CREATIVE CAPITAL AWARD
Creative Capital
DEADLINE: April 3, 2025
INFO: The Creative Capital Award provides individual artists with unrestricted project grants for the creation of bold, innovative, original, and imaginative new artistic works. In addition to unrestricted project grants from $15,000 up to $50,000, the Award offers transformative professional development support including strategic advising, peer mentorship, industry connections, and community-building opportunities. Grants are awarded via a national, democratic, open call, external review process.
For the 2026 grant cycle, Creative Capital invites professional artists to propose experimental, original, bold new works in Visual Arts, Performing Arts, Film, and Literature. Multidisciplinary, technology, and/or socially engaged projects are welcome in all disciplinary categories. Creative Capital seeks project proposals for formally and/or conceptually innovative works in all disciplines, including, but not limited to, painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, video and multimedia, dance, theater, playwriting, jazz, opera, music, experimental film, documentary and narrative film, poetry, and fiction.
Creative Capital welcomes a full range of artistic approaches and thematic inquiries, including boundary-pushing formal explorations, as well as projects that engage urgent social issues of our time. Creative Capital also seeks new projects or works addressing subjects that Creative Capital has not previously funded. For example, for this grant cycle, Creative Capital also seeks strong visual arts projects dealing with fentanyl, veterans/military, or wealth inequality.
The Creative Capital Award seeks project proposals in the following disciplines:
Visual Arts: architecture & design, craft, drawing & illustration, ecological art, installation, painting & printmaking, performance art, photography, public art, sculpture, social practice, sound art, video art, technology, and socially-engaged visual art
Performing Arts: dance, jazz, multimedia performance, music, musical theater, opera, theater, playwriting, technology, and socially-engaged performing arts
Film: animation, documentary film, experimental film, and narrative film
Literature: fiction, nonfiction, and poetry
A diverse cohort of approximately 50 artists will be selected for the Creative Capital Award through an external review process. Our goal is to support artists and new works across a range of disciplines, themes and ideas, geographic regions, identities, ages, and career stages. See recent Creative Capital Awardees and Projects for 2025, 2024, and 2023.
Creative Capital’s transformative giving approach is built on the principle that artists need funding as well as networks and advisory services in order to realize ambitious projects and build thriving careers. Recipients of the Creative Capital Award receive access to a full range of professional development services over a five-year period. These services include strategic planning, legal and financial advising, marketing and communications strategy, peer mentorship, and industry networking opportunities.
APPLICATION PROCESS:
ROUND I: Project Proposal
Creative Capital welcomes project proposals for original, imaginative, impactful new artistic works in Visual Arts, Performing Arts, Film, and Literature. Multidisciplinary, technology, and/or socially-engaged projects are welcome in every category.
Along with a project title, one line project description (50 words max), project description (500 words max), bio, resume, and artist website (recommended), applicants will answer the following questions:
Creative Capital supports formally and conceptually innovative and experimental work. How does your project idea take an original and imaginative approach to content and form? (150 words / 1,000 characters max)
Place your work in context. What are the main influences upon your work as an artist? How does your past work inform your current project? (150 words / 1,000 character max)
What kind of impact do you hope your project will have, and why? What specific audiences and/or communities will the project engage? (150 words / 1,000 character max)
Creative Capital awards artists at catalytic moments in their careers. How is this a catalytic moment in your practice? How will your proposed project or new work act as a catalyst for your artistic and professional growth? (150 words / 1,000 character max)
Creative Capital provides professional development services and community-building opportunities for awardees and encourages a spirit of mutual generosity and exchange among our artists. How would this support and being part of the Creative Capital community be impactful for you? (150 words / 1,000 character max)
In addition, applicants will submit one (1) work sample from a completed, past work.
Visual Arts applicants will submit one Image Sample or Video Sample.
Performing Arts applicants will submit one Video Sample.
Film applicants will submit one Video Sample.
Literature applicants will submit one Writing Sample.
ROUND II: Project Details
Applicants selected by our external reviewers to advance to Round II will submit additional materials to support their application:
Project itemized budget
Project timeline (1 page)
Work samples (see Application Handbook for guidelines)
Proof of eligibility
ROUND III: Panel Review
Applicants selected by our external reviewers to advance to Round III will be asked to:
Confirm collaborators (if applicable)
Submit project updates (optional, 100 words max)
Full application guidelines are outlined in the Application Handbook.
2026 OPEN CALL APPLICATION TIMELINE:
These dates may change.
March 3, 2025: Round I application portal opens
April 3, 2025 at 3:00 PM Eastern Time: Round I application deadline
June 2025: Notification of advancement to Round II
September 2025: Notification of advancement to Round III: Final Panel Review
Early 2026: Public announcement of 2026 Creative Capital Awards and State of the Art Prizes
Artist Eligibility
US citizen, permanent legal resident, O-1 visa holder, or Tribal ID holder
At least 25 years old by application deadline
Working artist(s) with at least 5 years of professional artistic practice within their chosen discipline
Applicant may not be enrolled in a degree-granting program
May not apply to the Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant program in the same year
May not have previously received a Creative Capital Award
May not be an applicant or collaborator on more than one proposed project per year
State of the Art Prize recipients must be a resident of the state they are awarded in through February 1, 2026. Prize recipients must provide proof of residence in the state or territory to receive the grant.
Projects that are not eligible
Projects whose main purpose is promotional
Project is to fund ongoing operations of existing business or nonprofit organization
Curation or documentation of existing work
Projects that will premiere or be completed before October 1, 2026
More questions? Email awards@creative-capital.org. No phone calls please.
creative-capital.org/about-the-creative-capital-award
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THE STATE OF THE ART PRIZE
Creative Capital
DEADLINE: April 3, 2025
INFO: Through the 2026 Open Call process for the Creative Capital Award, Creative Capital will also select recipients of the State of the Art Prize, a new national, two-year initiative, which aims to recognize one artist residing in each U.S. state and its territories, with an unrestricted grant of $10,000 per artist. All applicants to the Creative Capital Award will be automatically considered for the State of the Art Prize and will be evaluated for the Prize using the same criteria; there is no separate application process. State of the Art Prize recipients will also have access to a suite of online professional development resources, including the Creative Capital Curriculum and Artist Labs, Artist Opportunities, and online community-building opportunities.
State of the Art Prize recipients may apply again to future open calls for the Creative Capital Award. However, artists who have already received the Creative Capital Award may not apply for the State of the Art Prize. Both the State of the Art Prize and the Creative Capital Award are one-time awards.
APPLICATION PROCESS:
ROUND I: Project Proposal
Creative Capital welcomes project proposals for original, imaginative, impactful new artistic works in Visual Arts, Performing Arts, Film, and Literature. Multidisciplinary, technology, and/or socially-engaged projects are welcome in every category.
Along with a project title, one line project description (50 words max), project description (500 words max), bio, resume, and artist website (recommended), applicants will answer the following questions:
Creative Capital supports formally and conceptually innovative and experimental work. How does your project idea take an original and imaginative approach to content and form? (150 words / 1,000 characters max)
Place your work in context. What are the main influences upon your work as an artist? How does your past work inform your current project? (150 words / 1,000 character max)
What kind of impact do you hope your project will have, and why? What specific audiences and/or communities will the project engage? (150 words / 1,000 character max)
Creative Capital awards artists at catalytic moments in their careers. How is this a catalytic moment in your practice? How will your proposed project or new work act as a catalyst for your artistic and professional growth? (150 words / 1,000 character max)
Creative Capital provides professional development services and community-building opportunities for awardees and encourages a spirit of mutual generosity and exchange among our artists. How would this support and being part of the Creative Capital community be impactful for you? (150 words / 1,000 character max)
In addition, applicants will submit one (1) work sample from a completed, past work.
Visual Arts applicants will submit one Image Sample or Video Sample.
Performing Arts applicants will submit one Video Sample.
Film applicants will submit one Video Sample.
Literature applicants will submit one Writing Sample.
ROUND II: Project Details
Applicants selected by our external reviewers to advance to Round II will submit additional materials to support their application:
Project itemized budget
Project timeline (1 page)
Work samples (see Application Handbook for guidelines)
Proof of eligibility
ROUND III: Panel Review
Applicants selected by our external reviewers to advance to Round III will be asked to:
Confirm collaborators (if applicable)
Submit project updates (optional, 100 words max)
2026 OPEN CALL APPLICATION TIMNLINE:
These dates may change.
March 3, 2025: Round I application portal opens
April 3, 2025 at 3:00 PM Eastern Time: Round I application deadline
June 2025: Notification of advancement to Round II
September 2025: Notification of advancement to Round III: Final Panel Review
Early 2026: Public announcement of 2026 Creative Capital Awards and State of the Art Prizes
Artist Eligibility
US citizen, permanent legal resident, O-1 visa holder, or Tribal ID holder
At least 25 years old by application deadline
Working artist(s) with at least 5 years of professional artistic practice within their chosen discipline
Applicant may not be enrolled in a degree-granting program
May not apply to the Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant program in the same year
May not have previously received a Creative Capital Award
May not be an applicant or collaborator on more than one proposed project per year
State of the Art Prize recipients must be a resident of the state they are awarded in through February 1, 2026. Prize recipients must provide proof of residence in the state or territory to receive the grant.
Projects that are not eligible
Projects whose main purpose is promotional
Project is to fund ongoing operations of existing business or nonprofit organization
Curation or documentation of existing work
Projects that will premiere or be completed before October 1, 2026
More questions? Email awards@creative-capital.org. No phone calls please.
creative-capital.org/about-the-creative-capital-award
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CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: INCARCERATED WRITERS & FAMILIES
Massachusetts Review
DEADLINE: April 4, 2024
INFO: INCARCERATED WRITERS & FAMILIES is a special Massachusetts Review issue that seeks to center and honor the literary art of incarcerated writers and their families.
With INCARCERATED WRITERS & FAMILIES, a special issue, the Massachusetts Review intends to extend the definition of families and broaden the portrait of lives impacted by our justice system to include that most basic unit of our society, the family. We are interested in traditional families but also in alternative forms of caretaking, parenting, and kinship that have a long history in queer and/or BIPOC communities.
The Massachusetts Review seeks writers who can reveal more about how the concept of family might be transformed by those who are on the inside. When the bonds with their loved ones outside are severed, what kind of familial care emerges between people who are still incarcerated, in spite of the carceral system's tactics for dividing and isolating them from one another?
In the spirit of the stunning documentary Time, created by Garrett Bradley, the Massachusetts Review wants to publish stories, poems, essays, hybrids, and art that follow the struggles of families to confront, survive, and triumph over the challenges that incarceration creates for both prisoners and their families. We seek writing and art that traces the tragic aftermath and long-term effects on children and families that too often result from a system that we euphemistically call “correctional.” We are also interested in how communal caretaking that redefines what "family" means (and what justice means) contributes to the overall goal of prison abolition. In widening our focus to include family members as well as the incarcerated, we hope to give a more accurate portrait of the toll of our prison-industrial complex and also include readers who haven’t yet confronted the Kafka-esque dilemma of standing directly before the law.
