FICTION / NONFICTION — SEPTEMBER 2024

CHANGEMAKER AUTHORS COHORT 

Narrative Initiative / Unicorn Authors Club

DEADLINE: Extended to September 3, 2024

INFO: The Changemaker Authors Cohort is a yearlong intensive coaching program supporting full-time movement organizers and social justice practitioners to complete books that create deep, durable narrative change to restructure the way people feel, think, and respond to the world.

To help create new networks of opportunity, Narrative Initiative partnered with the Unicorn Authors Club to offer this unique writing cohort for Changemaker Authors. Our first Changemaker Authors Cohort launched in early-2022; the 2023-2024 Cohort began on November 2023. Applications are opening June 1st for the 2025 Cohort. 

The Changemaker Authors Cohort supports those working towards racial, economic, and social justice to write and publish books that create durable narrative change. This can include books that are about communities establishing and using their power through organizing and activism, as well as those contributing to the plurality of voices in the broader artistic and cultural discourse. Visit the cohort pages for 2022 and 2024 to get a sense of some of the projects supported within this program. 

This 12-month virtual program begins on March 1, 2025 and supports cohort members to make significant progress with their project at the end of each 4-month term. This can include manuscript completion or having a submittable manuscript or proposal ready for an agent or publisher, through coaching, regular writing cafés, craft talks, and resources about crafting stories and the publishing industry. 

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about the upcoming Cohort year can be found here

Please email (changemakerauthor@narrativeinitiative.org) for any additional questions about the Changemaker Authors Cohort  application or the program.

narrativeinitiative.org/changemaker-authors-program/

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CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: ESSAYS — PERSONAL NARRATIVES

Electric Literature

SUBMISSION PERIOD: September 3 - 17, 2024 (or when they reach a cap of 750 submissions)

INFO: Calling all essay writers! Electric Lit is seeking personal narrative submissions.

GUIDELINES:

  • Submissions must be full drafts of personal essays submitted via Submittable

  • While there are no restrictions on form or subject matter, submissions should center narrative and consider what it means to essay; in other words, write to interrogate, investigate, adventure, and introspect

  • Submissions must be between 2,000 and 6,500 words in length

  • Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but please let us know immediately if a submission is accepted elsewhere

  • Previously published work will not be considered

  • Response time is approximately six to eight months

  • Writers may submit once per submission period, but writers can have active submissions across other EL categories. (This does not apply to year-round submitting members. For more information on member submissions, please refer to the welcome email you received when you signed up as member, or email wynter@electricliterature.com.)

  • Upon acceptance, we can offer authors $100 for publishing rights, with 90-day exclusivity

  • For more information on what we’re looking for, please watch our salon on EL’s General Nonfiction Program

electricliterature.submittable.com/submit

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Winter Writers’ Retreat for Storytellers of Color

Roots. Wounds. Words.

DEADLINE: September 8, 2024

INFO: The Roots. Wounds. Words. Winter Writers’ Retreat for Storytellers of Color is a sacred space wherein BIPOC stories are celebrated, and BIPOC storytellers immersed in liberation. At the Writers’ Retreat, Storytellers receive literary arts instruction offered by award-winning BIPOC writers in the fields of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, speculative fiction, and young adult fiction.

In January 2025, Roots. Wounds. Words. Fellows will commune online where they will workshop their literary art, perform their work, participate in BIPOC-centered healing and liberation modalities, as well as receive literary arts pedagogy from renowned BIPOC storytellers.

To attend this offering, submit an application through our online system. Prior writing experience is insignificant. Whether you’ve attended a writing workshop before or not holds no weight. All applicants are judged on the merits of their full application, which includes an artistic statement, bio, and writing sample.

Our Writers’ Retreat provides BIPOC storytellers with a transformative opportunity to push your pen, strengthen your craft, access literary art professionals, rest and restore, and build the tribe you need to support your writing goals.

The Roots. Wounds. Words. Writers’ Retreat is for Us.

RETREAT LOCATION: Online / Virtual

RETREAT DATES: January 5 - January 11, 2025

TUITION: $1,500 (partial scholarships and payment plans are available)

2025 WINTER WRITERS’ RETREAT FACULTY:

  • FICTION FACULTY - Jamil Jan Kochai (he/him) is the author of The Haunting of Hajji Hotak and Other Stories, a finalist for the 2022 National Book Award and a winner of the 2023 Aspen Words Literary Prize and the 2023 Clark Fiction Prize. His debut novel 99 Nights in Logar was a finalist for the Pen/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel and the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature. His short stories have appeared in The New Yorker, Ploughshares, Zoetrope, The O. Henry Prize Stories, and The Best American Short Stories. His essays have been published at The New Yorker, The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times. Kochai was a Hodder Fellow at Princeton University, a Stegner Fellow at Stanford University, and a Truman Capote Fellow at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. He teaches creative writing at California State University, Sacramento.

  • NONFICTION FACULTY - Nadia Owusu (she/her) is a Brooklyn-based writer and urbanist. Her memoir, Aftershocks, was selected as a best book of 2021 by over a dozen publications, including Time, Vogue, Esquire, and the BBC, and has been translated into five languages. It was a New York Times Editors’ Choice pick, named one of Barack Obama’s favorite books of the year, and selected by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai for her Literati book club. Nadia is the winner of a Whiting Award in nonfiction. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Orion, Granta, The Paris Review Daily, The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, Bon Appétit, Travel + Leisure, and others. She teaches creative writing at Columbia University and at the Mountainview MFA program and is the Director of Storytelling at Frontline Solutions.

