2023 Writers Mentorship Program
Latinx in Publishing
SUBMISSION PERIOD: October 3 - 31, 2022
INFO: The Latinx in Publishing Writers Mentorship Program is a volunteer-based initiative that offers the opportunity for unpublished and/or unagented writers who identify as Latinx (mentees) to strengthen their craft, gain first-hand industry knowledge, and expand their professional connections through work with experienced published authors (mentors).
QUALIFICATIONS TO BE A MENTEE:
Must identify as Latinx* (does not include individuals of Spanish origin)
Must be unagented and/or unpublished
Must have an active interest in writing books
Must be located in the U.S. and at least 18 years of age
Must be available to dedicate at least one hour per month for a minimum of ten months
ABOUT THE WRITING MENTORSHIP PROGRAM:
The next cycle of the program runs from February 2023 through October 2023.
Applications for 2023 mentees will open in October 20212 Applications for mentors are open on a rolling basis.
Mentees must complete a sign-up survey and submit 5-10 pages of sample writing.
Mentors must complete a sign-up survey and review mentor guidelines.
We match individuals based on category and time- commitment preferences. The sign-up survey will help us make the best matches between mentor and mentee.
Please be aware that not everyone who applies will be matched.
Participants will be notified of their mentor-mentee match and provided with contact information by January 2023.
Mentors and mentees will connect for one hour per month over a minimum of ten months.
The program will close in October 2023, but if the mentor and mentee would like to continue their mentor relationship, it is entirely at their discretion.
Please be aware that the Latinx in Publishing Writers Mentorship Program is a volunteer-based initiative. Latinx in Publishing will not be held responsible for mediating any relations between mentors and mentees once the program ends.
latinxinpublishing.com/mentorship
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ARTHUR FLOWERS FLASH FICTION PRIZE
Salt Hill
DEADLINE: October 9, 2022
SUBMISSION FEE: $0
INFO: Fall 2022 marks the second annual Arthur Flowers Flash Fiction Prize for emerging writers of color. Established in 2021 by Si Yon Kim and Erica Frederick, women of color editors of Salt Hill, the contest is named after Arthur Flowers, a beloved teacher and mentor in the Syracuse University Creative Writing MFA community, to honor his legacy as a steadfast champion of Black students and other students of color in the program. While we want our entrants to feel empowered to submit absolutely anything, we are especially excited for stories that break the canon and queer and color the ways that we’ve been taught to consider form, language, time, setting, and plot.
Mona Awad will serve as the judge for this year’s contest.
PRIZE: The winner will receive a prize of $500 and publication in Salt Hill Issue 50. Two runners-up will each receive a prize of $50 and publication in Salt Hill Issue 50.
ELIGIBILITY: In order to be eligible, you must:
Identify as Black, Indigenous, and/or a Person of Color.
Not have published or been contracted to write a full-length book at the time of submission. Writers with chapbooks are eligible.
International writers working in English are encouraged to submit.
Family, colleagues, intimate friends, and current or former students of the judge are ineligible, as are graduates of, and those affiliated with, the Syracuse University Creative Writing Program.
Previous winners and runners-up are ineligible.
GUIDELINES:
Please submit one unpublished story of no more than 1,000 words.
Entries will be read blind. Please remove your name and any other identifying information from your manuscript.
Simultaneous submissions are fine as long as you notify us immediately if your story is accepted elsewhere.
All stories will be considered for general publication unless the entrant requests otherwise.
2022 JUDGE: Mona Awad is the author of three novels. Her novel Bunny was named a Best Book of 2019 by TIME, Vogue, and the New York Public Library. It was a finalist for the New England Book Award and a Goodreads Choice Award. It is currently in development for film with Jenni Konner and New Regency Productions. Awad's first novel, 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl, was a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Arab American Book Award, and a winner of the Colorado Book Award and the Amazon Canada First Novel Award. Her latest novel, All’s Well, was released in 2021 and was a finalist for a Goodreads Choice Award in Horror. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Vogue, TIME, McSweeney's, Ploughshares, and elsewhere. She teaches fiction at Syracuse University.
salthilljournal.net/arthur-flowers-ff-prize
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2022 Open Reading Period Book Prize
Wendy’s Subway
DEADLINE: October 10, 2022
ENTRY FEE: $20
INFO: Wendy’s Subway is pleased to announce our fourth reading period for full-length manuscripts. Titles selected through the Open Reading Period are published as part of the Passage Series, which assembles books by emerging writers and artists whose work manifests in innovative, hybrid, and cross-genre forms that imagine new possibilities and expressions of the poetic, the political, and the social.
PRIZE: The winner will author a publication with Wendy’s Subway, receive an honorarium of $1,250, a standard royalty contract, and 25 author copies.
The winning book will be announced in Winter 2023 and published in Winter 2024.
JUDGE: Asiya Wadud is the author of several collections of poems, including day pulls down the sky/ a filament in gold leaf (written with Okwui Okpokwasili) and No Knowledge Is Complete Until It Passes Through My Body. Her recent writing appears in e-flux journal, BOMB Magazine, Poem-a-Day, Triple Canopy, and elsewhere. She also regularly collaborates with Fortnight Institute to write exhibition texts. Asiya’s work has been supported by the Foundation Jan Michalski, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Danspace Project, Finnish Cultural Institute of New York, Mount Tremper Arts, and Kunstenfestivaldesarts, among others. She lives in Brooklyn, New York where she teaches poetry at Saint Ann’s School and Columbia University.
ELIGIBILITY: The call is open to writers at any stage of their career. Wendy’s Subway is committed to a publishing practice that amplifies marginalized and underrepresented writers.
SIMULTANEOUS SUBMIOSSIONS: Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but should the manuscript be accepted for publication elsewhere, we ask that you notify us as soon as possible and withdraw your Submittable application.
FORMAT + GUIDELINES: Please submit a manuscript of 40 pages or more of original work. While excerpts from the manuscript may have been previously published (as chapbooks, online, or in journals and anthologies, for instance), the manuscript as a whole should reflect a new and unpublished work. Your manuscript may include visual art and illustrations. Collaborations are accepted. While experimental approaches to translation will be considered, one-to-one translations of another author’s writing are not eligible.
This year, our submission review process will not be anonymous. Your manuscript should include: page numbers, a title page, a table of contents, and acknowledgements of previous publication, if applicable. Please also include a one-paragraph biographical statement in the submission form. You may only submit one manuscript for consideration. You will not have the opportunity to make any edits or revisions to your manuscript in Submittable once it has been submitted. The winning author will have time to revise the manuscript once it has been accepted. We encourage applicants to familiarize themselves with our publishing initiative and public programs to learn more about the mission and activities of Wendy’s Subway.
wendyssubway.com/publishing/submit
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The Adina Talve-Goodman Fellowship
One Story
DEADLINE: October 12, 2022
ENTRY FEE: $0
INFO: Each year, together with the Talve-Goodman Family, One Story awards one writer the Adina Talve-Goodman Fellowship. Honoring the memory of author and former One Story Managing Editor Adina Talve-Goodman, this educational fellowship offers a year-long mentorship on the craft of fiction writing with One Story magazine. Our hope is to give a writer outside of the fold a significant boost in their career.
THE FELLOW RECEIVES:
Access to One Story online classes.
Admission to One Story’s Writing Circle.
Stipend ($2,000) and free admission to One Story’s week-long summer writers’ conference, which includes craft lectures, an intensive fiction workshop, and panels with literary agents and publishers.
A full manuscript review and consultation with One Story Executive Editor Hannah Tinti (story collection or novel in progress up to 150 pages/35,000 words).
REQUIREMENTS:
This fellowship calls for an early-career writer of fiction who has not yet published a book and is not currently nor has ever been enrolled in an advanced degree program (such as an MA or MFA) in Creative Writing, English, or Literature, and has no plans to attend one in the 2023 calendar year. We are seeking writers whose work speaks to issues and experiences related to inhabiting bodies of difference. This means writing that centers, celebrates, or reclaims being marginalized through the lens of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, class, religion, illness, disability, trauma, migration, displacement, dispossession, or imprisonment. All applicants must be at least 21 years of age as of January 1st, 2023.
TO APPLY TO THIS FELLOWSHIP YOU WILL NEED:
A fiction writing sample (3,000 – 5,000 words)
A personal statement (600 – 1,100 words)
Two professional or personal references who can speak to your commitment to writing (no recommendation letters required but please provide: name, email, phone)
A current resume detailing any work or educational experience. Please also list any writing classes you have taken, along with writing-related awards, fellowships, publications, and residencies (if any).
