submissions in the following categories:

Short fiction or non-fiction, 5000 words or less
Opinion pieces or essays on any subjects, 5000 words or less
Poetry, up to three pieces per submission

We accept simultaneous submissions and reprints. We provide author copies upon request with a small donation of $5.
We are now open for submissions until April 28, 2024. The theme of the next issue is going to be Home.
We’re interested in diverse voices and want to hear from you regardless of what you look like, where you’re from, what you believe, who you like to fuck, et cetera.
Send your material to bandbsubmissions (AT) gmail.com. Your submission should be attached as a .doc, .docx or .rtf file, with your name, address, email address, the story title (if applicable) and total word count at the top of the first page. Visual art submissions should be attached as hi-res .jpgs or .tiffs. Include a 50-word bio in the body of the email or in the Word doc.
OUR PROCESS
We are usually open for submissions for 2-2.5 months at a time. We will send you an email at the end of the submission period, letting you know if your work has been accepted. Please don’t expect to hear from us sooner, but let us know if your work has been accepted anywhere else during this submission period. We accept about 30 submissions per issue.
We then assign one of our editors to work with you to polish your submission and apply our house style guide. Keep in mind that we are a Canadian publication, so Canadian spelling will be applied to all work. Editing phase usually lasts about 2 months.
Once we receive all the final documents from our editors, we’ll work on layout. You will have a chance to see and approve the print proof before the launch of the issue. Layout and proofreading phase takes about a week.
We will share the links to the issue with you, so you can spread the word to your peers and followers. We currently publish on Amazon and Kobo, in print and e-book format.

P - Frontier Poetry's 2024 Nature & Place Prize. Theme: Nature & Place
2024-04-28 08:00 - 17:00 | Frontier Poetry
2024 Nature & Place Prize
February 22, 2024, to April 28, 2024
In our pursuit of gentleness, nostalgia, and a reimagining of “home,” Frontier Poetry is reviving the Nature & Place Prize. In her poem “Drowning Creek,” Ada Limón takes us into the countryside, “Past the strip malls and the power plants, / out of the holler, past Gun Bottom Road / and Brassfield and before Red Lick Creek, / there’s a stream called Drowning Creek….” On her journey, she has the strong urge to stop the car and observe the kingfisher perched on the transmission wire “eyeing the creek / for crayfish, tadpoles, and minnows.” She has aptly combined the urge to be in communion with nature, with the visceral landscape of place observed from the loneliness of a car ride. In this same vein, we invite you to submit work to the 2024 Nature & Place Prize.
We’re looking for poems rich and robust in language, technique, and form that pay homage to the natural world and all of the small marvels that occur in nature. We’re also interested in poems that observe geography and the landscape of home. Frontier Poetry warmly encourages poets of all backgrounds, identities, and ethnicities to enter.
The first-place winner will receive $3,000 and publication. Second- and third-place winners will receive $300 and $200 respectively, as well as publication. All shortlisted writers will also be considered for paid publication in New Voices.

About the Guest Judge:
Flower Conroy is a LGBTQIA+ artist, NEA and MacDowell Fellow, and former Key West Poet Laureate. Conroy’s books include Snake Breaking Medusa Disorder (winner of the Stevens Manuscript Prize), A Sentimental Hairpin (Eric Hoffer Finalist), and Greenest Grass (winner of the Blue Lynx Poetry prize). Her work has appeared/is forthcoming in New England Review, American Literary Review, The Yale Review, and elsewhere. Currently she is curating a series of Ephemeral Altars that celebrate poetry collections through assemblage art.
What Flower Is Looking For:
When I initially heard the theme “Nature & Place,” I had a confident (albeit vague) idea what that might mean; however, the more I thought about it, my sense of nature and place became excitingly less certain, amorphous, vast. I want (from these submissions) what I’d want from any poem: I want to encounter that which I didn’t know I needed to encounter; I want surprise of detail and syntax, for a microcosm of a perspective and language (or languages) to flesh out a world I get lost in, to be entranced by keenness of being and experience retold; I want nuance, subtext, and imagery to awe me. The theme of “Nature & Place” strikes me as abstractly concrete and concretely abstract—it conjures landscape, yes, but perhaps landscape as a presence in relation to a self or selves. It’s flesh and dirt, past and future, internal and external. I’ve no preconceived notions of what the poems should be beyond being visceral.

Guidelines:

Submissions are open to all poets, regardless of publication history.
Send us only your best, polished work—unpublished poems only, please.
As part of our dedication to the pursuit of a more inclusive publishing world, we are offering a free submission window for poets from historically marginalized groups at the beginning of the contest until we reach our cap of fifty. Please note the free portal will close when we hit our submission cap.
Please do not include any identifying information in the body of your document.
We accept simultaneous submissions, but please notify us if your work is accepted elsewhere.
We ask for no more than three poems (five pages) per submission. Please submit all your poems in ONE document. We have no particular aesthetic or formal requirements and consider all styles of poetry.
Each entry requires a submission fee of $20.
Multiple submissions (of up to three poems apiece) are allowed, but each requires a separate entry fee.
Please include a brief cover letter with your publication history and personal bio. Also include any content warnings in consideration of our reading staff.
Work generated by AI will be automatically disqualified.
Submissions are open internationally, to any poet writing primarily in English. Some code-switching/meshing is very welcome.
Please do not submit work if you have a close relationship with the guest judge.
If you have any questions, please visit our FAQ page. If you don’t find the answer to your question, email us: contact (at ) frontierpoetry (dot) com.
The deadline is April 28, 2024. We plan to announce winners and finalists in Summer 2024.

Editorial Feedback Option:
This option costs $59 and will provide you with two pages of detailed and actionable feedback on your submission, including suggestions for future submissions. The $149 option will provide you with three letters from three different editors. Our guest editors are paid a significant portion of the fee and all are astute and professional poets. Please allow eight to ten weeks after the contest closes to receive your feedback letter.

PN - Chicken Soup for the Soul Series Seeking Funny Stories
2024-04-30 08:00 - 17:00 | Chicken Soup for the Soul Series
Laughter is the best medicine. And we love to publish your funny stories in all our books. Our books filled with nothing but funny stories are always bestsellers, so we are doing it again. This edition will be for publication in 2025 but we’re already looking for those funny stories you tell again and again. The ones that make everyone laugh.
We are looking for stories about something that happened to you in your life – in your relationship with a partner or spouse, a parent or child, a family member or friend, at work or at home that made you and the people around you laugh out loud. Did you mean for it to be funny? Did the other person mean to make you laugh? Did a situation just get out of control? Did a misunderstanding turn into a comedy of errors? We can’t wait to hear your true stories. We want them to be silly, outrageous and hilarious, and they absolutely must make us laugh!
Here are some suggested topics but we know you can think of many more:
– A slip of the tongue – Oh no, I didn’t mean to say that!
– Mistaken identity
– Obsessions and Compulsions
– Work whoops
– Pranks that worked – Gotcha!
– Pranks that backfired – Yikes!
– Annoying habits – if you don’t stop doing that I’m going to scream!
– Doggone funny
– Getting catty
– That was embarrassing
– Happily ever laughter
– Innocently inappropriate
– What? I thought you said but you really said!
– Senior moments
– Wedding woes
– Funeral foul-ups
– Holiday hiccups and meltdowns
– Kitchen/dinner party accidents
– Sports catastrophes
– Domestic turmoil
– Dating disasters
– Making fun of yourself
– Crazy family fun and foibles: it’s all relative
– Moving-day mayhem
– Laughing at inappropriate times
– I can’t believe I did that!
– Travel turmoil
– Zany vacations
Guidelines for a Chicken Soup for the Soul story

Tell an exciting, heartwarming or funny story about something that has happened to you or someone you know. Your story should be written in the first person and should be about yourself or someone close to you.
Tell your story in a way that will make the reader cry, laugh, get goose bumps or say “Wow!”
The story should start “in the action” and draw in the reader. Do not start your story with an introduction about what you are going to say, or end with a concluding paragraph about what you just said.
Don’t be afraid to speak from the heart. Many people tell personal stories for the first time in our books, and they find it to be a cathartic and productive experience. We do let you use a pen name for your story if you do not want to use your real name.
Don’t try fancy moves with tenses. Writing in the present tense about something that happened in the past rarely works.
Keep your story to 1200 words or less. Tighten, tighten, tighten!
Your story must be true. No fiction, no creative writing.

