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They do not publish children’s or young adult literature.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
INFO: The Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards recognizes outstanding works that contribute to the understanding of racism and the appreciation of cultural diversity. Awards are given for fiction, poetry and nonfiction.
To submit a book for consideration, send five copies with a completed copy of the Entry Form to:
Karen R. Long
c/o Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards
The Cleveland Foundation
1422 Euclid Avenue, Suite 1300
Cleveland, OH 44115
Phone: 216.685.2018
Email: Submit@Anisfield-Wolf.org
Upon receipt, the books will be forwarded to the jury. All submitted materials become the property of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards and will not be returned. The winners will be announced in the spring.
SUBMISSION PERIOD: September 1 – December 31, 2016
anisfield-wolf.org/submissions/submission-guidelines/
THE COMMONWEALTH SHORT STORY PRIZE
Commonwealth Writers
INFO: The Prize is awarded for the best piece of unpublished short fiction (2,000–5,000 words) in English written by a citizen of a Commonwealth country.
Short stories translated into English from other languages are also eligible, and they invite writers from Mozambique who write in Portuguese, and writers who write in Swahili and Bengali, and who do not have an English translation of their story, to submit their stories in the original language.
PRIZE: Regional winners receive £2,500 and the overall winner receives £5,000.
SUBMISSION PERIOD: September 1 – November 1, 2016
commonwealthwriters.org/our-projects/the-short-story/
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/
Narrative Magazine
INFO: Narrative invites all writers, poets, visual artists, photographers, performers, and filmmakers between eighteen and thirty years old to send their best work. They’re looking for the traditional and the innovative, the true and the imaginary. They’re looking to encourage and promote the best young authors and artists working today.
AWARDS:
- First Prize is $1,500
- Second Prize is $750
- Third Prize is $300
- Ten finalists will receive $100 each
SUBMISSION PERIOD: September 9 – November 9, 2016
narrativemagazine.com/node/345528
Sacatar / Fundação Cultural do Estado da Bahia
INFO: For the third consecutive year, in partnership with the Fundação Cultural do Estado da Bahia, Sacatar will award a Fellowship to a writer living in Bahia.
The eight-week residency will take place from October 17 through December 12, 2016.
APPLICATION FEE $0
DEADLINE: September 9, 2016
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: BLACK LIVES MATTER SPECIAL ISSUE
Wild Age Press
INFO: Wild Age Press seeks fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry written by African American and Black authors for a special Black Lives Matter issue. This issue will be guest edited by Katrina Otuonye and will run this winter.
The theme can be interpreted broadly, but we are specifically looking to publish work by African American and Black authors. Send up to 3,000 words or up to three flash pieces totaling no more than 3,000 words. Please double-space your documents. If sending multiple pieces, please include them all in one document.
DEADLINE: September 15, 2016
wildagepress.submittable.com/submit
Bitch Media
INFO: Bitch Media is currently accepting applications for their 2017 writing fellowships. Selected writing fellows will spend 3 months working with Bitch Media to produce articles in one of four subject areas:
- Reproductive rights & justice
- Pop-culture criticism
- Technology
- Global feminism
Fellows will write at least 6 articles, one long-form article, and participate in biweekly discussions with the staff of Bitch Media. They will also get mentorship and support in creating their articles. They accept applications from writers around the world.
STIPEND: $2,000
DEADLINE: September 15th, 2016
freedomwithwriting.com/freedom/uncategorized/2000-feminist-writing-fellowships-from-bitch-media/
INFO: The MacDowell Colony provides time, space, and an inspiring environment to artists of exceptional talent. A MacDowell Fellowship, or residency, consists of exclusive use of a studio, accommodations, and three prepared meals a day for up to eight weeks. There are no residency fees.
The Colony accepts applications from artists working in the following disciplines: architecture, film/video arts, interdisciplinary arts, literature, music composition, theatre, and visual arts. The sole criterion for acceptance is artistic excellence, which the Colony defines in a pluralistic and inclusive way. MacDowell encourages applications from artists representing the widest possible range of perspectives and demographics, and welcomes artists engaging in the broadest spectrum of artistic practice and investigating an unlimited array of inquiries and concerns. To that end, emerging as well as established artists are invited to apply.
DEADLINE: September 15, 2016
macdowellcolony.org/apply-appguidelines.html
RADCLIFFE INSTITUTE FELLOWSHIPS
Harvard University
INFO: The Radcliffe Institute Fellowship Program is a scholarly community where individuals pursue advanced work across a wide range of academic disciplines, professions, and creative arts (including Fiction, Poetry, Nonfiction/Biography/ Autobiography/Memoir, and Nonfiction/Current Issues and other topics).
To be considered for a fellowship in fiction or nonfiction, applicants must have any of the following: one or more published books, contract for the publication of a book-length manuscript, or at least three shorter works (longer than newspaper articles) published. Evidence of publication in print format within the last five years is highly desirable; Web site publications are not acceptable as the only form of previously published work. Applicants should note that reviewers take into account evidence of a distinctive, original voice, richness or dimensionality of text, and coherence in the project plan. Professionals interested in writing about their work experiences should apply in the category of nonfiction. Recommendations from editors and/or agents are not acceptable.
STIPEND: Up to $75,000 for one year with additional funds for project expenses. Some support for relocation expenses is provided where relevant. They work with fellows with families who have particular issues connected to relocating to smooth the transition. If so directed, Radcliffe will pay the stipend to the fellow’s home institution. Please note that they can only pay stipends to home institutions if they are US based. Fellows receive office or studio space and access to libraries and other resources of Harvard University during the fellowship year, which extends from early September 2017 through May 31, 2018.