All applications will be received via Submittable
one-story.com/learn/fellowship/
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CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
Bipan Mag
DEADLINE: October 14, 2022
INFO: Bipan is a free paperless zine in colonial Canada created for those who are wanting to widen their community and stay informed on local journalism while experiencing art from coast to coast.
Want to be a part of the next edition? Are you a creative person with a passion or talent you want to showcase? Whether you are an artist, writer, or small business, we are interested in your work. Submissions from experienced writers, scholars, and journalists are welcomed. We especially encourage disabled BIPOC and 2SLGBTQIA+ writers and creatives of all abilities to submit their work.
We typically reply within 1-2 weeks and welcome simultaneous submissions. Please make sure ALL content is original & that our editors have access to submitted text and photos.
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The Open City Fellowship
Asian American Writers’ Workshop (AAWW)
DEADLINE: October 14 at 11:59 pm ET
INFO: The Open City Fellowship is a unique opportunity for four emerging Asian American, Muslim, and Arab writers to publish narrative nonfiction on the vibrant East Asian, South and Southeast Asian, Arab and West Asian, and North and East African communities of the tristate area New York City. The Fellowship is a nine-month stint for emerging writers of color to write about how Asian American and Muslim American lives are being lived in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. It is open to writers who are based in the New York tristate area.
Explore our Open City Fellowship alumni here.
AWARD: The Fellowship offers a $2,500 grant, skill-building workshops, and publishing opportunities to Fellows to write about the Asian American and Muslim American communities of the tristate area: New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut
A total of four Fellows will be selected for next year’s Open City Fellowship; three for the Neighborhoods/ Communities Fellowship and three for the Muslim Communities Fellowship.
The Fellowship term will begin in January 2023 and will end in September 2023.
We are looking for writers eager to hit the ground running covering Asian immigrant neighborhoods and writing about social justice issues—racial, class, and gender equality. Each Fellow must adopt a specific neighborhood or community and a specific theme (i.e., mental health, COVID-19 issues, LGBTQ+ issues, gentrification, etc.) and write stories along these intertwined geographical/cultural and thematic beats. We’re looking for writers to create deft, engaging narratives that bring the face, name, place, and heart of the community to issues like gentrification, immigration, Islamophobia, community policing, and racial and gender discrimination.
Open City is one of the projects of The Margins, the online publication of the Asian American Writers’ Workshop. It documents the pulse of metropolitan Asian America and Muslim America as it’s being lived right now.
The Margins features new fiction and poetry, literary and cultural criticism, and interviews with writers and artists. The Margins is the recipient of a Whiting Literary Magazine award, and our stories have been linked to by the Wall Street Journal, the New Inquiry, Literary Hub, and the New York Times. Our contributors include Chang-rae Lee, Jessica Hagedorn, Vijay Iyer, Bhanu Kapil, Katie Kitamura, Hua Hsu, Amitava Kumar, and Yoko Ogawa.
Previous Open City Fellows have gone on to write and report for MSNBC, Granta, Al Jazeera America, the American Prospect, and Slate, among other outlets. Their works during their time as Fellows have been picked up by NPR, the Atlantic Cities, and the New York Times.
CONSIDER APPLYING IF:
You are a strong, voice-driven storyteller who cares about social justice movements and wants to transport readers to immigrant neighborhoods and communities;
You are willing to spend time reporting on NYC’s Asian and Muslim neighborhoods in the tristate area, are excited to cultivate trust and sources in your chosen neighborhood, and raring to talk to people about their lives, hopes, and fears;
You understand the urgency in writing stories that depict how it is to be an Asian, a Muslim, and an immigrant in today’s America;
Can demonstrate nonfiction writing experience and a dedication to developing a writing career;
You are submitting work to magazines, journals, or other publications and can demonstrate nonfiction writing experience and a dedication to developing a writing career. While we prefer some publication record, we think the strength of your work is more important than its home. We’re looking for writers who are excited to take their writing to the “next level,” and may be dedicated to writing after the fellowship term is up;
You are looking to grow and have some experience with the editorial process. You should view this as an opportunity to build a network and take advantage of AAWW’s creative initiatives.
The Open City Fellowship is a unique initiative that combines publication opportunities, journalism training, and funding.
aaww.org/fellowships/open-city/
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CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS AND PITCHES: BLACK AND ASIAN FEMINIST SOLIDARITIES
AAWW’s The Margins / Black and Asian Feminist Solidarities
DEADLINE: Rolling
INFO: A collaboration between Black Women Radicals and the Asian American Feminist Collective, Black and Asian Feminist Solidarities is a monthly series published in AAWW’s The Margins that launched in July 2020. This ongoing project looks to Black and Asian American feminist histories, practices, and frameworks on care, community, and survival for the tools and strategies to continue to build towards collective liberation.
With two years under our belt, the editors of Black and Asian Feminist Solidarities are looking for pitches and submissions to shape the next phase in this series.
Since we started this project, people in Black and Asian communities have been reckoning with grief, loss, heartbreak, and death at different scales. We are witnessing in real time the stripping of reproductive rights; the ways state-based responses to violence pit Black and Asian communities against each other; and attempts to legislate queer and trans people out of existence.
In reflecting on solidarity, we often are left with more questions than answers.
What does it mean to create and nurture solidarity at this juncture? We’re currently seeking new pitches and finished pieces that interrogate past, present, and future issues within the realm of Black and Asian feminist solidarities, and that imagine possibilities between our communities through various written forms.
Topics and approaches of specific interest include:
Environmental justice and water protection; land, water, and place as solidarity; islands and oceans as connective sites; ancestral foodways and ecologies; and growing and caring for land and nature
Storytelling centering queer intimacies, friendships, kinships, and relationships across race
Reproductive justice, care work, and labor
Speculative fiction exploring fantasy, myth, magic, histories, futures, and more
Histories, genealogies, and inheritances of movements and migration
Transnational approaches to abolition politics, including political imprisonment, war, and demilitarization
Ending caste apartheid, politics of colorism, interrogations of racial categories and hierarchies of racialization
Navigating conflicts, tensions, difficulties, contradictions, and controversies within and across communities
Joy, love, and pleasure as solidarity including gatherings, sex and romance, and humor
Engagements with feminist literatures and critique and writing as craft
We invite submissions and pitches on feminist solidarities from creative writers, poets, community organizers, workers, artists, journalists, and scholars.
We are seeking FINISHED SUBMISSIONS in the following genres and forms:
Short creative stories across genres including speculative fiction, young adult, and romance
Illustrations, graphics, and comics
Creative nonfiction including personal essays and historical narratives
Poetry, letters, journal entries, songs, and spells
We are also open to PITCHES for:
Interviews and conversations
Researched or reported works
Political and cultural criticism and commentary
Collaborative works, hybrid genres, and/or exploratory formats
We are currently not seeking submissions for commentary and reported works that require timely or urgent publication.
GUIDELINES:
Email your finished submission or pitch as a .doc/x, or Google doc to bafs@aaww.org.
Please format the title of your submission as follows: “LAST NAME – Black and Asian Feminist Solidarities – TITLE OF PIECE or PITCH .”
Include your preferred name for publishing and a short biography (maximum 100 words).
For finished pieces, we welcome:
essays up to a maximum of 3,000 words
short fiction up to 3,500 words
poetry, illustrations, and hybrid work up to 10 pages or panels for consideration
Please include any image attachments as .jpgs or .pngs.
If you are sending a pitch, please indicate your plan and timeline for completion.
Please also include a short cover letter (max 300 words) about how you connect to this call as an author and how your submitted work relates to this call. Feel free to respond in a way that aligns with the aims of your work.
If our editors decide to move forward with a pitch or submission, writers can expect a reply within six weeks to three months. Although we cannot guarantee a response to all pitches and pieces, our editors will do their best to get back to all writers. We appreciate your patience.
We will pay for published pieces. The Margins‘ 2022 rate sheet is here.
About Black and Asian Feminist Solidarities
This ongoing project looks to Black and Asian American feminist histories, practices, and frameworks on care, community, and survival for the tools and strategies to continue to build towards collective liberation. Solidarity at its core is about relationships. Solidarity means we understand and commit to taking responsibility for one another—and that is the radical feminist future we believe in. So far we have featured nonfiction essays, creative writing and poetry, reading lists, archival materials, and interviews and conversations. The project offers political analysis and ruminations on a variety of topics such as reproductive justice, sex worker organizing, transnational feminisms, war and militarism, care work, and intergenerational movements. Black and Asian Feminist Solidarities is edited by Salonee Bhaman, Julie Ae Kim, Rachel Kuo, Senti Sojwal, Jaimee A. Swift, and Tiffany Diane Tso.
https://aaww.org/submissions-black-asian-feminist-solidarities/
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2023 Art Omi: Writers residency
Art Omi
DEADLINE: October 15, 2022 by 11:59pm ET
INFO: Art Omi: Writers hosts authors and translators from around the world for residencies throughout the spring and fall. The program’s strong international emphasis provides exposure for global literary voices and reflects the spirit of cultural exchange that is essential to Art Omi’s mission.
