Charles B. Wheeler Poetry Prize
The Journal
DEADLINE: October 10, 2022
INFO: Each year, manuscripts by emerging and established poets are screened, in accordance with CLMP guidelines, by volunteer readers associated with The Journal and The Ohio State University English Department. Marcus Jackson will select one full-length manuscript for publication by Mad Creek Books, the trade imprint of The Ohio State University Press. In addition to publication under a standard book contract, the winning author receives the Charles B. Wheeler prize of $2,500.
GUIDELINES:
Entries of at least 48 typed pages of original poetry must be submitted electronically during the month of September. The submitter’s name or other identifying information should appear only on a separate cover page and not within the document. All manuscripts will be read and judged anonymously.
Manuscripts must be previously unpublished. Some or all of the poems in the collection may have appeared in periodicals, chapbooks, or anthologies, but these must be identified in an acknowledgments page.
A nonrefundable handling fee of $23.00 or $11.50 for BIPOC poets will be charged for each entry. All entrants receive a one-year subscription to The Journal.
If it is a hardship to meet the submission fee, please contact our editor to discuss options for a fee waiver at prize@thejournalmag.org
2022 JUDGE:
Marcus Jackson is a poet and photographer who studied in NYU’s graduate creative writing program and as a Cave Canem fellow. His poems and photographs have appeared in such publications as The American Poetry Review, The New Yorker, and The New York Times Magazine. His second book of poems, entitled Pardon My Heart (Northwestern University Press/TriQuarterly Books), was released in 2018. Of Pardon My Heart, Jeff Gordinier for The New York Times writes, “Jackson’s collection confirms the arrival of a thrilling new voice in American poetry, one whose writing, on page after page, has the fullness and glow of a jubilee.” Jackson lives with his wife and child in Columbus, Ohio, and he teaches in the MFA program in creative writing at Ohio State.
thejournalmag.org/book-prizes/wheeler-prize
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CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS AND PITCHES: BLACK AND ASIAN FEMINIST SOLIDARITIES
AAWW’s The Margins / Black and Asian Feminist Solidarities
DEADLINE: October 15, 2022
INFO: A collaboration between Black Women Radicals and the Asian American Feminist Collective, Black and Asian Feminist Solidarities is a monthly series published in AAWW’s The Margins that launched in July 2020. This ongoing project looks to Black and Asian American feminist histories, practices, and frameworks on care, community, and survival for the tools and strategies to continue to build towards collective liberation.
With two years under our belt, the editors of Black and Asian Feminist Solidarities are looking for pitches and submissions to shape the next phase in this series.
Since we started this project, people in Black and Asian communities have been reckoning with grief, loss, heartbreak, and death at different scales. We are witnessing in real time the stripping of reproductive rights; the ways state-based responses to violence pit Black and Asian communities against each other; and attempts to legislate queer and trans people out of existence.
In reflecting on solidarity, we often are left with more questions than answers.
What does it mean to create and nurture solidarity at this juncture? We’re currently seeking new pitches and finished pieces that interrogate past, present, and future issues within the realm of Black and Asian feminist solidarities, and that imagine possibilities between our communities through various written forms.
Topics and approaches of specific interest include:
Environmental justice and water protection; land, water, and place as solidarity; islands and oceans as connective sites; ancestral foodways and ecologies; and growing and caring for land and nature
Storytelling centering queer intimacies, friendships, kinships, and relationships across race
Reproductive justice, care work, and labor
Speculative fiction exploring fantasy, myth, magic, histories, futures, and more
Histories, genealogies, and inheritances of movements and migration
Transnational approaches to abolition politics, including political imprisonment, war, and demilitarization
Ending caste apartheid, politics of colorism, interrogations of racial categories and hierarchies of racialization
Navigating conflicts, tensions, difficulties, contradictions, and controversies within and across communities
Joy, love, and pleasure as solidarity including gatherings, sex and romance, and humor
Engagements with feminist literatures and critique and writing as craft
We invite submissions and pitches on feminist solidarities from creative writers, poets, community organizers, workers, artists, journalists, and scholars.
We are seeking FINISHED SUBMISSIONS in the following genres and forms:
Short creative stories across genres including speculative fiction, young adult, and romance
Illustrations, graphics, and comics
Creative nonfiction including personal essays and historical narratives
Poetry, letters, journal entries, songs, and spells
We are also open to PITCHES for:
Interviews and conversations
Researched or reported works
Political and cultural criticism and commentary
Collaborative works, hybrid genres, and/or exploratory formats
We are currently not seeking submissions for commentary and reported works that require timely or urgent publication.
GUIDELINES:
Email your finished submission or pitch as a .doc/x, or Google doc to bafs@aaww.org.
Please format the title of your submission as follows: “LAST NAME – Black and Asian Feminist Solidarities – TITLE OF PIECE or PITCH .”
Include your preferred name for publishing and a short biography (maximum 100 words).
For finished pieces, we welcome:
essays up to a maximum of 3,000 words
short fiction up to 3,500 words
poetry, illustrations, and hybrid work up to 10 pages or panels for consideration
Please include any image attachments as .jpgs or .pngs.
If you are sending a pitch, please indicate your plan and timeline for completion.
Please also include a short cover letter (max 300 words) about how you connect to this call as an author and how your submitted work relates to this call. Feel free to respond in a way that aligns with the aims of your work.
If our editors decide to move forward with a pitch or submission, writers can expect a reply within six weeks to three months. Although we cannot guarantee a response to all pitches and pieces, our editors will do their best to get back to all writers. We appreciate your patience.
We will pay for published pieces. The Margins‘ 2022 rate sheet is here.
