Writing Contests, Grants & Awards
The Writing Contests, Grants & Awards database includes details about the creative writing contests. Poetry contests, short story competitions, essay contests, awards for novels, and more are included. We carefully review the practices and policies of each contest before including it. Ours is the most trusted resource for legitimate writing contests available anywhere.
CLASSIFIEDS
WRITING CONTESTS, CONFERENCES, WORKSHOPS, EDITING SERVICES, CALLS FOR SUBMISSIONS, AND MORE.
Bookhubpub is unable to check all claims made by advertisers. Readers should be aware of publishers who charge, rather than pay, an author for publication; publishers who do not pay for publication, even in copies; publishers who require a purchase before publication; and contests that charge high reading fees. Bookhubpub recommends that you see the publication and submission guidelines before submitting a manuscript.
CALL FOR ANTHOLOGIES
ANTHOLOGY: WOODHALL PRESS SEEKS true narratives of 300 words or less from BIPOC writers who self-identify as women for Nonwhite and Woman: 153 Micro Essays on Being in the World to be published Spring 2022. Editor: Darien Hsu Gee. Emerging and established writers welcome. Previously published work accepted—include prior pub info. Deadline: April 30. Details at www.woodhallpress.com/nonwhite-and-woman or e-mail madeleine@woodhallpress.com.
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS for the 42 Stories Anthology. The goal is to have 1,764 stories in 1 book. We only need about 500 more works. Free to submit and a Best of Award in each chapter. Google 42 Stories Anthology for guidelines.
NOBODY’S HOME: MODERN SOUTHERN FOLKLORE, a new online anthology of creative nonfiction works about prevailing beliefs, myths, and narratives in Southern culture, is seeking narrative and contemplative works about the ideas, experiences, and assumptions that have shaped life below the old Mason-Dixon Line since 1970. Website: modernsouthernfolklore.com/submissions.
RECENTLY FOUNDED, ANNUAL Coolest American Stories Anthology seeks engaging, courageous, empathetic, down-to-earth short stories written by people from all walks of life. No nominations required; unpublished, previously published fine—novel excerpts considered. Pays $100. Send us that vibrant story that’s “not quite right” for others. CASA: “where storytelling thrives.” www.coolestamericanstories.com/submit.html.
TELLING OUR STORIES PRESS is seeking visual and literary memoir submissions for ongoing anthology projects including “Show & Tell,” “COVID-19 Diaries,” and “Nam.” Participate in the August Wilson Tribute, “Dear August.” Learn about newly forming virtual salons centering literature, arts and journaling for artists, writers, scholars, and diarists. Visit tellingourstoriespress.com.
CALL FOR BOOKS
ATMOSPHERE PRESS IS currently seeking submissions of full-length book manuscripts in all genres—from poetry to fiction to memoir and beyond—with no reading fee. Atmosphere Press is an independent publisher dedicated to honesty, transparency, professionalism, kindness, and making your book awesome. Learn more at atmospherepress.com.
HAVE A STORY TO TELL? Legacy Book Press is open for submissions, accepting book-length personal stories in nonfiction, autobiographical fiction, and/or poetry formats. Collaborative relationship, generous royalty splits, and easy to work with. No upfront fees. Tip: Follow submission guidelines exactly. For details, visit legacybookpress.com.
CALL FOR CHAPBOOKS
2021 TWO SYLVIAS PRESS CHAPBOOK PRIZE is now open. Winner receives $500, publication by Two Sylvias Press, 20 copies of the winning book, and a Depression-era glass trophy (circa 1930). All entries considered for publication. Deadline: May 31. Guidelines: twosylviaspress.com/chapbook-prize.html. Also now available for purchase—2019’s chapbook winner: Christopher Salerno’s Deathbed Sext, chosen by Maggie Smith.
BLUE LIGHT PRESS CHAPBOOK CONTEST. Publication and 10 copies of your book. We like imagistic, inventive, emotionally honest poems that push the edge. Send 12–24 page manuscript, SASE, $10 reading fee to Blue Light Press, P.O. Box 150300, San Rafael, CA 94915 by June 30. For guidelines, bluelightpress@aol.com. Website: www.bluelightpress.com.
HEADMISTRESS PRESS, a lesbian-identified poetry press, is excited to announce our seventh annual Charlotte Mew Chapbook Contest. Judge will be Julie Marie Wade. Winner receives $300. All entries are considered for publication. Submissions accepted May 4 to July 4, through Submittable. Sliding scale fee. Full details at: headmistresspress.blogspot.com/2017/07/2020-charlotte-mew-chapbook-contest.html.
