Opportunities for Writers: March and April 2016

Each month we aim to 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.

 

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.

Mississippi Arts Commission
awards fellowships of up to $5000 in several categories each year. Literary arts applications (fiction and poetry) are open until 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.

Text Prize for Young Adult and Children’s Writing
is for unpublished manuscripts by writers from Australia and New Zealand. The winner receives AUD$10,000 and a publishing contract with Text Publishing. Entries close 4 March.

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is open to unpublished one-act plays from amateur playwrights.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.

Thresholds
is an international short story forum, based at the University of Chichester, in West Sussex. Entries are now open for its short fiction feature writing competition. Essays are invited in two categories: Author Profile, exploring the life, writings and influence of a single short story writer; and We Recommend, personal recommendations of a collection, anthology, group of short stories or a single short story. Entries close on 6 March and there is entry fee.

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.

Don and Gee Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting 
are an international screenwriting competition awards up to five fellowships of US$35,000 each year. The early bird deadline for the 2016 competition is 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.

Sunstruck Magazine
is seeking submissions for a ‘Conflict’ themed issue. Sunstruck advises that “those interested in submitting poetry and fiction should not feel compelled to turn in work that adheres to the above stated themes.Otherwise, contributors should feel free to utilize these themes in any manner they see fit. Surprise us!” Submissions close 10 March.

Jack Kerouac Writer in Residence Project
provides four residencies a year to writers living anywhere in the world. Each residency consists of approximately a three-month stay in Orlando, Florida, in the cottage where Jack Kerouac wrote his novel Dharma Bums. Utilities and a food stipend of US$800 are included. Applications for the 2016-2017 residencies close on 13 March

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.

3:AM Magazine
is accepting short fiction submissions (up to 3000 words) until 15 March. The editors share a particular interest in writing that is linguistically and formally experimental: “We value the bold, the considered and the deft.”

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.

Stella Kupferberg Memorial Short Story Prize
is a writing competition sponsored by the stage and radio series, Selected Shorts. This long-running series at Symphony Space in New York City celebrates the art of the short story by having stars of stage and screen read aloud the works of established and emerging writers. Selected Shorts is recorded for Public Radio and heard nationally. Entries close 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.

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 but this is subject to change.

Hot Metal Bridge
is seeking fiction, poetry, and nonfiction for its social justice writing contest. Award-winning writers Maggie Jones, Fiona Cheong, and Ellen McGrath Smith will judge, and there will be a US$50 cash prize for winners in each genre, as well as publication for the runners-up. Entries close 25 March.

Litro Magazine
is seeking submissions for its April 2016 print issue with the theme ‘Adrenaline’. It accepts short fiction, flash/micro fiction and non-fiction. Submissions close 25 March.

Portable Story Series
is a new writing initiative “with an audio twist”. The winning story will be professionally recorded and the winning writer also receives a cash prize. Entries close 28 March.

Massachusetts Review
is seeking submissions for a forthcoming special issue on Words and Music. The editors are especially looking for creative work that includes, engages, and explores music in poetry and fiction. Closes 30 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.

Betty Fedora
is a feminist crime fiction magazine. It publishes short crime stories, book reviews, and literary/cultural commentary with feminist sensibility. Submissions are open until 31 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.

Red Line
welcomes submissions of up to 4500 words from contributors ‘who have something interesting to say and a talent for communicating’. Shortlisted stories will be considered for publication in an end of year anthology. Lies is the theme for the upcoming issue and submissions close on 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.

Colm Tóibín International Short Story Award
is open for entries until 1 April. Entries must be between 1,800 and 2,000 words in length and there are no restrictions on the subject matter. First prize is €1000.

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.

Norman Mailer Center and Writers Colony
offers Summer Fellowships for fiction, nonfiction and poetry writers at the Ucross Foundation located on a 20,000-acre ranch in northeastern Wyoming. Six applicants will be chosen and receives full tuition and housing for the entire three-week period of their stay. Applications close on 1 April.