Guests may select a residency of one week to two months; about ten writers at a time gather to live and work in a rural setting overlooking the Catskill Mountains. Daytime is reserved for writing and quiet activities, while evenings are more communal. A program of weekly visits bring guests from the New York publishing community. Noted editors, agents and book scouts are invited to share dinner and conversation on both creative and practical subjects, offering insight into the workings of the publishing industry, and introductions to some of its key professionals. Readings throughout the year invite the public to experience finished and in-process work by writers and translators in residence.
Art Omi: Writers welcomes published writers and translators of every type of literature. All text-based projects -- fiction, nonfiction, theater, film, poetry, etc.—are eligible. International, cultural and creative exchange is a foundation of our mission, and a wide distribution of national background is an important part of our selection process.
All residencies are fully funded with accommodations, food, local transport and public programming provided. However, please note that Art Omi: Writers does not provide travel funds. Selected residents are responsible for funding their own travel or securing travel funds from a third party.
2023 RESIDENCY DATES:
Spring: March 24 - Friday, May 26, 2023
Fall: Friday, September 1 - Friday, November 3, 2023
GUIDELINES:
Each applicant is required to provide 4 (four) separate items in total:
A cover letter, which provides the following details: country of birth, country of residency, the language in which you write, your preferred residency dates. Please note we have two sessions per year: Spring (March 20 - June 5) and Fall (September 4 - November 6). Additionally, please let us know how you heard about Art Omi: Writers, why you want to come to Art Omi: Writers and what you expect to get from the experience. Important Note: If you are eligible for our sponsored residency for a previous Whiting Award winner please indicate so in your cover letter.
A brief (2 pages, maximum) statement about your work history, referencing publications, performances and writing credits. This can be submitted in CV format.
A writing sample, no more than 50 pages. Please be sure to indicate if the writing is published or unpublished; if it is published please provide details.
A one page description of the work to be undertaken while at Art Omi: Writers.
Your writing sample does NOT have to be an English translation; please submit your writing sample in your mother tongue. All other documentation must be submitted in English.
Your cover letter should be provided in the designated Cover Letter field. Items 2-4 should each be provided as separately uploaded files.
Alumni of the program are eligible to reapply.
artomi.submittable.com/submit/232906/art-omiwriters-2023-application
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CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: FICTION + FLASH FICTION
Rougarou.
DEADLINE: October 15, 2022
INFO: Rougarou: Journal of Arts & Literature - a bi-annual online literary journal run by the English graduate students of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette - is open for submissions.
They ask that writers submit only one submission at a time. They hope to respond to all submissions within 6 months.
Include a brief, third person bio in the “Cover Letter” box that they may use should they choose to publish your work. Please also include your email address with your submission.
If you have specific, genre-related questions or inquires, please email rougaroueditors@gmail.com. Specify the genre in the subject field.
GUIDELINES:
Fiction - We will consider works of short fiction between 1,000 - 4,000 words. We are especially looking for compelling, thought-provoking narratives with well-developed characters and a distinctive voice.
We encourage submissions from writers of all backgrounds and experiences. This includes but is not limited to writers of BIPOC and/or Queer identities, writers with disabilities, writers from disadvantaged sociopolitical backgrounds, published and unpublished writers, and writers of various intersectional identities.
We do not accept previously published work. Simultaneous submissions are welcome, but please notify us via Submittable if your work is accepted elsewhere.
Send all submissions in standard manuscript format. Include your email address and a brief bio in the "Cover Letter" box.
Flash Fiction - Please submit up to three flash fiction pieces of no more than 1,000 words each in a single document. We especially seek pieces that encapsulate narrative and emotion in precise language, through storytelling that suspends the reader, if only briefly, in a moment of epiphany.
We encourage submissions from writers of all backgrounds and experiences. This includes but is not limited to writers of BIPOC and/or Queer identities, writers with disabilities, writers from disadvantaged sociopolitical backgrounds, published and unpublished writers, and writers of various intersectional identities.
We do not accept previously published work. Simultaneous submissions are welcome, but please notify us via Submittable if your work is accepted elsewhere.
Send all submissions in standard manuscript format. Include your email address and a brief bio in the "Cover Letter" box.
rougarou.submittable.com/submit
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She Writes Press and SparkPress Toward Equality in Publishing Contest
DEADLINE: October 15, 2022
INFO: The publishing industry has been widely criticized for its lack of BIPOC voices. At She Writes Press and SparkPress, we are well aware of the need for more and broader representation of BIPOC authors on our lists.
In an effort to address this issue head-on we launched the She Writes Press and SparkPress Toward Equality in Publishing (STEP) contest in 2018 to offer two authors publishing packages (plus a 500-book print run), one author per season, to publish on either She Writes Press or SparkPress, which will be determined by the publisher based on genre and writing style. The purpose of this contest is to support inclusivity across our own lists, and to fortify our own mission to give voice to women writers.
Both packages include the full services of the She Writes Press and SparkPress Publishing Package (each valued at $8500):
Custom interior design for up to 100,000 words
Custom cover design
e-book file conversion and upload to 127 distribution partners
Traditional distribution to the trade via Ingram Publisher Services
Proofreading of your final manuscript
Copyright filing and obtaining your Library of Congress control number
Warehousing of short-run printed books
Preordering and fulfillment of all orders
Support and shepherding of your book through the production schedule and post-publication by your assigned editorial manager
*In addition, and not included in the Publishing Package, the Equality Toward Publishing program includes a first print run of 500 copies.
The Top Five Entrants (including the two STEP recipients) will receive a written assessment of their submission.
HERE’S HOW IT WORKS:
The STEP recipients will be selected on the basis of the merit of each entry, which consists of a query letter and at the first 50 pages of the work. You can also submit a query letter and a full-length nonfiction book proposal. We will ask as part of the submission process that you tell us about your heritage or background.
WHO CAN ENTER:
One entry per person. Open to the U.S. & Canada (void where prohibited). Entries for the STEP program are accepted from August 15, 2022 to October 15, 2022. Entrants must satisfy all the following requirements:
anyone over the age of eighteen
women only (trans/non-binary or genderqueer women welcome!)
woman of color (by which we mean people whose heritage is African, Indigenous to the Americas, Latinx, Asian/Pacific Islander, Arab, or people of mixed racial heritage with one or two parents who fit into the above groups).
agented or unagented work qualifies
JUDGING PROCESS:
She Writes Press and SparkPress Publisher Brooke Warner will be enrolling industry professionals to review and vet the submissions. Our external judges and internal editorial team will be reviewing the submissions to select the top five finalists. We will contact the top five contenders toward the end of October 2022. Lastly, a panel of diverse published authors and literary agents will select the two STEP winners, who will be announced on the Newsroom page at gosparkpoint.com by mid November 2022. The top five contenders and the two winners will also be contacted directly via email.
SEE OUR PAST WINNERS here and here!
Since launching the She Writes Press and SparkPress Equality In Publishing contest in 2018, seven extraordinary women authors have won a publishing package to publish their books on She Writes Press and SparkPress. Meet them and learn more about their books here.
TERMS AND CONDITIONS
You will be disqualified if you submit past the due date of October 15 ,2022.
STEP is a fiction and nonfiction program only. No poetry, screenplays, or children’s books.
Rewrites are not accepted. In other words, please be sure you are happy with your submission before you click “send” because we will not accept rewrites, follow-up emails, additional material, etc.
Only one entry per person.
We only accept material that is unpublished. We will not accept revised or new editions of previously published work.
You agree to have your entry (exclusive of your contact information) shared with the She Writes Press and the SparkPress community, and to let us use it for promotional purposes.
You must be at least eighteen years old to enter.
You must be a person of color: people whose heritage is Hispanic or Latinx, Black or African American, Asian, American Indian or Native Alaskan, Middle Eastern or North African, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, or people of mixed racial heritage with one or two parents who fit into the above groups.
Women only (trans/non-binary or genderqueer women welcome!)
The scholarship will cover the cost of a publishing package and a print run of 500. Beyond that the author(s) may choose to print and cover the cost of additional copies, or allow the book to be POD status, which means that the manufacturing costs are not paid up front but instead come out of the author’s royalties.