CALL FOR MAGAZINES
ONE OF THE TOP 10 LITERARY BLOGS on the web. The RavensPerch Literary Magazine seeks submissions of well-groomed poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and visual art. For submission guidelines, visit us at theravensperch.com.
AJI MAGAZINE IS CALLING for poetry, short fiction, literary nonfiction, reviews, photography, and graphic art from emerging and established writers and artists. Submissions open on May 1 and November 1 and close once the upcoming issue is filled. Back issues are available at www.ajimagazine.com; e-mail queries can be sent to ajimagazine@gmail.com.
AJN, THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF NURSING (print circulation 80,000 and digital editions), seeks poems, “flash” fiction, and visual art related to health or health care for its Art of Nursing department. Authors need not be health care professionals. Original perspectives and clear, unsentimental writing are preferred. $150 honorarium paid upon publication. Query Art of Nursing coordinator before submitting (use “Art of Nursing” in subject line): diane.szulecki@wolterskluwer.com.
APPLE VALLEY REVIEW seeks flash/full-length fiction, essays, poetry, and translations for Vol. 16, No. 1 (Spring 2021). Previously published pieces have been selections/notables in Best American Short Stories, Best American Essays, Best Microfiction, Best Small Fictions, Best of the Net, Best of the Web, Wigleaf Top 50, and others. applevalleyreview.com.
CÆSURA REQUESTS SUBMISSIONS of poetry, fiction (science fiction, nonfiction, flash), and all visual art forms, from March 1 to June 1, for 2 unique volumes, 1 print, 1 online. No fees. Call will post by February 26. To read the call and guidelines, view online editions, and order print editions, visit www.pcsj.org/caesura.
CHANGES IN LIFE MONTHLY ONLINE NEWSLETTER is seeking personal essays from women of all ages. New writers are encouraged to submit their work. For further details and submission guidelines, please visit the website at: www.changesinlife.com.
CHOEOFPLEIRN PRESS SEEKS SUBMISSIONS of poetry, creative essays, scholarly essays, 1-act plays, short screenplays, art, and photography for publication in our summer journal, Glacial Hills Review, and our autumn journal, Rushing Thru the Dark. Deadlines are May 30 and August 29 respectively. For details, visit www.choeofpleirnpress.com.
CLERESTORY MAGAZINE IS ACCEPTING SUBMISSIONS (personal essays, creative nonfiction, articles, and photo essays) for their spring and summer issues. For guidance on relevant themes and deadlines or to submit, please visit www.clerestorymag.com/submissions or write to submissions@clerestorymag.com.
COLLATERAL PUBLISHES literary and visual art concerned with the impact of violent conflict and military service beyond the combat zone. We read year round, charge no fees, and publish each May and November. Submit through our website: www.collateraljournal.com.
CONNECTICUT RIVER REVIEW, A NATIONAL POETRY JOURNAL, is accepting submissions from February 1 to April 15. Electronic submissions only. Send up to 4 original unpublished poems in a single document, 1 poem per page. connecticutriverreview.submittable.com/submit. You can check our website for complete guidelines: www.ctpoetry.net. (Click on publications tab.)
DASH LITERARY JOURNAL is looking for previously unpublished short, emphatic poems (less than 30 lines), stories, hybrids, and essays (up to 2,000 words), and artwork. The reading period opens mid-October and closes March 1 with all decisions made by April. Submissions accepted through Submittable: dash.submittable.com/submit.
GRAND LITTLE THING’S The Umbran Project is looking for poetry submissions from the African American Diaspora. The work can be about anything, but the poems will have to be formal (i.e., sonnet, sestina, villanelle) or free verse, but with an emphasis on technique. For more guidelines, go here: https://grand-little-things.com/the-umbran-project.
THE HALCYONE LITERARY QUARTERLY wants your best unpublished poetry, short stories, and art. Payment for featured writers. Publication awards for winning contest entries. New Her Words literary magazine for women. Submit at https://thehalcyone.submittable.com.
HAWAII PACIFIC REVIEW seeks fiction, poetry, and nonfiction. Based at Hawaii Pacific University, HPR charges no fees and reads submissions August through April. Our work has been featured in the Best of the Net and the Pushcart Prize anthology. Details and links to our submission manager can be found at hawaiipacificreview.org.
THE MEDICAL LITERARY MESSENGER seeks thought-provoking poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and visual art related to medicine, illness, and the body. Online submissions are free and accepted on a rolling basis. Visit us at https://med-lit.vcu.edu for more information. You can also follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @medlitmessenger.
