BODY IMAGE & WAIST BEADS STORIES
Spoken Black Girl x Fitbeads
DEADLINE: April 8, 2022
INFO: Spoken Black Girl and Fitbeads are coming together to amplify stories about body image and the use of waist beads across the Diaspora. We are looking for all different forms from essays to poetry and short stories.
Submissions can respond to either of these 2 prompts (if it can answer both we're especially excited to hear from you):
1) Tell us about your body image journey. How has your relationship with your body changed over time? How has your body changed? We are seeking stories of transition and growth (ex. after childbirth, puberty, menopause or other major shifts). We are looking for stories that capture your truth, and there's no one way to express that truth, so be creative!
2) What do waist beads represent in your culture? What are the names people call them and the ways people use them? Does your family have any traditions around waist beads and how were you first introduced to them? What purpose have they served on your journey? We are creating a space for cross-cultural understanding across the Diaspora. Through telling our waist bead and body stories, we can connect over what brings us together.
COMPENSATION:
$100 + Publication for the best story
Publication to 2 runner-ups
Spoken Black Girl Publishing strives for equality and representation within the publishing and mental health and wellness industries by publishing the voices of Black women and women of color writers and providing affordable workshops, educational events, services, and empowering media with the purpose of breaking the mental health stigma in communities of color while leveling the playing field in publishing. It is our belief that all voices deserve to be heard, and our team is dedicated to bringing quality and value to our audience. Through sharing stories that heal and creating an outlet for marginalized voices to be heard, we hope to change the discourse on mental health in communities of color.
Fitbeads is a self-love platform centered around waist beads and their ability to uplift, enrich, and encourage self-care. We cultivate conversations about culture, history, and meaning, while also creating spaces for personal connection and self-discovery. We go beyond just providing waist beads and into the actual meaning behind the practice. Rather than exoticize or tokenize African culture, we want to bridge the gap between those aware and unaware of its traditions while also making space for new conversations about the body.
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeNI4NNJP34a86QttqTHBT73Yq-w65vB-URal25MfjN_KUSlw/viewform
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MINERAL SCHOOL RESIDENCY
Mineral School
DEADLINE: April 15, 2022
INFO: Mineral School is an artists residency located in a former 1947 elementary school near Mt. Rainier, in Mineral, Washington. During 2022, we’ll offer residency to a total of 24 creative people, including seven folks rescheduling from 2020’s canceled sessions. Among the 17 residents we can accept in 2022, we expect up to 14 writers and up to three visual artists. We’ll host three two-week residency periods and two special one-week residency sessions for Spanish-language writers in September and for parent artists in October.
We provide accepted applicants with space and time to create new work without the interruptions of normal life and with the bonus of healthy meals prepared by culinary volunteers using locally-grown organic produce and eggs where possible. Each resident will live in an 800-square foot former classroom that offers peekaboo views of Mineral Lake and Mt. Rainier, and that will double as their writing studio, with desk and chair, lighting, bookcase, and lots of chalkboards. The school building has shared bathrooms with showers. Residents are served all meals daily (plus 24/7 access to a snack fridge and coffee/tea station), and will have the opportunity to share work with the public. Mineral features a fishing lake, boat rentals (or our kayaks), some in-town hiking trails, a bar, a B&B, a general store, churches, a post office, and many deer. It's a 25-minute drive to the Ashford/Nisqually entrance to Mt. Rainier National Park.
Visiting authors and artists: During each residency, special guests will visit and present work. Typically, alumni presenters visit and in some cases bring with them a special guest artist they've chosen to introduce to Mineral. Due to continued precautions related to COVID-19. we may host these activities online.
2022 RESIDENCY DATES:
Residency sessions with openings will be held during the following two-week time periods:
July 31-August 14, 2022 (all genres)
August 28-September 11, 2022 (all genres)
September 17-September 25 (Spanish-language writers session with Seattle Escribe)
October 1-October 9, 2022 (parent writers/artists in all genres)
October 23-November 7, 2022 (all genres)
RESIDENCY FELLOWSHIPS:
During 2022, we are able to offer 12 fellowships so writers and artists may attend residency at no cost. Otherwise, two-week residency costs $425 (mixed-genre residencies) and one-week sessions (for parent artists) cost $250.