What a Chicken Soup for the Soul story IS NOT:

A sermon, an essay or eulogy.
An “as told to” story written by you for someone else. If you ghost-write a story for someone, we thank you for helping that person share his or her story. That person’s name will be listed as the author and he or she can acknowledge your help in the bio section.
A term paper, thesis, letter or journal entry.
About politics or controversial issues.
A biography or testimonial.
A journalistic article about a third party that reads like a newspaper article.

Guidelines for a Chicken Soup for the Soul poem

We love poems that tell a story. A Chicken Soup for the Soul poem does the same job as a story. The reader goes away having learned your story, just through poetry instead of prose.
We do not publish poems that do not tell a story.
We also do not publish poems that seem overly focused on rhyming and read more like greeting cards.

A few more tips about submitting

The only way to submit your stories or poems to us is via our website. If you have any problems when trying to fill out the form and submit your work, please contact our webmaster at: webmaster@chickensoupforthesoul.com. Responses from the webmaster usually take several days, so be patient.
Our webmaster cannot help you with your personal computer problems. If you have questions, such as, “How do I paste my story into the submission form?” please ask a friend or relative, not our webmaster.
Please submit only stories or poems that have not been previously published. The only exception to this is if your work has only been published in a small local publication with limited circulation or on your own blog.
Please do not send us any book manuscripts, unless through a literary agent, as these will be automatically discarded. Also, we do not accept title ideas from the public. If we receive any, they will be discarded and will not be shown to an editor.

NOTE: WE DO NOT PAY FOR SUBMISSIONS. WE ONLY PAY FOR STORIES IF WE PUBLISH THEM IN ONE OF OUR BOOKS, TYPICALLY 6 MONTHS TO 2 YEARS AFTER SUBMISSION. WE RECEIVE THOUSANDS OF SUBMISSIONS FOR EACH BOOK BUT CAN ONLY SELECT 101 STORIES FOR INCLUSION.

PFN - Lifespan Series Seeking Submissions on the Theme: Older
2024-04-30 08:00 - 17:00 | Lifespan Series
Older – Lifespan Vol. 11

Submissions for Older Lifespan Vol. 11 HAVE OPENED
Submissions close 30th April 2024.
From 2021 through to mid-2024, Pure Slush has been conducting a 12-volume anthology series, looking across the Lifespan.
This is a unique opportunity to contribute works taking characters across the arc of their whole lives, whether prose or poetry, fiction or non-fiction.
Or alternately, to create unlinked works.
Submit to one … or a few … or many … or all.
Your Older submission must be:

original, so previously unpublished online or in print (so that includes authors’ websites and blogs)
150 word minimum limit for fiction and non-fiction, stories and essays / maximum 1000 words. (That’s for each story / essay: maximum number of prose pieces you can submit is 3.)
80 word minimum limit for poetry / maximum 1000 words. (That’s for each poem: maximum number of poems you can submit is 5.)
must include something about growing older / ageing.

You must be minimum 18 years of age to submit.
We prefer submissions to be made through Submittable (scroll below to click here) and much prefer Word.docx to PDFs or other alternatives.
If you have any questions, please email edpureslush@live.com.au.
To submit, click here. Please include the word OLDER, plus your name and the title of your submission, and the word count. (Please note: word counts do not include titles or your name.)
PLEASE NOTE: if you are submitting more than one poem, story or essay, we really prefer they are all included on one document. So if you have 5 poems or 3 stories to submit, please include them on one document, and thus make one submission, rather than 5 submissions (one for each poem) or 3 submissions (one for each story).

PFN - Call for Submissions to Mid-Level Management Literary Magazine (MIDLVLMAG). Theme: Secret Menu
2024-04-30 08:00 - 17:00 | Mid-Level Management Literary Magazine
What is Secret Menu?
Secret Menu is a hack.
Secret Menu takes the mundane and adds that little dusting of magick and transforms it.
Secret Menu is an insider’s club that’s not for insiders.
Secret Menu is a bit of a wink and whole lot of cheek.
Secret Menu is the ways we treat ourselves, celebrate small victories, sharing with one another when we don’t have to.
Secret Menu is the nod in the hallway to you work bestie as you pass like drones in the night.
Secret Menu is a topside, underground resistance.
Secret Menu is the exhalation of relief after the longest shift of your goddamn life.
Secret Menu is the dish you bring to the cookout that no one can resist.
Secret Menu is your codename/alias/identity.
Secret Menu is your lover’s embrace in the shadow of oppression.

Simultaneous Submissions:
Yes! Just let us know if you’ve got your work out to other publications so we don’t step on any toes in the process.
Payments:
MIDLVLMAG is volunteer run and free-to-read. Because of this, we are not currently in a position to pay contributors.

Our long-term goal is to generate payment funds through donations/patronage, merch sales, and potential physical copies of issues (tbd).
Submission Criteria:
MIDLVLMAG publishes short and flash fiction, poetry, prose, creative non-fiction (CNF), and essays.
Send your submissions to info@midlvlmag.com

– Your submission email subject line must include the following:
MIDLVLMAG – [CURRENT SUBMISSION THEME] – [STYLE OF WRITING] – [LAST NAME, FIRST NAME]
i.e. “MIDLVLMAG – Snacks – Flash Fiction – Carver, Raymond”
– If you’re submitting multiple styles of writing, each must be submitted separately.
– Your submission(s) must be included as an attachment (Word / Google .DOC .DOCX file types).
– Your submission(s) must include a header with the following information:
Last name, first name – title of piece – MIDLVLMAG – submission theme – form of writing i.e. (Krinkle, Henry – hot dogs: a discourse – MIDLVLMAG – Snacks – CNF)

Please include an author bio with your submission email. Tell us about your managerial experience, your time in the trenches of the stock room, the unspoken dignity in slinging fast food to make ends meet. Please include any previous publications and forthcoming work. And please also include any social media accounts and/or links to your website that you feel comfortable sharing where others can find you and your writing.
Suggested Word Counts:
Poetry: Send up to three poems at a time. No word count limits.
Short Fiction / Essays / CNF: 1500-3500 words.
Flash Fiction / Prose: 500 – 1000 words.

PFN - Call for Submissions to In The Mood Magazine. Theme: Ten
2024-04-30 08:00 - 17:00 | In The Mood Magazine
In honour of our 10th issue, we’re getting literal and asking for submissions on film, TV, music videos, and pop culture relating to the number 10! This could look like: Cinema’s 10 Most Ineffectual Therapists, movies with “10” in the title, 10 Times I Fell Asleep in the Theatre, or movies celebrating their 10-year anniversary. At In The Mood, we don’t believe in taking ourselves too seriously, and this might be our least serious theme yet!*
*But on a serious note, please read our full guidelines below before submitting ???? This special issue will only feature 10 pieces, so send us your best!
– Theme: TEN
– Deadline: April 30th, 2024
– Word count for completed pieces: max 1,000 words for features, max 300 words for film diaries
– Honorarium: $30 CAD for features, $20 CAD for film diaries
???? Some ideas for inspiration:
– 10-year anniversaries
– Movies from 1910 or 2010 (but not ‘11s to ‘19s)
– Top/Bottom 10 lists
– 10 blindspots (and what you thought of them after watching)
– Movies with “10” in the title (e.g. 10 Things I Hate About You, 10, 10 Items or Less, Ten Years, How To Lose A Guy in 10 Days)
– What you loved watching when you were 10
– If you had 10 days left to live, what would you watch?
– 10 times I ___ during a movie (e.g. cried, fell asleep, got horny, screamed)
– First 10 movies you remember seeing
– 10 frames from a movie
– Focus on 10 of something in a movie (e.g. costumes, meals, furniture)
– A celebrity/ famous character dinner party with 10 guests

P - Bermuda Triangle Prize. Theme: Relationships
2024-04-30 08:00 - 17:00 | Bermuda Triangle Prize
The Bermuda Triangle Prize is given to three poems on a theme from up to three different poets.
2023 Judge: TBD
Current Theme: Relationships (2023-2024 Theme)
We are open to interpretations on the theme: love, friendship, companionship; losing relations, relationships to animals, plants, and objects; relationships between ecosystems or among the stars. Send us your interpretation however literal or liberal.
Each winning poem will receive $50, for a total cash prize of $150. The poems will be published and displayed in the Poet’s Billow Literary Art Gallery. Up to five finalists will be considered for publication.
We nominate for the Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net Anthology, and The Best New Poets Anthology.
Guidelines:
As entries will be read blindly, your name and contact information should not appear on the poems themselves.
Simultaneous submissions are accepted as long as you send an email if a poem needs to be withdrawn. Multiple submissions are allowed with a paid submission fee for each set of three poems.
Each entry of three poems costs $10 and should be paid through paypal and the poems submitted by email to thepoetsbillow@gmail.com. Please format subject line (First Last name — Bermuda Triangle)

Please submit all poems in one document and attach it to the email.

