call for submissions: 2025 CSP New Works Fest
Conch Shell Productions
DEADLINE: October 3, 2025
SUBMISSION FEE: $0
INFO: At Conch Shell Productions our mission is to infuse new Caribbean Diaspora and Caribbean voices into American theatre and film. We create transformative spaces for authentic storytelling and cultural exchange, where Caribbean heritage artists can own their narratives and audiences can connect deeply with their work.
We are accepting submissions of one act plays written by Caribbean heritage writers - Minimum length: 10 minutes. Max length 30 minutes.
CSP New Works Fest theme for this year - Unbound Voices
Venue: HB Studio Playwrights Theatre 122 Bank Street, New York, New York
(This event is hosted in partnership with HB Studio)
Fest Dates:
Tech - Dec 1-2, 2025
Performance - Dec 4, 5 & 6, 2025
Selected plays will be presented as part of a program of one acts present on Dec 4, 5, &/or 6.
Up to two performances per production (depending on play length).
👉 Note: CSP New Works Fest is a presenting platform. Selected productions must be fully produced and financed by the creative team (producer, playwright, collaborators, etc.).
All accepted productions will receive:
PR and marketing support
30-minute tech rehearsal, one dress rehearsal (same day)
Festival SM
Free photographic documentation of the performance
Please note:
Plays should BE WRITTEN BY CARIBBEAN HERITAGE WRITER (to align with your mission).
Scripts must be original, and unpublished.
Cast size should be manageable for a festival setting (e.g., small-to-medium cast)
Technical needs Plays will be presented in curated programs (3–4 works per program). Please note that transitions between pieces will be brief, so productions should be designed for quick and efficient changeovers.
We accept one proposal from each playwright.
ONCE WE RECEIVE 50 SUBMISSIONS, THE SUBMISSION PORTAL WILL CLOSE.
NOTIFICATION OF ACCEPTANCE: OCT 20, 2025
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2025 JOHN LEWIS WRITING GRANTS
Georgia Writers Association
DEADLINE: October 10, 2025, at 11:59 pm ET
SUBMISSION FEE: $0
INFO: The Georgia Writers Association's John Lewis Writing Grants are inspired by the late civil rights icon and his more than three decades of service as Georgia’s 5th District representative. The John Lewis Writing Grants will be awarded annually in the categories of fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and screen/playwriting.
The purpose of the John Lewis Writing Grants is to elevate, encourage, and inspire the voices of promising Black writers in Georgia. Applicants must be emerging writers who are Black or African-American residents of Georgia for at least one year, or full-time students at a Georgia college or university at the time of application and on the date of the award. Writers who are eligible may apply annually but may only win the John Lewis Grant one time.
GRANT: The winning recipients will receive $500, and an invitation to read from their work at the next Red Clay Writers Conference.
QUALIFICATIONS: Applicants must be at least 18 years of age and emerging writers who are Black or African-American residents of Georgia for at least one year, or full-time students at a Georgia college or university at the time of application and on the date of the award. Applicants are ineligible if they have published more than one traditionally published book. Promising writers without publication will be considered. Writers who are eligible may apply annually but may only win a grant once. There is no submission fee to enter. Applicants are ineligible if they are of relations to any of the Georgia Writers staff or board of directors.
GUIDELINES:
Writers may apply in only one genre and must submit the following:
A completed grant application
An artist statement of 500 words (max.) as a concise description of your work and goals as a writer. Tell us what inspires your writing career, and how your work engages (directly or indirectly) with the legacy of John Lewis.
A writing sample of 10 pages (max.) of a published or unpublished piece in the genre in which you are applying: fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, or screen/playwriting. If submitting poetry, one poem per page please.
*Do not include your name or any identifying information in the writing sample.
georgiawritersassociation.submittable.com/submit/333082/2025-john-lewis-writing-grants
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call for submissions: 1.1 Foglifter Online Exclusive: Body Politics
Foglifter
DEADLINE: October 15, 2026
INFO: As Foglifter revitalizes our website and digital production, we are interested in creating and holding space for works that may not fit within the constraints of our print edition. We are now accepting submissions for our new Online Exclusive Issue dedicated to showcasing queer voices across a wide spectrum of creative forms.