  • POETRY FACULTY - porsha olayiwola is a native of chicago who writes, lives and organizes in boston, where she is the current poet laureate. olayiwola is a writer, performer, educator and curator who uses afro-futurism and surrealism to examine historical and current issues in the black, woman, and queer diasporas. she is an individual world poetry slam champion and the founder of the roxbury poetry festival. porsha olayiwola is currently teaching in her role as assistant professor of poetry at Emerson College. she is the author of i shimmer sometimes, too. her work can be found in or forthcoming from with triquarterly magazine, black warrior review, the boston globe, essence magazine, redivider, split this rock, the nba, the academy of american poets, netflix, wilderness press, the museum of fine arts and elsewhere.

  • SPECULATIVE FICTION FACULTY - Andrea Hairston (she/her) is a novelist, playwright, and L. Wolff Kahn 1931 Professor Emerita of Theatre and Africana Studies at Smith College. Novels: Archangels of Funk; Will Do Magic For Small Change, a New York Times Editor’s pick and finalist for the Mythopoeic, Lambda, and Otherwise Awards; Redwood and Wildfire, Otherwise and Carl Brandon Award winner; Master of Poisons on the 2020 Kirkus Review’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy; and Mindscape, Carl Brandon Award winner. Her short fiction appears in So Long Been Dreaming: Postcolonial Visions of the Future; New Suns: Original Speculative Fiction by People of Color; Trouble the Waters and Lightspeed Magazine. Plays and essays appear in Lonely Stardust.

rootswoundswords.org/2025-winterretreat

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MACDOWELL FELLOWSHIP

MacDowell

DEADLINE: September 10, 2024

INFO: About 300 artists in seven disciplines are awarded Fellowships each year and the sole criterion for acceptance is artistic excellence. There are no residency fees, and need-based stipends and travel reimbursement grants are available to open the residency to the broadest possible community of artists. 

MacDowell encourages applications from artists of all backgrounds and all countries in the following disciplines: architecture, film/video arts, interdisciplinary arts, literature, music composition, theatre, and visual arts. Any applicant whose proposed project does not fall clearly within one of these artistic disciplines should contact the admissions department for guidance. We aim to be inclusive, not exclusive in our admissions process.

macdowell.org/apply/apply-for-fellowship

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PRINCETON ARTS FELLOWSHIPS

Lewis Center for the Arts

DEADLINE: September 10, 2024 at 11:59pm ET

INFO: Princeton Arts Fellowships, funded in part by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, David E. Kelley Society of Fellows in the Arts, and the Maurice R. Greenberg Scholarship Fund, will be awarded to artists whose achievements have been recognized as demonstrating extraordinary promise in any area of artistic practice and teaching. Applicants should be early career visual artists, filmmakers, poets, novelists, playwrights, designers, directors and performance artists—this list is not meant to be exhaustive—who would find it beneficial to spend two years teaching and working in an artistically vibrant university community.

Princeton Arts Fellows spend two consecutive academic years (September 1-July 1) at Princeton University and formal teaching is expected. The normal work assignment will be to teach one course each semester subject to approval by the Dean of the Faculty, but fellows may be asked to take on an artistic assignment in lieu of a class, such as directing a play or creating a dance with students. Although the teaching load is light, our expectation is that Fellows will be full and active members of our community, committed to frequent and engaged interactions with students during the academic year.

A $92,000 a year stipend is provided. Fellowships are not intended to fund work leading to an advanced degree. One need not be a U.S. citizen to apply. Holders of Ph.D. degrees from Princeton are not eligible to apply.

Past recipients of the Hodder Fellowship and individuals who have had a sustained and continuous relationship with Princeton University are not eligible to apply. Those who have had an occasional and sporadic relationship with Princeton may apply.

To apply, please submit a curriculum vitae, contact information for three references (should the search committee choose to contact references, please do not request letters or have letters sent in advance of a request from the search committee), and work samples (i.e., a writing sample, images of your work, video links to performances, etc.). Please also submit a 750-word proposal that includes how you would hope to use the two years of the fellowship to develop your work, how you would contribute to Princeton’s arts community through teaching and/or production, and how you have encouraged diversity and inclusion and furthered accessibility in your artistic practice, teaching, and/or research.

Applicants can only apply for the Princeton Arts Fellowship twice in a lifetime.

arts.princeton.edu/fellowships/princeton-arts-fellowship/

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The WNDB Mentorship Program

We Need Diverse Books

DEADLINE: September 15, 2024

INFO: The WNDB Mentorship Program aims to support writers and illustrators by pairing them with an experienced professional in the field. Our mentors work one-on-one with a mentee and their completed draft of a manuscript over the course of a year, offering advice to improve craft and to better understand the publishing industry.

For 2025, WNDB is offering fifteen mentorships split among the following categories: Picture Book Text (PB), Middle Grade (MG), Young Adult (YA); and Illustration (IL).

The winners will communicate with their mentor for approximately one year in a mentor/mentee custom-defined program, and the mentorship period will run from January to December 2025.

Applicants are encouraged to research our 2025 mentors to figure out who would be the best fit. You can find their professional bios and mentor statements on our website.

diversebooks.org/programs/mentorship-program/

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VCCA RESIDENCY

Virginia Center for the Creative Arts

DEADLINE: September 15, 2024

APPLICATION FEE: $30

INFO: Residencies can be transformative to an artist’s process and the effect on an artist’s career profound. A residency at VCCA gives artists the time and space to explore and go deeper into their work. Away from the constraints of “the real world” and in an accepting environment of talented peers, one can dream and create with the feeling that anything is possible.