PN - Chicken Soup for the Soul Series. Theme: Winter Holidays
2024-04-30 08:00 - 17:00 | Chicken Soup for the Soul Series
Christmas, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, New Year’s
The deadline for submissions is APRIL 30, 2024.
Everyone loves the holidays and making cherished memories. Our holiday titles make wonderful gifts and are so popular that we create a new edition each year. We are now collecting stories for our 2024 HOLIDAY edition that will be published later this year.
How do you celebrate the holidays? Are your celebrations very traditional or are they very spontaneous and never the same? We want to hear how you celebrate your holidays. How do you gather with family and friends to share the special spirit of the season? How do you brighten those long winter days?
Please submit your true stories and poems about the entire December holiday season, including Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Boxing Day, and New Year’s festivities too. **If your stories are about celebrating Christmas please be sure that they are “Santa safe” so that we don’t spoil the magic for precocious readers!
***Please note: If you submitted a story or poem for a previous holiday book and we DID NOT publish it, here is your chance to submit it to us again. If you submitted a story and we DID publish it in a previous holiday book, please do not submit it again. We will not publish it again.
Here are some suggested topics, but we know you can think of many more:
– What celebrating the holidays means to me
– Holiday traditions
– Memories of the holiday season
– The love of family
– Family reunions
– Holiday humor
– Gift giving
– Gift receiving
– Regifting – oh no!
– Decorating… oh how we love to do that!
– Un-decorating… oh how we hate to do that!
– Eat, Eat, Eat… and be merry
– Christmas through the eyes of a child
– Elf on the Shelf fun and games
– Here comes Santa Claus
– Secret Santa fun
– Things that went wrong!
– Holiday food and traditions
– Neighborhood competition for house decorations
– The spontaneous things your family has done
– Funny anecdotes
Guidelines for a Chicken Soup for the Soul story

Tell an exciting, heartwarming or funny story about something that has happened to you or someone you know. Your story should be written in the first person and should be about yourself or someone close to you.
Tell your story in a way that will make the reader cry, laugh, get goose bumps or say “Wow!”
The story should start “in the action” and draw in the reader. Do not start your story with an introduction about what you are going to say, or end with a concluding paragraph about what you just said.
Don’t be afraid to speak from the heart. Many people tell personal stories for the first time in our books, and they find it to be a cathartic and productive experience. We do let you use a pen name for your story if you do not want to use your real name.
Don’t try fancy moves with tenses. Writing in the present tense about something that happened in the past rarely works.
Keep your story to 1200 words or less. Tighten, tighten, tighten!
Your story must be true. No fiction, no creative writing.

What a Chicken Soup for the Soul story IS NOT:

A sermon, an essay or eulogy.
An “as told to” story written by you for someone else. If you ghost-write a story for someone, we thank you for helping that person share his or her story. That person’s name will be listed as the author and he or she can acknowledge your help in the bio section.
A term paper, thesis, letter or journal entry.
About politics or controversial issues.
A biography or testimonial.
A journalistic article about a third party that reads like a newspaper article.

Guidelines for a Chicken Soup for the Soul poem

We love poems that tell a story. A Chicken Soup for the Soul poem does the same job as a story. The reader goes away having learned your story, just through poetry instead of prose.
We do not publish poems that do not tell a story.
We also do not publish poems that seem overly focused on rhyming and read more like greeting cards.

A few more tips about submitting

The only way to submit your stories or poems to us is via our website. If you have any problems when trying to fill out the form and submit your work, please contact our webmaster at: webmaster@chickensoupforthesoul.com. Responses from the webmaster usually take several days, so be patient.
Our webmaster cannot help you with your personal computer problems. If you have questions, such as, “How do I paste my story into the submission form?” please ask a friend or relative, not our webmaster.
Please submit only stories or poems that have not been previously published. The only exception to this is if your work has only been published in a small local publication with limited circulation or on your own blog.
Please do not send us any book manuscripts, unless through a literary agent, as these will be automatically discarded. Also, we do not accept title ideas from the public. If we receive any, they will be discarded and will not be shown to an editor.

P - Call for Submissions to Harbor Review. Theme: Wondrous & Miraculous
2024-04-30 08:00 - 17:00 | Harbor Review
Send 1-3 poems in one document as a pdf or word document during our submission window. Include a short bio in your cover letter. The theme for issue #13 is “Wondrous & Miraculous.”
The submission fee for expedited submissions is $8. Regular submissions are free. All fees are waived for BIPOC identifying writers.
Poems with complex or unusual form/spacing are welcome. However, if accepted, this work may appear different due to the constraints of our online platform.
Harbor Review is a paying market. We pay poets $10 per published poem upon release of the issue in which the poem appears.

PFN - Amsterdam Quarterly Seeking Submissions. Theme: Vibration(s)
2024-04-30 08:00 - 17:00 | Amsterdam Quarterly
For AQ40 the theme is Vibration(s). Send us pieces about music, background noise, or other aspects of your sensory or extrasensory perception. What do you see, feel, and/or remember when you hear certain pieces of music or environmental sounds? How have you been able to minimise the noise and increase the good vibrations in your life?
You may submit work to Amsterdam Quarterly at submissions@amsterdamquarterly.org
Work must be previously unpublished and submitted in a recent Microsoft Word file format. (Self-published work is considered as published). Poems should be no longer than two A4 pages; articles, fiction, essays and other prose, no more than 3,000 words. Artwork and photography files should be no larger than one megabyte (1MB). Submit no more than two pieces (for example, two poems or one poem and one short story) per person per reading period. Please indicate your last name and Amsterdam Quarterly submission in the subject line of your e-mail.
AQ retains first publication and serialization rights for its online magazine as well as for its print-on-demand yearbook. No simultaneous submissions. Please note: due to increased postage and printing costs and new customs duties and tariffs, as of issue #33 (spring 2022), AQ will only be able to offer one copy of the AQ Yearbook as payment to its published artists and writers for their work.

PF - Gypsophila Zine Seeking Submissions on: Grace & Peace
2024-04-30 08:00 - 17:00 | Gypsophila Zine
submit to us

Submissions for Volume 3 Issue 3 of Gypsophila are open! We are accepting poetry, prose and short stories related to or unrelated to our theme of “Grace & Peace.” Submissions are open from March 20, 2024 until April 30, 2024.

We have just a few house rules for you to read over and follow before getting into the submission process. Please read these carefully! Failure to follow all rules submissions under an incorrect tag will result in automatic disqualification of your submission.

Rules are as follows!

Limit of TWO (2) submission forms per person
Limit of FIVE (5) poems and TWO (2) Short Stories per submission
NO CHAPBOOKS
Limit of 500 words for prose works
Limit of between 500 – 3k words for short stories (grace of 500 words over if needed)
Selecting “Both” under “Submission Type” means you have BOTH poetry/prose AND a short story included in your document
Images are NOT ACCEPTED as submissions or with submissions
All works must be submitted as a PDF, Word or Google document

F - Bethlehem Writers Roundtable Short Story Award. Theme: Holiday Tales
2024-04-30 08:00 - 17:00 | Bethlehem Writers Roundtable
The 2024 Short Story Award submission is open through April 30, 2024!
Our 2024 theme: Holiday Tales (US Thanksgiving through New Year’s Day)

We are seeking never-published (including online or blog posts) short stories of 2,000 words or fewer on the theme: Holiday Tales. We define holiday stories as those that involve any holiday from US Thanksgiving through New Year’s Day, or stories that reference those holidays. (There are many such holidays, so let your imagination fly.) While our theme is broadly interpreted, the holiday must be an important element in the story, not just referred to in passing. (DIE HARD would not be accepted!)