Seattle Escribe celebrates Spanish literature and supports poets and writers who produce literature in Spanish. This year Seattle Escribe and Mineral School are partnering to offer a Spanish-specific writing residency to support four writers from within the United States so that they may attend a one-week all-Spanish residency during the third week of September 2022, during the heart of Hispanic Heritage Month. Poetry or prose writers who write, think, and speak fluent Spanish may apply. The fellowships also include travel assistance from points between Portland, OR and Seattle, WA along the I-5 corridor, if needed.
June Dodge Fellowships are open to poets or writers from the Northwest (Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington) or the provinces of western Canada (British Columbia, Alberta, Yukon) and whose work is inspired by adventure, travel, the outdoors, and a feisty won't-give-up spirit. Though named for a woman, applicants of any gender may apply! These fellowships fund a two-week residency and include transit to Mineral from Portland, Seattle, or points between on I-5.
The Tahoma Literary Review Fellowship will offer one writer of poetry or prose who identifies as part of the BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and/or People of Color) community support for a two-week residency. The awarded recipient's work will also be published in the Tahoma Literary Review, which is supporting this fellowship and publication to recognize and uplift BIPOC voices. The fellowship also includes travel assistance from points between Portland, OR and Seattle, WA along the I-5 corridor, if needed.
The Mona Lisa Roberts Visual Artist Fellowship supports a two-week residency for one visual artist who self-identifies as LGBTQ+ and lives in the Pacific Northwest (Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington) or the provinces of western Canada (British Columbia, Alberta, Yukon). This fellowship funds a two-week residency any month and transit from Seattle, Portland, or points between. Depending on the medium and artist preference, the artist can work in the studio room where they sleep, spread out in the gym, or make the most of the outdoors.
The Erin Donovan Writing Fellowship supports one woman writer at midlife. A fan of small town culture, travel, dive bars, nature, wordplay, and late-night talks about the meaning of life, Erin Donovan lived with abandon. Her friends and family co-created a fellowship in her memory open to applicants from the states where Erin lived. This residency is open to a woman-identifying writer of poetry or prose living in Massachusetts, New York, Washington, or Oregon, who is at least 40, and whose writing expresses wit and compassion. This fellowship funds the two-week residency fee and offers travel reimbursement upon proof of travel purchase or mileage, up to $175 (OR/WA) or $400 (NY/MA).
mineralschool.submittable.com/submit
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Emerging Poet Prize
Palette Poetry
DEADLINE: April 17, 2022
INFO: This individual poem prize is specifically for emerging poets, and will only accept submissions from poets with fewer than two full-length collections out at the time of submission—though poets with no books published are especially encouraged to submit.
AWARD:
The winning poet will be awarded $3000, publication, and a brief interview in Palette Poetry.
Second and third place will receive $300 & $200 respectively, as well as publication.
The top ten finalists will be selected by Palette editors, and guest judge Safia Elhillo will then select the winner and two runner-ups from among the ten finalists. Pre-order Elhillo's forthcoming collection GIRLS THAT NEVER DIE here!
Safia Elhillo is the author of The January Children (University of Nebraska Press, 2017), which received the Sillerman First Book Prize for African Poets and an Arab American Book Award, Girls That Never Die (One World/Random House, 2022), and the novel in verse Home Is Not A Country (Make Me A World/Random House, 2021), which was longlisted for the National Book Award and received a Coretta Scott King Book Award Author Honor.
palettepoetry.com/current-contest/
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CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: POETRY
MudRoom Mag
DEADLINE: April 30, 2022
SUBMISSION FEE: $0
EXPEDITED SUBMISSIONS: $3
INFO: MudRoom Mag is accepting submissions in poetry and prose until April 30th.
COMPENSATION: We pay $15 per accepted piece.
POETRY GUIDELINES:
MudRoom publishes poetry of all types. You can email poetry submissions to mud.room.submissions@gmail.com.
To submit, please send 3-5 original, previously unpublished poems in a single .DOC/.DOCX .ODT or PDF file with one poem per page (eight pages maximum).
Indicate POETRY SUBMISSION in your subject line. Submissions without "Poetry Submission" in the subject line will be deleted. You may also include a brief cover letter/third-person bio in the body of your email.