INCARCERATED WRITERS & FAMILIES is a special MR issue that asks for your personal essays, stories, interviews, poems, hybrids and visual art about incarceration and its direct and indirect impacts. Your essays, stories, interviews, poems, and/or hybrids might (but do not have to) engage these questions:
How can a family persist in the face of incarceration’s barriers and obstacles?
What is the impact of incarceration on the radius of care beyond the individual imprisoned?
How do definitions of family shift, contract and/or widen in the carceral environment?
SUBMISSION INFO: Submissions should be no more than 7,000 words for prose (fiction, nonfiction), hybrids, up to 6 poems for poetry, or up to 3 pages of visual art. We are interested in submissions from people who are most marginalized by oppressive systems, to include trans, gender queer, poverty-born, incarcerated, justice-involved, system-impacted, disabled, neurodivergent, BIPOC, colonized, people living on the frontlines of climate crisis, and others.
COMPENSATION: Published writers will receive $300 upon publication.
Please send work as a Word or PDF attachment to themassreview@gmail.com and indicate the special issue and genre in the subject line (i.e. "INCARCERATED WRITERS & FAMILIES: Fiction").
If online submission is not possible, please mail work to:
The Massachusetts Review
400 Venture Way
Hadley, MA 01035
PLEASE NOTE: WE DO NOT ACCEPT SUBMISSIONS OF PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED WORK.
themassachusettsreview.substack.com/p/mr-call-for-papers
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SITKA RESIDENCY
The Sitka Center for Art and Ecology (Otis, OR)
DEADLINE: April 3, 2025
APPLICATION FEE: $30
INFO: Sitka residencies provide time and space for self-paced work and reflection in an inspiring natural setting. Residents from a broad range of art, writing, performance, science, education and interdisciplinary practices come to Sitka to create and explore away from the familiar contexts and constraints of daily routines, and free from external expectations.
Sitka Residencies offer dedicated time and space for artists, writers, scientists, educators and interdisciplinary creators to immerse themselves in independent work amid the remarkable ecology of Cascade Head and the Oregon coast.
Sitka residents enjoy solitude as well as opportunities for self-directed exchange and collaboration in a supportive environment, free from outside pressures, drawing inspiration from a landscape that invites discovery, reflection and renewal.
Residencies, ranging from two weeks to three months between October and May, are awarded through an annual juried process and provided free of charge. Some Sitka residents also receive living and travel stipends as part of their awards.
RESIDENCY DETAILS:
Facilities
Each resident is provided with private living and, if needed, studio space. Residences include living, sleeping, bathroom and kitchen areas, equipped for basic cooking. Laundry facilities are available on campus. Wi-Fi is provided in both residences and studios. Residents are responsible for their own transportation, food and supplies.
The Sitka Center is a non-smoking and non-vaping environment. Please avoid strong scents, as some individuals have allergies. Candles and incense are not permitted. Pets are not allowed on Sitka’s main campus or at our 80 acre nature preserve.
Sitka is family-friendly, and partners are welcome to stay or visit. Please inform the Sitka office if you have overnight visitors.
We are located about seven miles from the nearest grocery store, in Lincoln City, a small coastal town. The area receives about 98 inches of rain annually, so rain gear is essential for outdoor activities.
Cost
Living and studio spaces are provided free of charge. There is a $30 application fee to cover administrative costs. Residents are responsible for their own travel, food, supplies and other expenses. If the application fee is a barrier, please contact Sitka at info@sitkacenter.org for a fee waiver.
Accessibility
Sitka’s studios, office and library are ADA accessible, with one ADA-compliant cabin. Some areas on our steep campus may be less accessible. Please contact us with any specific needs or concerns. Certified service animals are welcome with prior disclosure and permission. Sitka has housing options for families with children of different ages or residents who are caretakers. Please indicate any housing needs in your application. Sitka has an extremely limited ability to host a pet or emotional support animal in a single off-campus cabin. Please do not count on being able to bring your pet when you apply.
Collaborations
Collaborating teams should submit one application. Please note if you will need sperate sleeping accommodations.
Studio Supplies and Materials
Sitka provides basic studio equipment, including easels, task lights, tables, and chairs, as well as a printing press and a small ceramics studio. Residents must bring their own materials for their work, and we can discuss specific needs ahead of time.
Solitude and Engagement
Residents can engage with other residents and the local community in their own ways. We host a Zoom Resident Talk event where each resident shares their work. Participation is encouraged but not required.
Expectations
Residents are asked to present at a Resident Talk event, complete an exit survey and leave their assigned residence and studio clean and in the same condition as when they arrived. There are no expectations regarding creative or scientific productivity and no culminating report or presentation is required.
Commitment to Equity
The Sitka Center for Art and Ecology affords equal opportunities to applicants without regard to age, race, color, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, marital status or any other characteristic protected by law. We are committed to equity and inclusion and believe different voices and perspectives strengthen our organization and amplify Sitka’s impact.
MATERIALS NEEDED TO APPLY:
References – Name and contact information (your references will be sent a form to complete).
Application – Complete responses to all application questions.
Resume – Submit as a .doc, .docx or .pdf file.
Work Samples – Provide examples of your current work in formats that best showcase your practice.
Visual artists, designers and architects: 8-10 high quality images of your most current work.
Creative writers, journalists, playwrights and poets: 2 writing samples of up to 10 pages. For shorter works (poetry, short prose, etc.), submit 4 samples of up to 5 pages each. Excerpts are accepted for all writing forms. (.doc, .docx or .pdf)
Scientists: Any combination of images, files and text that reflects your most current work, up to 6 images or files (if applicable) and up to 2 writing samples (up to 10 pages each) (.doc, .docx or .pdf).
Musicians, composers, performers and Film Makers: 2-4 audio or video files (mp3, video files or links) of your most recent work. Excerpts are encouraged for longer works.
Curators, educators and social practice artists: Any combination of images, files and text that reflects your most current work, up to 6 images or files and up to 2 writing samples of a maximum of 10 pages each.
Interdisciplinary practitioners: Any combination of images, files and text that reflects your most current work, up to 6 images or files and up to 2 writing samples of a maximum of 10 pages each.
sitkacenter.org/residency-at-sitka/
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BIPOC ARTIST RESIDENCY AT SITKA CENTER
Portland in Color / The Sitka Center for Art and Ecology (Otis, OR)
DEADLINE: April 4, 2025 by 11:59 PM PT
INFO: The Portland in Color Residency at Sitka Center was created to establish the foundation for a partnership between our community organizations in an effort to collectively support artists of color in Oregon.
Artist residency programs can offer creatives at all stages a supportive place to rest, dream, and/or create as they see fit, without the expectation of production or output. It can be a meaningful, regenerative process to have time and space away from existing routines and setting, yet we recognize that residencies can be inaccessible to artists so this initiative seeks to address some barriers of access by waiting application fees, including a modest stipend of financial support, and flexible scheduling.
In 2025-2026, The Sitka Center for Art and Ecology will offer 2 residency spots for a Portland in Color collaboration, with the opportunity for 2 artists of color to be in residence at Sitka Center for up to a month.
DETAILS:
Residency Period: October 1, 2025 – April 30, 2026
Duration: 2-4 weeks (length and dates to be determined by your availability)
Eligibility: Open to BIPOC artists over 18 years old residing in Oregon who have not previously participated in a Sitka artist residency.
Location: Sitka Center for Art and Ecology, 56605 Sitka Dr, Otis, OR 97368
Funding availability: $600 stipend flat fee
Notifications: All applicants will be notified by email by April 30th, 2025.
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APPLY YOURSELF! APPLYING TO RESIDENCIES, GRANTS, WORKSHOPS, AND OTHER WRITING OPPORTUNITIES IN EUROPE AND BEYOND
Black Women Writers in Europe
INFO: Are you looking for opportunities to support, develop or fund your writing?
Join BWWE co-founders, Joy and Jeannetta, for a two-part class designed to help writers navigate the world of residencies, grants, fellowships, workshops, and other writing programs in Europe and beyond.
DATES:
April 6, 2025 (Session 1 - Resources + Artist Statement DNA)
April 20, 2025 (Live Feedback Session on Submitted Artist Statements)
TIME:: 7:30–9:30 PM CET
LOCATION: Zoom
PRICE: 50€
WHAT TO EXPECT:
In this hands-on workshop, we will explore:
The different types of writing opportunities available, including residencies, fellowships, grants, workshops, mentorships, and MFA programs.
How to find and research opportunities that align with your goals.
How to craft a compelling artist statement—a key component of most applications.
Writing prompts and exercises to help articulate your creative vision.
During the second session, we will provide feedback and guidance on your artist statements, helping to refine applications for success.
Whether you’re new to applying for opportunities or looking to strengthen your applications, this workshop will give you practical tools and confidence to take the next step in your writing journey.
Limited spots available! Sign up now to secure your place.
blackwomenwritersineurope.com/the-classes
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Call For Pitches: Creativity at Work in Midwest Communities
Arts Midwest
DEADLINE: April 6, 2025
INFO: We’re looking for stories of creativity in action—projects, people, and ideas that are solving problems, strengthening connections, and shaping communities in the Midwest.
What does creativity look like where you live? How is it distinctly of, by, and for your community? Tell us more!
WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR:
We’re seeking engaging, people-centered stories that showcase the power of creative action across our coverage region—especially from Greater Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and Wisconsin.
We cover Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Wisconsin, and the Native Nations that share this geography. Pitches from outside of this region will not be considered.
Selected pitches will be contracted for 500-word written articles to be published by Arts Midwest’s Creativity News Desk starting May 2025. The compensation of the 500-word story is $500; paid once all deliverables are finalized and ready for publishing.
artsmidwest.org/about/updates/call-for-pitches-creativity-at-work-in-midwest-communities
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Brown Handler Residency
Friends of the San Francisco Library
DEADLINE: April 6, 2025 at 11:59pm PST
INFO: Friends of the San Francisco Public Library (Friends) is pleased to announce this year’s application for the 2025-2026 Brown Handler Residency. Created by Lisa Brown and Daniel Handler in 2018, this residency supports the creative expression of diverse San Francisco-based writers, offering time, space, and a connection to the public through the Library. The Brown-Handler Residency offers five San Francisco writers a free, year-long studio space, a connection to the SF Public Library system, and opportunities to engage the public through literary programming.
Reflecting the Library’s mission as a democratic, public, and accessible institution, we are committed to supporting writers from a wide spectrum of ethnicity, race, gender, sexual orientation, ability, and genre.
ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS:
Residencies will be offered to five San Francisco-based writers for one year, open to:
Fiction writers
Nonfiction writers
Children’s writers and illustrators
Poets
Playwrights/screenwriters
Both emerging and established writers are welcome to apply. Priority will be given to applicants who can most benefit from access to space, support, and connection.
There is no cash award offered for the residency.
There is no requirement to publish a work at the end of the residency, but candidates must be
working on a personally significant project.
Residents will be required to participate in at least two Library events and programs.