VCCA’s Mt. San Angelo location in Amherst, Virginia, typically hosts 360 artists each year in residencies of varying lengths (no minimum; up to six weeks) with flexible scheduling. A residency at Mt. San Angelo includes a private bedroom with private en-suite bath, a private individual studio, three prepared meals a day, and access to a community of more than 20 other artists in residence.

Nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, VCCA is surrounded by natural wonders and hiking trails. Many local sites and additional inspiration can be found in short drives to Lynchburg (20 minutes), Charlottesville (1 hour), Roanoke (1.5 hours), or Richmond (2 hours).

SELECTION PROCESS: VCCA Fellows are selected by peer review on the basis of professional achievement or promise of achievement in their respective fields. Separate review panels are created for each category (poetry, fiction, nonfiction, playwriting/screenwriting, children’s literature, performance, film/video, book arts, drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, installation art, music composition, etc.). Panelists undergo periodic review and rotate regularly to ensure VCCA admission decisions are guided by high caliber artists who represent a diversity of styles and tastes.

All VCCA residency and fellowship applications are accepted online via SlideRoom. The standard application fee is $30. If the application fee presents a significant barrier to application, artists should reach out to Artists Services at vcca@vcca.com to request an application fee waiver at least five days before the deadline.

FELLOWSHIPS / FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE: A variety of fully-funded fellowship opportunities are available at each application deadline. In addition, significant financial assistance is available throughout the year.

vcca.com/apply/residencies-at-vcca/

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The People of Color in Publishing Mentorship Program

People of Color in Publishing

DEADLINE: September 15, 2024

INFO: The People of Color in Publishing Mentorship Program is a volunteer-based initiative that aims to create mentorship relationships between entry-level and experienced-level POC industry professionals. The initiative’s goal is to provide entry-level POC professionals a personal resource for support, guidance, and encouragement, as they begin to navigate a career in publishing.

The mentorship program lasts for 6 months, beginning January, with each mentor/mentee pair determining the scheduling, pace, structure, and circumstances of their mentorship. Mentors are asked to spend at least an hour per month one-on-one (whether by phone, Skype, gchat, or in person) with their mentee in order to provide the kind of attention and information they can put to good use in their careers. This amounts to a total commitment of 6 hours between the mentor and mentee across the 6 month mentorship period.

Each pair is assigned one member of the subcommittee as their point person, who will be there to give guidance, advice, and to take feedback and address concerns. We welcome any and all comments that may help us improve and refine this program so that it truly works to combat the disproportionate lack of POCs in the publishing industry.

pocinpublishing.com/mentorship

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PIGEON PAGES FLASH CONTEST

Pigeon Pages

DEADLINE: September 15, 2024

INFO: Submit to Pigeon Pages’ Flash Contest!

Previously unpublished fiction and nonfiction pieces of 850 words or less are eligible for this contest.

PRIZE: The winning author will receive $250 and publication in Pigeon Pages.

JUDGE: Rachel Lyon is the author of Self-Portrait with Boy, a finalist for the Center for Fiction's 2018 First Novel Prize, and Fruit of the Dead, an NEPM (New England Public Media) Book Club pick, which The New York Times called “superb” and “refreshing.” Rachel’s short work has appeared in One Story, The Rumpus, Electric Literature, and elsewhere. A cofounder of Ditmas Lit (Brooklyn, NY) and The Dream Away Reading Series (Becket, MA), and a creative writing instructor for various institutions, most recently Bennington College, Rachel has been appointed the 2024 Paris Writer in Residence by the Paris School of Arts and Culture, the American University of Paris, and the Centre Culturel Irlandais. She lives with her husband and two young children in Western Massachusetts.

pigeonpagesnyc.com/flash-contest-2024

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Call for Papers: Special Issue on Puerto Rican Migration: 
Diasporic Puerto Rican Communities in Transformation

CENTRO Journal

DEADLINE: September 15, 2024

INFO: This special issue of CENTRO Journal aims to acknowledge, document, and examine Puerto Rican migration to traditional and non-traditional destinations of migration, and the transformations/changes undergone by emerging, maturing, and declining communities resulting from these new patterns of migration. 

Recent decades have witnessed economic, political, ecological, and socio-demographic changes that have engulfed Puerto Rico, with out-migration a common response to such transformations. While the Puerto Rican diaspora was once concentrated in New York City and Chicago, Puerto Ricans from the States and the archipelago continue to migrate to non-traditional destinations across the country, with the current majority residing in Florida. In the last decade, states like Georgia, Ohio, and North Carolina have experienced significant growth in their Puerto Rican population. 

Cascading events in the past two decades such as the expiration of Section 936 tax breaks, a prolonged economic recession, Puerto Rico’s unaudited debt and the subsequent imposition of the Puerto Rican Fiscal Oversight and Management Control Board (la Junta), Hurricanes Irma and Maria, the earthquakes of 2019–2020, and the COVID-19 pandemic, all have contributed to migration. Exploitative labor recruitment of Puerto Ricans from the archipelago by stateside companies continues to draw people away. Concurrently, the Puerto Rican diaspora has grown, and Puerto Rican communities have diversified, though less is known about how Puerto Rican families and communities in the diaspora have become heterogenous through patterns of exogamy, cultural identities, regionalism, social mobility, and other factors. We are interested in papers that examine this heterogeneity and how it manifests itself through the migration experience seen in mobility patterns within and among US states. 

The editors seek papers that use a diversity of approaches and methods to understand the state of Puerto Rican migration and placemaking and its consequences for diasporic communities and Puerto Rican institutions. 