By submitting your work to us, you agree to our terms and conditions.
shewritespress.com/equality-in-publishing/
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CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
Third Coast
DEADLINE: October 15, 2022
INFO: For all submissions, please remember to include the title of the work, your name, and contact info on the first page of your manuscript.
All submissions should be sent via Submittable, through the portals of their respective genres. All attachments sent to our email address will be deleted, and any submissions sent via postal mail or social media will not be read.
We accept simultaneous submissions, but not multiple submissions; please submit no more than one manuscript at a time. We do not accept previously published works.
You can view the status (Received, In Progress, Declined, or Accepted) of your submission to Third Coast and to any other journal that uses Submittable by logging into your Submittable account. We might be taking longer than we’d like to review your work, but we haven’t lost, or lost track of, your submission. If your Submittable status reads “In Progress,” then it’s as simple as that—consideration of your manuscript is in progress. Please do not query until it has been at least a year.
Authors receive a contributor copy in gratitude of their work. We do not pay for publications at this time.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:
FICTION - Submit manuscripts of up to 7,500 words (or up to 25 pages). Authors wishing to submit longer manuscripts should query the editors at editors@thirdcoastmagazine.com. We accept up to five pieces of flash fiction, or “short shorts,” at a time. (Please submit short shorts in one electronic document—see withdraw instructions under POETRY below.)
NONFICTION - Submit manuscripts of up to 7,000 words.
POETRY - Submit manuscripts of no more than five poems at a time (with a maximum of fifteen pages). Poetry should be typed and single-spaced. Submit all poems as one electronic document. (If you need to withdraw a single poem from a submission, leaving others for consideration, please leave a message on the submission to that effect rather than use Submittable’s “Withdraw” function.)
DRAMA - Third Coast encourages the submission of 10-minute plays and one-act plays of no more than 20 pages (not including title page). Plays that have had a staged reading or production are acceptable; plays that have received publication are not. Please submit in standard play format.
BOOK REVIEWS - Third Coast welcomes submissions of reviews of 500-2,000 words on new or forthcoming books of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and essays, as well as reviews of full-length plays. For submissions of book reviews, Third Coast strongly prefers reviews of first or second books, or books from smaller presses (we’ll probably pass on that review of Alice Munro’s newest). Third Coast does not accept queries/requests for book reviews of specific books or authors.
INTERVIEWS - Third Coast welcomes submissions of both interviews (a conversation between two or more people) and Q&As (an “interview” where a writer responds to a series of prewritten questions). Interviews should run between 2,000 and 6,000 words; Q&A submissions can run shorter.
thirdcoastmagazine.com/submissions/
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Anaphora Writing Residency
Anaphora Arts
DEADLINE: October 20, 2022
INFO: Anaphora Writing Residency is a ten-day program designed exclusively for writers of color. The residency offers workshops, readings, craft talks, and discussions with professionals from the literary and publishing industry. The goal of the program is to nurture emerging and established writers of color, to create opportunities for publication, and establish a wide network of support for writers of different backgrounds.
DATES + FEES: The upcoming residency will run on February 16 - 25, 2023, and will be held virtually. The program costs $2,400, and several partial fellowships are available every year, depending on funding availability. Applications must be submitted by the priority deadline to be eligible for fellowships. Anaphora Fellows and returning alumnx, will have the opportunity to attend the program at a discounted rate.
The priority deadline is October 20, 2022 (with the final application deadline on October 31, 2022). Applications are reviewed by an anonymous admission board of peers, which rotates every year. Notifications will be sent out starting November 7, 2022 (including notifications of fellowships). A non-refundable security deposit of $150 is required within two weeks of notification; program fees must be paid entirely prior to the beginning of the residency.
If you have any questions, please check out the residency’s FAQ page, or contact us.
WHAT TO EXPECT: The program will provide workshops in poetry and prose, craft talks, daily readings (by guests and program participants), masterclasses, generative sessions, and discussions with professionals from the industry, including literary agents, editors, and publishers.
SPEAKERS:
Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah is the author of the bestselling short story collection Friday Black and the novel Chain-Gang All-Stars. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in numerous publications, including Guernica, Compose: A Journal of Simply Good Writing, Printer’s Row, Gravel, and The Breakwater Review, where he was selected by ZZ Packer as the winner of the 2nd Annual Breakwater Review Fiction Contest. He is from Spring Valley, New York. He graduated from SUNY Albany and went on to receive his MFA from Syracuse University.
Mahogany L. Browne, selected as Kennedy Center’s Next 50 and Weseleyan’s 2022-23 Distinguished Writer-in-Residence, the Executive Director of JustMedia, Artistic Director of Urban Word, a writer, playwright, organizer, & educator. Browne has received fellowships from Arts for Justice, Air Serenbe, Cave Canem, Poets House, Mellon Research & Rauschenberg. She is the author of recent works: Vinyl Moon, Chlorine Sky, Woke: A Young Poets Call to Justice, Woke Baby, & Black Girl Magic. Founder of the diverse lit initiative Woke Baby Book Fair, Browne’s latest poetry collection Chrome Valley is a promissory note to survival and available from Norton Spring 2023. As she readies for her stage debut of Chlorine Sky at Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago, Illinois, she drinks coffee while living in Brooklyn, NY. She is the first ever poet-in-residence at Lincoln Center.
Camille T. Dungy is the author of four collections of poetry, most recently Trophic Cascade (Wesleyan UP, 2017), winner of the Colorado Book Award, and the essay collection Guidebook to Relative Strangers: Journeys into Race, Motherhood and History (W.W. Norton, 2017), a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Dungy has also edited anthologies including Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry and From the Fishouse: An Anthology of Poems that Sing, Rhyme, Resound, Syncopate, Alliterate, and Just Plain Sound Great. A 2019 Guggenheim Fellow, her honors include NEA Fellowships in poetry (2003) and prose (2018), an American Book Award, two NAACP Image Award nominations, and two Hurston/Wright Legacy Award nominations. Dungy’s poems have been published in Best American Poetry, The 100 Best African American Poems, the Pushcart Anthology, Best American Travel Writing, and over thirty other anthologies. She is University Distinguished Professor at Colorado State University.
Tarfia Faizullah is the author of two award-winning poetry collections, Registers of Illuminated Villages (Graywolf, 2018) and Seam (SIU, 2014). Her writing has appeared widely in periodicals and magazines in the US and abroad and has been displayed at the Smithsonian, the Rubin Museum of Art, and elsewhere. Tarfia’s writing is translated into Spanish, Bengali, Persian, Chinese, Tamil, and other languages. Born in Brooklyn, NY to Bangladeshi immigrants and raised in Texas, Faizullah currently lives in Dallas.
Loan Le is an editor at Atria Books, a Simon & Schuster adult imprint, and she acquires dark, atmospheric upmarket and “literary plus” fiction, or literary fiction with genre elements like horror, mystery, suspense/thriller, and/or folklore. Her authors include Sarah Langan, Louise Candlish, Carolyn Huynh, Meredith Westgate, Kevin Chong, Luke Dumas, Shea Ernshaw, and Jennifer Fawcett. She is also the author of A Phở Love Story, a YA rom-com that earned praise from NPR, POPSUGAR, Bustle, and Buzzfeed. She holds an MFA degree in fiction from Fairfield University, where she also earned her bachelor’s degree. A Pushcart Prize-nominated writer, Loan has had her short stories appear in CRAFT Literary, Mud Season Review, and more. When she’s not writing young adult novels, she’s writing ghostly, dark adult fiction, watching slow-burn K-Dramas, and listening to BTS. Visit her website at writerloanle.com and find her on Twitter @loanloan and Instagram @loanloanle.
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GET THE WORD OUT: PUBLICITY INCUBATOR FOR DEBUT AUTHORS
Poets & Writers
DEADLINE: October 21, 2022
INFO: Get the Word Out is a publicity incubator for debut authors. This unique professional development program will provide expert advice and peer support to authors who might not otherwise have access to these resources.
We will select a cohort of debut fiction writers in fall 2022 and a cohort of debut poets in early 2023. In each cycle, authors planning for the publication of their debut book will develop and execute a strategic publicity plan under the mentorship of an accomplished book publicist.
The program's goal is to help debut writers maximize the exposure of their first book, reach readers, and create a platform to propel their literary careers.
Get the Word Out participants will:
Participate in a six-session online publicity workshop led by an experienced book publicist
Attend six online seminars with leading professionals in publicity, marketing, sales, and related professions
Devote considerable time outside of scheduled sessions to promoting their book
Contribute to a peer learning community by sharing what works and what doesn’t, helping each member of the cohort to amplify their impact
There is no application fee and no cost to those who are invited to participate.