THE SPACE:
The writing space is located at the office of the Friends of the San Francisco Public Library at 1630 17th Street, San Francisco, CA 94107 (between Carolina & Wisconsin). It is a rich, supportive environment with Friends staff working during regular business hours. The large writing space is in the front of the office, with a vast window overlooking Jackson Park. The back of the building houses thousands of donated books, sold to support the Library’s programs and services.
It is important that residents can work well in an office community of this arrangement. The office will not be perfectly quiet nor without exciting bustle. Residents will have 24-hour access to the space, though, seven days a week — plenty of quiet time without staff around.
BENEFITS:
Dedicated, free space to focus on your creative work 24-hour access to Friends’ writing salon conveniently located near Potrero Hill Storage, printers, copier, kitchen, bathrooms, free access to the internet, and a Friends’ email address for business use, if desired
RELATIONSHIP WITH THE SAN FRANCISCO PUBLIC LIBRARY:
As the Library is a public place, it cannot designate a permanent space for a writer. However, residents can be paired with neighborhood library branches in relationships of support and exchange. Residents often have relationships with a library “host branch,” and Friends’ staff will help facilitate the relationship to ensure a quality experience as a “special author” at select branches.
Opportunities are available for residents to participate in library programs and activities that promote their work and public engagement with writing. (i.e. toddler and children’s reading circles; teen book clubs; branch literary and cultural events; and special readings/activities designed by you and the Library staff)
PROMOTION:
Marketing and social media exposure through Friends’ Communications Department and the Public Relations Department of the Library Readings at books sales and events coordinated by SFPL or Friends
friendssfpl.org/residency.html
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OPEN CALL FOR 2025 Editors-in-Chief: community anthologies
Seventh Wave
DEADLINE: April 9, 2025
APPLICATION FEE: $5
INFO: Seventh Wave is excited to open up applications for it’s 2025 cohort of editors-in-chief, who will be curating our next round of Community Anthologies.
For information about this program, please visit the FAQ section of our Submit page here (scroll down to "Anthologies") and see our 2024 Community Anthologies here. We have summarized some of the information below:
Four Editors-in-Chief: We will be selecting four individuals to be our 2025 EICs. Each EIC will curate and publish a "Community Anthology," which is a digital anthology that publishes 6-8 writers or artists within each on Seventh Wave's website here.
Budget/Stipend: Each EIC receives a $1,000 stipend for curating their issue. Each anthology has a budget of up to $2,050: $1,000 of that goes to the EIC, $600-800 goes to contributors (each contributor is paid $100 for their work), and there is a $250 stipend that an EIC can use to work with a featured artist for the issue.
Overview of work: Seventh Wave will guide the four EICs through five phases of work together: call curation, submission/selection, editorial, staging, and publication. Each EIC is required to attend a monthly meeting, each of which focuses on one of the five phases of the work. For example, our first monthly meeting will focus on the call curation process, and during that month, EICs will work to produce their own 1-paragraph prompt for their anthology, which will serve as their call for submissions.
Application Materials: As you'll see in the form, we're asking folks to submit a bio, your topic of interest, intended submission method, and a statement of interest that addresses a few simple questions. Please note: your topic and submission method can change once selected; however, we want to get an idea of what topic you are thinking of curating to ensure that we bring in a diverse set of potential topics. There is a $5 application fee, which honors the time it takes our team to read and respond to every submission. If the $5 fee is cost prohibitive, you can submit your full application to submit@seventhwavemag.com for free by 4/9.
seventhwavemag.submittable.com/submit
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OPEN CALL - THIS QUEER ARAB FAMILY: AN ANTHOLOGY BY LGBTQ+ ARAB WRITERS
Saqi Books (UK)
DEADLINE: April 10, 2025 at Midnight GMT
ENTRY FEE: £0
INFO: Are you Queer and of Arab heritage? Do you have something to say about it? Would you like your work to be published alongside other ground-breaking writers, including Randa Jarrar and Elias Jahshan?
Whether you’re a published author or are looking to get your life writing down for the first time, we would love to read about your experiences.
Successful pieces from the open call will be included in a collection titled This Queer Arab Family, edited by Elias Jahshan and published by Saqi Books (September 2025). This intimate and hopeful collection celebrates the family we inherit and the friends we choose to become our family. It is a testament to the challenges and triumphs that bind us together.
You might want to write about:
Finding kinship in unexpected places – at festivals, online, etc
Parenting – rewriting the parenting ‘rule’ book
Staying connected with extended family around the world – the wild etiquette of your family WhatsApp group, the rituals we hold dear to feel near to one another
The writing you submit can be funny, poignant, passionate, thoughtful, angry and every shade in between. We want to readers to understand how LGBTQ+ Arabs are redefining what traditional roles and relationships look like.
COMPENSATION: Successful writers whose work is selected will be notified in May 2025 and paid a fee of £400.
Please review the guidelines and submit your writing for consideration at submissions@saqibooks.com
saqibooks.com/2025/02/open-call-for-submissions-this-queer-arab-family/
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African Voices Call for Fiction, Poems, Art & Essays Celebrating Harry Belafonte
African Voices
DEADLINE: April 11, 2025 by 11:59pm ET
INFO: African Voices invites submissions for the Summer/Fall 2025 issue focused on the artistry and activism of the late Harry Belafonte. This issue will be guest edited by award-winning poet, author, and artist Keisha-Gaye Anderson.
Harry Belafonte's decades-long work of blending his artistry and activism to promote civil rights and human rights in the United States and beyond helped to foment significant social change in his lifetime, from his work with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to his role in the anti-apartheid movement.
This issue will showcase fiction, art, poetry, and essays that exemplify some of the areas that Belafonte was passionate about, including racial equity, social justice, human rights, community empowerment, the interconnectedness of the cultural production of the African diaspora in the Americas, and the power of literacy and the arts to positively transform lives.
“Artists are the gatekeepers of truth," said Belafonte. "We are civilization’s anchor. We are the compass for humanity’s consciousness.” The issues that Belafonte worked to advance in his life in terms of Civil Rights and human rights are particularly resonant at this moment. We want to share your work that reflects and ponders these themes.
Please include your short bio and contact information with your submission.
What we’re looking for:
Fiction – no more than 2,500 words
Essays – no more than 2,500 words
Poetry – three to five poems
Artwork – three to five images
File types accepted: Word, PDF, JPEG, TIFF.
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2025 Desperate Literature Short Fiction Prize
The de Groot Foundation / Desperate Literature
DEADLINE: April 13, 2025
INFO: The 2025 Desperate Literature Short Fiction Prize is now open for submissions.
PRIZES:
First Prize:
€2000
A week’s residency at the Civitella Ranieri Foundation
A consultation with a Literary Agent
A manuscript assessment and follow-up meeting with a literary editor
Runner-up Prizes:
€1000 (two prizes available)
All Shortlisted Writers:
Eligible for publication in select literary publications.
Participation in Desperate Literature Prize events at Desperate Literature, Madrid and Burley Fisher, London.
All Longlisted Writers:
Receive one year’s access to The Literary Consultancy’s ‘Being a Writer’ platform.
One Shortlisted Writer:
Will be invited to participate in the European Writers Salon in Brussels (EU writers Only)
One Shortlisted Writer:
Will be offered a ten-day stay in their in-house residency, Madrid.
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2026 Writer-In-Residence
Hedgebrook
DEADLINE: April 14, 2025
INFO: Hedgebrook is a nonprofit organization serving women-identified writers. Our retreat program is located on Whidbey Island near Seattle where writers come to write, rejuvenate and be in community with each other. Hedgebrook welcomes all women-identified writers representing diversity in citizenship status, nationality, current place of residence, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender expression, trans* identity, age, disability, professional experience, and economic resources. We welcome applicants, published or not, who embrace the mission and opportunity to be a member of Hedgebrook's community.
Writers join an intimate and diverse community of six residents at a time who share a home-cooked meal, their work, their process and their stories, in addition to the time spent in solitude.
Applications will be accepted in the following genres:
Non-Fiction
Poetry
Screenwriting
Playwriting
Fiction
https://hedgebrook.slideroom.com
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Anne LaBastille Memorial Writers Residency
The Adirondack Center for Writing
APPLICATION PERIOD: April 14 - May 19, 2025
APPLICATION FEE: $30 (There is no cost to attend the residency)
INFO: The Adirondack Center for Writing offers a free, two-week residency annually in autumn to poets, fiction writers, and creative nonfiction writers at a lodge on Twitchell Lake in the heart of the Adirondack Mountains. Six residents will be chosen: three from the Adirondack region and three from anywhere in the world. Quality of written submissions is the primary consideration when accepting applications.
The residency is generously provided by the estate of Anne LaBastille, who wrote books capturing challenges of the region, including Woodswoman and Beyond Black Bear Lake from her cabin on Twitchell Lake. During the residency, writers will paddle to the site of her property and explore the lake with locals.
The Lodge at Twitchell Lake provides an abundance of physical space, and each resident has their own bedroom and bathroom. There are plenty of writing spaces in and around the property. Internet access is available, but limited (email ; Zoom ). Most cell phones will not work (a landline is available).
IMPORTANT DATES:
Residency Dates: September 21 – October 5, 2025
Notification: July 2025
APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS:
Cover Letter: In the space provided in Submittable (no attachments), include a brief, third-person bio and a work plan detailing your goals for this residency.
Writing Sample: Please send up to 10 pages of your best writing in the genre you will working in at the residency. Prose: 10 pages max. Poetry: 10 poems max. NOTE: Make sure your name does not show up anywhere in your writing sample. Writing samples that include your name will not be considered. Quality of written submissions will be our primary consideration when accepting applications.
We do not accept printed applications. Contact info@adirondackcenterforwriting.org or 518-354-1261 with any questions.
https://adirondackcenterforwriting.org/residency/
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2025 Fiction Contest
BOMB Magazine
DEADLINE: April 15, 2025 at 11:59pm ET
READING FEE: $30
INFO: BOMB Magazine’s 2025 Fiction Contest is open for submissions, and we’re honored to have the Pulitzer Prize finalist and MacArthur Fellow Kelly Link joining us as this year’s guest judge. Link will select one winner to receive a $1,000 prize and publication in BOMB’s quarterly magazine.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:
Manuscripts may contain no more than 5,000 words and must consist of a single work of short fiction.
All entries will be considered anonymously. Do not include author name on manuscript pages.Nonanonymous manuscripts will be disqualified.Reading Fee: $30. Includes a yearlong print subscription to BOMB for US entrants (a $60 value). All non-US entrants will receive a digital-only subscription. All new subscriptions will begin with BOMB’s Summer 2025 issue, arriving on newsstands June 15. Current subscribers to BOMB have a discounted reading fee of $5 and will receive details on discounted entry via email.
Work must be previously unpublished.
Simultaneous submissions are permitted, but we ask that you notify us if your piece is accepted elsewhere. The fee is nonrefundable.
Work must be uploaded via Submittable.
Email firstproof@bombsite.com with any questions. The winner and finalists will be announced in July 2025.