MISTAKE HOUSE MAGAZINE Magazine seeks fiction and poetry by students currently enrolled in graduate or under-graduate programs worldwide. We seek honest, inventive work that speaks to the heart in a complex and difficult global context. Submission window: October 15, 2020, to March 15, 2021. Submission fee: $5. See guidelines at www.mistakehouse.org/submit/.
OYSTER RIVER PAGES seeks fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and visual arts that stretch creative and social boundaries, especially from decentered or marginalized voices. We believe in the power of art to connect people to their own and others’ humanity. Submissions accepted January–May. For details, see www.oysterriverpages.com.
PEN + BRUSH IN PRINT, the publishing arm of a nonprofit supporting the work of emerging and mid-career artists and writers, seeks poetry and short literary fiction by women and nonbinary authors. No submission fee! We also accept novels and short story collections. See our website for more information: www.penandbrush.org/explore/literary.
PENSIVE: A GLOBAL JOURNAL OF SPIRITUALITY AND THE ARTS (www.pensivejournal.com). New online publication from Northeastern University’s Center for Spirituality, Dialogue, and Service. Inaugural issue contributors include Baca, Bruchac, M. Collins, Chess, Cording, Espada, Finch, Glancy, Gundy, Hoffman, Lea, Lindsay, Maitland, Marchant, Metres, Piercy, Samaras, Sanders, Starnes, and more. Submit work that deepens the inward life; envisions a more just, peaceful, and sustainable world; and advances dialogue across difference. May 15 and November 15 annual deadlines for unpublished poetry, prose, visual art, translations. International and underrepresented submissions especially encouraged. Guidelines on website; submit 3–5 pieces and 3–5 sentence bio via Submittable. Questions? E-mail Alexander Levering Kern, editor, at a.kern@northeastern.edu.
PHANTOM DRIFT, A JOURNAL celebrating the literary fantastic, seeks fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and black-and-white art for our 11th issue. Submit January 1 to April 30 on our Submittable page and visit our website at phantomdrift.org.
POETS—WE HOPE YOU ARE ALL WELL and looking forward to better days. Call for submissions! Crosswinds Poetry Journal is accepting submissions for its inaugural fall issue, due out in November. Reading period is April 1–April 30. Guidelines at crosswindspoetry.com. Thanks.
RATTLE SEEKS SUBMISSIONS by Indian poets for the fall 2021 issue: Poems may be any style or subject, but must have been written by poets who identify as Indian and have lived in India for a significant period of time. Deadline: April 15. Online submissions accepted. For more information, visit our website: www.rattle.com.
RIVERSONGS, NONPROFIT JOURNAL, is accepting poems March 1 to June 1. Winners receive 1 copy. Enclose SASE and brief bio. Dr. Mona Lee Clark, 57 S. 1300 West, St. George, UT 84770.
SANGAM LITERARY MAGAZINE. Sangam—home to Louisiana’s Poet Laureate and Southern University’s Languages and Literature Department—is looking for your best work regarding our Spring and Fall 2021 issues. We are looking forward to you being part of Sangam’s emerging position in today’s literary tradition. For details, see www.subr.edu/page/submissions.
SEEMS CONSIDERS UNPUBLISHED poems (3–5), literary fiction, and creative nonfiction (5,000 words max of prose). Submissions in body of e-mail and “P,” “F,” or “CNF” in subject line to seems@lakeland.edu or, with SASE, to Karl Elder, Editor, Lakeland University, W. 3718 South Dr., Plymouth, WI 53073. Sample at http://seemsmagazine.wixsite.com/seems.
SEQUESTRUM IS ACCEPING SUBMISSIONS for our Slipstream theme. Fiction, nonfiction & poetry including magical realism, fantasy, and cross-genre. Submit via our online submission system. Deadline April 15. Full guidelines: www.sequestrum.org.
SOLSTICE: A MAGAZINE OF DIVERSE VOICES, essay in The Best American Essays 2018, cited essays 2015 & 2016, Best of Net winner, announces call for submissions for new genre: Graphic lit. Also, call for all genres for spring or summer Issue. Purchase our fab print winter issue! solsticelitmag.org.
STONE CANOE, THE AWARD-WINNING ANNUAL JOURNAL the award-winning annual journal of art, writing, and ideas, is now reading submissions for its 2021 issue. The journal is open to work by poets, writers of fiction and nonfiction, and artists; the only requirement is that contributors must be either current or former residents of upstate New York. For complete submission guidelines, visit ycny.org/stone-canoe or e-mail stonecanoe@ymcacny.org.
