Opportunities for Writers: February and March 2016

Each month we aim provide a helpful round-up of writing competitions, fellowships, publication opportunities and more for writers at all stages of their careers. 

For new writers, or for anyone seeking a refresher, we highly recommend reading How to Submit Your Writing to Literary Magazines.

Deadlines and details do sometimes change, so please check the relevant websites (linked in bold) for all the latest details. For more opportunities and regular updates follow Aerogramme Writers’ Studio on Facebook and Twitter.

 

Philip Roth Residence in Creative Writing
at Bucknell University offers up to four months of unfettered writing time for a writer working on a first or second book. The residency provides lodging in Bucknell’s “Poets’ Cottage” and a stipend of $5000. The application deadline is 1 February.

Bustle
is seeking to a appoint a new Books Editor. Bustle.com caters to millennial women aged 18 to 35. Experience in and passion for books coverage is essential. The role is based in New York City.

Bellevue Literary Review
is seeking submissions of previously unpublished fiction, nonfiction, and poetry for an upcoming special issue on memory. Submission are needed by 1 February.

Cuttyhunk Island Writers’ Residency
is an eight-day residency (7 – 15 June, 2016) for fiction and non-fiction writers on Cuttyhunk Island, seven nautical miles off the coast of southeastern Massachusetts, USA. The program’s writer-in-residence and workshop leader is Pulitzer-prize winning author, Paul Harding. Dedicated writers at all stages in their careers are invited to apply and two merit-based scholarships are available. Applications close 1 February.

Creative Nonfiction
is seeking new essays about learning from nature from an upcoming issue. The Biomimicry Center at Arizona State University will award US$5000 to the best essay and the Creative Nonfiction editors will award $1000 to the runner-up. All essays will be considered for publication. Closes 1 February.

Close Approximations
is a contest for emerging translators, offered by Asymptote literary magazine. There are three category, ooetry, fiction, and literary nonfiction, and the winner and runner-up of each category receive US$1000 and $500 respectively. The entry deadline is now extended to 1 February.

Lamplight
is a quarterly magazine of dark fiction. The editors are accepting submissions until 1 February and contributors receive US$150 for short stories and $50 for flash fiction.

Stoneboat Literary Journal
is an independent biannual publication that seeks to publish quality fiction, non-fiction, memoir, poetry, artwork, and graphic literature. It aims to showcase outstanding and diverse work from both emerging and established artists. Submissions for the Spring 2016 issue close on 1 February.

Southampton Review
is dedicated to “discovering new voices and visions while savoring long-standing favorites”. Some of the established writers it has published include Billy Collins, Meg Wolitzer, Frank McCourt and David Rakoff. Submissions reopen on 1 February.

Post Road
publishes twice yearly and accepts unsolicited poetry, fiction, nonfiction, short plays and monologues and visual art submissions. Submissions for the Winter issue open on 1 February.

American Library in Paris Visiting Fellowship
is open to writers worldwide. Fellows receive a stipend of US$5000 to assist with travel and housing costs. Applications close 12 February.

Griffith University’s Josephine Ulrick Literature Prize
is one of Australia’s richest short stories prizes. First prize is AUD$10,000 and second prize is $5000. Stories may be up to 2000 words. Griffith University also offers a poetry prize with equal prize money. Entrants must be Australian citizens or residents, and entries close on 12 February.

Bath Flash Fiction Award
is runs four times each year and each round has a top prize of  £1000. The maximum story length is 300 words and entrants can be from anywhere in the world. The next entry deadline is 14 February.

Brown Foundation Fellows Program
is open to mid-career professionals in the arts and humanities, including writers. The residencies last between one and three months and take place at The Dora Maar House in Ménerbes, France. For fellowships between 1 July and 15 December 2016, applications must be submitted by 15 February.

Vermont Studio Center
is the largest international artists’ and writers’ residency program in the United States. Each month the Center hosts over 50 writers and artists from across the country and around the world. The next fellowship application deadline is 15 February.

Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook Short Story Competition
offers the winner a cash prize of £500, a place on an Arvon residential writing course of your choice and publication on www.writersandartists.co.uk. Stories must be under 2000 words and reflect the theme ‘Ageing’. Entrants can be from anywhere in the world and there is no entry fee. Close 15 February.