ABOUT KELLY LINK:
Kelly Link is the author of five collections and the novel The Book of Love. She lives in Western Massachusetts with her family and owns the independent bookstore Book Moon. A former MacArthur Fellow and finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, she coedits the occasional zine Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet. You can find her on Bluesky at @kellylink.bsky.social.
bombmagazine.org/articles/2025/02/28/2025-fiction-contest-judged-kelly-link/
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2025 Breakout! Writers Prize: For outstanding undergraduate + graduate student writers of POetry + prose
Epiphany Magazine
DEADLINE: April 15, 2025
INFO: The 2025 Breakout! Writers Prize is officially open for submissions. The Breakout! Writers Prize brings visibility to and supports outstanding undergraduate and graduate student writers. Winners have won the PEN/Dau Prize and gone on to get agents, publish books, and discover new careers in publishing.
This year’s prize judges are: Victoria Chang for poetry, and Hilary Leichter for prose.
PRIZE:
Two Writers, One in Prose and One in Poetry, Will Each Receive:
A $1000 cash prize
Publication in the Summer 2025 issue of Epiphany
A one-year subscription to Epiphany
To apply you must have been enrolled in an accredited university, at least part-time, for the academic years 2024 or 2025. The prize is open to both undergraduate students and graduate students receiving a Masters degree. PhD candidates are not eligible. Students need not be specifically enrolled in MFA programs or creative writing programs.
https://epiphanyzine.com/features/2025-breakout-prize
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2025 Prose Contest
Fugue
DEADLINE: April 15, 2025
ENTRY FEE: $20
INFO: Submissions are currently open for Fugue’s 2025 Prose Contest
GUIDELINES: Submissions should include no more than one short story or one essay per submission in a .doc, .docx (preferred), or .pdf document. Multiple submissions are considered as long as a separate fee is paid for each. We ask that submissions not exceed 7000 words.
PRIZE: The contest winner in prose receives $1,000 and publication in Fugue’s 2025 print issue. One runner-up is also published. All submissions will be read by at least two editors, and ten finalists will go on to our judge. All submissions will be considered for general publication in Fugue.
JUDGE: This year's prose judge is Jess Arndt. Jess Arndt is a transgenre writer seeking protuberant forms. Their story collection, Large Animals, (CATAPULT 2017 / CIPHER 2020), was shortlisted for the California Book Prize and their writing has recently appeared in Conjunctions, Granta, LARB, Lithub, Fence, BOMB, Night Papers, and in collaborations with The Knife's Shaking the Habitual tour. Arndt received an MFA at Bard College (2007) and is a co-founder of the Brooklyn-based prose experiment, New Herring Press. They have been teaching endogenous writing at the Pacific Northwest College of the Arts (PNCA), the California Institute of the Arts, and currently co-chair the Bard MFA Writing department.
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THE PEN PARENTIS WRITING FELLOWSHIP FOR NEW PARENTS
Pen Parentis
DEADLINE: April 17, 2025
INFO: One talented writer who is the parent of at least one child under 10 years old will receive $2000 to further their writing career, a year of mentorship, and will be offered the opportunity to read their winning story online at a Pen Parentis Literary Salon in Fall 2025. Their winning story will also be published in Dreamers Creative Writing Magazine (both online and in print) as well as included in the annual Dreamers Writing Anthology.
The second prize and third prize will likewise be welcomed into our Cycle of support and receive $500 and $250, respectively.
GUIDELINES: Submissions call for a new, never-published fiction story-any genre, on any subject-of up to 350 words.
PLEASE NOTE: we change the word count each year! One of the goals of this project is to keep parents working — motivating all writers to continue to create new high-quality creative writing at the busiest time of the parenting journey. We keep the word count intentionally low--this year shorter than ever (because wow, we are all slammed!)
THINGS TO REMEMBER:
Put only the title of the story and its word count on the manuscript. Nothing to identify the writer.
On that note, Judging is blind and based only on the following criteria:
1. Adherence to contest rules
2. Creativity
3. Narrative arc
4. Emotional truth
5. Elements of surprise, humor, writing skill, and/or layers of depth.
All genres and styles of unpublished fiction are welcome. Entry fees will not be refunded. Previous Pen Parentis Fellows and 2nd/3rd Prize winners are not eligible if they received a cash prize.
(Anyone who did not receive a cash award is encouraged to try again!)
Entry fees fund the operation of Pen Parentis, Ltd, with priority given to the maintenance of this Fellowship. $5 of the fee covers our costs of accepting credit cards.
Accepted Document Types: pdf, doc, docx, txt, rtf.
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Elizabeth Neuffer Fellowship
International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF)
DEADLINE: April 20, 2025 by 11:59pm EST
INFO: The Elizabeth Neuffer Fellowship provides academic and professional opportunities to advance the reporting skills of women and nonbinary journalists who focus on human rights and social justice. The Fellowship was created in memory of The Boston Globe correspondent and IWMF Courage in Journalism Award (1998) winner Elizabeth Neuffer, who died while reporting in Iraq on May 9, 2003. In collaboration with Neuffer’s family and friends, the IWMF started this program to honor Neuffer’s legacy while advancing her work in the fields of human rights and social justice.
The Neuffer Fellowship is designed for women and nonbinary journalists with at least three years of professional experience in journalism working in print, broadcast, or digital media, either as a staff journalist or as a freelancer. All nationalities are welcome to apply but non-native English speakers must have excellent written and verbal English skills in order to fully participate in and benefit from the program. The Fellow will complete research and coursework at MIT’s Center for International Studies and journalism internships at The Boston Globe and The New York Times. The flexible structure of the program provides the fellow with opportunities to pursue academic research and hone their reporting skills. Past fellows have taken advantage of opportunities to publish work under their byline through various media outlets.
ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA:
The Neuffer Fellowship is open to women, nonbinary and gender non-conforming journalists whose work focuses on human rights and social justice issues.
All applicants for the Neuffer Fellowship must be working journalists with at least three years of full-time, professional journalism experience. Internships and journalism-related work completed as a university student do not count as professional experience. Applicants may be affiliated or freelance journalists.
Journalists from any country around the world are eligible to apply. However, applicants must speak, read, and write English fluently in order to fully participate in and benefit from the Fellowship.
FELLOWSHIP SCHEDULE:
June 2025: Elizabeth Neuffer Fellow will be selected
February 2026: Fellowship begins in Boston with an internship at the Boston Globe and research/coursework at MIT’s Center for International Studies
May 2026: Fellow moves to New York for internship at The Express Desk, The New York Times
July 2026: Fellowship ends
QUESTIONS:
Please review the Frequently Asked Questions page for the Elizabeth Neuffer Fellowship before starting your application or contacting the IWMF.
For any inquiries related to the Elizabeth Neuffer Fellowship, or if you are experiencing accessibility/connectivity issues, please contact Divya at dtewari@iwmf.org.
iwmf.submittable.com/submit/3ec88fa1-364d-4120-85b3-370b8734671a/2026-elizabeth-neuffer-fellowship
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Real People, Real Struggles, Real Stories Fellowship: Writing About Mental Illness
The Writers’ Colony at Dairy Hollow
DEADLINE: April 21, 2025 by midnight CST
APPLICATION FEE: $35
INFO: The Writers’ Colony at Dairy Hollow (WCDH) is pleased to announce the "Real People, Real Struggles, Real Stories" Fellowship, designed to support a writer working on a short or long-form non-fiction project that explores personal experiences with mental illness. This fellowship seeks narratives that not only provide insight and awareness but, most importantly, offer hope. Writers are encouraged to share their journeys, aspirations, and the ways they adapt and fine-tune their dreams. Stories addressing relationships, family life, travel, employment, civic contributions, and personal passions—alongside the barriers, fears, and stigmas encountered—are especially welcome. Submissions must be non-fiction and may take the form of memoir, essay, profile, or biography. The winning application will demonstrate insight, honesty, literary merit, and strong potential for publication.
AWARD: The fellowship winner will be awarded a two-week residency at WCDH, providing the recipient with an opportunity to focus entirely on their writing. Each writer’s suite includes a bedroom, private bathroom, dedicated writing space, and wireless internet. The residency also includes uninterrupted writing time, a European-style gourmet dinner five nights a week, and the camaraderie of other professional writers. A community kitchen stocked with essential ingredients is available for additional meals. WCDH will work closely with the fellow to develop a community outreach project that aligns with their strengths and skillset.
TIMELINE: The fellowship winner will be announced no later than June 1, 2025, and the residency must be completed by December 31, 2026.
For further details, please contact:
Jeanne Glass, Director
The Writers’ Colony at Dairy Hollow
515 Spring Street, Eureka Springs, AR 72632
479-253-7444
wcdhfellowships@gmail.com
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CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: “AMPARO” MICRO-ISSUE
Dominican Writers Association
DEADLINE: April 21, 2025
INFO: AMPARO, that uniquely Dominican sense of protection that goes beyond physical shelter. The arms that held you, the sacrifices made in silence, the “bendición” that followed you out the door like an invisible shield.
We’re launching “Palabras del Alma,” a new bi-monthly micro-issue series exploring Dominican emotional concepts, and our first theme is close to our hearts.
GUIDELINES:
Submit your poetry, flash fiction, micro-essays, or testimonios reflecting on maternal protection, family guardianship, or community shelter.
300-1000 words (or 1 poem, max 1 page)
English, Spanish, or Spanglish welcome – “en el idioma que te salga del corazón”
Email submissions to: editor@dominicanwriters.com
Subject line: “AMPARO SUBMISSION - [Your Name]”
Selected pieces will be published in our May Substack issue, with a virtual reading to follow.
“Bajo mi ala” as our mothers would say. “Mientras yo viva, tú no pasas trabajo” as our grandmothers promised. What does AMPARO mean to you?
dominicanwriters.substack.com/p/call-for-submission-amparo
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Reading Periods: FICTION, NONFICTION + POETRY
Apogee Journal
DEADLINE: April 21, 2025
INFO: Apogee publishes a journal of literature and art that encourages thoughtful exploration of identity at its intersections: race, gender, sexuality, class, and disability status. We publish fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and visual art, as well as reviews, interviews, flash, and more on our digital platform, Perigee.
The word “apogee” denotes the point in an object’s orbit farthest from a center. In turn, we value artistic expression far from the political center, created by artists and writers of oppressed identities who interrogate aesthetic and political status quos through their work. As we do so, we pay tribute to the Black feminist Combahee River Collective in recognition that “the major systems of oppression are interlocking.” To that end, we combat the domination of white, cis-heteronormative, patriarchal, settler-colonial voices that pervade our literary landscape in our celebration of linguistic diversity and our commitment to our community of readers and contributors. We recognize that centrist literary and artistic spheres contribute to genocide and other forms of violence via censorship and political suppression. We aim to uplift the work of those writing against genocide and would like to extend an invitation to Palestinian, Lebanese, Congolese, and Sudanese writers in particular to share their work during this reading period.
We look for work that centers the experience of marginalized perspectives. We want to foster work that addresses the politics of identity, such as migration, diaspora, multiculturalism, privilege, hierarchy, oppression, though these themes are not a requirement for publication. We believe the exploration of perspectives and voices that are mostly unheard and ignored is a political act itself. To read our mission statement, please visit this page.
