FICTION / NONFICTION - AUGUST 2016

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: ASIAN AMERICAN LITERARY AWARDS

Asian American Writers’ Workshop

 INFO: The Asian American Literary Awards is presented by the Asian American Writers' Workshop and honors works by Asian American writers for excellence in three categories: (1) fiction, (2) poetry, and (3) nonfiction. Past winners of the award include Jhumpa Lahiri, Ha Jin, Susan Choi, Amitav Ghosh, Mei-Mei Berssenbrugge, and Arthur Sze, among many others.

To enter a fiction, nonfiction, or poetry book that was published in the year 2015, please click on the link below.

DEADLINE:  August 1, 2016, 11:59PM

aaww.org/aala/

  

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: PROSE

Elastic Magazine

INFO: Elastic Magazine is accepting submissions for prose (fiction/non-fiction). The theme of the issue is doubles. From doppelgängers to couplets to double-vision, interpret/unravel/resist this theme however you please. All submissions must relate to the theme in some identifiable way. Prose must be no more than 1,000 words.

DEADLINE: August 7, 2016, at 11:59pm EST

elastic-mag.com/

 

LOVE LETTERS TO SPOOKS

Winter Tangerine Review

INFO: Love Letters to Spooks, a WT Flash Spotlight feature, seeks to trouble and interrogate the mortal liminality that Black people in the United States experience. They seek poetry and micro essay submissions that grapple with the absurdity of existence in a body not deemed worthy of life; submissions that interrogate death involving social demise: slander for people such as Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, and erasure for people like Goddess Diamond and Mercedes Successful.

This is a literary space for Black people, curated by Black people. If you are a Black writer, please feel free to send us your work. Please submit up to five poems, and up to 2 pieces of prose in one file.  

DEADLINE: August 14, 2016

wintertangerine.submittable.com/submit/62432

 

2016 WEEKEND RESIDENCY APPLICATION

Sula’s Room

INFO: Sula’s Room weekend residencies are open to New York based women writers of color. Their mission is to nurture emerging and established women writers working in poetry, fiction and creative nonfiction with quiet space and community. 

SUBMISSION FEE: $15

DEADLINE: August 15, 2016

sulasroom.org/

 

CALL FOR SUBMISSION: FICTION / NONFICTION

Apogee Journal

INFO: Apogee Journal’s reading period is now open! They are seeking fiction and nonfiction for Issue 08, to be published in Fall/Winter 2016.

Apogee is a journal of literature and art that engages with identity politics, including but not limited to: race, gender, sexuality, class, ability, and intersectional identities. They are a biannual print publication featuring fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and visual art. Their goals are twofold: to publish fresh work that interrogates the status quo, and to provide a platform for underrepresented voices, prioritizing artists and writers of color.

DEADLINE: August 15, 2016

apogeejournal.submittable.com/submit

 

CULTURESTRIKE CLIMATE & ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE LITERARY FELLOWSHIP

CultureStrike Magazine

INFO: CultureStrike, a migrant-led organization that works with a national network of artists to change public sentiment around migration including climate change and forced displacement, announces its first Climate Justice Literary Fellowship in the Summer/Fall of 2016 for creative literary works based on the theme of climate change and migration.  

They are seeking journalists, nonfiction writers, and poets to develop stories and reporting projects related to climate change, environmental justice, and the social and cultural questions surrounding migration and human movement. They seek writers from across the country, in every region, representing diverse communities, with an eye toward exploring regional and local experiences of global warming - including its root causes, environmental consequences on the social and cultural landscape, resilience of indigenous communities and communities of color and potential solutions.

They are offering fellowships to two individuals in either of these two genres: 

  • Creative fiction or poetry: to produce works of fiction and poetry, or creative works in related genres, that deal with timely migration and environment-related topics in a creative way.
  • Journalism or narrative nonfiction: to produce longform narrative journalism in the form of a series of investigative articles, a long investigative narrative, or a related form of storytelling. Priority given to stories with a compelling narrative and news value, as well as stories that make creative use of multimedia or technology components.

AWARDS: Two fellowships of $1000 - $2000 each for a literary project. Additionally, each fellow will receive up to $1500 towards related project expenses, including domestic travel. 

They will also provide editorial support and publish both on CultureStrike’s Online Magazine and whenever possible, help place the story in other publications.

IMPORTANT DATES:

  • Application Deadline – August 15, 2016
  • Awards Announced – October 1, 2016
  • Project Deadline– December 28, 2016

culturestrike.org/release/request-applications-culturestrike-climate-and-environmental-justice-literary-fellowship

 

ERNEST J. GAINES AWARD FOR LITERARY EXCELLENCE

Baton Rouge Area Foundation

INFO: The Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence honors Louisiana’s revered storyteller, Ernest J. Gaines, and serves to inspire and recognize rising African-American fiction writers of excellence at a national level. The book award, initiated by donors of the Baton Rouge Area Foundation, is now in its ninth year and has become nationally recognized in its role of enhancing visibility of emerging black fiction writers while also expanding the audience for this literature.  