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2022 Poetry Contest
BOMB Magazine
DEADLINE: May 1, 2022
READING FEE: $25. Includes a year-long subscription to BOMB (a $48 value) for all US entrants. Existing BOMB subscribers will receive an email with a discounted entry form.
INFO: BOMB Magazine’s 2022 Poetry Contest is open for submissions from March 1 to May 1, and we’re honored to have Solmaz Sharif joining us as this year’s guest judge. Sharif will select one winner to receive a $1,000 prize and publication in BOMB’s quarterly magazine.
GUIDELINES:
Manuscripts may contain no more than 5 poems and no more than 10 pages.
Submission period: March 1–May 1, 2022 (at 11:59 pm ET).
All entries will be considered anonymously. Do not include author name on manuscript pages. Non-anonymous manuscripts will be disqualified.
Work must be previously unpublished.
Submissions must be uploaded via Submittable.
Simultaneous submissions are permitted as long as you notify us if your piece is accepted elsewhere, but the fee is non-refundable.
The winner will be announced in July 2022. Email firstproof@bombsite.com with any questions.
ABOUT SOLMAZ SHARIF: Solmaz Sharif is the author of Customs and Look, which was a finalist for the National Book Award and a New York Times Notable Book. She has received a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ award, a Lannan Literary Fellowship, and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation. Her poetry has appeared in Granta, the New Republic, and Poetry. She teaches at Arizona State University.
bombmagazine.org/articles/submit-to-bombs-2022-poetry-contest
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Voyage Anthology Contest
Voyage YA
DEADLINE: May 1, 2022
READING FEE: $20
INFO: We’re incredibly excited to offer writers a chance to have their young adult writing published in our inaugural Anthology! Short Fiction, Creative Non-Fiction, and Poetry anthologies in the young adult market are taking off in popularity—and we at Voyage are obsessed with reading them. Submit your young adult writing to us for a chance to be selected for our own inaugural Anthology. This is a chance to see your name in print! We will be publishing hardcover, paperback, and ebook editions!
The anthology will be edited by the Voyage editorial staff: Racquel Henry, Editor-in-Chief; Kip Wilson, Associate Editor; Marquita Hockaday, Associate Editor.
The editors will select 8 pieces of fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction to include in the collection.
Selected writers will be compensated accordingly:
Prose: $500
Poems/Flash fiction: $250
15 Author copies
Bonus: Every entrant will receive access to a pre-recorded mini workshop!
GUIDELINES:
Submissions are open to all writers working in English
International submissions are allowed
Submissions must be either fiction, poetry, or creative nonfiction in the Young Adult category, and from the point-of-view of a young adult, meaning through the lens of a teen protagonist
5,000-word count maximum
We’re open to any genre or style—just send us the best you’ve got
Previously unpublished work only, please
Simultaneous submissions are fine—just notify and withdraw your entry if it’s picked up by someone else
Multiple submissions are okay—please submit each as a separate submission
Every entry will be considered for our regular publications as well
Please: 1) double space; 2) use Times New Roman 12 pt font; 3) have 1-inch margins, and 4) put the page number in the top right-hand corner
Tell us in a brief cover letter your publication history (if applicable, no worries if not)
thevoyagejournal.com/contests/
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2023 Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship
The Jerome Foundation
DEADLINE: May 4, 2022 at 4pm CT / 5pm ET
INFO: The Jerome Foundation is excited to announce the 2023 Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship application open call. These two-year Fellowships support Minnesota and New York City-based artists across 8 artistic fields who are at an early point in their careers, generally in their 2nd–10th year as a generative artist.
Jerome Hill Artist Fellowships support Minnesota and New York City-based artists across 8 artistic fields who generate new work that takes creative risks in expanding, questioning, experimenting with or re-imagining conventional artistic forms. This Fellowship supports artists who embrace their roles as part of a larger community of artists and citizens, and consciously work with a sense of service, whether aesthetic, social or both. Support is directed to artists who are at an early point in their careers in creating such work, generally in their 2nd–10th year as a generative artist.
AWARD: Fellows receive $50,000 over two consecutive years ($25,000 each year) to support their time and expenses for the creation of new work, artistic development and/or professional artistic career development.
jeromefdn.org/2023-jerome-hill-artist-fellowship-application-now-open