About Black and Asian Feminist Solidarities
This ongoing project looks to Black and Asian American feminist histories, practices, and frameworks on care, community, and survival for the tools and strategies to continue to build towards collective liberation. Solidarity at its core is about relationships. Solidarity means we understand and commit to taking responsibility for one another—and that is the radical feminist future we believe in. So far we have featured nonfiction essays, creative writing and poetry, reading lists, archival materials, and interviews and conversations. The project offers political analysis and ruminations on a variety of topics such as reproductive justice, sex worker organizing, transnational feminisms, war and militarism, care work, and intergenerational movements. Black and Asian Feminist Solidarities is edited by Salonee Bhaman, Julie Ae Kim, Rachel Kuo, Senti Sojwal, Jaimee A. Swift, and Tiffany Diane Tso.
https://aaww.org/submissions-black-asian-feminist-solidarities/
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CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
Third Coast
DEADLINE: October 15, 2022
INFO: For all submissions, please remember to include the title of the work, your name, and contact info on the first page of your manuscript.
All submissions should be sent via Submittable, through the portals of their respective genres. All attachments sent to our email address will be deleted, and any submissions sent via postal mail or social media will not be read.
We accept simultaneous submissions, but not multiple submissions; please submit no more than one manuscript at a time. We do not accept previously published works.
You can view the status (Received, In Progress, Declined, or Accepted) of your submission to Third Coast and to any other journal that uses Submittable by logging into your Submittable account. We might be taking longer than we’d like to review your work, but we haven’t lost, or lost track of, your submission. If your Submittable status reads “In Progress,” then it’s as simple as that—consideration of your manuscript is in progress. Please do not query until it has been at least a year.
Authors receive a contributor copy in gratitude of their work. We do not pay for publications at this time.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:
FICTION - Submit manuscripts of up to 7,500 words (or up to 25 pages). Authors wishing to submit longer manuscripts should query the editors at editors@thirdcoastmagazine.com. We accept up to five pieces of flash fiction, or “short shorts,” at a time. (Please submit short shorts in one electronic document—see withdraw instructions under POETRY below.)
NONFICTION - Submit manuscripts of up to 7,000 words.
POETRY - Submit manuscripts of no more than five poems at a time (with a maximum of fifteen pages). Poetry should be typed and single-spaced. Submit all poems as one electronic document. (If you need to withdraw a single poem from a submission, leaving others for consideration, please leave a message on the submission to that effect rather than use Submittable’s “Withdraw” function.)
DRAMA - Third Coast encourages the submission of 10-minute plays and one-act plays of no more than 20 pages (not including title page). Plays that have had a staged reading or production are acceptable; plays that have received publication are not. Please submit in standard play format.
BOOK REVIEWS - Third Coast welcomes submissions of reviews of 500-2,000 words on new or forthcoming books of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and essays, as well as reviews of full-length plays. For submissions of book reviews, Third Coast strongly prefers reviews of first or second books, or books from smaller presses (we’ll probably pass on that review of Alice Munro’s newest). Third Coast does not accept queries/requests for book reviews of specific books or authors.
INTERVIEWS - Third Coast welcomes submissions of both interviews (a conversation between two or more people) and Q&As (an “interview” where a writer responds to a series of prewritten questions). Interviews should run between 2,000 and 6,000 words; Q&A submissions can run shorter.
thirdcoastmagazine.com/submissions/
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THE Jake Adam York Prize
Copper Nickel / Milkweed Editions
DEADLINE: October 15, 2022
READING FEE: $25
INFO: The Jake Adam York Prize for a first or second poetry collection is a collaboration between Copper Nickel and Milkweed Editions.
AWARD: The prize-winning poet receives $2,000 and publication by Milkweed Editions.
Initial screening for the prize will be facilitated by the poetry editors of Copper Nickel. (All screeners for the prize will have published at least one book of poetry.) The winner is announced in early March.
Our goal in instituting the Jake Adam York Prize is to honor Jake’s name and legacy with a top-tier, ethical book prize that will offer not just publication but also high-quality design, marketing, and strong national distribution. Milkweed Editions—which has an excellent marketing team and national distribution through Publishers Group West(PGW)—can offer these things. We at Copper Nickel are grateful and excited for their partnership.
GUIDELINES:
For the 2022–3 prize we will begin accepting online submissions of book-length (i.e., more than 48 pages) poetry manuscripts on July 1, 2022. The final due date for submission will be October 15, 2022. The prize winner will be announced in early March, 2023.
Our judge for 2022–3 is AMAUD JAMAUL JOHNSON. Raised in Compton, California, Johnson is the author of three poetry collections: Imperial Liquor (Pitt Poetry, 2020), which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Rilke Prize; Darktown Follies (Tupelo, 2013), which won the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award; and Red Summer (2006), which won the Dorset Prize. A former Wallace Stegner Fellow, Johnson has published work in American Poetry Review, Kenyon Review, The New York Times Magazine, The Southern Review, The Best American Poetry, and elsewhere.
To be eligible for the prize, poets cannot have published—or have under contract—more than one full-length book of poetry in English. (Chapbooks of less than 48 pages and individual poems in magazines are OK.)
Self-published books count as previous book publications if they are at least 48 pages and saw any real distribution whatsoever. (I.e., if your self-published book has an ISBN, and/or has been distributed through Amazon, and/or has had a web presence—even a very limited one—that counts as a previously published book.)
Separate books published in English abroad also count toward eligibility, but not books reprinted abroad or published in another language. (I.e., if you published one book in the US and a different book in the UK, you would be ineligible to submit, but if you published a book in the US and that book was reprinted in the UK, you would still be eligible. If you published one book in the US in English and another book in, say, Poland in Polish you would still be eligible to submit to our prize as long as the book you were submitting to our prize was a not a translation of the book you published in Poland in Polish.)