All work must be previously unpublished.
Cover letters are optional.
Please include a current bio.
We accept simultaneous submissions. Please notify us if your work has been accepted elsewhere.
For prose submissions, please send a maximum of 5,000 words, in either .doc or .docx format.
Please send only one piece per reading period.
Please send a maximum of five poems in the same document, either .doc, .docx, or .pdf format.
Check out our past issues to get a sense of the journal before sharing your work with us. Like us on Facebook, follow us on Instagram, and if you have any questions email us at editors@apogeejournal.org. We look forward to reading your work!
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call for submissions: The Commuter (Prose, Poetry, and Graphic Narratives)
Electric Literature
SUBMISSION PERIOD: April 21 - 27, 2025 (or until submissions cap at 750 (325 per category)
INFO: The Commuter is our home for poetry, flash, graphic, and experimental narratives. It publishes weekly on Wednesday morning, and has showcased the likes of Caroline Hadilaksono, Aleksandar Hemon, Jonathan Lethem, Lindsay Hunter, Tahirah Alexander Green, and Julia Wertz.
Please keep the following guidelines in mind:
For Prose, submit one or more pieces, either standalone or connected, in a single document. The total word count should not exceed 1500 words. We encourage writers to push boundaries.
For Poetry, submit 4–6 poems in a single document, and please limit the page count to 8. Keep in mind that due to our digital platform, not all poems may render exactly as they appear in a PDF.
For Graphic Narrative, we are interested in both traditional and non-traditional forms of visual storytelling. Submit up to 3 pieces of narrative illustration, comics, mixed media narrative, or genre-negative oddments. For comics, each piece should contain a minimum of 3 panels. The total page count of your submission should not exceed 20 pages.
Please submit all genres in .doc, .docx, or PDF.
Please submit only once per category.
Work previously published in any form cannot be considered.
Please include your email address.
If your work is selected, we offer a total payment of $100.
Writers with a submission pending with Recommended Reading may still submit to The Commuter.
All submissions will be accepted through our Submittable page. For a sense of the kind of work we publish, check out recent issues of The Commuter, our 280-character contest winners, and Recommended Reading’s 300th issue.
For candid advice from our editors on how to make your poems, flash, graphic, and experimental narratives stand out, watch our video "How to Get Published in The Commuter."
electricliterature.submittable.com/submit
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2025 Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grant
Whiting Foundation
DEADLINE: April 23, 2025 by 11:59pm ET
INFO: The 2025 Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grant of $40,000 will be awarded to as many as ten writers in the process of completing a book-length work of deeply researched and imaginatively composed nonfiction for a general adult readership. It is intended for multiyear book projects requiring large amounts of deep and focused research, thinking, and writing at a crucial point mid-process, after significant work has been accomplished but when an extra infusion of support can make a difference in the ultimate shape and quality of the work.
Whiting welcomes applications for works of history, cultural or political reportage, biography, memoir, science, philosophy, criticism, graphic nonfiction, and personal essays, among other categories. Again, the work should be intended for a general, not academic, adult reader. Self-help titles, historical fiction, textbooks, books primarily for a scholarly audience, and books for young readers are not eligible. Examples of the wide range of previous grantees can be found here.
Projects must be under contract with a publisher in Canada, the UK, or the US by April 23 to be eligible. Contracts with self-publishing companies are not eligible.
Writers must submit the materials listed below via the online application form by 11:59pm ET on Wednesday, April 23. The application form includes detailed instructions for each requested item.
The original proposal that led to the contract with your publisher
Up to 25,000 words from your draft. Please submit full-length draft chapters, rather than short excerpts from across your book, to the extent the word count allows
A statement of work yet to be completed
A plan for use of funds
A signed and dated contract (please note that to be eligible, books must be under contract with a Canadian, UK, or US publisher – unfortunately, we can make no exceptions to this requirement)
A current resume
A list of grants, fellowships, or other funding received for the book
A letter of support from your publisher or editor
Each project under submission will have two first-round readers who will evaluate for substance and execution (while understanding that they are reading a work in progress). Finalists will be considered by a separate panel of judges who will evaluate for need in addition to substance and execution. Readers and judges will consist of experts in the field from Canada, the UK, and the US, and they will serve anonymously to shield them from any external pressures. The grantees will be announced in December.
The Foundation hosted two online information sessions to answer questions and offer guidance on applying for the grant. You can watch a recording of an info session here.
If you have any questions about the eligibility of your project or the application process, please contact us at nonfiction@whiting.org.
Regardless of eligibility for this grant, Whiting encourages nonfiction writers at all stages of the writing process to consult the Poets & Writers’ Writing Contests, Grants & Awards database for other opportunities for support.
Nonfiction authors with books under contract with a publisher might also consider applying to the J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Awards.
A few opportunities open to nonfiction writers not under contract with a publisher include:
whiting.org/writers/creative-nonfiction-grant/about
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Call for submissions: ‘Birds: Witnessing the mathematics of flight, of song, of movement…’
Women Who Submit
DEADLINE: April 25, 2025
INFO: The Women Who Submit blog is now open for submissions for our bi-monthly publication.
Send us your poetry, flash fiction, or brief essays that explore BIRDS in all their glorious, known and unknown complexities. We want work that peeks into those moments when a flock transforms what we see into new territory, when a single song breaks the morning into remembering, when migration patterns map themselves onto your geography. Work that captures the preciseness of flight: the way wings cut through air or how the presence of birds marks territories in our urban (or rural) spaces.
Your story, essay, or poem might delve into the biomechanics of how or why the bird flies, tell the story of the red-shouldered hawk, document the exact moment you counted the fifth mockingbird on the bird day trail, or it might share your connection to the ancient language of bird song. Whether your words lean into physics or document the way you watched a nest appear outside your window, we want to read work that takes flight. Every single pun intended.
Work will be selected for the May & June publication.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
The WWS blog accepts original, unpublished pieces no more than 2,000 words.
Work should be 12 Times New Roman, double spaced (single-spaced for poetry) with one-inch margins
Email the piece as an attached .doc or .docx. If images are included, please do not send attachments (we’ll ask for them if the piece is accepted).
Include a short cover letter in the body of the email that states how you heard of Women Who Submit, your genre, where you reside, and a short 50-word bio.
Simultaneous submissions under more than one theme are accepted. You can submit to any themes throughout the year, as long as the decline has not passed.
Send to the Managing Editor, Jessica Ceballos y Campbell at blog@womenwhosubmitlit.org with the theme you are submitting under and the word “Submission” in the subject line. e.g.: “Dreams Submission”, “Rain Submission”
Contributors whose work is accepted will receive $75 per piece, upon publication.
*Note: As an editor & publisher, Jessica Ceballos y Campbell disengages from writing that perpetuates violence through racist, xenophobic, classist, sexist, misogynistic, ageist, ableist, homophobic, and/or transphobic ideologies.
womenwhosubmitlit.org/submit-to-us/
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Confluence: International Indigenous Art Criticism Residency
Forge Project
DEADLINE: April 25, 2025
INFO: Confluence is a fully funded art criticism residency that brings together six Indigenous writers for two weeks of workshops, reflection, and collaboration to support them in their creative practice at any stage in their career.
Continuing a series that has brought Indigenous writers, scholars and knowledge keepers together between continents and archipelagos, Confluence is convened by Sarah Biscarra Dilley (yaktitʸutitʸu yaktiłhini), Director of Indigenous Programs and Relationality at Forge Project, and Léuli Eshrāghi (Tagata Sāmoa), Curator of Indigenous Practices at the Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal.
We recognize Indigenous art as the foundation of all contemporary art, not simply as a facet of art history or historical context. Reaching beyond the inhibited memory of settlement with Indigenous artists, methods, and histories that assert longevity, innovation, and Native futurity, Confluence refuses the limited focus of a dominant art historical canon that situates the emergence of art at moments of colonial rupture in fractured geographies. Rather than reproducing narratives that situate Native intellectual, material, and artistic practice as objects of study, the cohort and faculty of Confluence contribute to the critical fields of Indigenous art, art history, and cultural sovereignty by speaking from, and between, our respective centers.
Confluence grounds our work in the importance of gathering and exchange as a space of intellectual kinship, inviting an international cohort of residents to affirm the inherent inter-nationalism of ceremonial-political practices, kinships, tribes, and Native nations.
By bringing together Indigenous art writers based in occupied lands, those impacted by global imperialism and other distinct colonial projects, residents can deepen comparative study in a distinctly relational way. The gathering will move at a pace that supports the importance of coming together in deep thought and critical exchange while balancing days of presentation and workshops with days of unstructured time to write, rest, or reflect.
Participants in this residency will develop ideas and texts in kinship with an international roster of guest faculty belonging to Indigenous nations in North America and the Great Ocean. Taking place at Forge Project, located in the unceded homelands of the Moh-He-Con-Nuck (People of the Waters that are Never Still) in upstate New York, this is conceived as a retreat for emerging and established Indigenous art historians, critics, curators, and poets.
Confluence offers fully funded travel, meals, and lodging for both faculty and residents, minimizing barriers to access, with the intention of shaping a cohort that represents writers in varied stages of their careers.
FACULTY:
Confluence is co-facilitated by Sarah Biscarra Dilley(yaktitʸutitʸu yaktiłhini), artist and Director of Indigenous Programs and Relationality, Forge Project; and Léuli Eshrāghi(Tagata Sāmoa), artist and Curator of Indigenous Practices, Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal.
Drew Kahuʻāina Broderick (Kanaka ʻŌiwi), artist, writer, and member of kekahi wahi (kw)
Candice Hopkins (Carcross/Tagish First Nation), Executive Director and Chief Curator, Forge Project
Heather Igloliorte (Nunatsiavummiuk), Canada Excellence Research Chair and Professor, Visual Arts, University of Victoria
Tanya Lukin Linklater (Sugpiaq), artist-choreographer and Postdoctoral Fellow in Decolonial and Transformational Art Practices at University of Victoria
Lana Lopesi (Tagata Sāmoa), author and Assistant Professor in Indigenous, Race and Ethnic Studies at University of Oregon
Jolene Rickard (enrolled citizen of Skarù:ręˀ - Tuscarora, Turtle Clan), Associate Professor in the History of Art and Visual Studies with affiliations in American Studies, American Indian and Indigenous Studies, Art, and Performance, and Media Studies at Cornell University
Monique Tyndall (Mohican/Munsee-Lenape/Omaha/Creek), Director of Cultural Affairs at Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohicans
ELIGIBILITY:
Confluence is shaped with the intention of convening an international cohort of Native writers from across diverse spatial and cultural contexts from Indigenous communities throughout shared saltwater, continents, and archipelagoes. This is inclusive of writers and thinkers beyond the context of North America.
We envision the reach of this residency as global and the cohort will be selected with attention to a collaborative whole. We recognize that there are multiple forms of community-affirmed relationships and Indigenous governance but remain accountable to lived practices of kinship, cultural belonging, and sovereignty.