MEET THE 2022 FICTION PUBLICITY MENTOR:
Get the Word Out will launch in November 2022 with the program’s inaugural cohort of debut fiction authors. The Publicity Mentor for this group will be Lauren Cerand.
Cerand has twenty years of experience running her own thriving global communications consultancy, driven by an intensive personal focus on each client’s needs and desires, a vast network of relationships, and unparalleled expertise and ingenuity. She helps creative professionals to connect with audiences and inspire community, often through the lens of media. Cerand has advised writers, artists, publishers, and media and cultural organizations that are household names throughout her career and guided many more that are still finding their path. After two decades in New York and a year in Florence, Italy, she now lives in Baltimore and continues to work internationally. For more information, visit LaurenCerand.com.
IMPORTANT DATES:
Fiction Cohort – Fall/Winter 2022
Fiction Cohort Announced - November 15
Fiction Cohort Orientation - November 17
Fiction Publicity Incubator Begins - November 21
Fiction Publicity Incubator Ends - February 24
Poetry Cohort – Spring 2023
Application opens - January 9
Application deadline - February 3
Poetry Cohort Announced - March 7
Poetry Cohort Orientation - March 8
Poetry Publicity Incubator Begins - April 3
Poetry Publicity Incubator Ends - June 23
ELIGIBILITY:
Who is eligible?
Authors under contract with a U.S.-based publisher for the publication of a debut novel or short story collection written in English and scheduled for release between December 1, 2022, and December 31, 2023.
Must be 18 years of age or older.
Must live in the U.S. during the program period (but do not need to be a U.S. citizen or hold permanent resident status).
Must be available to attend and participate in all of the incubator program’s virtual workshops and seminars between November 17, 2022, and February 24, 2023, and devote between 4 to 6 hours weekly for twelve weeks to the publicity planning of their book.
Those currently enrolled in degree-granting programs are not eligible.
Employees and Board Members of Poets & Writers, and their immediate families, are not eligible.
What qualifies as a “debut” novel or short story collection?
Your first full-length work of fiction, scheduled to be published by a U.S.-based publisher between December 1, 2022, and December 31, 2023.
Applicants who have previously published a full-length work of literature in any other genre are not eligible.
Applicants who have previously published a full-length work of literature in another country are eligible, if they have published no more than one book of fiction with a non-U.S. publisher.
Applicants who have previously published fiction chapbooks are eligible.
Self-published or hybrid-published books, e-book editions, and graphic novels, are not eligible.
The book must be written in English; works in translation are not eligible.
Finalists will be asked to submit verification of debut publication and residency.
SELECTION CRITERIA:
Participants will be selected based on the strength of their writing sample and statement of purpose.
Get the Word Out is open to all eligible applicants. The program aims to support writers who might not otherwise have access to in-depth publicity support and to help develop strong literary voices nationwide. To that end, we encourage applications from writers who identify as BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, or person of color), writers with disabilities, LGBTQ+ writers, writers from outside of New York City, writers who do not have an MFA or equivalent degree, and writers whose books are slated to be published by independent presses.
Applications must include:
A completed application form and eligibility quiz
A statement of purpose (max: 1,000 words)
A double-spaced excerpt (max: 10 pages in 12 pt. font) from your debut novel or short story collection
An author bio (max: 250 words).
See details on the application form. For more information, please contact tkehou@pw.org.
pw.org/content/get_the_word_out
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2023 Periplus Fellowship
Periplus Collective
DEADLINE: October 24, 2022 at 11:59 pm ET
INFO: Periplus is a mentorship collective serving U.S. writers of color. We’re happy you’ve found us. We’re looking for mentees—Periplus Fellows—who are people of color, are located in the United States, and are at least 18 years old, and whose writing shows great promise. We are seeking to mentor writers who are relatively early in their careers and would especially like to award fellowships to those with limited past access to writing resources and supportive communities. We aim to equalize access so that writers can achieve their goals regardless of their background and affiliations.
In assessing your application, we’ll be most focused on the promise we see in your writing sample. We will also consider how helpful a Periplus Fellowship could be for your craft and career.
ELIGIBILITY: You are NOT ELIGIBLE for a Periplus Fellowship if you are currently enrolled in a graduate program in creative writing or journalism. You are also NOT ELIGIBLE if you have published a book or have one under contract with a major U.S. press.
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSejPZbuWHw1e5huulgUJcaNGVIs_eyV8tRwgl8glYuIIypScA/viewform
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2023 PROGRAM FELLOWSHIP
Kweli Journal
DEADLINE: October 24, 2022 at 11:59pm ET
INFO: Building on Kweli's successful history of mentoring emerging authors, we will provide three (or more) early-stage writers with 11-month writing fellowships.
ELIGIBILITY: Eligible candidates are early career vocational writers living in New York City, who are not enrolled in degree-granting programs and self-identify as Black, Native/First Nations, POC, and/or Arab American.
Writers who have not yet contracted to publish a book are invited to apply.
Successful applicants will be informed no later than December 15, 2022. The fellowship period will be January 3, 2023 – December 3, 2023.
GUIDELINES:
Please submit the following:
A cover letter containing a one-paragraph biographical statement; one paragraph that is a favorite of yours from a book you've read recently; and a brief statement telling us why this particular passage is meaningful to you. Please also note in your cover letter if you are a resident of one of New York City's five boroughs.
A CV or résumé
A letter of recommendation to editors@kwelijournal.org
A brief statement of your career goals and what you expect to accomplish as a Kweli Fellow.
A 10 page writing sample. There is no word-count requirement. Eligible genres are fiction, poetry, literary nonfiction, and cross-genre writing, whether written for adults, young adults, or children.
kwelijournal.org/kweli-fellowship-program
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Fall 2022 Story Contest
Narrative
DEADLINE: October 28, 2022 by midnight PT
ENTRY FEE: $27 (for each entry you’ll receive three months of complimentary access to Narrative Backstage).
INFO: Narrative’s Fall Contest is open to all fiction and nonfiction writers. We’re looking for short shorts, short stories, essays, memoirs, photo essays, graphic stories, all forms of literary nonfiction, and excerpts from longer works of both fiction and nonfiction.
As always, we are looking for works with a strong narrative drive, with characters we can respond to, and with effects of language, situation, and insight that are intense and total. We look for works that have the ambition of enlarging our view of ourselves and the world.
GUIDELINES: Entries must be previously unpublished, no longer than 15,000 words, and must not have been previously chosen as a winner, finalist, or honorable mention in another contest.
PRIZES:
$2,500 First Prize
$1,000 Second Prize
$500 Third Prize
Up to ten finalists receive $100 each
JUDGING: The contest will be judged by the editors of the magazine. Winners and finalists will be announced to the public by December 31, 2022. All writers who enter will be notified by email of the judges’ decisions, which will be final. The judges reserve the option to declare ties and to designate and award only as many winners and/or finalists as are appropriate to the quality of contest entries and of work represented in the magazine.
narrativemagazine.com/fall-2022-story-contest
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CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: ‘THE BLACK GIRL SURVIVES IN THIS ONE’
Desiree S. Evans / Saraciea J. Fennell
DEADLINE: October 31, 2022 at 11:59pm EST
SUBMISSION FEE: $0
INFO: Desiree S. Evans and Saraciea J. Fennell are looking for a new voice to add to their YA Black horror anthology, The Black Girl Survives in This One, which will be published in Winter 2024 by Flatiron Books.
According to Saraciea J. Fennell:
Stories in this anthology will span the breadth and creativity of the horror genre, featuring chilling and thought-provoking tales from debut, bestselling, and critically-acclaimed Black women and nonbinary writers that center Black teen girls battling monsters, both human and supernatural, and surviving ‘til the end.
We want more Black Final Girls.
As one of the biggest tropes in the horror genre, The Final Girl is the name given to the tradition of the last girl or woman left alive in a horror movie, the one left to confront the killer or monster, and ostensibly the one left to tell the story. But in the long history of horror storytelling, the Black Final Girl is a rarity, as Black characters were too often regulated to the role of a side character killed off and ignored in favor of the white hero.
We’re eager to change that story. We believe Black girls deserve to fight and outsmart a slasher, to take down aliens, to slay monsters, and to be seen as the hero of the story.
Please join us in celebrating the rare, but incredibly powerful, Black Final Girl. We would love for your story to be a part of this anthology!
SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS:
We welcome submissions from Black women and Black nonbinary unagented writers.
Applicants should not have previously published a novel-length work and should not be under contract to publish a novel-length work.
We will only accept electronic submissions sent via email to blackfinalgirls@gmail.com.
All submissions must include these three separate attachments in one single email:
A short story between 3,500-5,000 words, attached as a .doc, .docx, or .txt file.