GUEST EDITORS

  • Elizabeth Aranda, University of South Florida

  • Delia Fernández-Jones, Michigan State University

  • Simone Delerme, University of Mississippi

SPECIFIC TOPICS OF INTEREST INCLUDE BUT ARE NOT LIMITED TO THE FOLLOWING:

  • Patterns of settlement and the formation and transformation of Puerto Rican diasporic communities 

  • Labor recruitment that has drawn Puerto Ricans to traditional and non-traditional sectors 

  • Social, cultural, political, and/or economic incorporation in different communities 

  • The impact of factors like race, social class, gender, sexuality, disability, and other identities on migratory experiences 

  • Comparisons to other diasporic communities 

  • Transformations to emerging and/or maturing communities 

  • Relationships and interactions between Puerto Ricans, other Latinos/as/es/xs, and/or other ethnic and racial groups 

  • Residential patterns and homeownership 

  • Various forms of placemaking including but not limited to economic, cultural, and religious 

  • Political and civic engagement at various levels 

  • The effect of return and/or circular migration on diasporic communities

  • The effect of long standing economic and/or colonial policies on new patterns of migration 

POSSIBLE SUBMISSION FORMATS:

Contributors are invited to submit pieces in one of the following formats (with listed word counts, inclusive of references and notes): 

  • Articles (12,000 words) 

  • Short essays/interviews (2,000 words) 

  • Digital humanities projects 

TIMELINE: 

  • Abstract submission deadline: September 15, 2024 

  • Notification of abstract approval: September 30, 2024 

  • Final manuscript submission: December 15, 2024 

  • Publication of this special volume (v. 37, n. 3): winter 2025

ABSTRACT + MANUSCRIPT SUBMISSION DETAILS:

Please send a 250-word abstract of your work and a 50-word bio to the following link (https://bit.ly/centro_journal_fall_2025_abstract). We accept abstracts and manuscripts in English and Spanish. 

Approved manuscript submissions should be uploaded to the following link (https://bit.ly/centro_journal_fall_2025_manuscript). All submissions should follow CENTRO Journal’s style guidelines (https://bit.ly/centro_journal_style_guide) and will be sent out for peer review. Please include a cover letter with your manuscript title, the word count (including references and notes), your full name, a short bio (of no more than 75 words), institutional or organizational affiliation (if applicable), email address, and phone number.

Questions should be addressed to the guest editors Elizabeth Aranda (earanda@usf.edu), Delia Fernández-Jones (dmf@msu.edu), and Simone Delerme (sdelerme@olemiss.edu), or to the journal editor Gustavo Quintero Vera (journal@hunter.cuny.edu).

centropr.hunter.cuny.edu/opportunities/centro-journal-fall-2025/

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2025 Writer - Winter / Spring Residency

Jentel Artist Residency

DEADLINE: September 15, 2024 at noon MST

APPLICATION FEE: $30

ELIGIBILITY Residencies are intended as professional development opportunities for visual artists in all creative disciplines and writers in creative non-fiction, fiction, and poetry. Proposals for self-directed, creative residencies must be compatible with available working studio spaces, facilities, and resources. Artistic merit and promise are the basis for selections. Mature as well as emerging artists are encouraged to apply. Individuals enrolled in a degree program at the time of application are ineligible for residency. Artists and writers over age 25 residing in the United States and US citizens abroad are eligible. Four visual artists and two writer residencies are awarded each session. 

DURATION OF RESIDENCY All residencies start on the 15th of each month and end on the 7th of the next month. No exceptions, please.

CHARACTER STATEMENTS: During the application process, Jentel requests contact information for three (3) individuals who know them on a day-to-day personal basis, are familiar with their creative work habits, and have the ability to engage congenially in small groups. Jentel will be considering these applicants for a residency award. Submittable will generate an email to the three (3) individuals with a link to submit a brief character statement on behalf of the applicant. (Jentel does not accept statements from Inter-Folio.)

AWARDS A rotating panel of experts and professionals in the arts and humanities independently reviews applications and supporting materials. Final awards of residencies are at the discretion of Jentel. In some instances, artists and writers are invited to participate without submitting an application.

COUPLES Couples who are artists or writers may apply individually, understanding that one partner may be accepted and the other may not. Each artist or writer accepted for a residency will be offered a separate studio or workspace. Jentel is unable to invite spouses or partners to accompany artists in residence under any other circumstances.

COLLABORATORS Collaborators may be accepted for a residency; however, both need to submit separate applications along with a joint proposal. Please indicate in the proposal the requirements for the workspace.

REAPPLICATION After five years have lapsed, previous residents may reapply for a residency by submitting a new application with new work and new character statement contacts. Artists who have applied previously may reapply by submitting a new application and a new work sample.

LOCATION The Jentel Artist Residency Program is located on a working cattle ranch 20 miles southeast of Sheridan (Population nearing 20,000). Set in the rolling sage hills along Piney Creek, numerous buildings cluster one of the original ranch houses, which serve as a reception center.  Spectacular views of the Big Horn Mountains are set against an ever-changing backdrop of light and sky. 

FACILITIES Residencies provide time, space, and facilities for research, experimentation, and production of work and ideas in the visual and literary arts. Residents are at liberty to structure their own time and activity. They may choose to maintain their privacy or to engage with other residents and activities at Jentel. Each resident is offered separate living accommodations and workspace. Large, well-lighted studios are equipped with running water and adequate light for late work. Writers need to bring their own writing materials and laptops. Areas inside and outside are reserved for residents. Common spaces include a library, a recreation area, and a great room. A large kitchen adjacent to the living area may be used for food and meal preparation. A weekly stipend is provided to help defray personal expenses.

FINANCIAL SUPPORT A monthly stipend is distributed in three (3) separate installments of $100 at the end of each week in residence. Residents are responsible for their own personal living expenses, food and beverage, supplies, telephone charges, and any expenses related to the production of work during the residency. Travel and shipping expenses to and from the Jentel Artist Residency Program are also the responsibility of the resident.