Fellows are expected to be free of their regular commitments so they may devote themselves full time to the work outlined in their proposal. Since this is a residential fellowship, they expect fellows to reside in the Boston area during that period and to have their primary office at the Institute so that they can participate fully in the life of the community.
Applicants will be notified by e-mail in March of the results.
DEADLINE: September 15, 2016
radcliffe.harvard.edu/fellowship-program/how-apply
VELA’S SECOND NONFICTION CONTEST
INFO: For its Second Nonfiction Contest, Vela is looking for creative nonfiction, written by women, with a strong voice, a compelling narrative, and/or a powerful driving question. They’re interested in a wide range of essays, including literary journalism, personal essays, memoir, and experimental essays. They are not a “women’s magazine,” and are not looking for work that is written solely for a female audience.
The contest will be judged by Claire Vaye Watkins.
ENTRY FEE: $20 per submission
AWARD: $1,000 and publication
SUBMISSION PERIOD: September 15 – November 1, 2016
velamag.com/second-nonfiction-contest/
Princeton University
INFO: The Hodder Fellowship will be given to artists and writers of exceptional promise to pursue independent projects at Princeton University during the academic year. Potential Hodder Fellows are writers, composers, choreographers, visual artists, performance artists, or other kinds of artists or humanists who have “much more than ordinary intellectual and literary gifts”; they are selected more “for promise than for performance.” Given the strength of the applicant pool, most successful Fellows have published a first book or have similar achievements in their own fields; the Hodder is designed to provide Fellows with the “studious leisure” to undertake significant new work.
DEADLINE: September 19, 2016
arts.princeton.edu/fellowships/hodder-fellowship/
Timeless, Infinite Light
INFO: Timeless, Infinite Light, an Oakland-based small press that publishes contemporary writing, is looking for poetry, essays, poetic-essays, or multi-tiered works. Their vision for the contest is to create a home for hybrid and cross-genre work that is embodied or deeply experimental in form, as well as site-specific or urgent critical writing.
For this contest, they are accepting new, completed full-length manuscripts (70-120 pages in book form). They are unable to consider previously published work.
The submissions will be read by our three celebrity guest judges, Melissa Buzzeo, Mg Roberts, and Divya Victor. The three judges will read, collaborate, and select one manuscript as the official contest winner.
The winning author will have their manuscript designed and published by Timeless, Infinite Light, and will receive royalties and 10 free copies of their book.
They are looking for new works by both emerging and established writers, and encourage people of color, immigrants, queer, trans, disabled, and undocumented people, and other people whose identities are underrepresented in the literary mainstream to apply.
DEADLINE: September 22, 2016
timelessinfinitelight.com/pages/open-submission-contest-2016
New York Public Library
INFO: The Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers offers fellowships to people whose work will benefit directly from access to the research collections at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street (formerly the Humanities and Social Sciences Library).
The Cullman Center’s Selection Committee awards up to 15 fellowships a year to outstanding scholars and writers – academics, independent scholars, journalists, and creative writers. Foreign nationals conversant in English are welcome to apply.
The Cullman Center looks for top-quality writing from academics as well as from creative writers and independent scholars. It aims to promote dynamic communication about literature and scholarship at the very highest level – within the Center, in public forums throughout the Library, and in the Fellows’ published work.
PRIZE: A stipend of up to $70,000, an office, a computer, and full access to the Library's physical and electronic resources.
Fellows work at the Center for the duration of the fellowship term, which runs from September through May. Each Fellow gives a talk over lunch on current work-in-progress to the other Fellows and to a wide range of invited guests, and may be asked to take part in other programs at The New York Public Library.
DEADLINE: September 30, 2016
SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL NEW VOICES AWARD
Lee & Low Books
INFO: Lee & Low Books, award-winning publisher of children’s books, announces the seventeenth annual New Voices Award, which will be given for a children’s picture book manuscript by a writer of color.
Established in 2000, the New Voices Award encourages writers of color to submit their work to a publisher that takes pride in nurturing new talent. The contest is open to writers of color who are residents of the United States, 18 years or older at the time of entry, and who have not previously had a children’s picture book published.
Submissions may be fiction, nonfiction, or poetry for children ages 5 to 12.
PRIZE: The Award winner receives a cash prize of $1000 and our standard publication contract, including L&L’s basic advance and royalties for a first time author. An Honor Award winner will receive a cash prize of $500.
DEADLINE: September 30, 2016
leeandlow.com/writers-illustrators/new-voices-award
BUZZFEED EMERGING WRITERS FELLOWSHIP
BuzzFeed
INFO: BuzzFeed’s Emerging Writers Fellowship is designed to give writers of great promise the support, mentorship, and experience necessary to take a transformative step forward in their careers. During the four-month program, the writers in this fellowship will benefit from career mentorship and editorial guidance while also receiving financial support.
The fellows will focus on personal essay writing, cultural reportage, and criticism. During their time in fellowship, writers will be expected to pitch, report, and write with the added benefit of panel discussions with editors and writers from throughout the industry, and assigned readings.
The writers selected for the fellowship will work with BuzzFeed News’ senior editorial staff and be based in either the New York or Los Angeles office. The work produced during the fellowship will be published on BuzzFeed.
STIPEND: $12,000
DEADLINE: October 1, 2016
buzzfeed.com/saeedjones/buzzfeed-emerging-writers-fellowship?utm_term=.cpeV8bn6Z#.br0WmY16M
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: NON-FICTION
Claudius Speaks
INFO: Claudius Speaks, a journal of bold art and writing that celebrates emerging talent, seeks powerful, beautifully written, non-fiction pieces (essay, creative non-fiction, experimental) from new voices. There is no length restriction on content, but they ask that the piece be submitted in its most complete, edited, and proofread form. The theme for issue two is "Song." Feel free to interpret this theme however you see fit.
COMPENSATION: $30
DEADLINE: October 1, 2016