The 2016 panel of judges are themselves renowned contributors to the literary world. They are Anthony Grooms, Edward P. Jones, Elizabeth Nunez, Francine Prose and Patricia Towers.

The Baton Rouge Area Foundation sponsors the winner’s travel to Baton Rouge, Louisiana to receive the prize at a ceremony attended by Ernest Gaines where the author reads an excerpt from the selected work of fiction.

The literary award winner also participates in educational activities at selected area schools and after-school programs in keeping with the Gaines Award's interest in emphasizing the role of literature and arts in education. Through small creative writing workshops with the winning author, students are encouraged to pursue reading, delve into their own creativity, and to consider becoming an author. 

AWARD: $10,000 cash to support the writer and help enable her/him to focus on her/his art of writing. 

DEADLINE: August 15, 2016

ernestjgainesaward.org/literary-award-criteria-registration/

  

PEN/ PHYLLIS NAYLOR WORKING WRITER FELLOWSHIP

INFO: The PEN/Phyllis Naylor Working Writer Fellowship is offered annually to an author of children's or young-adult fiction. It has been developed to help writers whose work is of high literary caliber and is designed to assist a writer at a crucial moment in his or her career to complete a book-length work-in-progress.

The Fellowship is made possible by a substantial contribution from PEN Member Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, the prolific author of more than 140 books, including Now I'll Tell You Everything, the 28th and final book in the acclaimed "Alice" series, as well as Faith, Hope, and Ivy June and Shiloh, the first novel in a trilogy, which won the 1992 Newbery Medal.

PRIZE: $5,000 

DEADLINE: August 15, 2016

pen.org/content/penphyllis-naylor-working-writer-fellowship-5000

  

SPECIAL CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

Kweli Journal

INFO: Kweli Journal was selected by PEN America, along with other notable literary journals such as Tin HouseThe New Yorker and The Paris Review, to serve as a contributing publisher for the inaugural PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers.  

Offered for the first time during PEN's 2017 Awards cycle, this award will recognize twelve emerging fiction writers for their debut short story published in a literary magazine or cultural website in 2016.

In a further effort to launch the winner's careers as fiction writers, the independent book publisher Catapult will also publish the twelve winning stories in an annual anthology entitled “The PEN America Best Debut Short Stories,” the first publication of which will be forthcoming in spring 2017.

Emerging writers of color who have yet to publish a short story are encouraged to submit
 one short story no more than 7,000 words.

PRIZE: $2,000 cash prize to 12 writers, who will be honored at the annual PEN Literary Awards Ceremony in New York City.

DEADLINE: August 15, 2016

kwelijournal.org/penrobert-j-dau-short-story-prize-1/

  

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: WOMEN, GENDER, AND PAN-AFRICANISM

African American Intellectual History Society 

INFO: AAIHS issues this call for a new blog series on women, gender, and Pan-Africanism. They invite new and experienced writers–including undergraduate students, graduate students, faculty, and independent scholars–to submit guest blog posts for this special series. Broadly speaking, blog posts in this series will examine how women and gender have shaped Pan-Africanist movements and discourses of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in the United States, Europe, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.

They encourage potential contributors to submit guest blog posts that explore topics that include but are not limited to the following:

  • Pan-Africanism among African women activists
  • Afro-Latinas’ engagement in Pan-African movements
  • Caribbean women and Pan-Africanism
  • Gender and Garveyism

Blog posts should not exceed 1,500 words (not including footnotes) and should be written for a general audience.

DEADLINE: August 30, 2016

aaihs.org/call-for-submissions-women-gender-and-pan-africanism/

 

 CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: PROSE / SHORT STORIES

Torch Journal 

INFO: TORCH, a biannual online journal published by Torch Literary Arts, is seeking submissions of original unpublished prose and short stories by black women writers.

Prose: Submit no more than two prose pieces, double spaced, max 500 words each.

Short Stories: Submit one short story (or excerpt), double spaced, max 2,000 words.

DEADLINE: August 31, 2016

torchliteraryarts.org/#!submit/c1k7l

 

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

Shade Mountain Press

INFO: Shade Mountain Press is seeking novel manuscripts (70,000 words or more) by African American women writers. Submissions can be any topic and style (preferably literary rather than genre).

They do not publish children’s or young adult literature.

DEADLINE: September 1, 2016

shademountainpress.com/contact.php

 

FALL 2016 AWARDS

Sustainable Arts Foundation

INFO: Starting with their Fall 2016 Awards, Sustainable Arts Foundation – a non-profit foundation supporting artists and writers with families – is committed to offering half of its awards to applicants of color.

Writers may apply in one of the following categories:

  • Fiction
  • Creative Nonfiction
  • Poetry
  • Long Form Journalism
  • Playwriting
  • Picture Books
  • Early and Middle Grade Fiction
  • Young Adult Fiction
  • Graphic Novel

AWARDS:

  • Sustainable Arts Foundation Award: $6,000
  • Sustainable Arts Foundation Promise Award: $2,000

DEADLINE: September 2, 2016, 8pm EST

apply.sustainableartsfoundation.org/