FEES: There are no fees charged for the residency. The receipt of a $100 reservation deposit is due within two weeks of notification of the residency award and confirms the residency. The reservation deposit is returned during orientation at the residency. When an artist or writer cancels a residency reservation less than two months prior to the beginning of the residency, they waive the return of the reservation deposit. Application fees are non-refundable.

CHILDREN Accommodations for children and family members are not provided.

PETS Pets are not allowed at Jentel.

VISITORS Accommodations for visitors are available in Sheridan, 20 miles northwest of Jentel.

SMOKING/VAPING Jentel is a vape and smoke-free environment.

PRIVACY All application materials and work samples are confidential and retained for the use of the Jentel Artist Residency Program only.

COMMUNITY Although no services are expected of residents during their stay, interaction within the community is welcomed and graciously supported.

Questions?
Please see the Application/FAQs on the website: www.jentelarts.org.

jentelartistresidency.submittable.com/submit 

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HUMAN RESIDENCY FELLOWSHIP

Ragdale / Lake Forest College

DEADLINE: Extended September 15, 2024

APPLICATION FEE: $10

INFO: Ragdale is pleased to announce the HUMAN Residency Fellowship, an exciting new partnership with Lake Forest College made possible by the Mellon Foundation.

This multi-year collaboration invites artists from diverse disciplines to explore the intersection of the humanities, artificial intelligence, and social justice. Ragdale encourages applications from individuals whose work addresses questions about the impact of bias on AI outputs, the influence of dominant historical narratives on current AI technologies, and the ethical considerations for integrating AI into daily life.

ELIGIBILITY: Emerging, midcareer, and established writers, dancers, musicians, composers, and visual artists are encouraged to apply.

AWARD: Ragdale will award the HUMAN Residency Fellowship to 6 artists.  This award includes an initial 6-day Group Residency in spring 2025 (dates TBD) with fellow HUMAN Residency Fellowship recipients and comes with a $1,000 stipend to offset travel and expenses. This AI-themed residency session will be followed by a full, individual, 18-day, fee-waived residency to be scheduled in the subsequent two years (2026 or 2027).

Full residencies are comprised of cohorts of up to 14 multidisciplinary artists working on their own projects. Awardees will receive a second stipend of $3,000 during the 18-day residency. All applicants who apply for the HUMAN Residency Fellowship will be asked to participate in a program, such as a panel talk, visiting artist lecture, workshop, or other related event as part of a culminating AI symposium in 2027. Program details will be determined after the cohort is selected.

The HUMAN residency at Ragdale is part of the Lake Forest College’s $1.2 million grant from the Mellon Foundation for HUMAN: Humanities Understanding of the Machine-Assisted Nexus, led by Professor of English and Executive Director of the Krebs Center for the Humanities, Davis Schneiderman.

GUIDELINES: All applicants submit electronic materials through the Submittable application portal. Do not email or mail any application materials. Please note the following requirements to complete your application.

A completed online application form includes:

  1. A one-page artist statement and proposal. Proposals should describe how a residency would support the applicant’s work in exploring the intersection of the humanities and artificial intelligence (AI) and automation, with an emphasis on questions of equity and social justice.    

  2. A one or two-page CV or resume that summarizes your professional background. 

  3. Work samples that show work from the past 2-3 years. All media is acceptable. Most electronic file types and sizes are accepted. 

PLEASE NOTE: Letters of recommendation are not required nor accepted.

ragdale.submittable.com/submit/293033/2025-human-residency

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2024 Beauchamp Prize in Critical Writing

Gulf Coast

DEADLINE: September 16, 2024

ENTRY FEE: $0

INFO: The Prize invites submissions of expository writing, scholarly essays, and exhibition reviews that have been written–or published–within the last year. 

No specific word count requirement, but our arts publications typically hover around 2,000 words per industry standard. 

Securing image permissions is incurred on the writer and, when relevant, reprint consent if the essay has been previously published.

The Prize is judged anonymously, so please withhold biographic details, including your name, or any contact data in the uploaded document. This information should only be pasted in the “Comments” field.

gulfcoastajournalofliteratureandfinearts.submittable.com/submit

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2025 Guggenheim Fellowships

John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation

DEADLINE: September 17, 2024 by 11:59pm ET

INFO: Guggenheim Fellowships are intended for mid-career individuals who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts and exhibit great promise for their future endeavors.

Fellowships are awarded through an annual competition open to citizens and permanent residents of the United States and Canada. Candidates must apply to the Guggenheim Foundation in order to be considered.

The Foundation receives approximately 3,000 applications each year. No one who applies is guaranteed success in the competition and there is no prescreening; all applications are reviewed. Approximately 175 Fellowships are awarded each year.

During the rigorous selection process, applicants will first be pooled with others working in the same field, and examined by experts in that field. The work of artists will be reviewed by artists, that of scientists by scientists, that of historians by historians, and so on. The Foundation has a network of several hundred advisers, who either meet at the Foundation offices to look at applicants’ work, or receive application materials to read offsite. These advisers, all of whom are Guggenheim Fellows from previous years, then submit reports critiquing and ranking the applications in their respective fields. Their recommendations are then forwarded to and weighed by a Committee of Selection, which then determines the number of awards to be made in each area. Occasionally, no application in a given area is considered strong enough to merit a Fellowship.

We guarantee our advisers and Committee of Selection members, as well as those who submit letters of reference, absolute confidentiality. Therefore, under no circumstances will the reasons for the rejection of an application be provided.