A short bio of 150 words or less that includes information on how you qualify for the open call, attached as a .doc, .docx, or .txt file.
A photo/headshot, attached as a .jpg or .png file.
There is no submission fee. Please submit only one story. Your story should not be under consideration for publication anywhere else at the time of your submission.
Your submission should be an original work of short fiction written in English by the entrant and never before published in any commercial medium, print or digital, audio, or translated from a foreign language.
You will receive email confirmation upon receipt of your submission. Submissions will not be returned. There is no guarantee that your submission will be published, or that you will be notified if your story was not selected. Feedback will not be provided on your submission unless your story is selected through this open call. The anthology editors have no further obligations to applicants whose submissions are not selected.
If your submission is selected for inclusion in the anthology, then you agree, upon request, to work with the anthology editors and publisher as part of the editing process. You further understand that you will be asked to sign a contributor agreement, with terms equal to those of other contributors, and your submission will not be published if you elect not to sign. You further agree that the submission may be edited for length, format or otherwise by the anthology editors or publisher.
COMPENSATION: If your submission is selected for potential inclusion in the anthology and meets the publication requirements mentioned above, you will receive a contributor payment of approximately $2,100 (subject to the final number of contributors) and you will receive credit as a contributor in the publication.
STORY GENRE REQUIREMENTS:
Your submission should be written for a Young-Adult audience between the ages of 12 -19.
The main protagonist of your story should be a Black teenage girl (anywhere between 13 and 19 years of age) who survives until the end.
Your submission can be from any horror subgenre (see examples below). Be as creative as you like! We’d love to see Black girls surviving in any horror story scenario you can imagine. Here’s a rundown of some horror subgenres to consider:
Supernatural/Paranormal horror
Creature/Monster horror
Gothic horror
Cosmic horror
Folk horror
Comedic or Campy horror
Psychos, Slashers, or Serial Killer horror
Social horror (ex. the racial horror of Get Out or Lovecraft Country)
Your horror stories can be inclusive of other speculative fiction genres and elements, for example: sci-fi (horror in space! aliens! robots! weird technologies like in Black Mirror!); dark fantasy (magic! witches! the occult!); historical or future settings; post-apocalyptic settings; alternate worlds/timelines/dimensions/universes; the psychological horror and suspense of crime fiction/true crime/thrillers, etc. You can even tap into your own culture’s folklore and mythology, or your local urban legends. The ideas are endless.
saracieafennell.com/black-girl-survies-in-this-one?utm_campaign=BlackFinalGirls
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Literary Nonfiction BOOK PRIZE
River Teeth Journal (Ball State University)
DEADLINE: October 31, 2022
SUBMISSION FEE: $27
INFO: River Teeth's editors conduct a yearly national contest for a book-length manuscript of literary nonfiction in English. All manuscripts are screened by the co-editors of River Teeth. The contest winner receives $1,000 and publication by The University of New Mexico Press.
FINAL JUDGE: Pulitzer Prize-winner Natasha Trethewey
GENERAL GUIDELINES:
Entries must be submitted online through Submittable. Manuscripts must be in English, double-spaced, and between 35K-85K words long (approximately 150-350 pages).
The winner will receive book publication with The University of New Mexico Press and a $1,000 honorarium.
The reading fee is $27 (which includes a one-year subscription to River Teeth to begin in the spring). While our contest is open to entries outside of the U.S., we cannot offer free subscriptions to non-U.S. submissions because of high mailing rates.
The deadline for submissions is October 31st. The contest winner and finalists will be announced by early March.
Submission should be previously unpublished as a complete book (it’s fine if excerpts or individual essays have appeared in literary journals or magazines). Any literary nonfiction (including memoir, personal essays, investigative reporting, et cetera) is eligible.
Simultaneous submissions are fine, but as ever, be sure to withdraw your manuscript immediatelyif it is accepted elsewhere for publication before the conclusion of the contest.
The editors make every effort to screen manuscripts without bias of identifying author details; however, because the contest is nonfiction, it is not always possible to eliminate identifying characteristics about the author from the manuscript. Do not include your name on the title page or in the header or footer of the manuscript, but otherwise do not fret too much over anonymity. Please include a brief bio in the cover letter section of Submittable.
River Teeth encourages underrepresented voices to submit their work for consideration, including but not limited to: BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and disabled writers.
Close friends, family members, and former students of the judge may not submit in that year. (Writers who have had short-term interactions with the judge at residencies, conferences, or fellowships do not count as students.) Current Ball State University faculty and students (including interns) are ineligible.
ABOUT FINAL JUDGE: Pulitzer Prize-winner Natasha Trethewey served two terms as the 19th Poet Laureate of the United States (2012-2014), while also serving as the Poet Laureate of the State of Mississippi (2012-2016). She is the author of the New York Times bestseller Memorial Drive: A Daughter’s Memoir (2020); a book of nonfiction, Beyond Katrina: A Meditation on the Mississippi Gulf Coast (2010); and five collections of poetry: Monument: Poems New & Selected (2018), which was longlisted for the 2018 National Book Award; Thrall (2012); Native Guard (2006), for which she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize; Bellocq’s Ophelia (2002); and Domestic Work (2000), which was selected by Rita Dove as the winner of the inaugural Cave Canem Poetry Prize for the best first book by an African American poet. She is also the editor of The Essential Muriel Rukeyser (2021), Best New Poets 2007: 50 Poems From Emerging Writers, and Best American Poetry 2017. She is the recipient of fellowships from the Academy of American Poets, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Guggenheim Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Beinecke Library at Yale, and the Bunting Fellowship Program of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard. From 2015-2016, she served as poetry editor of the New York Times Magazine. In 2017 she received the Heinz Award for Arts and Humanities, and in 2020, she received the Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt National Prize for Lifetime Achievement in Poetry from the Library of Congress. A member of both the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, she was elected to the Board of Chancellors of the Academy of American Poets in 2019. At Northwestern University she is Board of Trustees Professor of English in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences.
Please direct all questions to riverteeth@bsu.edu.
riverteethjournal.com/the-book-prize
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CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: ‘AWAKE’ PRINT ZINE
Lucky Jefferson
DEADLINE: October 31, 2022
INFO: Awake is a digital zine and collection of work by Black authors that explores the power we each hold. For the very first time, Awake will be in print!
Use the prompt below to complete your submission:
The West is under attack! Protect your frontier and deliver your ‘isms [alive] to collect your bounty!
While the frontier is often typecast through an old western lens, your frontier can be whatever setting or undiscovered territory you want to explore. This can be a place near to you or a place not yet imagined.
Your frontier is boundless, without boundaries or borders that limit where or how far your writing can go. Think modern westerns (Greg Neri’s adaption Concrete Cowboy), cross-genre (Jordan Peele’s Nope), or even traditional/revisionist western (Jeymes Samuel’s The Harder They Fall). Leave no ‘ism’ unturned or territory underexplored. Whether through the region, era, or genre, there are no restrictions defining what, when, or where your frontier exists. Just show us, How the West Was (or still is) Black.
HOW TO COLLECT YOUR BOUNTY:
Choose your bounty (see below)
Document your western encounter with an ‘ism (racism, homophobia, etc.)
Turn in your bounty via Submittable
BOUNTIES (MONEY YOU EARN):
$15 — Haiku, Short Poems (<14 lines), Micro Fiction (under 100-300 words)
SUBMIT UP TO 3 PIECES PER UPLOAD
$25 — Prose, Short Story, Flash fiction, Creative-Nonfiction (under 1000 words)
SUBMIT NO MORE THAN 1 PIECE PER UPLOAD
$50 — Hybrid, Experimental, Essays, Long-form pieces. (under 2000 words)
SUBMIT NO MORE THAN 1 PIECE PER UPLOAD
$50 — All Artwork (includes comics, paintings, etc.)
SUBMIT UP TO 3 PIECES PER UPLOAD
Poems, essays, flash fiction, creative nonfiction, and art should illustrate which bounty you wish to collect.
Upon acceptance, submissions will be included on our website, in print, and will be eligible to be publicized on social media.
Accepted authors will receive a payout of $15, $25, or $50, each accepted submission, depending on which bounties are collected.
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CALL FOR NONFICTION ESSAYS
TriQuarterly
SUBMISSION PERIOD: Fall/Winter (October, November, and December 2022)
INFO: Have a great essay in need of a good home? TriQuarterly's Non-Fiction Editor Starr Davis is looking for "reckless and experimental prose from voices of color. Essays that thread personal narrative around larger conversations.