Previously self-published books are ineligible for submission for the prize, as are translations and co-authored books.
Poets must be US Citizens (living abroad is fine) or must live in the US and be writing in English.
Poets who are family, current colleagues, close friends, or recent students (within the past three years) of the judge are not eligible to enter. Former student editors and interns of Copper Nickel and Milkweed Editions are also ineligible.
Entrants to the Jake Adam York Prize are welcome to submit to other book prizes, including the other Milkweed Editions prizes (the Ballard Spahr Prize, the Max Ritvo Prize, and the National Poetry Series). If your manuscript wins another prize, pleasenotify us and withdraw your manuscript from the Jake Adam York Prize.
Manuscripts can—but don’t have to—include work previously published in literary periodicals and/or chapbooks. If your manuscript includes previously published work, please include an acknowledgments page.
Final judging for the prize is anonymous. For this reason, please do not include your name or other identifying marks on the manuscript itself. (We will be able to obtain that information from Submittable, and the information will not be forwarded to the final judge.)
All entrants will receive a one-year subscription to Copper Nickel (worth $20) in exchange for a $25 reading fee, and all money raised beyond production costs for the prize will go toward paying Copper Nickel contributors.
Please note that when you submit your work to the Jake Adam York Prize you’re adding yourself to our contact list and, thus, consenting to receiving perhaps 1–2 emails per year about our book prize, subscriptions drives, etc.
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2023 ART OMI: WRITERS RESIDENCY
Art Omi
DEADLINE: October 15, 2022 by 11:59pm ET
INFO: Art Omi: Writers hosts authors and translators from around the world for residencies throughout the spring and fall. The program’s strong international emphasis provides exposure for global literary voices and reflects the spirit of cultural exchange that is essential to Art Omi’s mission.
Guests may select a residency of one week to two months; about ten writers at a time gather to live and work in a rural setting overlooking the Catskill Mountains. Daytime is reserved for writing and quiet activities, while evenings are more communal. A program of weekly visits bring guests from the New York publishing community. Noted editors, agents and book scouts are invited to share dinner and conversation on both creative and practical subjects, offering insight into the workings of the publishing industry, and introductions to some of its key professionals. Readings throughout the year invite the public to experience finished and in-process work by writers and translators in residence.
Art Omi: Writers welcomes published writers and translators of every type of literature. All text-based projects -- fiction, nonfiction, theater, film, poetry, etc.—are eligible. International, cultural and creative exchange is a foundation of our mission, and a wide distribution of national background is an important part of our selection process.
All residencies are fully funded with accommodations, food, local transport and public programming provided. However, please note that Art Omi: Writers does not provide travel funds. Selected residents are responsible for funding their own travel or securing travel funds from a third party.
2023 RESIDENCY DATES:
Spring: March 24 - Friday, May 26, 2023
Fall: Friday, September 1 - Friday, November 3, 2023
GUIDELINES:
Each applicant is required to provide 4 (four) separate items in total:
A cover letter, which provides the following details: country of birth, country of residency, the language in which you write, your preferred residency dates. Please note we have two sessions per year: Spring (March 20 - June 5) and Fall (September 4 - November 6). Additionally, please let us know how you heard about Art Omi: Writers, why you want to come to Art Omi: Writers and what you expect to get from the experience. Important Note: If you are eligible for our sponsored residency for a previous Whiting Award winner please indicate so in your cover letter.
A brief (2 pages, maximum) statement about your work history, referencing publications, performances and writing credits. This can be submitted in CV format.
A writing sample, no more than 50 pages. Please be sure to indicate if the writing is published or unpublished; if it is published please provide details.
A one page description of the work to be undertaken while at Art Omi: Writers.
Your writing sample does NOT have to be an English translation; please submit your writing sample in your mother tongue. All other documentation must be submitted in English.
Your cover letter should be provided in the designated Cover Letter field. Items 2-4 should each be provided as separately uploaded files.
Alumni of the program are eligible to reapply.
artomi.submittable.com/submit/232906/art-omiwriters-2023-application
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2023 ALICE JAMES AWARD
Alice James Books
DEADLINE: October 16, 2022
ENTRY FEE: $30
INFO: The Alice James Award welcomes submissions of full-length, previously unpublished poetry manuscripts from emerging as well as established poets. Entrants must reside in the United States.
In celebration of our 50th anniversary in 2023, the winner of the 2023 Alice James Award will receive $5000, book publication, and distribution through Consortium. In addition to the winning manuscript, one or more additional manuscripts may be chosen for publication as the Editor’s Choice.
For details on submission guidelines and how to send a hardcopy submission during the open season, review our guidelines below:
GUIDELINES FOR MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSION:
• Screening for the Alice James Award is blind. Because of this, no contact information is allowed within your manuscript, including within the filename, if electronically submitted. Electronic submissions will have contact information collected via Submittable, which is hidden from our screeners. Hardcopy submissions must include a separate title page, which lists the title of your manuscript and contact information (name, address, e-mail address, and phone number).
• Do not include any preambles, bios, or acknowledgments within your submitted manuscript.
• Manuscripts must have a numbered table of contents.
• No illustrations, photographs, or images should be included.
• Manuscripts must be typed in a no less than 12 point font, paginated, and 48 – 100 pages in length (single-spaced). For hardcopy submissions, we accept double-sided manuscripts.
• Individual poems from the manuscript may have been previously published in magazines, anthologies, or chapbooks of less than 25 pages, but the collection, as a whole, must be unpublished.