Recently discovered or distant Native ancestry, absent ongoing community relations, or claiming a community that does not claim an applicant does not qualify an individual as Indigenous for the purpose of this residency.
As an extension of Forge Project’s commitment to support Native leadership in the arts and culture broadly, we choose to center applicants whose practice benefits collective or community-centered work.
APPLICATION GUIDELINES:
To apply, please see guidelines below:
Applications should be submitted as a single PDF to info@forgeproject.com by Friday, April 25 at midnight EST, and include:
A résumé or CV of relevant community-based, creative, publishing and/or professional experience (1 page maximum)
A statement of relationality and intention for joining the cohort (2 page maximum)
This statement should offer:
clear narrative context for your relationship(s) to your Native and/or Indigenous communities,
commitment to working alongside or in service to them,
an overview of your intention(s) for applying to this residency and what most draws you to the experience
This statement can be shared in an alternative format - such as links to audio clips and/or video responses (6 minutes maximum)
A writing sample (4 page maximum, both published or unpublished writing in Indigenous and colonial languages [with parallel and/or translated texts] will be accepted)
ACCESSIBILITY:
Confluence will be led and conducted in both English and a variety of Indigenous languages. We recognize the limitations that this presents and seek to expand our capacity to work across broader linguistic contexts in future iterations of this residency series.
The residency will take place in a variety of spaces throughout the Mahicannituck (Hudson River) Valley region surrounding Forge Project in Taghkanic, NY. Both lodging and shared workshops spaces are in a largely rural environment with local travel by personal vehicle, train routes from nearby towns to major cities, and provided, pre-arranged transportation.
Residents will be housed together in offsite accommodations at Sylvan Motor Lodge which allows each resident to have their own hotel room on the ground floor as well as access to a shared kitchen, living room space, and heated pool. Transportation in minivans between Forge, Sylvan Motor Lodge, other host sites and pre-arranged errand runs will be provided.
Forge is committed to increasing accessibility to our site, including physical accessibility. We welcome requests for accommodation and further questions—please reach out directly by emailing robbie@forgeproject.com or info@forgeproject.com.
forgeproject.com/projects/convenings
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call for submission: Issue 14
PREE
DEADLINE: April 30, 2025
INFO: The prompt for our fourteenth issue comes from James Baldwin:
“Love takes off the masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within. I use the word “love” here not merely in the personal sense but as a state of being, or a state of grace — not in the infantile American sense of being made happy but in the tough and universal sense of quest and daring and growth”
— James Baldwin, “Down at the Cross”. Letter from a Region in My Mind”.
For PREE 14, we invite you to engage with Baldwin’s expansive vision of love, and his notion of quest. Dare we breach established rules of inclusion and exclusion to escape conceptions of the present and past dictated by the ruling culture? What might this quest of the daring self-aware subject look like? And where is the love? We welcome your explorations that challenge default assumptions about love —- in the Caribbean context, or otherwise — and paint a picture of what love might look like if we ventured into the unknown.
If you’re unfamiliar with PREE we ask that you take a look at the content we’ve already published to get an idea of the quality of writing we expect. A fun fact: We wish we received as many prose submissions as we do poetry.
GUIDELINES:
PREE is a magazine for writing from, on or about the Caribbean. We are not open to submissions from writers based in in the Global North.
At PREE we want to showcase your writing and require original works (previously unpublished) for us to feature. The piece should not be under consideration elsewhere.
By submitting your work, you acknowledge that, if accepted, your work will be subject to the terms and conditions contained in the Terms of Use outlined below.
What Are We Looking For?
Vivid pieces of finished work that fit our issue themes. This includes essays, articles, creative non-fiction, fiction, short stories, poetry, and photo essays.
We accept work written in Caribbean vernaculars, English, and representations of both. At this time we’re unable to accept submissions in other languages.
Length & practicalities:
For prose (fiction and non-fiction) – anywhere from 1,500 words to 5,000 words.
For poems – 2-3 works.
We will only accept one submission per person and it’s important that this is the first place your piece has been published, both in print and digitally. You’ll retain the copyright on the work but we’ll be contracting for the right to publish that work for the first time.
Formats to submit to PREE:
The Editors have different ways of reading
Save the filename as TITLE (eg Miss Birdie or Carousel or whatever the title of your piece is)
Arial. 12 point. Double-spaced.
Save either as a .doc, a .docx. We cannot accept any other format.
Your name and the title of the piece should be on the front page. Please don’t embed your name on other pages.
Finished work only, please. It can be within a minute of the last day but it needs to be finished.
Please check you’ve done all these things before submitting. We are unable to consider work that does not fall within these guidelines.
POETRY
We will accept a minimum of two poems and a maximum of three poems. The poems can be any length. The poems must come in one single document. Each new poem must start on a brand new page in the document. It’s important you use Arial 12 point as the font and size. Please use manual breaks at the end of lines and paragraph breaks at the end of each stanze. Do NOT use paragraph breaks at the end of each line. If you have specific formatting requirements for the poems, it’s important they be formatted as intended.
If you have any queries, comments or just want to get in touch, let us know via preeliteditors@gmail.com
If you are a publisher or agent who wants information about submitting writers you publish or represent please email preeliteditors@gmail.com
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Letras Boricuas Fellowship
Flamboyan Arts Fund
DEADLINE: April 30, 2025 at 5:00 p.m. (AST)
INFO: The Letras Boricuas Fellowship is an opportunity sponsored by the Mellon Foundation and the Flamboyan Arts Fund that awards individual grants of $25,000 to literary writers who identify as Puerto Ricans. The program began in 2021 and has named three cohorts of Letras Boricuas Fellows to date.
The fellowship’s call for 2025 will open Tuesday March 18, 2025. The next round for Letras Boricuas will open in 2026. Twenty-four writers will be selected annually in 2025 and 2026. The fellowship supports writers working within one of the following literary genres: Fiction, Creative Nonfiction, Poetry, Spoken Word and Playwriting.
In addition to providing unrestricted funds to support writers in Puerto Rico and in the U.S. diaspora, Letras Boricuas seeks to encourage literary practice, connect writers, expose writers’ works to a wider audience, and support the creative development of works that celebrate Puerto Rican lives and culture.
The fellowship program aims for each group of grantees to include writers from different literary genres. Applications will be accepted in Spanish, English, or both languages.
GUIDELINES: Please read the following guidelines closely, as our application requirements may have changed from previous years and aspects of the program have been adjusted for 2025. Learn more about Letras Boricuas on www.letrasboricuas.org
FELLOWSHIP TIMELINE:
Online Application Period - March 18 to April 30, 2025
Application Period Ends - April 30, 2025, 5:00 p.m.
Evaluation and Selection Period - May 1 to September 30, 2025
New Letras Boricua Cohort Announcement - Fall 2025
ELIGIBILITY AND SELECTION PROCESS:
ELIBILITY: To determine eligibility and be considered for this fellowship, the applicant must meet and adhere to the following criteria:
Must be 21 years of age or older at time of application
Self-identify as Puerto Rican
Must be a current resident of Puerto Rico or reside in the United States (50 states)
Must present original work
Must have or create an account at www.submittable.com
Must complete and submit the application on time by Wednesday April 30, 2025. The application portal closes at 5:00 p.m. (AST).
Former Letras Boricuas Fellows are not eligible to rapply for an additional fellowship.
Writers of multiple genres must select one eligible genre in which to complete the application
Applications from publishers, organizations, or institutions will not be considered.
Employees or contractors of the Flamboyán Foundation and the Mellon Foundation are not eligible. Immediate family or people living in their household cannot apply either.
SELECTION PROCESS: The new Letras Boricuas cohort, made up of twenty-four writers, will be chosen through a two-step nomination and selection process by committee members. The Selection Committee, appointed by the Mellon Foundation and the Flamboyan Arts Fund, consists of experienced writers, literary experts, and former Letras Boricuas Fellows.
Eligible applications will be reviewed based on literary merit, the latter of which may include work samples that display some or all of the following characteristics: originality, imagination, creativity, a strong point of view, a unique voice, facility with language, technical skill and craft. Financial status will not be taken into consideration.
It is recommended to closely review all required materials listed in the guidelines. The application has specific requirements for each genre; each applicant can apply in one literary genre. Incomplete applications or applications that do not meet specifications will result in disqualification. Late applications will not be accepted, without exception.
NON-ELIGIBLES: The following publications will NOT be considered as demonstrating eligibility or as valid work samples:
co-authored or co-published works
academic writing (dissertation, thesis, critical essays, research, textbook chapters, etc.)
journalism (articles, reporting, pieces of criticism including book or
other reviews, opinion pieces, etc.)
biographies
graphic novels
wordless books
cookbooks
song lyrics
screenplays or television scripts
opera theater plays (libretto)
any other works that are not considered literary.
Decisions by the Flamboyan staff regarding eligibility are final. Due to the high number of submissions, we are not able to provide individual feedback on any application.
Letras Boricuas Boricuas does not discriminate based upon age, color, national origin, physical or mental disability, race, religion, creed, gender, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, marital status, status with regard to public assistance, status as a veteran, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law.
flamboyanfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/guialetrasingles2025-2-1.pdf
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2025 Nonfiction prize
Autumn House Press
DEADLINE: April 30, 2025
READING FEE: $35
INFO: For the 2025 prize, the Autumn House staff as well as select outsider readers serve as the preliminary readers, and the final judge is May-lee Chai.
PRIZE: The winner receives publication of their full-length manuscript and $2,500 ($1,000 honorarium, and a $1,500 travel/publicity grant to promote their book).
We will announce the finalists and the winner of the contest by August 1, 2025.
All finalists will be considered for publication
GUIDELINES:
Nonfiction submissions should be approximately 150-300 double-spaced pages (37,500-75,000 words)
The reading fee is $35 (We will waive the submission fee for those undergoing financial hardship or living with limited means. Before you reach out to request a waived fee, please read our full statement and instructions here. If the guidelines are not followed, we will not be able to offer a waived fee.)
Autumn House is looking for personal essay collections and memoirs; we do not accept self-help books
The book must be previously unpublished as a whole. However, individual pieces may have been published in journals, magazines, or anthologies.
We only accept original manuscripts; AI-generated or AI-supported works are not accepted
Do not include your name anywhere on the actual manuscript; if your name appears within the body of the text, please omit it or black it out (first name is fine, but last name must be omitted)
You may include a brief bio in the “cover letter” section of Submittable
Do not include a bio or an acknowledgments page in the manuscript
Feel free to include a table of contents (This does not count as part of your final page count)
Simultaneous submissions permitted
Friends, family members, and former students of judges or Autumn House editors may not submit to the contest. Students do not include interactions at short-term residencies or fellowships.
Former employees of Autumn House, including interns, may not submit to the contest.
autumnhouse.org/submissions/nonfiction/
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Internship Grant Program
We Need Diverse Books
DEADLINE: April 30th at 12am PST/ 3am EST.