Winners will receive:
First Place:
$250 and publication in our upcoming anthology: Season’s Readings: More Sweet, Funny, and Strange Holiday Tales
Second Place:
$100 and publication in Bethlehem Writers Roundtable
Third Place:
$50 and publication in Bethlehem Writers Roundtable
2024 Competition Rules
The First-place winner will receive a $250 cash award and publication of the winning story either in the Bethlehem Writers Group’s upcoming anthology of holiday stories tentatively entitled: Season’s Readings: Sweet, Funny, and Strange Tales in the Holiday Spirit or as a featured story in Bethlehem Writers Roundtable.
Entry Requirements:

Stories must be submitted using the information below.
Entries must be no more than 2,000 words.
All entries must be previously unpublished, and adhere to our Terms and Conditions set out below.
We welcome excellent writing from diverse voices and experiences regardless of race, gender or gender identity, sexual orientation, nationality, ethnicity, religion, disability, or age (except that authors must be 18 years of age or older). In keeping with our standards of inclusivity, we reserve the right to refuse to publish work that might be harmful to any member of a marginalized group.
Submissions open at 12:01 a.m. ET on January 1, 2024, and must be received by 11:59 p.m. EDT, April 30, 2024.
Payments are requested within 24 hours of submissions. All payments must be received through PayPal no later than 11:59 p.m. EDT on May 1, 2024.

Entry Fee:

$15 per story.

Prizes:

First prize: $250 and consideration for inclusion in the upcoming BWG anthology, tentatively titled Season’s Readings: More Sweet, Funny, and Strange Holiday Tales. If it is not accepted for publication in the print anthology, it will be featured in an upcoming edition of the Bethlehem Writers Roundtable. (While there is no guarantee of print publication, all previous contest winners have been accepted to be published in print.)
Second prize: $100 and publication in the Bethlehem Writers Roundtable.
Third prize: $50 and publication in the Bethlehem Writers Roundtable.
Honorable Mentions: Stories may be selected for Honorable Mention and offered publication in the Bethlehem Writers Roundtable.

PF - Call for Submissions to Dusty Attic Publishing. Theme: Twisted Fairytale!
2024-04-30 08:00 - 17:00 | Dusty Attic Publishing
ISSUE FOUR THEME: Twisted Fairytale!
**Please note: we will not consider or publish any submissions written, developed, or assisted by A.I. tools. We may not consider any future submissions by anyone who submits A.I. written work.**
We are looking for short stories (500-2000 words) and poems (3-25 lines) that are spooky or fantastical or both. Don’t be afraid to blend genres and experiment.
You can submit one short story and up to 3 poems.
Submissions should be submitted in Modern Manuscript Format (example), Times New Roman, and attached as a .docx to an email with a brief query and a short author bio. Please include any relevant trigger warnings in the email as well.
Dusty Attic publishes 4-8 stories and 2-3 poems quarterly, and submissions will close after four weeks. Any submissions received after the deadline will be considered for the following quarter. You will receive a notification by the 20th of the month prior to publication.
We are offering a flat rate of $10 USD per story or poem.
Simultaneous submissions are allowed, but we kindly request that you inform us of acceptance elsewhere.
Dusty Attic retains the rights to accepted submissions for one year post publication.
Please send all submissions to:
dustyatticpublishing@gmail.com

PFN - Bi Women Quarterly Seeking Submissions on the Theme: More than One Letter
2024-05-01 00:00 | Bi Women Quarterly
BWQ features the voices of women with bi+ sexualities (i.e., bi, pan, fluid, and other non-binary sexualities). We see “woman” as a broad category with space for an array of gender identities and expressions. We welcome contributions from bi+ women who identify as trans, non-binary, cis, and beyond.

Please submit your words in a word document (.doc, docx or .rtf) or in the body of an email. Use single spacing, 11 pt font in Adobe Garamond Pro (or closest available font). Please do not send pdfs. Different spacing and formatting is okay if submitting poetry but please use Adobe Garamond Pro (11pt), if possible. Images should be high resolution and submitted electronically in .jpg or .png format.
Bi Women Quarterly and Robyn Ochs, Editor reserve the right to reprint your work in current and future related publications, in print and/or online. We will attempt to notify you in advance if we do so. You retain ownership of your work and may re-use it, provided that its previous appearance in Bi Women Quarterly is noted, along with our website (e.g., “This piece previously appeared in Bi Women Quarterly (at BiWomenQuarterly.com”).
Note that Bi Women Quarterly is a print and digital publication. Issues of BWQ are sent via mail and then posted online in both magazine and PDF format at BiWomenQuarterly.com
Submission length: there is no minimum length. Maximum length: 1500 words. Please do not send pieces over this count unless requested by the editor or approved by her. Mail all submissions and pitches to biwomeneditor@gmail.com.
Before submitting your writing, please run it through spell check and grammar check. Consider, too, asking a friend or two to read your piece for you and provide feedback.
PLEASE INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING AT THE TOP OF YOUR SUBMISSION:

Your name:
Your email address:
Your Twitter or other social media handles (if public):
The name you wish to use in BWQ: (you are welcome to use a pseudonym or modify your actual name):
Name of the piece you are submitting:
A short, 1 to 2 sentence, 3rd person bio that includes your geographic location (e.g.: Robyn Ochs lives in the Boston area and is the editor of BWQ.) to follow your piece:
Finally, you are encouraged — but not required — to submit a photo with your work. Photos should be at least 300 dpi, and have good contrast. This can be a headshot of yourself or an image relevant to your submission that you have the rights to use.

PFN - Halfway Down the Stairs Seeking Submissions on the Theme: "Before & After"
2024-05-01 08:00 - 17:00 | Halfway Down the Stairs
GENERAL GUIDELINES

We are looking for serious writers with an appreciation for language and the craft of writing. We want fiction with memorable characters and realistic plots, poetry that is fresh and original, and nonfiction that is both thoughtful and entertaining.
We will accept only writing that has been proofread for spelling and grammar. Trust us on this one. We keep our virtual machete very sharp for people who are grammatically challenged, and we are not afraid to use it.
Having said that, as an international ‘zine, we accept differences in spelling usages (e.g. British vs American English) and will publish whatever is considered correct in an author’s home country.
We are not interested in explicit sexual content, gratuitous violence, or repetitive swearing, unless it is essential to the plot and not included solely for shock value.
Please do not send us any of the following: poetry that sounds like it ought to be on a Hallmark card, poetry you copied from a Hallmark card, how-to articles, first drafts of anything, fanfiction, anything full of sentimentality, or religious and/or political propaganda disguised as fiction.
This ought to be obvious, but only send us your own work, humans. If you send us anything plagiarized or written by a robot, remember we have a machete.
We do not accept previously published work. This includes not only formal publications in print and online journals, but any pieces you may have posted to a blog, personal website, etc. If it’s already available to the public in some form, we do not accept it.
We do accept simultaneous submissions, but please let us know immediately if your piece is accepted by another journal.
As above, we do not consider or accept submissions outside the specified submission period.
We reserve the right to make minor editorial changes without consultation, where there are unintentional errors or inconsistencies in punctuation, spelling or grammar. We will consult authors about anything more substantive.
The editors are all responsive to shameless flattery and to gifts of chocolate.