• Translations and self-published books are not eligible.
• No multi-authored collections, please.
• Entry fee for the Alice James Award is $30 for online and hardcopy submissions. Checks or money orders for hardcopy submissions should be made payable to Alice James Books.
Manuscripts may be submitted online or by regular mail.
Mail hard copy entries to:
Alice James Books, Alice James Award
Auburn Hall, 60 Pineland Drive
Suite 206
New Gloucester, ME 04260
For online submissions (open March 8, 2022-October 16, 2022), click here.
ABOUT AJB’S SCREENING PROCESS:
Manuscripts submitted to the AJA are screened anonymously. During the screening process, every manuscript is read by a minimum of two people, at least one of whom is a board member (the other is either an outside screener or another board member). With the assistance of screeners, submissions are winnowed to a group of finalists from which the editorial board chooses a winner. Manuscripts in the finalist group are not read anonymously. Our screeners, with very few exceptions, are published poets and/or MFA students.
OUR WINNER SELECTION PROCESS:
Finalist manuscripts are read over a period of weeks by the Editorial Board in preparation for the finalist meeting where the winner is chosen.
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2022 Love & Eros Prize
Palette Poetry
DEADLINE: October 16, 2022
INFO: Palette Poetry is delighted to bring back the Love & Eros Prize for 2022, awarding $3000 and publication. Love engulfs us, desire rules us. We encourage love poems beyond the confines of what’s traditionally “romantic.” Rather, we’re seeking unflinching examinations of our sharpest human sensations—those of desire, longing, devotion, and intimacy. All iterations of love are welcome—send us your bitter and your sweet, your queer, platonic, reverent, and devotional.
Palette's editors will choose the ten finalists and any honorable mentions that warrant extra attention. The winner and runners-up will be selected by our guest judge, Carl Phillips, author of Then the War (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2022). Second and third place will receive $300 and $200, respectively.
ABOUT OUR JUDGE:
Carl Phillips is the author of several books of poetry, most recently Then the War (FSG, 2022). Other books include The Tether, winner of the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award, and Double Shadow, winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. His prose books are The Art of Daring: Risk, Restlessness, Imagination (2014) and Coin of the Realm: Essays on the Life and Art of Poetry (2004), and he has translated Sophocles’s Philoctetes (2004). A finalist for both the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award, his other honors include the Lambda Literary Award, an Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Theodore Roethke Memorial Foundation Poetry Award, the Thom Gunn Award for Gay Male Poetry, and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Library of Congress, and the Academy of American Poets, for which he served as Chancellor from 2006-2012. In addition to contemporary poetry and its writing, his academic interests include classical philology, translation, and the history of prosody in English.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:
Please read carefully to ensure your submission will be considered!
Submissions are open internationally, to any poet writing in English—inclusion of other languages is welcome, as long as the meat of the poem is in English.
DO NOT INCLUDE your name or identifying information in the document OR submission title. If your name is on the submission or in the title, it will be declined unread.
We are only accepting unpublished work. If your poem has been published on a blog or on social media, it is not eligible.
We accept simultaneous submissions—just please send us a note if your work is picked up elsewhere (we want to say congrats!)
There is no page requirement, but submission must be no more than 3 poems. Please submit all your poems in ONE document.
We do accept multiple submissions, but each submission will include the $20 reading fee.
Please include a brief cover letter with your publication history, if any. This is where you can include your name and/or bio! If you select the editorial feedback option, this is also where you can name which poem you'd like feedback on.
Review our FAQ page for frequently asked questions for anything not addressed here.
palettepoetry.com/current-contest/
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ANAPHORA WRITING RESIDENCY
Anaphora Arts
DEADLINE: October 20, 2022
INFO: Anaphora Writing Residency is a ten-day program designed exclusively for writers of color. The residency offers workshops, readings, craft talks, and discussions with professionals from the literary and publishing industry. The goal of the program is to nurture emerging and established writers of color, to create opportunities for publication, and establish a wide network of support for writers of different backgrounds.
DATES + FEES: The upcoming residency will run on February 16 - 25, 2023, and will be held virtually. The program costs $2,400, and several partial fellowships are available every year, depending on funding availability. Applications must be submitted by the priority deadline to be eligible for fellowships. Anaphora Fellows and returning alumnx, will have the opportunity to attend the program at a discounted rate.
The priority deadline is October 20, 2022 (with the final application deadline on October 31, 2022). Applications are reviewed by an anonymous admission board of peers, which rotates every year. Notifications will be sent out starting November 7, 2022 (including notifications of fellowships). A non-refundable security deposit of $150 is required within two weeks of notification; program fees must be paid entirely prior to the beginning of the residency.
If you have any questions, please check out the residency’s FAQ page, or contact us.
WHAT TO EXPECT: The program will provide workshops in poetry and prose, craft talks, daily readings (by guests and program participants), masterclasses, generative sessions, and discussions with professionals from the industry, including literary agents, editors, and publishers.
SPEAKERS:
Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah is the author of the bestselling short story collection Friday Black and the novel Chain-Gang All-Stars. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in numerous publications, including Guernica, Compose: A Journal of Simply Good Writing, Printer’s Row, Gravel, and The Breakwater Review, where he was selected by ZZ Packer as the winner of the 2nd Annual Breakwater Review Fiction Contest. He is from Spring Valley, New York. He graduated from SUNY Albany and went on to receive his MFA from Syracuse University.