The Committee of Selection then forwards its recommendations to the Board of Trustees for final approval. The successful candidates in the United States and Canada competition are announced in early April.

FAQs:

What are Guggenheim Fellowships?

Guggenheim Fellowships are grants awarded to around 175 selected individuals every year. The purpose of the Guggenheim Fellowship program is to provide Fellows with blocks of time in which they can work with as much creative freedom as possible. As such, grants are made freely, without any special conditions attached to them; Fellows may spend their grant funds in any manner they deem necessary to their work. The United States Internal Revenue Service, however, does require the Foundation to ask for reports from its Fellows at the end of their Fellowship terms.

How does the Foundation define “advanced professional”?

The Foundation understands advanced professionals to be those who as writers, scholars, or scientists have a significant record of publication, or as artists, playwrights, filmmakers, photographers, composers, or the like, have a significant record of exhibition or performance of their work.

How does the Foundation define “performing arts”?

The Foundation understands the performing arts to be those in which an individual interprets work created by others. Accordingly, the Foundation will provide Fellowships to composers but not conductors, singers, or instrumentalists; choreographers but not dancers; filmmakers, playwrights, and performance artists who create their own work but not actors or theater directors.

What is the amount of a grant?

The amounts of grants vary, and the Foundation does not guarantee it will fully fund any project. Working with a fixed annual budget, the Foundation strives to allocate its funds as equitably as possible, taking into consideration the Fellows’ other resources and the purpose and scope of their plans. Members of the teaching profession receiving sabbatical leave on full or part salary are eligible for appointment, as are those holding other fellowships and appointments at research centers.

gf.org/how-to-apply/

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2025 Periplus Fellowship

Periplus Collective

DEADLINE: September 20, 2024, at 11:59 pm ET

INFO: Applications for the 2025 Periplus Fellowship are open!

Periplus is a community of writers who provide mentorship and guidance to early-career BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, people of color) writers in the United States so they can achieve their own professional and artistic goals.

During the year-long fellowship, mentors and fellows meet monthly to discuss various topics, which might include, for example, building writing into a daily routine, making money as a writer, considering craft concerns like structuring a book or magazine article, and approaching career-related problems like finding an agent, pitching magazines, or applying to graduate school.

There are also opportunities for Fellows to engage with the broader Periplus community such as planning panels, talks, meet-ups, readings or other events; attending those events; sharing support and resources; and doing whatever else they think would be useful and interesting.

bit.ly/periplusfaq

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CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: KIN KEEPERS Live Storytelling Presents: Friendship

Literary Liberation

DEADLINE: September 20, 2024

INFO: Do you have a story about friendship that’s itching to be told? We want to hear it! Prepare a 5-8 minute story sharing your unique take on friendship. Whether it's a heartwarming tale of lifelong bonds, a humorous anecdote about unexpected friendships, or a moving reflection on the ups and downs of maintaining connections. Tell us about meeting, keeping, or losing a friend at any age.  Tell us how friendships have shaped and/or enriched your life.

Selected storytellers will be notified the week of September 27th.

MORE DETAILS:

We are selecting 7-10 participants

  • Submissions must be true personal narratives (with the exception of names and place to protect the identity of others).

  • Stories should be original, unpublished, and 700-1000 words max. (5-8 minutes long)

  • Include your name, contact information, time zone, and a brief bio (50-100 words) with your submission.

  • Upload your story submission as a PDF or Word document

literaryliberation.substack.com/p/submit-now-kin-keepers-live-storytelling

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Rooted & Written 2024 Conference

The Writers Grotto

DEADLINE: September 22, 2024

INFO: Rooted & Written was founded in 2019, and this year marks our fifth year of empowering writers of color and we're excited to continue the tradition.

This year, The Writers Grotto in San Francisco, California will again host Rooted & Written, the first fully-funded, tuition-free professional writing conference for writers of color in the country.

Forty Rooted & Written Fellows will be selected to attend seven days of classes, workshops, and mentoring, plus the opportunity to participate in lunchtime “Conversations” with featured literary luminaries. Rooted & Written will take place on October 27- November 2, 2024

All Rooted & Written Fellows are awarded full scholarships to the entire seven-day conference and workshops.

The week kicks off with an orientation for our Fellows on Sunday, October 27, featuring keynote speakers, seminars, classes, and workshops.

The Rooted & Written 2024 Keynotes will be held virtually and are open to the public. Our keynote speakers include literary luminaries such as Susan Kiyo Ito, a celebrated writer and professor, who made a significant literary impact this year with the publication of her acclaimed memoir I Would Meet You Anywhere, will be the keynote speaker, sharing her insights on storytelling, family, and resilience. Eirinie Carson, a dynamic writer whose debut memoir The Dead are Gods has captivated readers with its raw and powerful exploration of grief and identity, will be the keynote speaker, offering her profound insights into the healing power of storytelling.

In addition, during the weekdays, Fellows will participate in craft classes led by our core faculty across various disciplines, including Fiction, Screenwriting, Poetry, Memoir/Essay/Creative Nonfiction, and Screenwriting.

On Thursday and Friday, October 31 and November 1, 2024, Rooted & Written Fellows and all conference applicants will participate in Rooted & Written 'Flash Classes'—a menu of three 60-minute courses each day, covering all genres and featuring invaluable talks by agents and editors focused on professional development.

The week will conclude on Saturday, November 2th with the "Words of Color" literary reading featuring all 40 Rooted & Written Fellows. The “Words of Color” event will be held in person and open to the public at The Writers Grotto in San Francisco as well as via Zoom.