She is most interested in non-academic CNF that isn't afraid to be poetic and confessional. Some topics she is interested in are political vs personal, post-pandemic, transitioning (however you wish to interpret this), and personal essays about women's rights and social injustices.
triquarterly.submittable.com/submit
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CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: lgbtq+ WRITERS
Foglifter
DEADLINE: November 1, 2022
INFO: Foglifter is a biannual compendium of the most dynamic, urgent queer and trans writing today. It’s a space where LGBTQ+ writers celebrate, mourn, rage, and embrace.
Foglifter welcomes daring and thoughtful work by queer and trans writers in all forms, and we are especially interested in cross-genre, intersectional, marginal, and transgressive work. We want the pieces that challenged you as a writer, what you poured yourself into and risked the most to make. But we also want your tenderest, gentlest work, what you hold closest to your heart. Whatever you're working on now that's keeping you alive and writing, Foglifter wants to read it.
What does that look like? Check out some writing we love from our recent issues:
“from Okazaki Fragments,” by Kanika Agrawal
“Dykes in a Tub,” by D. Arthur
“Zulum,” by Fargo Tbakhi
“INWARD ASPECT,” by Chekwube Danladi
“Magical Faggot as Cinematic Study,” by Dez Deshaies
EDITORIAL STATEMENT:
We provide a path to representation for a broad selection of LGBTQ+ voices, centering queer and trans literary artists of color, youth, elders, and those beyond traditional LGBTQ+ cultural centers so that our readers and audiences can see their own experiences authentically represented through queer and trans literary arts.
We believe that queer and trans people must curate our own artistic discourses and we curate with a commitment to not perpetuate harm in our communities and recognize our responsibilities as editors to uplift the voices of queer and trans people while not punching down on those of us who live at the intersection of multiple oppressed identities.
GUIDELINES:
Title your submission with the title of the work(s) you are submitting (separated by commas).
Include a 50-word or less bio (with pronouns after your name, please!) in your cover letter. (If accepted, we will request an author photo; JPG or PNG files are best.)
We accept the following unpublished unsolicited submissions:
3 to 5 poems (max 5 pages)
up to 7500 words of fiction or nonfiction (up to three flash fiction pieces)
up to 20 pages of cross-genre work, text-image hybrids, or drama
All submissions must be uploaded as one DOC or DOCX file using the following titling convention: First_Last_Foglifter (i.e., Audre_Lorde_Foglifter)
We accept simultaneous submissions; however, please withdraw your piece immediately if it is accepted elsewhere (or, if you only need to withdraw part of a submission, send us a message in Submittable).
Only one submission per genre is permitted each reading period.
We do not accept previously published material.
If we've recently accepted your work, please wait two reading periods (1 year) to submit again.
Contributors receive two copies of the issue in which they appear and a $50 honorarium (via PayPal).
foglifter.submittable.com/submit
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NYSCA/NYFA Artists with Disabilities Grant
DEADLINE: November 1, 2022
INFO: The NYSCA/NYFA Artists with Disabilities Grant program will distribute one-time cash grants of $1,000 to artists with a disability who have experienced financial hardship due to the COVID-19 crisis to cover art related expenses. The grant will be open to visual, media, music, performing, literary, and multidisciplinary artists who live in New York State outside of the five boroughs of NYC.
Applicants will need to be practicing artists and be able to demonstrate an ongoing commitment to their arts practice and career. Applicants should be able to demonstrate that they have participated, created, or maintained their artistic practice and provide documentation from any time over the past 4 years (2018 to date). Applicants are encouraged to share a past public engagement such as an exhibition, show, community-based program, performance, or other public presentation of the artist’s work within their application. Only those who are current New York State residents outside the five boroughs of NYC and have maintained residency for a minimum of twelve months will be considered.
Grant recipients will not be made public, and personal information will never be disclosed or publicized without prior consent.
This program is made possible through New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Governor’s Office and the New York State Legislature.
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Shearing Fellowship
Black Mountain Institute
DEADLINE: November 1, 2022 at 11:59pm PT
INFO: The Beverly Rogers, Carol C. Harter Black Mountain Institute hosts residential fellowships every academic year. Visiting fellows join a community of writers and scholars in a thriving literary scene in Las Vegas and on the campus of UNLV; they are supported by individuals and groups that share the commitment to bringing writers and the literary imagination into the heart of public life.
For emerging and distinguished writers who have published at least one book with a trade or literary press, this fellowship includes:
compensation of $20,000 paid over a four-month period;
a semester-long letter of appointment;
eligibility for optional health coverage;
office space in the BMI offices on the campus of UNLV;
housing (fellows cover some utilities) in a unique and vibrant arts complex in the bustling district of downtown Las Vegas—home to The Writer’s Block, our city’s beloved independent bookstore; and
recognition at BMI as a “Shearing Fellow.”
While there are no formal teaching requirements, this is a “working fellowship” located in Las Vegas. BMI’s visiting fellows will maintain an in-office presence of 10 hours a week, along with 10 hours of service to the community. In addition to the primary goal of furthering one’s own writing during their term in Las Vegas, visiting fellows are expected to engage in a substantial way with BMI’s community, in ways that connect to their interests and skills. Upon acceptance into the program, each fellow will craft a plan in partnership with BMI. Here are some examples of activities a visiting fellow might pursue:
Offer readings, craft talks, and other public presentations to the readers and writers of UNLV and Southern Nevada.
Curate an event or program.
Contribute original work (i.e. a work of fiction, nonfiction, or poetry) to one of BMI’s publications.
Provide support to one of BMI’s publications(e.g. judge contests or consult on editorial processes).
APPLICATION DETAILS:
Please submit:
A one- to three-page personal statement, which includes 1) your interest in being part of the Las Vegas literary community, 2) a practical description of how you envision fulfilling your service hours and engaging the Las Vegas community, and 3) the writing project(s) you will work on while in residency.
A writing sample (10 pages maximum, double-spaced, 12 pt.).
A résumé or CV.
Finalists will be asked to send copies of their books. (Applicants must have at least one book published by a trade press.) Candidates are selected by a committee comprised of staff and community members at BMI.
blackmountaininstitute.org/fellowships/apply/
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ROLLING SUBMISSIONS
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: BLACK + BROWN ARTISTS
Emergent Literary
DEADLINE: Rolling
INFO: Emergent Literary is a new journal that welcomes the work of Black and brown makers in all genres, as well as work that reaches across multiple genres or obscures the boundaries between them.
The work must be previously unpublished in print or online.
Before submitting, we ask that you take a look at our mission statement in order to get a sense of the journal.
Please send all submissions to editors@emergentliterary.com with the genre in all caps as the subject line, i.e. POETRY. If your work is multimedia or doesn’t exactly fit into one category, list MULTI as your genre. Feel free to include a short note in the body of the email, and your work as an attachment.
We’re cool with simultaneous submissions, just let us know by email if one or all of your pieces are accepted elsewhere!
We will try our best to get back to you within 6 months. We’re a small team! If you have not received a response by then, you can send us an email, but please wait until then to do so.
Poetry: Please submit three to five poems in a standard font. Please include page breaks between poems and clearly delineated titles.
Fiction, Creative Nonfiction and other narrative work (including reviews) Please submit up to 1500 words, double-spaced in a standard font.
Photography and Visual Art: Please submit up to four images as an attachment to your email with the title(s) of the work(s) as the file names.
Audio and Video: Please submit up to 7 minutes of video or audio, with audio files attached as .mp3 or mp4.
Recipes: Yes, please! If you have accompanying photographs, please attach them to the email.
We warmly welcome mixed/multimedia work!
We look forward to engaging with your work.
emergentliterary.com/submission-guidelines
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ESSAYS ON RADICAL HEALING
That’s No Longer My Ministry
DEADLINE: Rolling
INFO: Hi! We’re journalists, editors and content creators Foram Mehta and Nadia Imafidon. And we’re teaming up to publish a first-of-its-kind anthology that aims to tell a different story about healing. As an extension to the evocative podcast series of the same name, the collection will tell the stories of marginalized folk in their own words about how they’re actively purging years of conditioning and the consequences of never being centered.
These stories acknowledge and move through trauma; they hold space for radical self-liberation and using “No.” as a complete sentence. They remind us: We don't have to hold onto the things that no longer serve us because that's no longer our ministry.
Publication Details
Accepted essays will be edited by us (Foram & Nadia) and curated together for a book that will be available for purchase as an e-book or as a paperback. Print copies of the book and one-hundred percent of proceeds from subsequent sales will be donated to Aakoma Project, an organization that aims to
Compensation
Writers whose essays are accepted for final publication will be credited with a byline in the book and a complimentary paperback copy of the completed anthology.