Mahogany L. Browne, selected as Kennedy Center’s Next 50 and Weseleyan’s 2022-23 Distinguished Writer-in-Residence, the Executive Director of JustMedia, Artistic Director of Urban Word, a writer, playwright, organizer, & educator. Browne has received fellowships from Arts for Justice, Air Serenbe, Cave Canem, Poets House, Mellon Research & Rauschenberg. She is the author of recent works: Vinyl Moon, Chlorine Sky, Woke: A Young Poets Call to Justice, Woke Baby, & Black Girl Magic. Founder of the diverse lit initiative Woke Baby Book Fair, Browne’s latest poetry collection Chrome Valley is a promissory note to survival and available from Norton Spring 2023. As she readies for her stage debut of Chlorine Sky at Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago, Illinois, she drinks coffee while living in Brooklyn, NY. She is the first ever poet-in-residence at Lincoln Center.
Camille T. Dungy is the author of four collections of poetry, most recently Trophic Cascade (Wesleyan UP, 2017), winner of the Colorado Book Award, and the essay collection Guidebook to Relative Strangers: Journeys into Race, Motherhood and History (W.W. Norton, 2017), a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Dungy has also edited anthologies including Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry and From the Fishouse: An Anthology of Poems that Sing, Rhyme, Resound, Syncopate, Alliterate, and Just Plain Sound Great. A 2019 Guggenheim Fellow, her honors include NEA Fellowships in poetry (2003) and prose (2018), an American Book Award, two NAACP Image Award nominations, and two Hurston/Wright Legacy Award nominations. Dungy’s poems have been published in Best American Poetry, The 100 Best African American Poems, the Pushcart Anthology, Best American Travel Writing, and over thirty other anthologies. She is University Distinguished Professor at Colorado State University.
Tarfia Faizullah is the author of two award-winning poetry collections, Registers of Illuminated Villages (Graywolf, 2018) and Seam (SIU, 2014). Her writing has appeared widely in periodicals and magazines in the US and abroad and has been displayed at the Smithsonian, the Rubin Museum of Art, and elsewhere. Tarfia’s writing is translated into Spanish, Bengali, Persian, Chinese, Tamil, and other languages. Born in Brooklyn, NY to Bangladeshi immigrants and raised in Texas, Faizullah currently lives in Dallas.
Loan Le is an editor at Atria Books, a Simon & Schuster adult imprint, and she acquires dark, atmospheric upmarket and “literary plus” fiction, or literary fiction with genre elements like horror, mystery, suspense/thriller, and/or folklore. Her authors include Sarah Langan, Louise Candlish, Carolyn Huynh, Meredith Westgate, Kevin Chong, Luke Dumas, Shea Ernshaw, and Jennifer Fawcett. She is also the author of A Phở Love Story, a YA rom-com that earned praise from NPR, POPSUGAR, Bustle, and Buzzfeed. She holds an MFA degree in fiction from Fairfield University, where she also earned her bachelor’s degree. A Pushcart Prize-nominated writer, Loan has had her short stories appear in CRAFT Literary, Mud Season Review, and more. When she’s not writing young adult novels, she’s writing ghostly, dark adult fiction, watching slow-burn K-Dramas, and listening to BTS. Visit her website at writerloanle.com and find her on Twitter @loanloan and Instagram @loanloanle.
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GET THE WORD OUT: PUBLICITY INCUBATOR FOR DEBUT AUTHORS
Poets & Writers
DEADLINE: October 21, 2022
INFO: Get the Word Out is a publicity incubator for debut authors. This unique professional development program will provide expert advice and peer support to authors who might not otherwise have access to these resources.
We will select a cohort of debut fiction writers in fall 2022 and a cohort of debut poets in early 2023. In each cycle, authors planning for the publication of their debut book will develop and execute a strategic publicity plan under the mentorship of an accomplished book publicist.
The program's goal is to help debut writers maximize the exposure of their first book, reach readers, and create a platform to propel their literary careers.
Get the Word Out participants will:
Participate in a six-session online publicity workshop led by an experienced book publicist
Attend six online seminars with leading professionals in publicity, marketing, sales, and related professions
Devote considerable time outside of scheduled sessions to promoting their book
Contribute to a peer learning community by sharing what works and what doesn’t, helping each member of the cohort to amplify their impact
There is no application fee and no cost to those who are invited to participate.
MEET THE 2022 FICTION PUBLICITY MENTOR:
Get the Word Out will launch in November 2022 with the program’s inaugural cohort of debut fiction authors. The Publicity Mentor for this group will be Lauren Cerand.
Cerand has twenty years of experience running her own thriving global communications consultancy, driven by an intensive personal focus on each client’s needs and desires, a vast network of relationships, and unparalleled expertise and ingenuity. She helps creative professionals to connect with audiences and inspire community, often through the lens of media. Cerand has advised writers, artists, publishers, and media and cultural organizations that are household names throughout her career and guided many more that are still finding their path. After two decades in New York and a year in Florence, Italy, she now lives in Baltimore and continues to work internationally. For more information, visit LaurenCerand.com.
IMPORTANT DATES:
Fiction Cohort – Fall/Winter 2022
Fiction Cohort Announced - November 15
Fiction Cohort Orientation - November 17
Fiction Publicity Incubator Begins - November 21
Fiction Publicity Incubator Ends - February 24
Poetry Cohort – Spring 2023
Application opens - January 9
Application deadline - February 3
Poetry Cohort Announced - March 7
Poetry Cohort Orientation - March 8
Poetry Publicity Incubator Begins - April 3
Poetry Publicity Incubator Ends - June 23
ELIGIBILITY:
Who is eligible?
Authors under contract with a U.S.-based publisher for the publication of a debut novel or short story collection written in English and scheduled for release between December 1, 2022, and December 31, 2023.