Rooted & Written was first conceptualized and founded by Salvadoran writer Roberto Lovato as a free conference by The Writers Grotto for Bay Area-based BIPOC writers, and has since evolved into a full-blown writing conference and curriculum featuring internationally renowned speakers, faculty, and seasoned professionals in the literary industry.

rooted-written.org

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2025–2026 CULLMAN CENTER FELLOWSHIP

The New York Public Library.

DEADLINE: September 27, 2024 at 5 p.m. EDT

INFO: The Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers offers Fellowships to people whose work will benefit directly from access to the research collections at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street. Renowned for the extraordinary comprehensiveness of its collections, the Library is one of the world’s preeminent resources for study in anthropology, art, geography, history, languages and literature, philosophy, politics, popular culture, psychology, religion, sociology, sports, and urban studies.

The Cullman Center’s Selection Committee awards fifteen Fellowships a year to outstanding scholars and writers—academics, independent scholars, journalists, creative writers (novelists, playwrights, poets), translators, and visual artists. Foreign nationals conversant in English are welcome to apply. Candidates for the Fellowship will need to work primarily at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building rather than at other divisions of the Library. People seeking funding for research leading directly to a degree are not eligible.

The Cullman Center looks for top-quality writing. It aims to promote dynamic communication about literature and scholarship at the very highest level—within the Center, in public forums throughout the Library, and in the Fellows’ published work.

BENEFITS: A Cullman Center Fellow receives a stipend of $85,000, the use of an office with a computer, and full access to the Library’s physical and electronic resources. Fellows work at the Center for the duration of the Fellowship term, which runs from September through May. Each Fellow gives a talk over lunch on his or her current work-in-progress to the other Fellows and to a wide range of invited guests, and may be asked to take part in other programs at The New York Public Library.

nypl.org/help/about-nypl/fellowships-institutes/center-for-scholars-and-writers/fellowships-at-the-cullman-center

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Gold Line Press Chapbook Contests

Gold Line Press

DEADLINE: September 30, 2024

ENTRY FEE: $15 (however, free submissions are availble for BIPOC writers and writers facing financial hardship)

INFO: Gold Line Press, a student-run press housed in the Creative Writing and Literature PhD program at the University of Southern California, seeks submissions for its annual contests.

They seek submissions for chapbook-length (30-page max for prose and 5000-15000 words for prose) projects in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. The judges are 'Pemi Aguda (fiction), Jaquira Díaz (nonfiction), and Diannely Antigua (poetry).

PRIZE: The winner in each genre will be published by Gold Line Press, receive a $750 prize, and 50 author copies of their published chapbook.

goldlinepress.submittable.com/submit

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CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: YA OPEN

Voyage YA by Uncharted

DEADLINE: October 1, 2024

ENTRY FEE: $20

INFO: Voyage YA by Uncharted is pleased to announce our newest contest, the YA OPEN, judged by Voyage editors. Send us your wildest, most electric YA prose. We want to see drama, enigma, and tension. Your prose should glimmer with energy, with passion in every sentence. Make our heads turn. Write something that it is impossible for us to ignore. Show us what you needed to read when you were a teen.

PRIZE: First place will win $1,000, second and third place will win $600 and $400, respectively. All three winners will be published on our website.

For this contest, Voyage YA by Uncharted is open to all prose: Short Fiction, Flash Fiction, Creative Nonfiction, Flash Creative Nonfiction, and Hybrid Prose. We will not accept traditionally lineated poetry nor excerpts of longer works. Please see below for specific guidelines.

GUIDELINES:

  • All entries must be in the YA genre.

  • The $20 reading fee allows for the submission of one <5,000 word short story or two flash pieces <1,000 words apiece. If submitting two flash pieces, please put them in the same document.

  • Writers from historically marginalized groups may submit for free until we reach a cap of 25 submissions in this category. No additional fee waivers will be granted for this contest. [The cap for this category has been reached.]

  • Stories must be written primarily in English, but some code-switching/meshing is welcomed.

  • We encourage multiple submissions, but each entry must be submitted separately, each with a separate reading fee.

  • Reprints are not eligible. If your story has been published anywhere else, even on a blog or social media, it will be automatically disqualified from the contest.

  • If your story is a simultaneous submission, please withdraw immediately if it’s accepted elsewhere.

  • Submissions should be double-spaced and use Times New Roman 12, or larger if needed.

  • All submissions should include a cover letter, however brief, with your publication history, if applicable.

  • We do not accept anonymous submissions.

  • Please include a content warning, if applicable. This information will not factor into whether your submission is accepted, but rather simply serve to safeguard our staff.

  • AI-generated stories will be automatically disqualified.

OPTIONAL EDITORIAL FEEDBACK:

Participants are invited to request a two-page editorial feedback letter about their submission for an extra fee of $69, or three editorial letters from three different editorial consultants for $179. These letters will provide the recipient with valuable and personalized input from a qualified editor. Please allow up to twelve weeks from the close of the contest to receive your feedback. If your work is chosen for publication, no feedback will be given and your fee will be refunded.

unchartedmag.com/ya-open-contest/

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CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: A SPECIAL ISSUE ON MIGRATION

Michigan Quarterly Review

DEADLINE: October 1, 2024

INFO: MQR is calling for submissions for a special issue on the theme of migration, with particular interest in texts that record, analyze, re-document/re-interpret, and ruminate on the various aspects of displacement and erasure at the convergence of global instabilities caused by war, economic pressures, political instability, racial/ethnic/religious/gender hostility, and/or climate change. 