A note about writing for free: As writers ourselves, we know writers are highly underpaid and undervalued, but we also know the joy of contributing to a collaborative body of work for the sake of storytelling, for the sake of healing together. Everyone on this project (including us) is a non-paid contributor donating their time and work for the benefit of Aakoma Project.
We say this while also acknowledging that we live in a world that operates on money, and spending time to write for free is not a privilege afforded to everyone. That’s also why we’re asking for non-exclusive rights only to contributors’ essays (more details to be provided in the contributor’s agreement).
build the consciousness of youth of color and their
caregivers on the recognition and importance of mental health. They do this by offering free
therapy and workshops to youth and their families, helping to influence systems and services to
receive and address the needs of youth of color and their families.
Pitching Guidelines
We are seeking pitches for non-fiction first-person essays from people of color who hold identities that are marginalized. This includes but is not limited to:
LGBTQIA+
Immigrant/First-generation
Refugee
Indigenous
People with disabilities
When submitting your pitch, please include a brief bio and a link to your portfolio and/or first-person writing samples. We understand that not everyone will have a portfolio, so please send us something to give us an idea of your writing style.
Your pitch should include:
Working title
A summary of your story. (Tell us why you’re the person who needs to tell this story.)
We aim to get back to everyone who submits a pitch, but please allow us some time to respond, as we anticipate a full inbox! We will send contributor agreements to writers whose pitches we accept. Please, do not submit fully written essays.
Submit pitches to nolongermyministry@gmail.com. Editorial Guidelines
After we accept your essay pitch, writers should use the following writing guidelines: ● First-person reflections
○ Use this creative, non-fiction writing guide for reference
● Non-fiction
● English (with creative use of language)
● 8th grade reading level (When in doubt, keep it simple!)
● 1,500-3,00 words recommended
● AP Style (reference guide)
We’re interested in your story, but we acknowledge that your story will likely include other people in it. For that reason, we ask that if you’re mentioning someone by their name that you get their permission to do so or change the name.
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TORCH FRIDAY FEATURE
Torch Literary Arts
DEADLINE: Rolling
ENTRY FEE: $0
INFO: Torch Literary Arts welcomes submissions of original creative work by Black women writers. We are interested in work that challenges and disrupts preconceived notions of what contemporary writing by Black women should be. Your stories and poems are valuable and necessary. Write freely and submit what you are excited to share with the world.
Reading Period
Submissions are accepted for Friday Features only. We accept submissions on a rolling basis.
Simultaneous Submissions
Simultaneous submissions to other journals are welcome as long as they are identified as such and we are notified immediately upon acceptance elsewhere.
Manuscript Submission Guidelines
Include a one (1) page cover letter noting the title(s) of the work(s) submitted.
Upload your text submission as a Word (DOC, DOCX) or portable document format/PDF (PDF).
Typed, double-spaced (poetry may be single-spaced) pages.
Numbered pages.
Margins should be set at no less than 1” and no greater than 1.5”.
Poetry: submit up to five (5) poems totaling no more than eight (8) pages.
Fiction, Hybrid genre: 12-point font. No more than ten (10) pages or 2500 words (whichever is achieved first). Excerpts of longer works are welcome if self-contained.
Drama/Screenwriting: submit one act or a collection of short scenes no longer than ten (10) pages. Excerpts of longer works are welcome if self-contained. Indicate if a performance video or dramatic audio reading will be available with the text submission if selected.
Restrictions
We do not reprint previously published work for TORCH Friday Features.
Submitting Online
We accept submissions via our online submission management system only. Submissions via postal mail or email will be discarded without response.
Notifications and Queries
Please allow up to three months for a decision. Using our online submissions system, you will be able to track the status of your submission.
Publication & Compensation
Publication is online at TorchLiteraryArts.org, unless expressly stated for special publications.
Authors whose work is selected for a Friday Feature will receive a $50 (US) payment for publication.
All rights revert back to the author after publication.
Awards
All work accepted for publication will be considered for nomination for internal and external awards such as The Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, etc.
torchliteraryarts.submittable.com/submit
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OPEN CALL: EYEBEAM CENTER FOR THE FUTURE OF JOURNALISM
Eyebeam Center
DEADLINE: Rolling
INFO: The Eyebeam Center for the Future of Journalism (ECFJ) is a grant-making program that supports artists producing innovative and revelatory journalistic work for major media outlets.
The funds distributed to artists will assist with research, travel, and other expenses many media outlets struggle to cover, allowing stories that are often out of reach in today’s climate to be produced. And, in an effort to be responsive to an ever-fluctuating news cycle, artists will be able to apply to ECFJ for support of their work on a rolling basis. Artists with longer-term, research-intensive projects are also encouraged to apply. Grant support will range from $500 to $5,000.
All applicants must read the ECFJ Open Call page before applying: https://eyebeam.org/ecfj
Eligibility:
Individuals and collectives can apply. Collectives must have work samples that reflect a history of working together.
International applicants are welcome.
Applicants must have an existing commission letter from an editor.
Applications are accepted on a rolling basis.
At this stage of the program, all applications must be in English.
Criteria
ECFJ is a grant-making program that financially supports artists producing innovative journalistic work for major media outlets. Artists applying must have demonstrated track record of working with major media outlets.
Artists creating work with a focus on the following issues are encouraged to apply:
Data privacy
2018/2020 elections
Role of technology in society
Political influence campaigns
Interrogating harmful technologies
Countering disinformation
Artificial Intelligence
Each applicant must provide:
300-word project description
Assignment letter from editor
A reference contact or letter of support
Two samples of past work
Detailed budget of expenses (travel costs, per diem and research costs are acceptable)
At this time, final pieces must be in English.
All applications should be in alignment with Eyebeam’s core values of:
Openness: All the work here is driven by an open-source ethos.
Invention: We build on old ideas to generate new possibilities.
Justice: Technology by artists is a move towards equity and democracy.
Equity and Inclusion: Eyebeam aims to create a hub for conversation and practice-sharing that is aware and responsive to systemic inequities in technology and invests in the meaningful inclusion of historically marginalized groups and voices. Eyebeam is committed to and values diversity in its organization and programs as defined by gender, race, ethnicity, disability-status, age, sexual orientation, immigrant status, and socioeconomic status. With a history rooted in innovation and collaboration Eyebeam’s programs are grounded in artist-community dialogue. Eyebeam supports the meaningful access to technology for everyone.
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CALL FOR IMMIGRANT WRITERS
ẹwà
DEADLINE: Rolling
INFO: ẹwà is an independent journal that publishes original work exclusively by immigrant writers — foreign-born and first-generation — living in the United States. We are interested in poetry, fiction, memoir, personal essay, lyric, hybrid forms as well as non-academic cultural criticism.
A few things:
Submissions are accepted year-round, on a rolling basis.
We do not accept previously published material (in print or online).
Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but please notify us right away if your work is accepted anywhere else.
We accept multiple submissions in all genres of writing. We also accept co-/multiple-authored works, but please make sure that appropriate permissions have been granted.
To submit, please send your work in a single document containing no more than six pages of writing to submit@ewajournal.com.
TERMS: ẹwà requests first rights, worldwide, and the right to include the work on the ẹwà website indefinitely. After publication, all rights revert to the author. Copyright always remains with the author. Should your work be republished elsewhere in the future, please credit ẹwà with its first publication. Our terms will be updated as necessary.
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CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
Unmute Magazine
DEADLINE: Rolling
INFO: Unmute Magazine, is a digital mag that aims to lift the voices of BIPOC creatives who’ve been historically marginalized.
They are accepting the following submissions (must be arts-related):
Album/EP or concert review (600-800 words).
A review of your own music or art including a discussion of the inspiration behind it (600-800 words).
Art-related how-to article (600-800 words).
Interviews (an introductory paragraph and five written questions).
Reflections / Essays (up to 1,500 words).
Song or poem including a discussion of the inspiration behind it (may submit up to four for review).
Photograph(s), illustrations, art (JPEG or PNG format).
Have your own idea? Please pitch it to us!
Please submit the following with your piece:
A third-person bio of up to 100 words.
(Optional) Photo as JPEG or PNG format for your bio.
(Optional) Up to 3 links to social media (i.e. Spotify, Soundcloud, website, Instagram, etc).
Submission Rules:
Written works and bio must be submitted in Word or Pages format
By submitting you agree to be considered for publication in Unmute Magazine.
Work must be original.
Unmute Magazine retains standard first publication rights for submissions. All rights immediately revert to the creator upon publication.
It may take several weeks for a response, but your submission will be read. If accepted, you will be notified.
By submitting to Unmute Magazine, you agree to be added to our mailing list. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Please email your submission to Submissions (at) unmutemagazine (dot) com