The Blue Mountain Review launched from Athens, Georgia in 2015 with the mantra, “We’re all south of somewhere.” As a journal of culture the BMR strives to represent life through its stories. Stories are vital to our survival. Songs save the soul. Our goal is to preserve and promote lives told well through prose, poetry, music, and the visual arts. Our editors read year-round with an eye out for work with homespun and international appeal. Check out the August 2020 Issue featuring the Roots of Michael Flhor, Growing Pains of an Adolescent American with DL Yancy II, James Ricks of the Quill Theater, Ilya Kaminsky’s road to poetry, and more.
Nonfiction
Call :: The CHILLFILTR Review Open to Submissions of Essays, Poems, & Shorts Year-round
The CHILLFILTR Review strives to bring the best new art to a worldwide audience by leveraging best-in-class technology to create a seamless and immersive web experience. We welcome submissions from all walks of life, and all perspectives. We are committed to inclusivity and kindly welcome work from marginalized voices. All featured works will receive an honorarium of $20 per 1000 words and will be published online at The CHILLFILTR Review as well as on our Apple News Channel. Readers can vote for their favorites, and year-end “Best Of” winners will receive an additional $100 cash prize. Recent works include short stories by Charlotte A Wynn and Steven R. Southard’ an essay by Lisa del Rosso, and poetry by Ava Lansley.
Call :: Humana Obscura Spring/Summer 2021 Issue Open to Submissions
Submissions for the Spring/Summer 2021 issue of Humana Obscura are open! We are an independent online and print literary magazine publishing nature-themed work from around the world. For complete submission guidelines and more info on what we’re looking for, visit www.humanaobscura.com.
Call :: Sou’wester Seeks Prose for Spring 2021 Issue
Deadline: November 15, 2020
Sou’wester is now reading fiction and creative nonfiction for our annual print issue, forthcoming in spring 2021. We are committed to investing in and encouraging the words/stories/voices of all writers, prioritizing those belonging to marginalized communities. We want to read stories from writers belonging to the black diaspora, indigenous communities, Asian communities, Latin(x) communities, neurodivergent communities, those with disabilities, and LGBTQIA+. We seek fiction that allows us to transcend the everyday, haunts our dreams, and feels fresh. We’re looking for work that will move, stun, and awe our readers. Submission is free through Submittable.
Call :: Sand Hills Literary Magazine Open for First Online Feature
Deadline: November 20, 2020
Sand Hills, in print since 1973, is opening up submissions for our very first online exclusive! We are accepting flash fiction and essays up to 1000 words, poetry up to 32 lines, photography, and, for the first time ever, short animation and comics. We are open for submissions until November 20th. sandhillslitmag.com/submit/. We look forward to hearing from you.
NewPages Book Stand – September 2020
It’s that time of month again: a new Book Stand is now up on the website. With the September update, you can find five featured titles, as well as a selection of new and forthcoming books to check out.
In the forthcoming I’ll Fly Away, Rudy Francisco’s poems savor the day-to-day, treating it as worship, turning it into an opportunity to plant new seeds of growth.
The essays in Sky Songs: Meditations on Loving a Broken World by Jennifer Sinor offer a lyric exploration of language, love, and the promise inherent in the stories we tell: to remember.
Some Girls Walk into the Country They Are From is Sawako Nakayasu’s first poetry collection in seven years. The book radicalizes notions of “translation” as both process and product.
Hafizah Geter’s debut collection, Un-American, moves readers through the fraught internal and external landscapes—linguistic, cultural, racial, familial—of those whose lives are shaped and transformed by immigration.
Joseph Harris’s interconnected narrative You’re in the Wrong Place presents characters reaching for transcendence from a place they cannot escape in a landscape suddenly devoid of work, faith, and love.
You can learn more about each of these New & Noteworthy books at our website and find them at our our affiliate Bookshop.org. You can see how to place your book in our New & Noteworthy section here: https://npofficespace.com/classified-advertising/new-title-issue-ad-reservation/.
Call :: Garfield Lake Review 2021 Submission Period Open!
Deadline: October 12, 2020
The Garfield Lake Review prides itself on accepting a wide selection of fiction, poetry, and visual arts from the Olivet College community and beyond. No fee, payment in copies. This year’s Garf is looking for submissions that follow the theme of duality. Send us your unexpected endings, your highs and lows. Send us anything juxtaposed between light and darkness. Living is a thrill—show us how it is for you. Visit us at www.garfieldlakereview.com/submit.
Call :: Palooka Seeks Short Works for Magazine Publication & Chapbook-length Manuscripts
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. palookamag.com
Event :: Willow Writers’ Fall 2020 Virtual Workshops
Registration Deadline: Rolling
Willow Writers’ Workshops is going virtual this fall! We will offer workshops, providing writing prompts, craft discussions, and manuscript consultations. All levels are welcome. Writers’ Workshops available on Thursday nights, Sunday afternoons, Saturday mornings, and Monday mornings. Fall seminars include Generating Story Ideas and Creating a Strong Sense of Place; Gothic Fiction, and Flash! Writing Short, Short Prose. Workshops and seminars run in September and October. The facilitator is Susan Isaak Lolis, a published and award-winning writer. For more information, check out willowwritersretreat.com.
NewPages Mag Stand: Still Point Arts Quarterly
The Fall 2020 issue homes in on “The Secret Life of Objects.” Featured artists include Cary Loving, Birgit Gutsche, Aaron M. Brown, Jeffrey Stoner, and more. Featured writers include Dawn Raffel, Judith Sornberger, Emily Uduwana, Kathleen Aponick, William Doreski, Keltie Zubko, Adrienne Stevenson, Susan Currie, and others. See more contributors at the Mag Stand.
NewPages Mag Stand: New England Review
New England Review Volume 41 Number 3 is at this week’s Mag Stand. Featured work by May-lee Chai; Jeneva Stone; Laurence de Looze; Alyssa Pelish; John Kinsella; Clifford Howard; and translations of Scholastique Mukasonga, Karla Marrufo, and Nelly Sachs. Fiction by Kenneth Calhoun, Meron Hadero, Kate Petersen, and Kirk Wilson; poetry by Anders Carlson-Wee, Victoria Chang, Justin Danzy, Elisa Gabbert, torrin a. greathouse, Christina Pugh, and more; plus cover art by Heidi P.