Must be 18 years of age or older.
Must live in the U.S. during the program period (but do not need to be a U.S. citizen or hold permanent resident status).
Must be available to attend and participate in all of the incubator program’s virtual workshops and seminars between November 17, 2022, and February 24, 2023, and devote between 4 to 6 hours weekly for twelve weeks to the publicity planning of their book.
Those currently enrolled in degree-granting programs are not eligible.
Employees and Board Members of Poets & Writers, and their immediate families, are not eligible.
What qualifies as a “debut” novel or short story collection?
Your first full-length work of fiction, scheduled to be published by a U.S.-based publisher between December 1, 2022, and December 31, 2023.
Applicants who have previously published a full-length work of literature in any other genre are not eligible.
Applicants who have previously published a full-length work of literature in another country are eligible, if they have published no more than one book of fiction with a non-U.S. publisher.
Applicants who have previously published fiction chapbooks are eligible.
Self-published or hybrid-published books, e-book editions, and graphic novels, are not eligible.
The book must be written in English; works in translation are not eligible.
Finalists will be asked to submit verification of debut publication and residency.
SELECTION CRITERIA:
Participants will be selected based on the strength of their writing sample and statement of purpose.
Get the Word Out is open to all eligible applicants. The program aims to support writers who might not otherwise have access to in-depth publicity support and to help develop strong literary voices nationwide. To that end, we encourage applications from writers who identify as BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, or person of color), writers with disabilities, LGBTQ+ writers, writers from outside of New York City, writers who do not have an MFA or equivalent degree, and writers whose books are slated to be published by independent presses.
Applications must include:
A completed application form and eligibility quiz
A statement of purpose (max: 1,000 words)
A double-spaced excerpt (max: 10 pages in 12 pt. font) from your debut novel or short story collection
An author bio (max: 250 words).
See details on the application form. For more information, please contact tkehou@pw.org.
pw.org/content/get_the_word_out
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2023 Periplus Fellowship
Periplus Collective
DEADLINE: October 24, 2022 at 11:59 pm ET
INFO: Periplus is a mentorship collective serving U.S. writers of color. We’re happy you’ve found us. We’re looking for mentees—Periplus Fellows—who are people of color, are located in the United States, and are at least 18 years old, and whose writing shows great promise. We are seeking to mentor writers who are relatively early in their careers and would especially like to award fellowships to those with limited past access to writing resources and supportive communities. We aim to equalize access so that writers can achieve their goals regardless of their background and affiliations.
In assessing your application, we’ll be most focused on the promise we see in your writing sample. We will also consider how helpful a Periplus Fellowship could be for your craft and career.
ELIGIBILITY: You are NOT ELIGIBLE for a Periplus Fellowship if you are currently enrolled in a graduate program in creative writing or journalism. You are also NOT ELIGIBLE if you have published a book or have one under contract with a major U.S. press.
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSejPZbuWHw1e5huulgUJcaNGVIs_eyV8tRwgl8glYuIIypScA/viewform
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2023 PROGRAM FELLOWSHIP
Kweli Journal
DEADLINE: October 24, 2022 at 11:59pm ET
INFO: Building on Kweli's successful history of mentoring emerging authors, we will provide three (or more) early-stage writers with 11-month writing fellowships.
ELIGIBILITY: Eligible candidates are early career vocational writers living in New York City, who are not enrolled in degree-granting programs and self-identify as Black, Native/First Nations, POC, and/or Arab American.
Writers who have not yet contracted to publish a book are invited to apply.
Successful applicants will be informed no later than December 15, 2022. The fellowship period will be January 3, 2023 – December 3, 2023.
GUIDELINES:
Please submit the following:
A cover letter containing a one-paragraph biographical statement; one paragraph that is a favorite of yours from a book you've read recently; and a brief statement telling us why this particular passage is meaningful to you. Please also note in your cover letter if you are a resident of one of New York City's five boroughs.
A CV or résumé
A letter of recommendation to editors@kwelijournal.org
A brief statement of your career goals and what you expect to accomplish as a Kweli Fellow.
A 10 page writing sample. There is no word-count requirement. Eligible genres are fiction, poetry, literary nonfiction, and cross-genre writing, whether written for adults, young adults, or children.
kwelijournal.org/kweli-fellowship-program
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Capacity-Building Grant Program
Academy of American Poets
DEADLINE: October 28, 2022 at 5pm ET
INFO: Recognizing that literary nonprofit organizations need to address sustainability, the Academy of American Poets is pleased to offer a new opportunity to apply for two-year grants between $5,000 and $25,000 per year. This Capacity-Building Grants Program is made possible by a special gift from the Hawthornden Fund, established by the Drue Heinz estate.
Nonprofit literary organizations that present or serve poets, or incorporate poetry, as some part of its programming are welcome to apply for grants ranging from $5,000 to $25,000 to support projects that build organizational capacity and help ensure greater sustainability.
“Capacity building” as defined by the National Council of Nonprofits, is “Whatever is needed to bring a nonprofit to the next level of operational, programmatic, financial, or organizational maturity, so it may more effectively and efficiently advance its mission into the future.
Examples of requests for support include new or existing projects such as fundraising, finance, or marketing staff or consultants; skill-building opportunities for staff or Board members; strategic planning consultants; diversity and equity initiatives; leadership development and management training; and succession planning.
ELIGIBILITY + REQUIREMENTS:
Applicants must be literary nonprofit organizations based in the United States or U.S. Territories.
Applicants must be a 501(c)3 organization or have a fiscal sponsor.
Grantees are required to submit a report to the Academy of American Poets at the conclusion of the first year of grant period to obtain the second year of funding, as well as at the conclusion of the grant period.