Indiana Review
is a non-profit literary magazine dedicated to showcasing the talents of emerging and established writers. It publishes fiction and non-fiction of up to 8000 words, as well as poetry. Submissions reopen on 15 February.

Reader’s Digest’s 100 Word Story Competition
is running for the sixth year. Open to writers in UK and Ireland only, there are three categories – one for adults and two categories for school-aged children. First prize is £2000 plus publication and there is no entry fee. Entries close 20 February.

Tin House
is accepting submissions for its non-themed Winter 2016 issue. It is looking for fiction, poetry, non-fiction and interviews. Submissions close 28 February.

CBC Creative Nonfiction Competition
is open to all Canadian residents. The competition is for original, unpublished work of creative nonfiction between 1200 and 1500 words and carries a grand prize of CA$6000. Entries close 29 February.

Medical Science Fiction Competition 
invites science-fiction short stories (and self-contained novel excerpts) of up to 3000 words that address themes of medicine, health, and illness. The top three entries, and up to seventeen runners-up, will be published in the competition anthology. Entry is free of charge and open to anyone over 18. Entries close on 29 February.

Buffalo Almanack
is an online quarterly journal of fiction, photography and literary criticism. It welcomes submissions for new and established writers. New issues are released quarterly and submissions reopen in February.

Harper’s Magazine
is the oldest general-interest monthly in America. While it is extremely competitive, Harper’s does accept unsolicited submissions of fiction, as well as unsolicited queries. Both submissions and queries should only be submitted via mail.

Black Warrior Review
publishes poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and art by Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winners alongside up-and-coming writers. Stories and poems appearing in Black Warrior Review have been reprinted in the Pushcart Prize series, Best American Short Stories, Best American Poetry, New Stories from the South, and other anthologies. Submissions close 1 March.

Howard Frank Mosher Short Fiction Prize
is run by Vermont-based journal Hunger Mountain. The winner receives US$1000 and publication. The judge of the 2016 prize is award-winning novelist, poet and playwright Janet Burroway. Stories may be up to 10,000 words in length and entries close on 1 March.

Puerto del Sol
now in its 47th year of publication, is the journal of the English Department at New Mexico State University. It welcomes submissions of poetry, fiction, non-fiction, translations, artwork and criticism, as well as any interesting combinations thereof. Puerto del Sol’s current reading period closes on 1 March.

Glass Mountain
is seeking fiction, creative non-fiction and poetry from undergraduates at any college or university. Submissions for the Spring 2016 issue, which has the theme ‘Growth’, close on 4 March.

Glastonbury Festival
is seeking poets, wordsmiths, lyricists, spoken word artists, raconteurs, story tellers, stand-up poets and slam champs to perform on its poetry stage. Applications close 4 March.

Stockholm Review of Literature
is an online publication that seeks to publish superlative literary fiction, poetry, essays and art, and undertakes to promote the writers and artists that produce it. Submissions received by 5 March will be considered for its thirteenth issue.

Kenneth Branagh Award for New Drama Writing
is open to unpublished one-act plays from amateur playwrights. The winning writer will receive a £500 prize and The Windsor Fringe will underwrite the staging of the winner and the two runners-up with selected directors. Entries close 5 March.

Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers
is open to Canadian writers aged under 35. Candidates should submit 5 – 10 pages (up to 2500 words) of previously unpublished fiction. First prize is CA$5000 and there is no entry fee. Entries close 7 March.

In Fact Books
is seeking true stories for an anthology about siblings. The editors are seeking work that captures the complexities and comforts of sibling relationships and hope to represent the widest possible variety of sibling relationships—whether adoptive or biological, step or full, human or animal, one or many. Submissions close 7 March.

Room Creative Nonfiction Contest
is open to until 8 March. Room is Canada’s oldest literary journal by and about women. The winner receives CA$500 and publication. The entry fee includes a one-year subscription to the magazine.

Mslexia Women’s Short Story Competition
is open to stories up to 2200 words in length and can be on any subject. The winner receives £2000 plus two optional extras: a week’s writing retreat at Tŷ Newydd Writers’ Centre and a day with a Virago editor. Women writers from all countries are eligible to enter. Closes 14 March.

Nelligan Prize for Short Fiction
is offered each year by Colorado State University’s Center for Literary Publishing. The winner receives a US$2000 honorarium and the story is published in the fall/winter issue of Colorado Review. There are no theme restrictions, but stories must be at least 10 pages (or 2500 words) but no more than 50 pages (12,500 words). Entries close 14 March.