As always, we are seeking art that aligns with our mission of promoting queer, transgressive, and original work. The themes will change from issue to issue. For 1.1, our theme is Body Politics. Bodies are sites of power, protest, pleasure, oppression, transformation, and resistance. They are legislated, labeled, liberated, and loved. In a world where bodies are constantly scrutinized, marginalized, and controlled—especially queer, trans, fat, disabled, racialized, and reproductive bodies—we want to create a space for work that responds, reclaims, and reimagines.
Please submit work that engages with themes that may include gender expression and transition, reproductive justice, disability and chronic illness, surveillance and censorship, body modification culture, fat liberation and anti-ableism, queer desire and sexuality, the racialized body, and performance and protest. We invite works that grapple with the political, personal, and cultural dimensions of the queer body.
Pieces must be original, unpublished work in genres including, but not limited to: poetry, fiction, nonfiction, drama, comics, visual art, scripts, and multimedia (video, audio, music, interactive pieces, experimental work, etc.) that align with the current issue’s theme.
This online exclusive issue will be published as a winter issue on our website. We’re especially interested in pieces that experiment with form, push boundaries, and reflect the complexity, joy, rage, beauty, and multiplicity of the queer experience.
WHY ONLINE EXCLUSIVE?
Our print publication has limits—page counts, dimensions, ink. This digital issue is a space without borders. We want to uplift work that can’t—or won’t—fit in print: multimedia projects, audio pieces, visual art, and performance pieces that demand to be seen and heard in digital space.
GENERAL SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:
We accept only first rights to publication.
We do accept simultaneous submissions, however please withdraw pieces that have been accepted elsewhere.
Please include a short bio, description of your work, any past publications, and applicable trigger warnings in your cover letter.
Visual and [multi]media work must be web-viewable—please include links or uploads through Submittable and include content warnings if applicable
GENRE SPECIFIC GUIDELINES:
Please submit up to 5 pieces
For video and audio submissions, please limit to 5 minutes
We accept art created via all mediums (except AI -- no AI art submissions). This includes, but is not limited to, photography, painting, digital, ink, pencil, collage, etc.
Acceptable file types: .jpg, .jpeg, .gif, .tif, .tiff, .png, .svg, .pdf, .doc, .docx, .txt, .rtf, .odt, .mp3, .m4a, .wav, .mp4, .mov, .avi, .mpg, .3gp, .wmv
All applicable artworks submitted will be considered for cover art for the online exclusive issue
We love experimental work, feel free to submit hybrid forms that blend genres
For grant purposes, we cannot consider submissions that do not include a completed demographic survey with their submission
Foglifter aims to reflect the vibrant diversity of the LGBTQ+ literary community in our award-winning journal. Fill out our anonymized Demographics Survey to be considered for publication—then take a screenshot of the thank-you screen at the end and attach it along with your submission.
foglifter.submittable.com/submit
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Art Omi: Writers Residency
Art Omi
DEADLINE: October 15, 2025
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 select a residency of approximately one month in either the spring or autumn, with ten writers at a time gathering 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 brings 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. We have some limited travel funds available for those who find it a barrier to participating in the program, reviewed on a case-by-case basis. Please contact Emma Ramadan, Art Omi: Writers Residency Program Director, at eramadan@artomi.org for more details.
Notable alumni include:
Joseph O'Neill author of Netherland, which won the Pen/Faulkner Award
Aleksander Hemon, author of The Question of Bruno, recipient of a "genius grant" from the MacArthur Foundation
Gary Shteyngart, bestselling author of The Russian Debutante's Handbook, Absurdistan, and Super Sad True Love Story
Susan Choi, bestselling author of American Woman and inaugural recipient of the PEN/W.G. Sebald Award.
Goce Smilevski, author of Freud's Sister, which won the European Union Prize for Literature
Jan Brandt, bestselling author of Gegen Die Welt (Against the World)
Buket Uzuner, international bestselling author of Istanbulians
James Hannaham, author of Delicious Foods, which won the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Hurston-Wright Award.
Colum McCann, author of Let the Great World Spin which won the National Book Award
Kiran Desai, bestselling author of Inheritance of Loss, which won the Man Booker Prize
Shehan Karunatilaka, author of Chinaman: The Legend of Pradeep Matthew, which won the Commonwealth Prize
Mikhail Shishkin, bestselling author of The Taking of Izmail, which won the Russian Booker Prize
TRANSLATION LAB:
In September Art Omi: Writers hosts an annual Translation Lab, in which English language translators are invited to work alongside the writers whose work they translate. The focused residency provides an integral stage of refinement, allowing translators to dialogue with the writers about text-specific questions.