INFO: In 2025, We Need Diverse Books will award sixteen $3,000 grants to expand WNDB's efforts to diversify the publishing industry—there will be grants focused on both children's publishing and adult publishing.
Internship positions must take place over the summer between June 1st and August 31st. In addition to the grant award, grantees are expected to attend various events throughout the summer, including an introductory Internship Grant Bootcamp, as well as additional professional development and networking events, publishing panels, organized partner mentor/mentee meetings, and an exit interview/testimonial of the program. Please be mindful that the virtual events will take place during the day of your internship (our placement partners are aware of this and will be flexible with you so you can attend all the events).
For Summer 2025, remote positions are permitted.
Please note the below:
You can find a walkthrough of the application process below.
Applicants will be notified of their grant award confirmation within 30 days after the application window closes at the very latest.
Applications are set to close on Wednesday, April 30th at 12am PST/ 3am EST.
Any questions? Reach out to internships@diversebooks.org
APPLICATION PROCESS WALKTHROUGH:
You're probably here because you love books. We do, too!
The WNDB Internship Grant Program provides supplemental grants to applicants from diverse backgrounds who wish to pursue a career in children’s and adult publishing. The high cost of living in New York City and other major publishing hubs bars many marginalized students from accepting the opportunity to intern in publishing—a vital entry point to the industry.
In 2025, we will award sixteen $3,000 grants our Children’s Internship Grant Program and Adult Internship Grant Program. In addition to financial support, our grantees also benefit from the camaraderie of their fellow grantees, receive mentorship from industry professionals, and make crucial networking connections through various summer programming events.
diversebooks.org/internship-grants-application-process/
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2025-2026 Miriam Jiménez Román Fellowship
The Latinx Project at NYU
DEADLINE: April 30, 2025 at 11:59 pm EST
INFO: The Miriam Jiménez Román Fellowship is designed for post-doctoral candidates and junior scholars whose research advances the study of Afro-Latinx communities in the U.S. The fellowship is open to all fields. In order to be eligible for the fellowship, applicants must have defended their dissertation or plan to defend their dissertation before the start of the fellowship on or after September 1, 2025.
The selected candidate will spend a semester or a year with the NYU Latinx Studies academic community. The fellowship aims to allow the fellow to complete a major publication or a research project during the fellowship year. The fellow will also have access to limited funds (up to $5,000) to develop one public programming event around the focus of their research, to be hosted and supported by The Latinx Project. The fellow will receive a stipend of $45,000 for an academic year (or $22,500 for a one-semester fellow). Workspace at NYU will be provided for the duration of the fellowship
The fellowship is named after our dear former colleague Miriam Jiménez Román, a pioneer in the field of Afro Latinx Studies who taught the first courses on the subject at the Department of Social and Cultural Analysis at NYU. This fellowship aims to honor her legacy of mentorship and activism as an inspiring public intellectual and scholar of Afro Latinx studies.
FELLOWSHIP DATES: Starts on or after September 1, 2025
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:
Who are the past Miriam Jiménez Román Fellows? Click here to meet past Miriam Jiménez Román Fellows.
What are examples of public programs organized by past fellows? Past public programs include: Calling to the Ancestors: Garifuna Women as Embodied Archives (spring 2024), Transing Afro-Latinx Studies and Identity (Fall 2023), Garifuna Ancestral Memory in Diaspora (Spring 2022), Ciguapa Unbound: Blackness, Gender & Transnational Geographies of Marronage (Spring 2021).
Do I need to be based in NYC? No. The fellowship can be completed virtually; however, in-person participation is encouraged to promote community engagement at NYU.
What do you mean by junior scholar? For the purpose of this opportunity, junior scholars are individuals who have recently graduated from a PhD program, have defended their dissertation, or will defend their dissertation before the start of the fellowship. Junior scholars are pre-tenure and must have completed their PhD before starting the fellowship.
Who is eligible to apply? Applicants must have defended their dissertation or plan to defend their dissertation before the start of the fellowship on or after September 1, 2025.
Who can I contact for more information? Please email latinxproject@nyu.edu with subject line: 2025 Miriam Jiménez Román Fellowship.
latinxproject.nyu.edu/miriam-jimenez-roman-fellowship
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T&W Magazine Editorial Fellowship
Teachers & Writers Magazine
DEADLINE: April 30, 2025
INFO: Teachers & Writers Magazine is accepting applications for the T&W Magazine Editorial Fellowship. The fellows will join the T&W Editorial Board and assist with the production of Teachers & Writers Magazine. In addition to supporting the operations of the magazine, the Editorial Fellowship is intended to give students and recent graduates editorial and publishing experience through hands-on assignments and mentorship from experienced editors. By the end of the fellowship term, the fellow should have a body of knowledge and work which may be shared in a resume and/or portfolio. Up to two fellows may be selected.
The Editorial Fellows will be expected to attend monthly meetings via Zoom, where the editorial board will discuss submissions, accept editorial assignments, generate new content, and further engage in the publication of Teachers & Writers Magazine. Fellows will be paired with an experienced editor to establish a mentor relationship and provide time and space for questions the editorial associates may have.
Fellows will be expected to edit or write at least one piece per month. In addition to accepting editing assignments, fellows may pitch ideas to generate or solicit new material for the magazine. The Editorial Fellowship will last for one year (July 2025 - June 2026), with the possibility of renewing for a second year following a review. The fellows' stipend will disbursed over the course of the year on a bi-monthly (every other month) schedule.
ADDITIONAL DETAILS:
Stipend: $3,000
Location: Remote
Hours: Approx. 12 hours per month
Duration: 1 year with potential to renew for a second year
TO APPLY: Please share a cover letter, resume/CV, and a brief editorial statement (200-300 words) sharing why you are interested in this fellowship, what you hope to gain from the experience, and your editorial vision for the magazine.
Preference will be given to applicants with experience teaching creative writing. Learn more about Teachers & Writers Magazine at www.teachersandwritersmagazine.org.
twc.submittable.com/submit/324075/tw-magazine-editorial-fellowship
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CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS ON GRIEF
Ebony Tomatoes Collective
DEADLINE: April 30, 2025 at 11:59pm EST
INFO: After generations of unbridled loss and trauma, Black folks from across the diaspora have much to mourn. We’re interested in stories that capture grief in its many forms and faces.
Think: The mundane griefs that pepper our lives as a result of intergenerational trauma. The silence that follows going no-contact with family members who do not accept our queerness or religious differences. The loss of temperate seasons as a result of widespread environmental catastrophe. The altars we maintain for our ancestors and all the love and wisdom they were not able to share with us.
While we encourage you to interpret the theme of grief broadly and authentically, here are the types of stories our three editors are most excited to read.
OUR WISHLIST:
Ava is seeking:
Personal essays or short stories about experiences with poverty, abuse, or marginalization
Stories on the impact of intergenerational trauma, complex trauma, and PTSD
Speculative or horror fiction
International writers, Afro-Latine writers, or those outside of urban centers
Cecilia is seeking:
Longform pieces or poetry about how grief lives in the body and somatic experiences
Surrealist pieces
Writers with disabilities, chronic illness, mad and neurodiverse writers
Yumna is seeking:
Essays about going no-contact with family due to queerness or religious beliefs
Stories that explore grief related to climate change and environmental crisis
Essays on the experience of growing up in predominantly white spaces
Queer writers from East and West Africa
COMPENSATION:
All writers will be compensated $0.04 per word for up to 1,000 words.
The selected editorial artist will receive a stipend of $80 for illustrating the issue based on the selected writing.
Non-writing submissions will be compensated on a case-by-case basis depending on length, medium etc.
Payments will be sent upon completion of the issue via Venmo, PayPal, or Zelle.
GUIDELINES:
Please submit up to 3 poems.
3,000 word limit for essays and creative non-fiction.
4,000 maximum word count for fiction.
HOW TO SUBMIT:
Please email all writing submissions to submit.ebonytomatoescollective@gmail.com by Tuesday, April 30th, 2025 at 11:59PM EST to be considered.
To apply as an editorial photographer, email us with former work samples by Tuesday, April 30th, 2025 at 11:59PM EST to be considered. Painters and visual artists are encouraged to apply. Please note you don’t have to create any new work for your application.
Please include “ISSUE 24” in your email’s subject line along with a brief biography (3-4 sentences, in third person) in your email.
ebonytomatoescollective.com/submit/
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EastOver Prize for a Debut Story Collection
EastOver Press
DEADLINE: May 1, 2025
SUBMISSION FEE: $0
INFO: EastOver Press seeks submissions for the EastOver Prize for a Debut Story Collection, which will be awarded to a writer who has not published another full-length book.
AWARD: The winner of this contest will be awarded $2,000 and be offered publication by EastOver Press (after successful completion of a contract).
The editors reserve the right to close the contest early if the number of submissions exceeds our ability to respond to each submission in a timely manner.
JUDGE: Manuel Muñoz will serve as the judge for the competition. Friends, family members, former students, and anyone well-acquainted with the judge is not eligible for consideration.
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U.S. Writers Aid Initiative
PEN America
DEADLINE: May 2, 2025
INFO: PEN America is an organization of writers and their allies, and that solidarity is never more important than when members of our literary community face crises. PEN America’s U.S. Writers Aid Initiative, part of the PEN America Writers Emergency Fund, offers grants for writers in the United States facing acute financial need following an emergency situation.
The U.S. Writers Aid Initiative is intended to assist fiction and nonfiction authors, poets, playwrights, translators, and journalists in addressing short-term financial emergencies. To be eligible, applicants must be professional writers based in the United States, and be able to demonstrate that this one-time grant will be meaningful in helping address a short-term emergency situation. The fund is limited, and not every application can be supported. Grant decisions are made on a quarterly basis by a volunteer committee of literary peers in consultation with PEN America staff, using the following guidelines to evaluate professional credentials:
Publication of one or more books. (Writers who are only self-published or published by a press that charges for publication are not eligible.)
Multiple essays, short stories, or poems appearing in literary anthologies or literary journals (either online or in print) in the last two years.
A full-length play, performed in a theater by a professional theater company. Productions in academic settings qualify if the author is not a student at the time of the production.
Employment as a full-time professional journalist, columnist, or critic, or a record of consistent publication on a freelance basis in a range of outlets during the last two years.
Contracted forthcoming books, essays, short stories, poems, or articles for which the name of the publisher can be provided.
Other qualifications that support the applicant’s professional identity as a writer.
The U.S. Writers Aid Initiative is not intended to subsidize writing-related expenses, such as residencies, sabbaticals, computers, printing, shipping, travel, or publicity services. Applications received on or before the following quarterly deadlines will be reviewed before the last day of that month.
ELIGIBILITY: Writers currently enrolled in degree-granting programs are also not eligible. Writers do not have to be Members of PEN America to receive a grant, but all recipients of emergency funding will be given a complimentary one-year PEN America membership.