We are particularly interested in more experimental or innovative writings that subvert and re-contextualize common understanding around themes of documentation, statelessness, migration, and/or asylum/refugee status as it pertains to the lived stories that detail the physical, emotional, and/or psychological consequences of those who are deported, denied: citizenship, permanent resident status, asylum, temporary protected status; and/or those forced to live in severe states of legal uncertainty after arrest such as indefinite detention without recourse for a trial. We are also looking for texts from the lived realities of people (or their descendents) displaced from their native countries such as Palestine, and/or who currently reside in their native country whose borders are the active sites of contestation; this includes indigenous people of the U.S and elsewhere whose land, citizenship, and autonomy has been stolen.  

We welcome texts in all genres (poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, art, and researched essays). In addition to original, previously unpublished works in all genres, we also welcome collaborative works, translations, and visual works that can be presented in print or digitally on MQR Online. 

GUEST EDITOR: Marcelo Hernandez Castillo 

GUIDELINES:

  • The issue will be published in Spring 2025.

  • Maximum length for articles, essays and works of fiction is 7,000 words.

  • Poetry submissions must not exceed 10 pages.

  • If Submittable is not accessible to you, please email mqr@umich.edu with your concern.

sites.lsa.umich.edu/mqr/submit/

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Money Chronicles: A Story Initiative Contest

Principal Foundation / Short Édition / The Center for Fiction

DEADLINE: October 2, 2024 by 11:59 pm PDT

ENTRY FEE: $0

INFO: Principal Foundation has launched the second edition of the Money Chronicles: A Story Initiative contest. The national short story contest, hosted in collaboration with Short Édition and The Center for Fiction, aims to destigmatize and encourage conversations about money through the power of storytelling.  

ELIGIBILITY: Adults ages 18 and older in the U.S. can submit short stories now through October 2, 2024.

PRIZE: One winner and up to 20 finalists will be selected by a panel of literary experts including Zakiya Dalila Harris, Casey Parks, Joe Wilkins, and Cecily Wong. The winner will receive $1,000 and each finalist will receive $150. Those stories will also be distributed through unique short story dispensers located in New York, NY; Charlotte, N.C.; Los Angeles, CA; Iowa City, IA; Seattle, WA; and Washington, D.C. 

short-edition.com/en/contest/principal-foundation

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ROLLING SUBMISSIONS

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: TRANSLATION COLUMN

The Margins / AAWW

DEADLINE: Rolling

INFO: The Margins seeks work from writers for an ongoing monthly column on language, culture, and translation from Asia. We consider Asia as an umbrella term that encompasses all of its regions (South, Southeast, East, Central, and North Asia, and SWANA) and the many diaspora communities of Asians all over the world.

We welcome essays, hybrid works, translations, and translator’s notes that engage with Asia’s literature, cultures, subcultures, languages, and diasporas. We are also interested in works that grapple with the concept of the Transpacific, colonialism, history, and empire, especially as they relate to language and translation.

We pay all writers and translators. Please refer to our rate sheet for more details.

Examples of work we’re interested in:

  • Translator’s notes: Essays on the philosophy, craft, and art of translation

  • Translator’s diaries: Writings about the experience and choices for a particular book in translation

  • Essays and translations of essays on languages and multilingualism

  • Essays on power and empire as they relate to translation

  • New translations/re-translations of essays by important Asian scholars, thinkers, philosophers, and revolutionaries

  • Reportage on the writing, reading, publishing, and translation culture of a particular place

  • Photo essays about bookstores and literary salons in Asia or that feature Asian literature

  • Interviews with independent publishers, writers, artists, and thinkers in Asia or the Asian diaspora

Some examples of what we’re looking for:

Send pitches of up to 500 words or finished pieces from 1,000-2,500 words to Soleil David, senior editor, at translation@aaww.org. For translations into English, translator must have already obtained permission from the copyright owner.

We read submissions year round and in all languages spoken and read in Asia. Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but please let us know via email if your pitch/essay has been accepted elsewhere. Writers can expect a reply within three to four months.

aaww.org/submissions-translation-column/

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CALL FOR AUTHORS

Vanderbilt University Press

DEADLINE: Rolling

INFO: Vanderbilt University Press acquires books in the areas of Latin American and Hispanic studies; global and public health; human rights and civil rights; anthropology; history and postwar studies; and studies of race, class, gender, and sexuality. We also publish books with a regional focus on Tennessee and the South, including, for example, books on Nashville and country music.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES: Initial inquiries about potential book projects should be queried to the acquisitions department via email. We do not accept full manuscripts until requested. First, ensure that VUP publishes in the disciplinary area that your project represents.

If that is the case, please send a cover letter and book proposal that includes the following:

  • A short book abstract

  • A brief but detailed statement outlining the manuscript’s arguments, themes, and significance to the field

  • A table of contents that clearly summarizes the content and structure of each chapter

  • Assessment of the work’s fit with existing literature, comparison with published books on the topic, and discussion of the intended audiences and market for the book

  • Statement of the anticipated word count of the manuscript; plans for tables, figures, or other illustrations; and schedule for completion

  • Sample chapter (optional)

  • Curriculum vitae

  • If your manuscript is based on a dissertation, please discuss how the material and research has been developed, reframed, or otherwise revised. VUP does not publish unrevised dissertations.

  • If your manuscript is an edited collection, please include information about each of the contributors and note if any of the chapters are previously published.

  • If your manuscript is a translation, please describe why the author’s work warrants translation into English, as well as any and all information on rights to the work and the book’s history in its native language.

Keep a file or a copy of your proposal materials. We do not return proposals. Please do not call the Press to inquire about the status of your proposal or manuscript. We review all material received, and you will be contacted when a decision has been made. We aim to communicate whether a proposed project is being pursued further no more than eight weeks after the receipt of the proposal.

For more information about specific series initiatives, visit our Series page.

vanderbiltuniversitypress.com/resources/submission-guidelines-for-prospective-authors/