Poetry Guidelines
We accept poetry of roughly 500 words or less, although we are not terribly strict about this guideline. We are rarely willing to be lenient with the theme when it comes to poetry, and will do so only if the submission is very good.
Please note that we only accept three poems at any one time from a single author and, for the most part, publish only one poem from any one author per edition.
Fiction Guidelines
We accept fiction of roughly 5,000 words or less related to the theme of the issue. The fiction editors are looking mostly for short stories, but we are happy to consider well-crafted flash fiction. We don’t want to be too strict with the guidelines, because we appreciate originality, creativity, and stories that are off the beaten path. We like stories that grab us from the beginning, make us think, and keep us enthralled. Stories should be written confidently and fluidly, avoiding too many adjectives or too much dialogue. We will be negatively distracted by poor grammar/spelling, clichés, and a lack of editing.
Please submit only one piece of fiction at a time, and ensure stories are formatted as requested below.
Nonfiction Guidelines
We accept creative nonfiction of 3,000 words or less. Halfway Down the Stairs is specifically looking for essays and memoir with a strong voice and a unique point of view. We publish well-written, honest writing that inspires emotion. Humor is also appreciated.
We are not looking for stream of consciousness rants of a political or religious nature. Save those for your blog. We respond negatively to spelling and grammatical errors, so please proofread your work closely if you wish to have it seriously considered.
As of 2018 we began accepting nonfiction submissions outside of the issue theme. Submissions within the theme are still encouraged, but high quality submissions outside the theme will also be considered for publication. Please note this only applies to nonfiction submissions.
Please submit only one piece of nonfiction at a time.
SUBMISSIONS PROCESS

Please send all writing submissions to halfway . stairs @ gmail . com.
DO NOT send your work as an attachment. (More details on why under point 5 below.)
Your subject line should look like this: submission, genre, and title of your piece. (Example: “Submission, Fiction, Monsoon Nights.”) If you are submitting multiple poems, state the number of poetry submissions instead of the title of the piece. (Example: “Submission, Three Poems by William C. Fredrikson.”) Please do not submit multiple genres in a single e-mail; if you would like to submit poetry and fiction, send us two separate e-mails.
Within the body of your e-mail, give us the following information: the title(s) of your submission(s), the name under which you wish to be published, your e-mail address, if the piece you are submitting has ever been published elsewhere, if the piece you are submitting is a simultaneous submission, and a brief introduction written in the 3rd person point of view. If you are submitting multiple poems, include these statements at the beginning of your e-mail, and follow it with the actual poems. Example:

Three Poems
by William C. Fredrikson.
crazywillie57@gmail.com.
No, the submitted poems have never published elsewhere.
Monsoon Nights is not a simultaneous submission. Elsewhere and Lady Luck are both simultaneous submissions.William C. Fredrikson teaches grade seven social studies in British Columbia. His students think he looks exactly like Jack Nicholson. In his spare time, William enjoys playing the guitar, reading Hemingway, studying World War II history, and making fun of reality television.

If we do choose to publish your piece, we will also publish your biography. Your e-mail address is confidential, and we will never publish it or give it out.
After your introduction, please post your piece within the body of your e-mail. Please do not send your work as an attachment. Please single space your work, double spacing between paragraphs. Please do not indent your paragraphs.
Provide a content warning if it’s warranted: Let us know upfront if there is some kind of explicit content in your submission which we should be warned about in advance. We’ll leave this up to your discretion, but examples could include abuse, neglect, self harm, or violence.
Optional: Let us know how you found us. We’re curious as to where our readers and writers are coming from.
Optional: Let us know if there’s a kind of image you visualize with your piece, or even if you have an image you would like us to use if it is published (guidelines below). We reserve the right to choose alternatives – but we are happy to consider your suggestions.

We aim to respond to all submissions within 4-8 weeks of receipt, and you will never wait more than three months for a response.

PN - Dorothy Parker's Ashes Seeking Submissions on the Theme: Brains
2024-05-01 08:00 - 17:00 | Dorothy Parker’s Ashes
Please submit first-person essays anytime before the deadline prior to publication date. Please be advised that we reserve the right to edit, though all edits will be sent to writer before publication for approval. Please feel free to include a suggested title and art but we reserve the right to change the title and choose the art. We do consider previously published essays, taking into consideration venue, date, etc.
All rights are non-exclusive. We do not currently offer payment. We accept no responsibility for anything from libel to hurt feelings. As Anne Lamott says, “You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should’ve behaved better.”
Preferred length. 500 to 2000 words.
Please send submissions along with a short bio pasted directly into your email to: info@dorothyparkersashes.com We ask for this to avoid potentially malware-laden attachments. Unless your formatting is a specific design element of your piece, format should be single space with no paragraph indentation and one extra space between paragraphs.

N - Call for Submissions to HerStry. Theme: Coming of Age
2024-05-01 08:00 - 17:00 | HerStry
Limited Demographic. Submissions are restricted to “women identifying persons, including bigender/polygender persons, cisgender women, intergender persons/intersex persons, non-binary persons/gender non-conforming persons, transgender women/transfeminine persons, two-spirit.”
We often can only see our coming-of-age stories in retrospect, not as they are happening to us. Those moments that flung us over the line from childhood to adulthood. Some of them were gentle, love-filled moments, and others caused us deep, maybe still resonating pain. In June, we want those coming of age moments, that step out of childhood.
** HerStry is always happy to share stories anonymously—if your story is selected for publication, simply let your editor know you would not like your name shared **
THE RULES:

All stories must be true and about you.
Stories must follow the theme in some way, interpretations can be wide.
Stories must stay between 500–3,000 words.
Documents should be double spaced, 12Pt font with 1 inch margins.
Submissions must be in .doc or .docx form—we do not accept PDFs.
Stories are read blind. Please DO NOT put any identifying material on your manuscript. Manuscripts that don’t follow this rule will be automatically disqualified without being read. We realize personal essays may contain your name; a first name is fine.
Please include a third person bio. Cover letters are fine, but not necessary (we don’t read them, we’re more interested in what you’ve written).
Please submit only once per theme.
We do not accept previously published stories.

HerStry centers the experiences of women identifying persons. We’re looking for work from bigender/polygender persons, cisgender women, intergender persons/intersex persons, nonbinary persons/gender non-conforming persons, transgender women/transfeminine persons, two spirit. In other words, if you are a cis man, please refrain from submitting.
WANT PERSONALIZED FEEDBACK?
You can now receive helpful feedback by selecting the “personalized critique” option on our submissions page. While getting your work critiqued does not guarantee publication, we can help make it great for your next submissions, whether it’s to us or someone else.
$3 submission fee goes toward keeping HerStry sustainable. All accepted pieces receive $20 payment.

P - Tabi Po! Literary Magazine Seeking Submissions on the Theme: "Ears to the Earth"
2024-05-01 08:00 - 17:00 | Tabi Po! Literary Magazine
“In order for me to write poetry that isn’t political,
I must listen to the birds
and in order to hear the birds
the warplanes must be silent”.
~Marwan Makhoul
In an interview with Robin Wall Kimmerer in Edge Effects, she stated, “Gary Nabhan has said, as we try to heal the earth with restoration, with ecological restoration, that’s well and good but what we really need to do is re-story-ation. We need to tell ourselves a different story about our relationship to place. That’s where I think creation stories, either from antiquity or the creation stories we are in the process of writing today about our relationship to place, really matter. They can become a compass for us.”
How do we create poems that re-story ourselves to the earth when war covers the ground in dust? How do you respond to genocide and acts of terrorism?
Submit `1-3 poems by March 25th, 2024. Please include a cover letter and a 50-100 word bio. Work should be previously unpublished. Rights revert back to the author upon publication.

P - Heron Tree Seeking: Found poems created from any source material(s) published in or before 1928
2024-05-01 08:00 - 17:00 | Heron Tree
Heron Tree volume 11 will be dedicated to found poems composed from sources published in or before 1928.
We encourage you to download and read some collections of found poetry that we have published in the past: Found in the Public Domain, Songs, From the Blue Fairy, Of Climates & Continents, and all the poems in volume 8, volume 9, and volume 10.
More information:
– We are interested in any and all approaches to found poetry construction and erased or remixed texts.

– If you are working with a text that was translated into English, the English translation must also be published in or before 1928.
– Send up to 6 poems with a cover letter to submit.herontree@gmail.com.
– In your email cover letter, please include a list of your poems’ titles.
– The poems should be attached in a single doc, docx, or pdf file. If your pieces are better viewed as digital images, insert them as jpegs within a single doc, docx, or pdf file.
– All submissions will be read blind, so do not include your name in the file with the poems.
– In the same file as the poems, provide a different process paragraph for each poem. It should identify the source(s) for the poem and briefly explain your method of composition. If a poem combines found material and your own words, that’s fine, but your process statement must make that clear. You can find examples of process paragraphs in our previous collections of found poetry. If a poem is accepted for publication, the process paragraph will be published with it.
– Simultaneous submissions are welcome with timely notification of acceptance elsewhere.
– Poems that have previously appeared online (temporarily or permanently, on your own or a third-party site) should not be submitted, nor should work that has already been published electronically or in print.
– Once you send your submission, you’ll receive an automatic email reply. If you don’t receive the reply, please check your spam folder and add Heron Tree to your contacts to ensure that you receive future communications about your submission.
– If your work is accepted by Heron Tree, you agree to grant us exclusive first publication rights and the non-exclusive right to include your work in the volume 11 collection and our online archives. You agree that if your poem subsequently appears elsewhere you will credit Heron Tree as the original publisher.
– Accepted poems will be published weekly on the Heron Tree website beginning in summer 2023 and will be included in a free downloadable PDF volume available later in the year.
Heron Tree does not charge a fee for submitting nor provide payment for publication.
These guidelines are subject to change.