Following in the tradition of the Art Omi: Writers residency as started by Heinrich Maria Ledig-Rowohlt, the Translation Lab emphasizes translation as a means towards cultural exchange. It serves as an essential community builder for English language translators who are working to increase the amount of international literature available to American readers, as it is currently estimated that less than three percent of all books published in the United States are translated works.
The residency is a rare and unique opportunity for writers and their translators to work together, considering that most writers never meet their translators in person. All text-based projects—fiction, nonfiction, theater, film, poetry, etc.—are eligible.
ACCOMODATIONS + FACILITIES:
Art Omi is located two and a half hours north of New York City in the historic Hudson River Valley. Named for the hamlet of Omi, which is within the town of Ghent, New York, Art Omi is also near to Albany and Hudson, which offer train connections thirty or fifteen minutes' drive from campus, respectively.
The facilities, situated on three hundred acres of open land, include a large two-story barn with indoor studios; contemporary residence buildings designed with a vernacular reference to local barns, surrounded by abundant perennial beds, expansive lawns dotted with fruit trees, adjacent to The Sculpture and Architecture Park. Residents receive private bedroom accommodations with shared bathrooms and common areas.
A Federal Period farm house serves as a gathering center, providing a full kitchen and library; while the front porch overlooks rolling hills and the majestic outline of the Catskill Range. A swimming pool, bicycles, WiFi access and a computer with printing capability is available on the premises.
Columbia County, and the nearby Berkshire Mountains, are popular destinations because of their historical, natural and cultural riches. From bird sanctuaries to modern dance, presidential mansions to farmer’s markets, the environs offer a singular blend of rural quiet and cultural stimulation. Staff and friends in the neighborhood are often available for excursions of interest to residents. The local library has a modest collection, but is a member of the Mid-Hudson group, calling on the resources of libraries within much of eastern New York.
TIMELINE:
Decision Notification: January 2026
RESIDENCY DATES:
Art Omi: Writers 2026 takes place over four sessions, two in the Spring and two in the Autumn.
SPRING 2026
Spring Session One: Wednesday, April 1–Monday, April 27
Spring Session Two: Thursday, April 30–Tuesday, May 26
AUTUMN 2026
Session One: Thursday, September 24–Thursday, October 15
Session Two: Wednesday, October 21–Wednesday, November 18
Art Omi: Translation Lab 2026 takes place from Wednesday, September 9–Monday, September 21. Please note, a separate open call only for Translation Lab will run in early 2026.
artomi.org/residencies/writers/
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CALL FOR DRAMA/PERFORMANCE SCRIPT
Obsidian
DEADLINE: October 16, 2025
INFO: Submit one act or a collection of short scenes no longer than twenty (20) pages in the Samuel French format. Excerpts of longer works are welcome if self-contained.
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call for submissions: Raise the Page, Uplift the Word: A BIPOC Festival of Short Plays
Abingdon Theatre Company (NYC)
DEADLINE: October 31, 2025 at 11:59pm
INFO: Abingdon Theatre Company is seeking playwrights, directors, and actors for its sixth annual Raise the Page, Uplift the Word: A BIPOC Festival of Short Plays in collaboration with AMT Theater. Abingdon Theatre Company continues to be committed to creating opportunities for all voices to be heard. With this in mind, ATC is thrilled to open submissions for our sixth annual festival of short plays; a festival shedding light on stories by people of color.
The festival will take place March 9-10, 2026 at AMT Theater (345 West 45th Street).
SUBMISSIONS:
Please read the following in full before submitting:
Playwrights: Short play submissions should be unpublished and no longer than 40 pages, written by BIPOC individuals. Plays should not have been previously presented to New York audiences. We are accepting applications from artists from all experience levels, locations, and ages. Please limit your submission to one play per playwright.
Directors: Seeking BIPOC directors for our festival of short plays. Please ensure you are available for the in-person festival in New York City from March 9-10, 2026.
Actors: Seeking actors of all ethnicities for our festival of short plays. Please ensure you are available for the in-person festival in New York City from March 9-10, 2026.
Should you have any questions, please email kbell@abingdontheatre.org.