Don’t forget great weather for MEDIA seeks poetry, flash fiction, short stories, dramatic monologues, and creative nonfiction for our annual print anthology. Our focus is on the fearless, the unpredictable, and the experimental. Please visit our website for guidelines. Deadline: January 15, 2021.
Deadline: November 2021
PYAA looks for original works that show cultivated proficiency, artistry, technical skill, and art that expresses students’ individualistic, creative voices and visions. 2021 submissions open January 1st! Visit our website to learn more about categories and how to submit.
The National Indie Excellence® Awards (NIEA) are open to all English language printed books available for sale, including small presses, mid-size independent publishers, university presses, and self-published authors. NIEA is proud to be a champion of self-publishing and small independent presses going the extra mile to produce books of excellence in every aspect. All entries for the 15th Annual NIEA contest must be postmarked by March 31, 2021. www.indieexcellence.com
Deadline: Midnight (CST) December 31, 2020
Sky Island Journal is an independent, international, free-access literary journal dedicated to publishing the finest poetry, flash fiction, and creative nonfiction. We publish accomplished, well-established authors—side by side—with fresh, emerging voices. We provide over 75,000 readers in 145 countries with a powerful, focused, advertising-free literary experience that transports them: one that challenges them intellectually and moves them emotionally. We publish quarterly, and our average response time is 9 days. Every submission receives a prompt, respectful, and individualized response detailing what we appreciated. Enjoy our previous issues, and submit for Issue 15 before midnight (CST) on December 31st at www.skyislandjournal.com.
Deadline: November 20, 2020
Waymark Literary Magazine is an online and physical literary magazine dedicated to publishing the works of an individual’s waymark; their footpath in life. Anyone can submit as long as they have a story to tell. We are looking for nonfiction, fiction, poetry, and art submissions to be published in our biannual publication. Check out our Summer 2020 issue for an idea of what we seek.
Deadline: Year-round
Launched in 2019, Auroras & Blossoms is dedicated to promoting positive, uplifting, and inspirational art; and giving artists of all levels a platform where they can showcase their work and build their publishing credits. We publish short stories, six-word stories, paintings, and drawings. We are also looking for work that tells beautiful stories and articles that are helpful to photographers at every level of their career for publication in our sister journal FPoint Collective Photography Magazine. We are interested in photography, along with articles, tips, stories, and essays relating to photography. International submissions welcome. Submission Guidelines and apply here. Check out past issues for a taste of what we like.
Deadline: January 1, 2021
MudRoom is open for submissions until January 1st! We are seeking poetry and prose in all their forms. Submissions are free, and we aim to respond to work quickly. MudRoom is somewhere between where you’ve come from and where you’re going. We believe in the liminal, the dirty, the messy, and the mundane. We publish four issues of prose and poetry a year, and we also work to put out content devoted to developing a practice—we feature short essays on craft and interviews with writers. Send us your work, we’d love to read it!
Deadline: Year-round
Palooka is an international literary magazine. For a decade we’ve featured up-and-coming, established, and brand-new writers, artists, and photographers from all around the world. We’re open to diverse forms and styles and are always seeking unique chapbooks, fiction, poetry, nonfiction, artwork, photography, graphic narratives, and comic strips. Give us your best shot! Submissions open year-round. Issue 11 features work by Paul Luikart, Duke Stewart, Nils Blondon, Khalilah Okeke, Tim Chapman, Mark Halpern, Clark Merrefield, Leanne Hoppe, Donald Illich, and Malia Nahinu. palookamag.com
Deadline: Rolling
Storm Cellar is a literary journal of safety and danger, in print and ebook formats since 2011. We seek the voices of Black, Indigenous, POC, LGBTQIA+, gender nonbinary, neurodivergent, fat, disabled, border-straddling, poor, and more marginalized authors. We encourage connections, in work or by creator, to the Midwest, broadly construed. Now paying. Send ambitious, surprising new art and writing through stormcellar.submittable.com; learn more at stormcellar.org. It is free to submit, but we offer tip jar, expedited, and submission + issue response options.
Deadline: November 15, 2020
New online publication based at Center for Spirituality, Dialogue, and Service (CSDS) at Northeastern University in Boston. Seeking work that deepens the inward life; expresses range of religious/spiritual/humanist experiences and perspectives; envisions a more just, peaceful, and sustainable world; advances dialogue across difference; and challenges structural oppression in all its forms. Seeking work for feature section on Black Lives Matter to be published in the Spring 2021 issue. Send unpublished poetry, prose, visual art, and translations. Especially interested in work from international and historically unrepresented communities. No fee; currently non-paying. Submit 3-5 pieces via Submittable or pensivejournal@gmail.com. Questions? Contact Alexander Levering Kern, co-editor or visit pensivejournal.com. The first issue will have a special online launch event on Wednesday, October 21, 2020. Mark your calendars to learn more.