FN - Call for Submissions to descant. Theme: Time Capsule
2024-05-01 08:00 - 17:00 | descant
A forum for fiction and poetry, descant seeks high-quality work in either innovative or traditional forms. Fiction is usually 5000 words or fewer, poems sixty lines or fewer. We do, however, occasionally accept submissions exceeding these lengths. descant specifies no particular subject matter or style.
The Time Capsule
A keepsake to put away for the future, a token of childhood, a triumphant memory… the time capsule is a means to share wishes, hopes, dreams, and memories within an archive. How can a piece of writing signal to future readers how we live now: how we love, scorn, fear, aspire, and experience the world and its wonders. What do you want to say that cannot be said, seen, or heard unless it is unearthed for our descendants to discover twenty, fifty, or one hundred years from now? What does intelligence mean in the era of smart appliances, iPhones, Amazon, Reddit, TikTok, and ChatGPT? With polar ice caps melting, pollution clouding our air, rainforests being deforested by the hour, and war raging across the world, we still carry on with busy workweeks, and sink into beds dreaming of a better future when we rise. The time capsule will hold a kaleidoscope of human happenings, preserved in pages for future generations to read with fresh eyes.
Please be sure to submit to The Time Capsule, if you are answering this call.
Please be sure to indicate if the work is Fiction or Creative Nonfiction.
Writers must confirm that work accepted by descant has not been previously published and that they will credit descant as the original publisher whenever and wherever else the work may be placed.
Other than incarcerated persons, potential contributors should submit via our free online system, Submittable (descant.submittable.com/submit). Submit up to five (5) poems, or one (1) single submission of fiction, up to 5000 words. Please submit no more than twice during each reading period.
Please send online submissions to Submittable:

P - Call for Submissions to Vilas Avenue. Theme: Impermanence
2024-05-01 08:00 - 17:00 | Vilas Avenue
Vilas Avenue is open for submissions to Issue Six for a themed issue on the concept of “Impermanence”. Interpret that theme any way you’d like. Our reading period is April 1st, 2024 through May 1st, 2024.
Guest Editor H.W. Day:

“Impermanence is a fact of life that we all acknowledge in some form or fashion. It can be appreciated in a natural sense: the transition from Spring to Summer, plants ripening & decaying, bird song throughout a given day, & so on. However, in the context of both Eastern & Western philosophies, impermanence can be examined from a deeper perspective, with change being thought of as the nature of conditioned phenomena existing in a constant state of process, construction, & interdependence. This includes us— our thoughts, emotions, & perspectives follow a similar pattern of connectedness & becoming, existing & vanishing from moment to moment. The actualization that nothing exists in a permanent or dualistic way makes the written word real.
Vilas Avenue wishes impermanence to inspire a variety of interpretations of the theme, challenging the writer to attain a deeper understanding of the state of change— crafting work that lives, dies, lives again, & vanishes into momentariness.
With this issue we celebrate 10 years of recognizing work that involves movement, travel, & liminality that pulses in various ways, which is why impermanence seems a fitting motif for a publication that operates in reciprocity with the nature of change. In short, we are a constant process, just like you.”
HOW TO: Submit 1-3 poems pasted into the body of an e-mail or as an attachment to vilasavenue@gmail.com with the subject line “Poetry submission”. Please also include a brief, third-person biography. We will begin reading submissions in April 2024 and you will hear back on the status of your submission within 2-4 months of that time period, if not much sooner. Your own previously unpublished works only, please. Simultaneous submissions are OK, but please write to let us know if someone else snags your work first. Please do not send Artificial Intelligence (AI)-generated poems.
There is no fee to submit. We strongly believe that writing has value, and we believe that, when feasible, writers should be compensated for their work. In alignment with arching toward that philosophy, one poet (chosen at random out of all authors accepted for Issue Six) will receive a $25 honorarium upon publication.
AN IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT ACCESSIBILITY: Vilas Avenue values and respects diversity in all its forms. We recognize that life experiences, perspectives, and circumstances juxtaposed with our built and virtual environments manifest and emerge in dynamic and meaningful patterns that make us all human. If the submission process presents any barriers to your access, please contact vilasavenue@gmail.com and we will adapt to accommodate your process.
Thank you for considering Vilas Avenue as a potential outlet for your work!

N - Call for Submissions to Tolka Journal
2024-05-05 08:00 - 17:00 | Tolka Journal
Submission guidelines
All submissions should be previously unpublished.
We welcome all forms of non-fiction: personal essay, memoir, reportage, travel writing, auto-fiction, and the writing that falls in between.
Our guideline word count for work is 2,000–4,000 words.
Submissions should be in one .doc, .docx or PDF attachment and double-spaced.
We are happy to consider simultaneous submissions but ask that you notify us should your work be accepted elsewhere.
We offer contributors a flat fee of ‎‎€500, which we pay prior to publication. Contributors also receive a copy of the issue in which their work is featured.
We only accept submissions through our website.
We publish work by Irish and international writers.
For practical and economic reasons, we discourage the use of images unless integral to a piece of writing.
We encourage submissions from writers who are underrepresented in the arts, due to their socio-economic background, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, age or disability.
All submissions will be closely read but, due to the volume of submissions, we are unable to offer individual feedback. We aim to provide a response within three months of the closing date.
To familiarise yourself with the kind of writing we publish, see here. We are always open to new ventures.
Copyright remains, in all cases, the property of the author.

PFN - Shooter Literary Magazine Seeking Submission on: Nightlife
2024-05-12 08:00 - 17:00 | Shooter Literary Magazine
Submissions open for “Nightlife” issue
Posted on February 5, 2024 Standard

General submissions are now open for Shooter’s Spring/Summer 2024 issue, themed “Nightlife”.
Writers should send short stories and non-fiction of 2,000-6,000 words and/or up to three poems by the deadline of May 12th. Stories, essays, memoir and poetry should relate to nocturnal happenings: dating, working the night shift, crime, clubbing, dinner, sex, partying, witchcraft, ghosts, childbirth, insomnia, even nocturnal wildlife.
The theme is open to wide interpretation, but please adhere to the submission guidelines. In addition to thematic relevance, we seek engaging, elegant writing that maintains a high literary standard.
Documents should be in Word format, 1.5 or double spaced, with word count indicated at the end of the (prose) piece. Please submit only one piece of prose and/or up to three poems per issue.
Please include a brief biography in your email, noting any prior publishing experience, and send work to submissions.shooterlitmag@gmail.com by May 12th.
Simultaneous submissions are fine but please let us know if your work is accepted elsewhere. Any non-fiction or journalistic work selected for publication will be fact-checked. All work must be previously unpublished either in print or online.
Successful writers can expect to hear from us within a few weeks of the deadline, if not before; all other submitters will be informed of the outcome within two months.

FN - Call for Submissions to Root Quarterly. Theme: Founders
2024-05-15 00:00 | Root Quarterly
FALL 2025 // Founders // PITCH DEADLINE: MAY 15
The United States is a young and idealistic country that sits at a crossroads, especially as the geopolitical order shifts. What do we want the next 250 years to look like? What do we keep of our past, what do we evolve, and what do we jettison? What are our values? What do our communities mean? What agency do we have? With our political dysfunction, are entrepreneurs the answer, or does giving them too much power put us on a path toward a plutocracy? What does it mean to build instead to tear down?
We are not afraid of heterodox thinkers, long pieces, or essays and articles about complicated or nuanced issues that need more research and good faith discussion. It’s okay not to know the answer, but please have a good question!
We are not interested in pieces that shame, blame, or grandstand. We’d like to see pieces that open up conversations rather than shutting them down, and if you need touchstones, try reading “The Smug Style of American Politics” and this New York Times opinion piece from a social justice activist on outrage and cancel culture.
If you’re a conservative, get in touch. There are fellow libertarians here. Some of us are pretty progressive. None of that preclude us from wanting to hear what you have to say.
WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR:

Fiction, including experimental fiction and erotica, is welcome. Please send pieces of 500 to 2,000 words.