SUBMIT WHATEVER POEMS WHENEVER in the body of an e-mail or in just 1 attachment. The Great American Poetry Show. Simultaneous submissions and previously published poems are welcome. Website: www.tgaps.com. E-mail: info@eotcllc.com.
TAHOMA LITERARY REVIEW will open again September 1 for submissions in poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. We pay $55 for poetry & flash prose, $135 for longer work. Everything we accept comes from the open submission queue. Work from TLR has appeared in major anthologies. Guidelines: tahomaliteraryreview.com.
TINT JOURNAL, THE LITERARY MAGAZINE for non-native English creative writing, publishes fiction, nonfiction, and poetry by non-native English or ESL writers. See our homepage for our current open call and our guidelines, and submit via www.tintjournal.com/submit; #showyourtint and follow us @tintjournal.
TIPTON POETRY JOURNAL. Published quarterly by Indiana non-profit Brick Street Poetry Inc. $25 payment for 1 featured poem per issue. Online and print versions. TPJ-nominated poet Christopher Todd Anderson was selected for the 2018 Pushcart Prize anthology. Details and links to our submission manager can be found at tiptonpoetryjournal.com.
TWO HAWKS QUARTERLY is an online journal affiliated with Antioch University Los Angeles’s BA program in Creative Writing and is setting the bar for contemporary literature with bold and illuminating poetry, fiction, CNF, and quality experimental work. Read us. Write for us. Submissions accepted year-round. For guidelines, see www.twohawksquarterly.com.
VISIONS—INTERNATIONAL is looking for accessible, original poetry to celebrate 42 publishing years! Send 3–6 unpublished poems as Word Doc attachment (no simultaneous submissions) to: vias.poetry@gmail.com. (See our website: www.visionsi.com). Suggest reading sample copy first, $5 from Visions, 7742 Fairway Rd., Woodway, TX 76712.
THE WOVEN TALE PRESS MAGAZINE, both online and print, features the finest of the literary and visual arts from around the world. Submit (free!) poetry, flash fiction, memoir, short stories, novel excerpts. Go to our “submit” page at www.thewoventalepress.net.
CALL FOR WEBSITES
MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES SHORT EDITION, an innovative publishing platform affiliated with the international publisher Short Edition, seeks short work (8,000 character max, about 1,000 words) exploring the theme of the American Road. Submissions accepted through May 1. Selected work will appear online and in MSU Short Edition machines, and will be considered for publication internationally. Contributors may be invited to participate in a virtual reading in conjunction with the Broad Art Museum’s exhibit, Interstates of Mind. Website: lib.msu.edu/shortedition/submissions.
Writing Contests
Poetry International
Poetry International Prize
A prize of $1,000 and publication in Poetry International is given annually for a single poem. Using only the online submission system, submit up to three poems with a $15 entry fee ($3 for each additional poem) by April 30. All entries are considered for publication. Visit the website for complete guidelines.
Poetry International, Poetry International Prize, San Diego State University, Department of English and Comparative Literature, Mail Code 6020, 5500 Campanile Drive, San Diego, CA 92182. (619) 594-1522. Sandra Alcosser, Editor in Chief.
University of Mississippi
A prize of $10,000 is given annually for a novel published during the previous year that is set in the South and reflects Willie Morris’s “hope for belonging, for belief in a people’s better nature, for steadfastness against all that is hollow or crass or rootless or destructive.” The winner will also receive an all-expenses paid trip to Oxford, Mississippi, for the awards ceremony. Susan Kingsolving will judge. Submit a novel of at least 50,000 words published in 2020 by April 30. There is no entry fee. Visit the website for complete guidelines.
University of Mississippi, Willie Morris Award for Southern Fiction, 615 Grove Loop, University, MS 38677. Susan Nicholas, Coordinator.
Australian Book Review
Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize
A prize of AUD $6,000 (approximately $4,356) is given annually for a story. A second-place prize of AUD $4,000 (approximately $2,970) and a third-place prize of AUD $2,500 (approximately $1,764) are also given. The winners will all be published in Australian Book Review. Using only the online submission system, submit a story of 2,000 to 5,000 words with an AUD $25 (approximately $19) entry fee by May 3. Visit the website for complete guidelines.
Australian Book Review, Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize, Studio 2, 207 City Road, Southbank, Victoria, Australia 3006.