James Jones Fellowship Contest
awards $10,000 to an American writer with a first fiction novel in progress in 2016. Two runners-up will each receive $1000. Entries close 15 March.

Willow Springs Fiction Prize
awards a first prize of $2000 and publication. There is no work limit and every entrants receives a subscription to Willow Springs. Closes 15 March.

Gigantic Sequins
is a black & white print journal based in Philadelphia. It publishes fiction, non-fiction, poetry, comics and book reviews. The current reading period closes on 15 March.

Stella Kupferberg Memorial Short Story Prize
is awarded by Selected Shorts with partner Electric Literature. The judge of the prize in 2016 is T.C. Boyle. The winning entry will receive US$1000 and the work will be performed and recorded live at the Selected Shorts performance at Symphony Space, and will be published on electricliterature.com. The winning writer will also earn free admission to a 10-week course with Gotham Writers Workshop. Closes 15 March

Tobias Wolff Award for Fiction
offers a prize of US$1000 and the winner and many runners-up will be published in the Spring 2017 print edition of Bellingham Review. Entries close 15 March.

Missouri Review
is looking for stories, poems, short audio documentaries and humor pieces for its 2016 Miller Audio Prize. A US$1000 prize will be awarded to the winner in each category. Closes 15 March.

Independent Legions Publishing
is seeking original horror stories for the new eBook Anthology The Beauty of Death edited by Alessandro Manzetti. All types of horror are welcome but sex or violence in a story should be artistically justified; no excessive gore. Contributors will be paid US$100 for their work. Submission close on 30 March.

Fiction Desk’s Ghost Story Competition
is open to all English-speaking writers aged 16 or over. First prize is £500, second is £250 and third prize is £100. All winners will also be published in a Fiction Desk anthology. Fiction Desk advises that ‘ghost story’ can mean a lot of different things, from an encounter with an actual phantom to more unusual paranormal phenomena and unexplained events. Entries close 31 March.

Scribe Publications
is an independent publisher based in Melbourne, Australia. It publishes “narrative and literary nonfiction on important topics, and the best of local, international, and translated fiction.” Scribe is considering unsolicited submissions until 31 March.

Hugo House
is located in Seattle, USA. Its writer-in-residence program offers a monthly stipend of $500 plus paid teaching opportunities, along with the time and space to complete a manuscript. Applications close 31 March.

Masters Review
is accepting submissions for its printed anthology. The anthology is open to fiction and narrative nonfiction from emerging writers worldwide who have not yet published a novel-length work. The selected writers will each receive US$500, publication, and distribution to over 50 editors and agents.Submissions close 31 March.

Pennsylvania State University
Altoona Campus English Program is taking applications for a one-semester teaching residency in poetry and playwriting/screenwriting. The program is targeted at early career writers, preferably without a published book.

Quotable
is a quarterly print and online publication. Submissions are now open for its 21st issue on the theme ’Finale’. The editors are seeking flash fiction (up to 1000 words), short fiction (up to 3000 words), and creative non-fiction (up to 3000 words), as well as poetry and art. Submissions open on 1 February and close on 1 April.

Ploughshares
is welcoming contributions to its book reviews series. The editors are open to a wide range of book subjects, and only ask that the books you choose to review be “literary” (i.e. not genre fiction), not written by your friends or family members, and published within the last four months.

Bateau Lit Mag
is a letterpress publisher based in Northampton, Massachusetts. It produces high quality, well-designed, environmentally minded literary publications. Submissions for Bateau Lit Mag are encouraged from writers at all stages of their careers: age and previous publication are not considerations for eligibility.

Wrong Quarterly
is a London-based literary magazine showcasing prose from both British and international writers. Its aim is to provide an inclusive platform for emerging writers worldwide. The Wrong Quarterly accepts fiction up to 8000 words and non-fiction up to 5000 words.

Bodega Magazine
releases digital issues on the first Monday of every month, featuring poetry, prose, and occasional interviews by established and emerging writers. Submissions of  poetry, fiction and creative non-fiction are read year round and simultaneous submissions are accepted.

The Review Review
is looking for new reviewers of literary magazines. Writers can express their interest by completing a form on their website and supplying two writing samples.

 
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