Personal essays or articles for our “Switchbacks” section that relate points of inflection in a person’s life that have taken them to an unexpected and new place.

Cultural criticism and think pieces of 500 to 3,500 words. You can write about big issues, movies, TV, books, art exhibitions or anything else that has sparked a good idea. We’re particularly interested here in exploring the media and meaning crises, and ways to understand the current culture war.

TONE & STYLE
It’s okay to have a distinctive voice! But we’re also looking for writers who will largely forgo snark, condescension, bullying, point-scoring, self-serving virtue signaling, etc., and will instead try on for size some finesse, awe, grace, wit, and humility. It’s okay to have questions and not answers. Ideas and issues are complicated, and they take time to unwind.
We’re also looking for people who aren’t afraid to write a piece even if people within their bubble might disagree with it. Two great examples are here in The Atlantic and here in Seattle’s Weekly, The Stranger. Both are written by hardcore liberals who are willing to call on other liberals to be more rigorous with their arguments.
Be wild, be funny, be weird, be contrarian. The worst we can say is ‘no.’
COMPENSATION
This is a volunteer-run project, and it’s a barn-raising in every way. Printing bills are expensive. But we know your time is valuable and that art isn’t free. That’s why we’ve got a subscription-based model and we don’t give our content away online.
We typically give honorariums of $25 to $100 depending on the piece and its length, as well as for artwork contributions that illustrate articles. Longer, solicited profiles or articles will be compensated at 10 cents to 20 cents per word, to be determined at the time we agree on a proposal and consult our current funds. If there’s a piece that absolutely needs to be written but would require more time and research, we’re willing to look into grants that may fund the work; we are a fiscally-sponsored project of Cultureworks in Philadelphia, and can accept tax-deductible contributions.
*If you are suffering from financial hardship and can’t afford a single issue at $15, you may send an email to editor@rootquarterly.com and we’ll work something out.
HOW TO SUBMIT
Take in all of the above, do a little reading, cozy up with an issue, and then send us an email keeping all those guidelines and principles in mind. We thank you in advance for considering joining our community.

PFN - Sage Cigarettes Magazine Seeking Poetry & Prose on the Theme of The Sun
2024-05-15 08:00 - 17:00 | Sage Cigarettes Magazine
Poetry & prose in the theme of The Sun (XIX)
Sage Cigarettes Magazine will release its first compiled issue since Oct. 2021 on June 20, 2024. The issue theme will be The Sun (XIX).

The theme is tarot-based but open to wide interpretation. The sun is the card of Leo, of summer, of deep abiding happiness, of fields of summer flowers, & the smell of sun-kissed wood. In reverse, the sun card is an indication of incomplete happiness, of good fortune just out of reach, of realizing that joy is a feeling & nothing is final. Tell us about the best days of your life, the days that fell short, the days that were golden despite it all. Explore the feeling of the sun at your back, the hum of tires against pavement during a summer road trip, the smell of warm honeysuckle.
We will consider a wide variety of takes on the theme.
We will open for submissions for this new issue on April 1, 2024 & close May 15, 2024. We will accept poetry, fiction, & creative non-fiction in the theme of The Sun (XIX).
Submission guidelines

All submissions must be sent to submissions@sagecigarettes.com. No submissions sent to individual editors will be considered for this themed call.
Authors & artists may send up to:

3 poems
2 flash pieces — fiction or cnf — up to 1,000 words each
1 short story between 1,000-4,000 words

We will send all responses by no later than June 9, 2024. We will respond to everyone & post updates via our social media.
Any additional questions can be directed to Managing Editor LE Francis, lefrancis@sagecigarettes.com.

General submission guidelines

Authors published with Sage Cigarettes retain all rights to their work.
Every submission must include a short contributor bio & preferred method of contact.
Simultaneous submissions are encouraged but please let us know ASAP if your work was accepted elsewhere.
Previously published pieces will be considered but please be sure that that you are in the clear with any agreement made with your previous publisher & let us know who previously published the work & when.
Please include a list of trigger warnings in the body of your email if applicable.
Any work submitted which is found to be racist, bigoted, hateful and/or work which promotes gratuitous or sexual violence will not be published and may result in the writer being banned from submitting and from our socials.
We will remove or reject work by any submitter or contributor we find to have plagiarized or been racist, misogynistic, homophobic, ableist or hateful in the literary community.

P - Call for Submissions to Songs of Eretz Poetry Review. Theme: Respond to Keats's "Ode on a Grecian Urn"
2024-05-15 08:00 - 17:00 | Songs of Eretz Poetry Review
WHAT WE WANT TO READ IN RESPONSE
to
Keats’s “Ode on a Grecian Urn”

John Keats’s masterpiece, “Ode on a Grecian Urn” explores human emotions and the enduring power of art. For our next issue, we are not looking for paraphrases or explanations of his ode. Rather, we want poems that spring from Keats’s vision.

One possible prompt is to use a line or part of a line as an epigraph and to go from there. Another prompt is to write into one of Keats’s themes, such as the immortality of art, or how a poem (like a vase) is a unit unto itself. A poem is static in that it has been given a finished form, but the images within the poem can seem quite active.

Of course, a writer could also dive deep into Keats’s famous line, “Beauty is truth, truth beauty.” We must see some connection to Keats’s poem, but the connection need not be overtly obvious. Surprise us!
HOW TO SUBMIT
Failure to follow these simple guidelines will result in your submission being discarded or returned to you unread!

Please resist the urge to include anything with your submission that we do not specifically request, especially your bio (we like to read as blindly as possible), credits (we treat the novice and the experienced equally), or explanatory notes (if you believe your poem requires an explanation, please revise it until it doesn’t).

Submit up to THREE poems to:

submissionssofe@gmail.com
There is no fee to submit.

Your Subject Line should be formatted as follows: [Poetry Submission][Title][Specific Form of poem, such as Free Verse or Shakespearean Sonnet][Poet’s Last Name].

If you are submitting more than one poem, each should appear in a separate email, and each email should include a separate cover letter. If your poem has multiple numbered sections, each section will “count” as ONE poem. If your poem contains more than three sections, query first.

5. Your poem(s) must appear in the body of your email(s). WE DO NOT ACCEPT ATTACHMENTS FOR POETRY. If your poem needs to be presented in an attachment due to special formatting, query first.
6.Include a cover letter in the body of your email(s) with answers to the following questions

(and remember NOT to include a biography at this process stage):
– Is yours a simultaneous submission or not? We DO accept them.
– How did you discover Songs of Eretz?
– How would you like us to indicate your name if we publish your work (ie: your byline, for example, “By Sammie Smith”)? NOTE: We do NOT accept work composed by a collaboration of poets or artists.
– What is your contact information? Include at least your city & state. Include your country if you reside outside of the United States. It is strongly recommended that you include your phone number as well, in case we need last-minute input from you (this has happened).

Reprint Policy:We DO NOT accept previously published work.
Simultaneous Submissions Policy:We accept sim subs.
Multiple Submissions Policy: Please wait until after your poem(s) is/are published in or rejected by Songs of Eretz before sending more.

Response Time: Please query if you have not received at least a preliminary response in twenty-onecalendar days. We no longer offer editorial feedback.

Rights To Your Poetry: If your work is accepted and you agree to join the ranks of the other fine poets who have been published in Songs of Eretz Poetry Review,your work will appear in the quarterly issue for which it was submitted. In exchange, you will grant Songs of Eretz the first worldwide publication rights, first worldwide electronic rights, non-exclusive archival rights in perpetuity, non-exclusive anthology rights in perpetuity, and non-exclusive reprint rights in perpetuity.

All other rights will revert to you upon publication, but we would appreciate the courtesy of allowing Songs of Eretz an exclusive for a few months if that is not too much trouble.
Acknowledgement:We expect to be acknowledged as the venue of the firstpublication should you reprint your work.

Published Format: Songs of Eretzreserves the right to make the editorial decision to publish any poem aligned left, right, or centered. If your poem is concrete or requires a special format, please query first.