REVIEW PROCESS:
Applications will be reviewed by an independent panel based on the following criteria:
Completeness of application and clarity of proposal
Feasibility of capacity-building project as described
Potential impact on organizational capacity and/or sustainability
Submitted work samples
TIMELINE:
October 28, 2022: Application portal closes
January 2023: Applicants notified of acceptance/rejection and funds disbursed
January-December 2023: Grantees conduct projects
December 2023: Grantees return project report
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Light Bill Incubator Microgrant
Sundress Publications
DEADLINE: October 31, 2022
INFO: Sundress Publications is now open to submissions for grant applications from Black and/or Indigenous identifying writers with a chapbook in progress. All eligible authors are welcome to submit during our application period from August 1st to October 31st, 2022.
AWARD: The Light Bill Incubator Microgrant will award $500, a slot in Sundress’s reading series, a residency at the Sundress Academy for the Arts in Knoxville, TN, and the potential for digital publication. This award will go to one Black and/or Indigenous writer with a chapbook in progress, to support the completion of said project.
All applications will be read by members of our editorial board. One writer will be selected, who will then work with Sundress’s reading series coordinator, residency team and editorial board.
Applicants may apply with any genre; however, the proposed project must be chapbook-length, meaning the planned final version should be no more than 48 pages.
TO APPLY: Please send a sample of the chapbook in progress along with a brief (no more than 500 words) artist/personal statement. These items should be sent to our editorial board as DOCX or PDF files at sundresspublications@gmail.com. Please include the phrase “Light Bill Incubator Microgrant Application” in the subject line. There is no fee to apply.
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CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: ‘AWAKE’ PRINT ZINE
Lucky Jefferson
DEADLINE: October 31, 2022
INFO: Awake is a digital zine and collection of work by Black authors that explores the power we each hold. For the very first time, Awake will be in print!
Use the prompt below to complete your submission:
The West is under attack! Protect your frontier and deliver your ‘isms [alive] to collect your bounty!
While the frontier is often typecast through an old western lens, your frontier can be whatever setting or undiscovered territory you want to explore. This can be a place near to you or a place not yet imagined.
Your frontier is boundless, without boundaries or borders that limit where or how far your writing can go. Think modern westerns (Greg Neri’s adaption Concrete Cowboy), cross-genre (Jordan Peele’s Nope), or even traditional/revisionist western (Jeymes Samuel’s The Harder They Fall). Leave no ‘ism’ unturned or territory underexplored. Whether through the region, era, or genre, there are no restrictions defining what, when, or where your frontier exists. Just show us, How the West Was (or still is) Black.
HOW TO COLLECT YOUR BOUNTY:
Choose your bounty (see below)
Document your western encounter with an ‘ism (racism, homophobia, etc.)
Turn in your bounty via Submittable
BOUNTIES (MONEY YOU EARN):
$15 — Haiku, Short Poems (<14 lines), Micro Fiction (under 100-300 words)
SUBMIT UP TO 3 PIECES PER UPLOAD
$25 — Prose, Short Story, Flash fiction, Creative-Nonfiction (under 1000 words)
SUBMIT NO MORE THAN 1 PIECE PER UPLOAD
$50 — Hybrid, Experimental, Essays, Long-form pieces. (under 2000 words)
SUBMIT NO MORE THAN 1 PIECE PER UPLOAD
$50 — All Artwork (includes comics, paintings, etc.)
SUBMIT UP TO 3 PIECES PER UPLOAD
Poems, essays, flash fiction, creative nonfiction, and art should illustrate which bounty you wish to collect.
Upon acceptance, submissions will be included on our website, in print, and will be eligible to be publicized on social media.
Accepted authors will receive a payout of $15, $25, or $50, each accepted submission, depending on which bounties are collected.
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PRUFER POETRY PRIZE
Pleiades
DEADLINE: October 31, 2022 at 11:59pm CT
ENTRY FEE: $20 (Fee waived for all BIPOC writers)
INFO: Pleiades is accepting submissions for the Prufer Poetry Prize during the month of October. The winner will receive $1,000 and publication in an upcoming issue of Pleiades: Literature in Context.
JUDGE: Joy Priest is the author of Horsepower (Pitt Poetry Series 2020), winner of the Donald Hall Prize for Poetry, and the editor of Once a City Said: A Louisville Poets’ Anthology, forthcoming from Sarabande Books, Spring 2023. She is the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Fine Arts Work Center, and the winner of the Stanley Kunitz Memorial Prize from the American Poetry Review. Her work has appeared in the Academy of American Poets Poem-a-Day series, and The Atlantic, among others, as well as in commissions for the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH) and the Los Angeles County Museum of Arts (LACMA). She is currently an MD Anderson Foundation Fellow in Literature & Creative Writing at the University of Houston.
TO PAY for your submission: Please visit this link to pay the $20 entry fee. Make note of your order number, which you will include in your submission.
TO SUBMIT: Poets may submit 1-3 poems for a $20 entry fee between October 1-31. 1-3 poems should not exceed 10 pages. Please visit pleiadessubmissions.com to submit. ***Please select “Prufer Poetry Prize” under “genre” or your submission will not be read. Please include your order number in the comments section of your submission (BIPOC writers need not include an order number). Please do not include any identifying information on the submission document or PDF.
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CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: LGBTQ+ WRITERS
Foglifter
DEADLINE: November 1, 2022
INFO: Foglifter is a biannual compendium of the most dynamic, urgent queer and trans writing today. It’s a space where LGBTQ+ writers celebrate, mourn, rage, and embrace.