Granta
is accepting unsolicited submissions until 1 April. Granta publishes fiction, non-fiction and poetry. There are no strict word limits, though most prose submissions are between 3000 and 6000 words and the editors advise they are unlikely to read more than 10,000 words of any submission.

Grain Magazine’s Annual Short Grain Writing Contest
offers prizes for both fiction and poetry and is open to writers worldwide. A total of CA$4500 in prize money is on offer. Entries close 1 April.

NonBinary Review
is a quarterly interactive literary journal that uses the Lithomobilus platform to join many stories around each issue’s theme. Submissions are open for the issue 10 with the theme of A Study in Scarlet, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Sherlock Holmes) until 1 April.

North American Review’s Torch Prize for Creative Nonfiction
offers a first prize of $500. Writers may submit only one piece of creative nonfiction, no longer than 30 pages. Entries close 1 April.

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

Headland
is a New Zealand-based international literary journal of short fiction & creative non-fiction. The journal is accepting submissions until 1 April for its sixth issue and the editors are encouraging writers from all over the world to submit their work.

Elizabeth Jolley Short Story Prize
has increased its combined prize money to AUD$12,500 this year. The competition is open to writers worldwide and entries close on 11 April.

MacDowell Colony Fellowships
support residences of up to eight weeks for writers and other artists. Located in New Hampshire, studios, room and board are provided. Applications for Fall 2016 residences (1 October to 31 January) close on 15 April.

Harpur Palate
is literary journal published bi-annually by the Department of English at Binghamton University. It publishes poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction from all over the world, including work by well-known authors including Sherman Alexie, Gary Fincke, Peter Sears, Alex Lemon, Maura Stanton, and Rebecca Morgan Frank. Submissions for the summer issue close on 15 April.

Event Magazine’s Non-Fiction Contest
is open to creative non-fiction up to 5000 words in length. There is US$1500 prize money available in addition to the regular publication payment. The entry fee includes a one-year subscription. Entries close 15 April.

Normal School
is a bi-annual journal based at California State University at Fresno featuring nonfiction, fiction, poetry, criticism and journalism. It is particularly interested in essays that challenge established norms for the genre or that don’t seem to fit in easy categories of classification. The current reading period ends on 15 April.

Bath Short Story Award
is open to stories up to 2200 words in length. Stories may be in any genre and entries from both published and unpublished writers are encouraged. First Prize is £1000 (US$1500) and a selection of twenty winning, shortlisted and longlisted stories will be published in a print and digital anthology. Entries close on 25 April.

Tahoma Literary Review
is a literary journal published in both print and e-reader formats. Payment for fiction and non-fiction ranges from a minimum of $50 to $300. Payment for poetry and flash is $25 to $50. Submissions for issue 7 close on 30 April.

Bristol Short Story Prize
is open to  stories up to 4000 words. Entries can be on any theme or subject and are welcome in any style including graphic, verse or genre-based (crime, science fiction, fantasy, historical, romance, children’s etc). Twenty stories will be shortlisted and published in the Bristol Short Story Prize Anthology Volume 9. Entries close 30 April.

Lunch Ticket
is a biannual journal published by the MFA community of Antioch University of Los Angeles. Submissions of fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, writing for young people and visual art for its summer/fall 2016 issue close on 30 April.

Late Night Library
is accepting submissions for the 2016 Debut-litzer Prizes in the categories of fiction and poetry. Winners will receive US $1000 and a featured appearance on Late Night Conversation. Debut books first published in North America between 1 January and 31 December 2015 are eligible to enter. Entries must be postmarked by 30 April.

Tom Howard/John H. Reid Short Story Contest
is open to original short stories and essays on any theme. The winner in each category receives US$1500 and there are a total of 10 minor prizes of $100. Entries should be maximum of 6000 words. Closes 30 April.

Calabash: A Journal of Caribbean Arts and Letters
considers submissions of poems, short stories, one-act plays, interviews, book reviews, parts of memoirs, personal essays, critical essays, cultural news, announcements, and other new and emerging genres. Submissions close 30 April.