PN - Call for Submissions to RFD Magazine. Theme: Travel and Community
2024-05-15 08:00 - 17:00 | RFD Magazine
RFD is a reader-written journal for gay people which focuses on country living and encourages alternative lifestyles. We foster community building and networking, explore the diverse expressions of our sexuality, care for the environment, radical faerie consciousness, nature-centered spirituality, and share experiences of our lives. RFD has been since 1974. It is now one of the oldest continuously published gay journals.

N - Radical History Review Calls for Submissions on the Theme: The Rest is Political: Radical Histories of Repose
2024-05-15 08:00 - 17:00 | Radical History Review
The Rest is Political: Radical Histories of Repose – Due May 15, 2024

Radical History Review seeks contributions to a forthcoming issue that will explore the expansive possibilities when we historicize rest.
Rest is everywhere part of quotidian human experience, and the human body’s need for intermittent periods of restorative unconsciousness is a universal feature of our shared biology. Yet how societies, communities and individuals have segmented sleep in time, sequestered it in space and fought over access to it are matters of historical study. In the wake of the 24-hour workday, chronobiology and other interdisciplinary fields of medical science and public health research emerged in the second half of the twentieth century. Yet calls to “slow down” amidst today’s great speed-up seem to have done little to abate the contemporary public health and social justice crisis.
History does not pause during the minutes and hours of daily repose. On the contrary, sleep is perennially the subject of fervent contestation. The medical, architectural, cultural, social, legal, and political economic dimensions of sleep lend it to critical study; the dangerous, vexing, and by now normalized dearth of it in today’s world makes it the urgent subject of radical history.
Inspired by the contemporary urgency of ensuring the right to restorative time away from labor, with this issue the editors hope to highlight the radical potential for the historical study of sleep and rest, and the opportunities this area of study provides for historians to connect with scholars in the natural sciences, architects and planners, and policymakers and activists.
Collectively, the contributions to this issue, we hope, can redefine spaces of refuge and shelter, question received ideas about obligatory productivity, and probe the boundaries between private and public. We encourage submissions from and about all parts of the world and historical epochs, particularly from the pre- and early-modern eras as well as more contemporary history. We endeavor not necessarily to trace a global, transhistorical trajectory of how people have slept in times past, but rather to find models for studying this element of everyday life whose immense political power is hidden in plain sight.
Topics may include but are not limited to:

the organization of domestic space and radical solutions to organizing dwellings to accommodate—and to create—patterns of sleep and wakefulness
the historical archeology of sleep
how did urban planning account for sleep and rest?
housing “crises,” or contestations of the right to housing and to places of residence, rest and refuge
lying down as a form of protest and public resistance
uses and abuses of the medical science of sleep, in both the premodern and modern eras
the historical study of lying down and the body at rest; movement, genuflection, and the politics of prostration
revisiting and revising the classic studies of workers’ struggles over time by centering sleep
dreams and their interpretation as historical artifacts
the religious history of rest; “the sleep of the just” as a reward for productive day
colonial and nationalist metaphors of sleeping, waking, lying down, or standing up
sleep deprivation as a disciplinary and as an intelligence-gathering strategy
contestation about when, where, and how, and with whom people may sleep
social movements and radical ideologies in history that believed in political liberation through rest
ideas, practices, and contestations over nature/land as requiring rest
the historically constructed relationship between sleep and the night

Radical History Review publishes material in a wide variety of forms. The editors will consider scholarly research articles as well as photo essays, film and book review essays, interviews, brief interventions, essays on museum and other public history forums, “conversations” between scholars and/or activists, teaching notes and annotated course syllabi, and research notes.
Preliminary inquiries may be sent to issue editors Amy Chazkel (ac2227@columbia.edu) and Anup Grewal (anup.grewal@utoronto.ca).
Procedures for submission of articles:
By May 15, 2024, please submit a 1-2 page abstract summarizing the article you wish to submit to our online journal management system, ScholarOne. To begin with ScholarOne, sign in or create an account at https://mc04.manuscriptcentral.com/dup-rhr. Next, sign in, select “Author” from the menu up top, and click “Begin Submission” or “Start New Submission.” Upload a Word or PDF document, including any images within the document. After uploading your file, select “Proposal” as the submission type and follow the on-screen instructions. Please write to contactrhr@gmail.com if you encounter any technical difficulties or have any other questions.
By June 15, 2024, authors will be notified whether they should submit a full version of their article for peer review. The due date for completed articles will be in September 2024. Those articles selected for publication after the peer review process will be included in issue 154 of the Radical History Review, scheduled to appear in January 2026.

PFN - subTerrain Magazine Seeking Submissions about: Trash
2024-05-15 08:00 - 17:00 | subTerrain Magazine
Submissions must be previously unpublished material. (Note maximum number of submissions per issue below.)
Feel free to interpret our themes in unique and unusual ways.

All other regular submission guidelines still apply, as below.
The following are some general guidelines (as always, we suggest READING an issue of the magazine to see what we’re all about).
Submissions must be previously unpublished and be:
1. typed, double-spaced on 8 1/2 x 11 paper.
2. Fiction: a maximum of 3,000 words. (Max. 3 stories per issue)
3. Poetry: we no longer accept unsolicited poetry submissions (unless specifically related to one of our theme issues). Poetry should be single-spaced with stanza breaks. (Max. 5 poems per issue)
4. Creative Non-Fiction: a maximum of 4,000 words. (Max. 2 articles per issue)
5. Commentary (social or otherwise): a maximum of 4000 words. (Max. 2 articles per issue)
6. Please do not send submissions via email; online submissions accepted through Submittable only (mailed submissions are still accepted as well.)
7. Please allow 6 months for a response, though we shall strive as always to respond sooner.
Payment rates for published submissions:
Poetry: $50 per poem
Prose: $.10 per word (to a maximum of $500.)
Submission fees:
Electronic submissions come with a $3.00 submission fee to help cover our Submittable account and thereby allow us to continue accepting online submissions. If you choose to submit by traditional mail, you will not be charged the submission fee. Mailed submissions can be sent to the address below.
*If submitting by mail, please identify on the front of the envelope the theme issue to which you’re submitting.
subTerrain Magazine
P.O. Box 3008, MPO
Vancouver, BC V6B 3X5
Canada

PFN - Talk Vomit Seeking Submissions on: Girlhood
2024-05-15 08:00 - 17:00 | Talk Vomit
THEME: Our summer edition’s theme is girlhood, however you interpret that.
We now manage submissions through our Google Form, linked here.
The details:

Non-fiction under 4,000 words, fiction under 2,000, and poetry just generally kept to a minimum
Please submit one prose piece or two poems.
Turnaround times vary. Expect a response within approximately one month of submissions closing.
Talk Vomit believes wholeheartedly in simultaneous submissions and raises their eyebrows at places that don’t. BUT, if your piece is accepted elsewhere, please email talk@talkvomit.com as soon as you can. If you don’t, it stands to be quite embarrassing for both of us.

Some stuff we particularly like:

Gothic stories. Not high fantasy stuff, usually, but moody and atmospheric pieces that take a microscope to the underbelly of our communities and relationships
Flash satire
Essays that weave first-person with cultural criticism; essays with a fresh coming-of-age narrative (one can come of age at many times in their life, in many ways; Monica is currently particularly interested in coming-of-age stories related to motherhood, fwiw)
Cultural criticism, in general
Book reviews, especially those in the 300-600 word range — unless you’re baking in some first-person narrative and lengthier criticism. If that’s the case, follow our general nonfiction word limit.
Serial stories. Feel free to pitch one at talk@talkvomit.com. Let’s get Dickensian about it.

At the end of the day, we’re curating each quarterly to fit a theme and meet our editorial needs. We say no to a lot of a solid pieces that we simply don’t have room for. Don’t hesitate to submit to the next round if your piece is not accepted.
If your piece is a thinly-veiled homage to Lolita, we will delete it without response. Read something else.
Payment: We’re very pleased to pay our contributors thanks to print zine sales and supporters of our Substack. Our rates are DIY-zine rates, but we hope they will increase. Fiction and nonfiction run in the $10-30 range; poetry in the $5-15 range. The rate will be higher for print exclusives. We issue honraria via Venmo and PayPal.https://talkvomit.com/submissions/