Foglifter welcomes daring and thoughtful work by queer and trans writers in all forms, and we are especially interested in cross-genre, intersectional, marginal, and transgressive work. We want the pieces that challenged you as a writer, what you poured yourself into and risked the most to make. But we also want your tenderest, gentlest work, what you hold closest to your heart. Whatever you're working on now that's keeping you alive and writing, Foglifter wants to read it.
What does that look like? Check out some writing we love from our recent issues:
“from Okazaki Fragments,” by Kanika Agrawal
“Dykes in a Tub,” by D. Arthur
“Zulum,” by Fargo Tbakhi
“INWARD ASPECT,” by Chekwube Danladi
“Magical Faggot as Cinematic Study,” by Dez Deshaies
EDITORIAL STATEMENT:
We provide a path to representation for a broad selection of LGBTQ+ voices, centering queer and trans literary artists of color, youth, elders, and those beyond traditional LGBTQ+ cultural centers so that our readers and audiences can see their own experiences authentically represented through queer and trans literary arts.
We believe that queer and trans people must curate our own artistic discourses and we curate with a commitment to not perpetuate harm in our communities and recognize our responsibilities as editors to uplift the voices of queer and trans people while not punching down on those of us who live at the intersection of multiple oppressed identities.
GUIDELINES:
Title your submission with the title of the work(s) you are submitting (separated by commas).
Include a 50-word or less bio (with pronouns after your name, please!) in your cover letter. (If accepted, we will request an author photo; JPG or PNG files are best.)
We accept the following unpublished unsolicited submissions:
3 to 5 poems (max 5 pages)
up to 7500 words of fiction or nonfiction (up to three flash fiction pieces)
up to 20 pages of cross-genre work, text-image hybrids, or drama
All submissions must be uploaded as one DOC or DOCX file using the following titling convention: First_Last_Foglifter (i.e., Audre_Lorde_Foglifter)
We accept simultaneous submissions; however, please withdraw your piece immediately if it is accepted elsewhere (or, if you only need to withdraw part of a submission, send us a message in Submittable).
Only one submission per genre is permitted each reading period.
We do not accept previously published material.
If we've recently accepted your work, please wait two reading periods (1 year) to submit again.
Contributors receive two copies of the issue in which they appear and a $50 honorarium (via PayPal).
foglifter.submittable.com/submit
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NYSCA/NYFA Artists with Disabilities Grant
DEADLINE: November 1, 2022
INFO: The NYSCA/NYFA Artists with Disabilities Grant program will distribute one-time cash grants of $1,000 to artists with a disability who have experienced financial hardship due to the COVID-19 crisis to cover art related expenses. The grant will be open to visual, media, music, performing, literary, and multidisciplinary artists who live in New York State outside of the five boroughs of NYC.
Applicants will need to be practicing artists and be able to demonstrate an ongoing commitment to their arts practice and career. Applicants should be able to demonstrate that they have participated, created, or maintained their artistic practice and provide documentation from any time over the past 4 years (2018 to date). Applicants are encouraged to share a past public engagement such as an exhibition, show, community-based program, performance, or other public presentation of the artist’s work within their application. Only those who are current New York State residents outside the five boroughs of NYC and have maintained residency for a minimum of twelve months will be considered.
Grant recipients will not be made public, and personal information will never be disclosed or publicized without prior consent.
This program is made possible through New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Governor’s Office and the New York State Legislature.
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SHEARING FELLOWSHIP
Black Mountain Institute
DEADLINE: November 1, 2022 at 11:59pm PT
INFO: The Beverly Rogers, Carol C. Harter Black Mountain Institute hosts residential fellowships every academic year. Visiting fellows join a community of writers and scholars in a thriving literary scene in Las Vegas and on the campus of UNLV; they are supported by individuals and groups that share the commitment to bringing writers and the literary imagination into the heart of public life.
For emerging and distinguished writers who have published at least one book with a trade or literary press, this fellowship includes:
compensation of $20,000 paid over a four-month period;
a semester-long letter of appointment;
eligibility for optional health coverage;
office space in the BMI offices on the campus of UNLV;
housing (fellows cover some utilities) in a unique and vibrant arts complex in the bustling district of downtown Las Vegas—home to The Writer’s Block, our city’s beloved independent bookstore; and
recognition at BMI as a “Shearing Fellow.”
While there are no formal teaching requirements, this is a “working fellowship” located in Las Vegas. BMI’s visiting fellows will maintain an in-office presence of 10 hours a week, along with 10 hours of service to the community. In addition to the primary goal of furthering one’s own writing during their term in Las Vegas, visiting fellows are expected to engage in a substantial way with BMI’s community, in ways that connect to their interests and skills. Upon acceptance into the program, each fellow will craft a plan in partnership with BMI. Here are some examples of activities a visiting fellow might pursue:
Offer readings, craft talks, and other public presentations to the readers and writers of UNLV and Southern Nevada.
Curate an event or program.
Contribute original work (i.e. a work of fiction, nonfiction, or poetry) to one of BMI’s publications.
Provide support to one of BMI’s publications(e.g. judge contests or consult on editorial processes).
APPLICATION DETAILS:
Please submit:
A one- to three-page personal statement, which includes 1) your interest in being part of the Las Vegas literary community, 2) a practical description of how you envision fulfilling your service hours and engaging the Las Vegas community, and 3) the writing project(s) you will work on while in residency.
A writing sample (10 pages maximum, double-spaced, 12 pt.).
A résumé or CV.
Finalists will be asked to send copies of their books. (Applicants must have at least one book published by a trade press.) Candidates are selected by a committee comprised of staff and community members at BMI.