New South
seeks to publish high quality work, regardless of genre, form, or regional ties. Submissions for issue 9.2, due for publication in September 2016, close on 30 April.

FT/OppenheimerFunds Emerging Voices Awards
aims to recognise extraordinary artistic talent in three categories – fiction literature, film-making and art across more than 100 emerging market nations. The winner in each category receives US$40,000. Works of fiction may be entered from residents or passport holders from Africa and the Middle East. Entries close 30 April.

The O. Henry Prize Stories
is an annual collection of the year’s twenty best stories published in American and Canadian magazines. Entries must be submitted by the magazine’s editors and should reach the series editor, Laura Furman, by 1 May. The 20 stories selected for the 2015 O. Henry Prize collection are available here.

Cleaver Magazine
publishes cutting-edge art and literary work from a mix of established and emerging voices. It accepts poetry, short stories, essays, flash prose, and visual art. The fee-free reading period runs from 1 March to the end of April.

Maria Vicente
of P.S. Literary Agency is open to queries. Her current wishlist includes magical realism, LGBTQ romance, middle grade fiction, contemporary literary fiction and narrative nonfiction.

Conduit
is looking for previously unpublished poetry and prose that “demonstrates originality, intelligence, courage, irreverence, and humanity.” Submissions are in hard copy only and simultaneous submissions are accepted.

Wasafiri
is Britain’s premier magazine for international contemporary writing. Published quarterly, it has established a distinctive reputation for promoting work by new and established voices across the globe. Articles, essays, fiction and interviews should be less than 6000 words.

Jaffat El Aqlam
is an online magazine for writers mostly from the middle east. It accepts submissions of poetry, short stories, prose and visual art.

North Central Review
publishes fiction, creative non-fiction & poetry by currently enrolled undergraduate students. Submissions are open to writers worldwide.

Georgia Review
features an eclectic blend of essays, fiction, poetry, graphics, and book reviews. Appealing across disciplinary lines, the Review draws its material from a wide range of cultural interests—including, but not limited to, literature, history, philosophy, anthropology, politics, film, music, and the visual arts. Unsolicited submissions are open until 15 May. The Georgia Review pays all contributors; the current standard rates are $50 per printed page for prose and $4 per line for poetry.

Juliet Mushens
a literary agent in the UK Literary Division of United Talent Agency is looking for high-concept novels, thrillers, YA, historical fiction, literary fiction, psychological suspense, reading group fiction, SF and fantasy. She likes big canvases and ambitious books across the genres.

Booklist
is actively seeking book reviewers of diverse backgrounds, whether that background is cultural, racial, gender, or another. It is also looking for reviewers fluent in Spanish.

Book Smugglers
are looking for original novellas from all around the world to be published in 2017. Middle Grade, Young Adult, and Adult audience submissions are welcome. The editors are very keen on receiving speculative fiction stories within the romance, horror, and science fiction genres (or stories with strong romantic, horror, or sci-fi elements).

Chicago Review
publishes a range of contemporary poetry, fiction, and criticism. Each year typically includes two single issues and a double issue with a special feature section. The editors welcome submissions of unpublished poetry, fiction, and book reviews (please query before sending nonfiction).

Hippocampus Magazine
accepts unsolicited submissions of memoir excerpts (a self-contained portion of a larger, book-length work), personal essays and  flash creative nonfiction or a work of creative nonfiction in an experimental format. Hippocampus Magazine prefers previously unpublished work, but will entertain submissions that have appeared elsewhere.

Mont Blanc Writing Workshop
is currently accepting applications. The program takes place in June in the French Alps and teaching staff include Cheryl Strayed and Pam Houston.

Triptych Tales
publishes stories that take place in our here and now, or something very close to it. The editors like mainstream, fantasy and science fiction, but don’t want space operas or high fantasy. Triptych Tales pays $100 per original story, regardless of length.

Kitaab
is a Singapore-based literary website, publishing original fiction, essays and poetry on Asian themes. Submissions are considered all year round and all work must be in English. Contributors are paid S$50-100 per short story/essay.

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.

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