PEN America’s U.S. Writers Aid Initiative is made possible by generous support from an anonymous donor , PEN America Members, and other supporters. Questions may be addressed to writersfund@pen.org
pen.org/us-writers-aid-initiative/
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LITERATURE GRANT
Cafe Royal Cultural Foundation
DEADLINE: May 5, 2025 (or if we reach our limit of 40 applications, which ever comes first)
INFO: The world is a story and the writer, the story teller. In writing stories we are trying to make sense of our world by seeking what is real, by rejecting what is false, and by exercising the greatest of our mortal gifts in pursuit of the immortal.
DESCRIPTION: Café Royal Cultural Foundation NYC will award a writing grant to authors of fiction / creative nonfiction and poetry.
SUBMISSIONS: To ensure that each submission receives the attention it deserves we will be only accepting 40 applications for each of our categories.
AMOUNTS: Up to $10,000.00
ELIGIBILITY:
Authors in fiction / creative non-fiction and poetry (*please see note regarding plays below)
The applicant must be the originator of the written material.
Grants will not be made for the purpose of research only.
Grants will not be made for equipment.
Writers applying applying must be a current citizen or resident of the United State and must currently reside in New York City and have lived there for a minimum of one year prior to applying and plan to be a resident through the completion of their project.
Grants awarded in this category may fund costs associated with continuing the composition of work submitted. Such as:
Course Reduction (if you're a Teacher/Professor)
Salary Replacement
Living Expenses
Research Expenses
Travel Research Expenses
APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS:
Up to and no more than a 15 page PDF of the work, for the Café Royal Cultural Foundation Selection and Executive Committee to download and read. Please make sure your links are correct and not password protected. If they are not correct or have password protection your application will be declined and not reviewed by the Selection Committee.
A short description of the project.
A short author biography of the person(s) involved.
Budget must not exceed the amount of $10,000.00.
List of costs of how you plan to use the grant funds.
(Please review our lists of Approved and Ineligible Budget Items for Literature Grant Funds, located below)Travel and Research costs within the United States must demonstrate a direct correlation to the project for which you are applying.
You may not apply for International Travel and Research Costs.
If you are hiring fact checkers / editors / research assistants please be aware that we prefer that individuals providing these services are located in the NYC area.
Writers applying must be a current citizen or resident of the United State and must currently reside in New York City and have lived there for a minimum of one year prior to applying and plan to be a resident through the completion of their project.
We ask that the completion of your manuscript is no sooner than 90 days after this application's due date (no sooner than August 1, 2025) and no later than 12 months after your grant’s award date (no later than June 17, 2026).
Applicants can only apply with the same project twice.
You may apply in a different cycle with a different project.
* Regarding Plays - We Don’t offer support for playwrights in our literature category, we encourage playwrights with a finished script to apply for a grant in our Performance category which offers funding for stage production.
caferoyalculturalfoundation.org/literature-page
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2025 Arts Writers Grant
The Andy Warhol Foundation
DEADLINE: May 7, 2025 at 11:59pm ET
INFO: The Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant supports emerging and established writers who write about contemporary visual art. Ranging from $15,000 to $50,000 in three categories—articles, books, and short-form writing—the grants support projects addressing both general and specialized art audiences, from short reviews for magazines and newspapers to in-depth scholarly studies.
We also support art writing that engages criticism through interdisciplinary methods and experiments with literary styles. As long as a writer meets the eligibility and publishing requirements, they can apply.
Writers are invited to apply in one of the following categories:
Article
Books
Short-Form Writing
To be eligible for this grant, an arts writer must be:
an individual;
applying for a project about contemporary visual art;
an art historian, artist, critic, curator, journalist, or a writer in an outside field who is strongly engaged with the contemporary visual arts;
a U.S. citizen, permanent resident of the United States, or holder of an O-1 visa (if your application advances to the final round, you will need to submit current documentation);
at least twenty-five years old by Oct 1 in the application year;
a published author (specific publication requirements vary depending on grant category; see the project-specific eligibility requirements).
By “contemporary visual art,” we mean visual art made since World War II. Projects on post-WWII work in adjacent fields—architecture, dance, film, media, music, performance, sound, etc.—will only be considered if they directly and significantly engage the discourses and concerns of contemporary visual art.
An arts writer is NOT eligible for this grant if they are:
applying on behalf of an organization;
applying for a project in which their primary involvement will be as an editor;
a full-time student in a degree-granting program (with the exception of those students who are simultaneously maintaining professional careers as arts writers);
an artist, writer, or curator writing an interpretive essay on their own practice;
applying for a project that is primarily fiction, poetry (including ekphrasis), or memoir;
applying for a project based on a PhD dissertation or MA thesis;
applying to conduct a Q&A interview (or series of Q&A interviews);
applying to assemble an archive or database;
applying for a project on Andy Warhol;
applying for a project that will be published by a commercial gallery;
applying for a Creative Capital Award for any project in the same grant year (including as a collaborator);
applying with the same project for which they have received a Creative Capital Award (including as a collaborator);
applying with the same project for which they have received a curatorial research fellowship from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts (including as a collaborator);
a grantee of The Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant;
a recent juror of the program (evaluators are eligible to apply after one grant cycle; panelists are eligible after two grant cycles);
a current employee, consultant, board member, or funder of Creative Capital or The Andy Warhol Foundation, or an immediate family member of such a person.
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Care in Precarity: An Open Call for Caribbean Writers
Burnaway / Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute
DEADLINE: May 8, 2025 by 11:59pm EST
INFO: Burnaway and the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute (CCCADI) are pleased to announce our new collaboration: Care in Precarity, an open call for Caribbean writers to reflect on practices of care in the context of climate-based instability and crisis. This partnership is representative of our organizations’ shared commitments to amplifying Caribbean creative culture, engaging with community beyond linguistic barriers, and exploring the intersections of art, culture, and care in the face of climate crisis and systemic inequities.
Burnaway is an online art magazine that celebrates art from the American South and the Caribbean, while CCCADI is a New York-based cultural institution dedicated to preserving and promoting African diasporic cultures through arts, education, and activism. Working toward bridging some of the linguistic siloing of the region, pitches for Care in Precarity will be accepted in both Spanish and English, with CCCADI supporting translation alongside Burnaway’s Editorial Assistant Isabella Marie Garcia. In addition to Garcia and Natalie Willis Whylly (Caribbean Editor-At-Large) is CCCADI’s Lead for the CROSSROADS program, Dr. Marissel Hernánndez Romero, who will join the Burnaway team in the selection panel for the open call as well as community outreach.
“At CCCADI, we recognize that shaping meaningful partnerships with like-minded organizations is essential,” said Melody Capote, Executive Director of CCCADI. “This collaboration reflects our commitment to fostering creative and intellectual exchange that uplifts the experiences of Caribbean communities. It is through these intentional efforts that we continue to build a more inclusive and representative cultural realm.”
Together, we invite writers to reflect on the unique ways we show collective care as a region (for the landscape, community, ancestors, and memory), and how this serves as a vital practice in a moment of ongoing climate crisis. Celebrating the similarities and divergences of the Caribbean, Capote adds, “We hope it creates a space where artists, scholars, and cultural workers from different Caribbean nations can find resonance in each other’s work.” Care in the context of this open call could mean tending to an ancestral altar, engaging in environmental activism, offering a sharp critique of colonial legacies, or speaking a soft word to those who most need to hear it.
Natalie Willis Whylly, Burnaway’s Caribbean Editor-at-Large, shares: “Care in Precarity is a heartfelt invitation to Caribbean creative community to reflect on the ways we use care as a radical act of survival and solidarity, contributing to a deeper understanding of how this collective care has historically sustained us in times of crisis.”
Isabella Marie Garcia, Burnaway’s Editorial Assistant, states: “My initial entry into working with Burnaway was through participating in the 2022 Arts Writing Incubator, where the overarching theme was Criticism as Care. As a bilingual woman of Caribbean descent myself who advocates for care matrices wherever possible, I’m honored to uplift the language accessibility of the selected writers and increase reader visibility towards the Caribbean.”
To be considered eligible for the open call, applicants must meet and agree to the following criteria:
Be a writer living in the Caribbean or in the Caribbean diaspora, including those without tertiary education or professional arts experience. Pitches are particularly encouraged from those who are a part of marginalized and underserved demographics, keeping postcolonial ethics of care, healing and support in mind.
Submissions accepted in English and Spanish. Writing will be published in both English and Spanish in a spirit of bolstering connection between linguistic regions of the Caribbean.
Pitches must reflect on practices of care in the context of climate-based instability and crisis within the Caribbean i.e. how artists are navigating migration within an island induced by rising sea levels or a group exhibition that responds to issues surrounding infrastructure such as damaged residential homes, coastal populations, and food insecurity. For more information on conflict of interest and pitching policies, click here.
The format of the piece can take the form of essays, artist profiles, interviews, dispatches, and other experimental art writing, with an intended word count of 1,000–1,500 words. Compensation for the selected pieces published by Burnaway will be $0.30 per word (USD).
To apply to the open call or if you have any questions, please email caribbean@burnaway.org by Thursday, May 8th at 11:59pm EST
burnaway.org/daily/burnaway-announces-open-call-collaboration-with-cccadi/
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2025-2026 Emerging Critics Fellowship
National Book Critics Circle
DEADLINE: May 9 at 11:59 pm PT
INFO: The National Book Critics Circle’s Emerging Critics Fellowship seeks to identify, nurture, and support the development of the next generation of book critics.
ELIGIBILITY: The Emerging Critics Fellowship is open to critics of all experience levels who seek to review and write about books for print and digital outlets. Applicants may or may not have previously published book reviews. The NBCC seeks a broad range of diverse applicants, especially those who have demonstrated a genuine interest and commitment to engaging in a critical conversation about books. Applicants must be 21 years or older.
Applicants do not need to be U.S. permanent residents and/or citizens to apply. However, applicants should be available to participate in mandatory Emerging Critics Fellowship programming and events for the duration of their term, including virtual workshops, events, and gatherings (scheduled during evenings/weekends, Eastern/Pacific Time Zones). Applicants must also be willing to communicate regularly with mentors and their fellow emerging critics via email, phone, and message board. The NBCC Emerging Critics Program is an interactive, participatory program guided by the philosophy that critical thought can be fostered and enriched through dialogue within a cohort of similarly-interested critics.
At the NBCC, we are invested in encouraging people who are great thinkers and writers but who need support along the path to becoming an active critic. Our fellowship aims to break down financial and geographical barriers for emerging critics. In particular, BIPOC critics, LGBTQIA+ critics, critics with disabilities, and critics from historically resilient communities are encouraged to apply.
THE FELLOWSHIP:
Over the course of the one-year fellowship, emerging critics will receive:
One-on-one mentorship from board members
Small group Q&A with board members
Small group professional development/ craft lectures over Zoom
Dues-free NBCC membership, admission to NBCC events, and annual reception for one year
TO APPLY:
Fill out the contact form and include your name/pronunciation, pronouns, phone number, email address, website, two references, and a short bio (50-100 words).
Upload as attachments:
Resume/CV (1 page)
Statement of purpose (300-500 words): What are your interests? How will you benefit from the NBCC Emerging Critics Fellowship program? Why are you an ideal candidate?
3 writing samples demonstrating critical thought