Apologies for the long delay between posts and the absence of an Opportunities for Writers post in April. Running this site is a part-time gig, and balancing it and life’s other challenges can get a little overwhelming sometimes.
If you would like to help ensure the future of this site, and our ability to post regularly, please consider signing up for a FREE two-month Skillshare. You’ll receive access to dozens of writing classes with teachers including Susan Orlean, Daniel José Older and Emily Gould, and we’ll receive a small commission (even if you cancel your subscription at the end of the trial). The offer ends on 30 April.
Our Opportunities for Writers list for May and June is below. As always, don’t forget that 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.
Thank you for your support.
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Electric Literature
is open to submissions of personal and critical essays, as well as humour that reflects on the world of reading, writing, literature, and storytelling in all its forms. The editors are particularly interested in pieces that examine the intersection of the literary world and other creative disciplines: film, fine art, music, video games, architecture etc. Closes 1 May.
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 2016 O. Henry Prize collection are available here.
Don and Gee Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting
is an international screenwriting competition awards up to five fellowships of US$35,000 each year. The final entry deadline for the 2017 competition is 1 May.
Jack Jones Literary Arts
is hosting its first annual writing retreat at SMU-in-Taos in Taos, New Mexico. This two-week retreat will be held from 12 to 26 October and is open exclusively to women of color writing in any genre. Eleven fully-funded fellowships are available. Applications close 1 May.
Junot Díaz
fiction editor at Boston Review, has issued a special call for stories, essays, and interviews on the theme of global dystopias. Submissions should be under 5000 words.
The Believer
is looking for a full-time managing editor. The successful candidate will oversee the work of a diverse staff including contributing writers, freelance editors, graduate students, and volunteers, as well as organisations that manage printing, distribution, and other projects.
Sundance Screenwriters Lab
is a five-day writer’s workshop that gives independent screenwriters the opportunity to work intensively on their feature film scripts with the support of established writers in ‘an environment that encourages innovation and creative risk-taking’. The next Screenwriters Lab will be held in January 2018, just before the Sundance Film Festival. Applications close on 2 May.
PEN Center USA Emerging Voices Fellowship
is a literary mentorship that aims to provide new writers who are isolated from the literary establishment with the tools, skills, and knowledge they need to launch a professional writing career. The program is based in Los Angeles. Application open in May.
Ploughshares Emerging Writer’s Contest
is open to writers of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry who have yet to publish a book. The winner in each genre will be awarded US$2000. Entries close on 15 May.
Raymond Carver Short Story Contest
is open to writers from around the world. First prize is US$1500 and the guest judge is Pinckney Benedict. Entries close on 15 May.
Iowa’s International Writing Program
has announced two new free online courses. Both will explore writing about identities, communities, and social issues. The first class, Power of the Pen: Identities and Social Issues in Fiction and Nonfiction, starts on 15 May.
Alaska Quarterly Review
is a literary journal devoted to contemporary literary art, publishing fiction, short plays, poetry, photo essays, and literary non-fiction in traditional and experimental styles. The editors encourage new and emerging writers, while continuing to publish award-winning and established writers as well. Unsolicited submissions will be accepted until 15 May.
Lorian Hemingway Short Story Competition
is dedicated to recognising and supporting the work of emerging writers whose fiction has not yet achieved success. Entries must be less than 3500 words and the competition is open to writers based anywhere is the world. The winner receives US$1500 and publication. The Lorian Hemingway Short Story Competition first ran in 1981; entries for the 2017 prize close on 15 May (discounted entry available before 1 May).
St. Francis College Literary Prize
offers a prize of US$50,000. It is open to mid-career authors for their 3rd to 5th published work of fiction. Nominated books can also be published anywhere in the world. Entries close 15 May.
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.
Irish Literary Review
is an online publication for new poetry and short fiction from Ireland and around the world. Flash fiction should be under 500 words, fiction should be no shorter than 1500 words and no longer than 3000 words and poems should not exceed 40 lines. The next reading period opens on 21 May.
Griffith Review’s Novella Project
offers a prize pool of AUD$25,000. While there is no firm word length requirement, writers are advised that works between 10,000 and 25,000 words are preferable. Entrants must be from either Australia or New Zealand. Closes 22 May.
Granta
is one of the world’s most prestigious literary magazines. Granta will be accepting unsolicited nonfiction fiction submissions from 24 April until 24 May. 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.
The Lifted Brow & RMIT non/fictionLab Prize
for Experimental Non-Fiction is open to writers worldwide. The winner will receive AUD$5000 (US$3750) and publication in issue 35 of The Lifted Bow. Entries close 29 May.
Warner Bros. Television Writers’ Workshop
describes itself as the premier writing program for new writers looking to start and further their career in the world of television. Applications open on 1 May and close on 31 May.
Fiction Desk Newcomer Prize
is open to stories between 1000 and 7000 words in length. The contest is only open to writers who have not yet published a novel or collection of short stories. The first prize is £500, and there is a second prize of £250. Entries close 31 May.
Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction
is for unpublished manuscripts between 40,000 and 75,000 words and may include long stories or novellas. The authors of the two winning manuscripts will receive US$1000 and publication by the University of Georgia Press under a standard book contract. Writers must be residents of North America. Entries close on 31 May.
One Story
is a literary magazine that contains, simply, one story. Approximately every three-four weeks, subscribers are sent One Story in the mail, or on their digital devices.Submissions are open between 1 September and 31 May. Stories must be between 3,000 and 8,000 words and can be in any style on any subject.
Matador Review
is accepting submissions for its fifth issue. It considers fiction, creative non-fiction, essays, flash fiction, poetry, book reviews and visual art. Submissions close 31 May.
Carey Institute for Global Good
is offering a residency program for creators of long form nonfiction. Pulitzer Prize-winning writer and journalist Tim Weiner in the program’s director. The campus in Rensselaerville, New York offers a peaceful, private and inspiring place to live, work and create. Applications for October to December fellowships close on 31 May.
Gladstone’s Library Writers in Residence
is the UK’s only residential library. Four residencies are offered each year with each writer staying at the Library for a month. The Writers in Residence are asked to keep a blog about their stay, as well as running a creative writing workshop. Residents receive full room and board, reimbursement for travel expenses and a small stipend of £100 per week. Applications close on 31 May.
Masters Review Flash Fiction Contest
is open to fiction under 1000 words. The winner receives US$2000, publication on the Masters Review site, and recognition in Poets & Writers Magazine. This contest is only open to emerging writers and entries close on 31 May.
Litro Magazine
is seeking submissions for its July 2017 print issue with the theme ‘The Senses’. It accepts short fiction, flash/micro fiction and non-fiction. Submissions close 31 May.
AGNI
is proud to be known as a magazine that publishes important new writers early in their careers. AGNI considers poetry, short fiction, and essays and most of the work it publishes is unsolicited. Submissions may be accepted for publication in AGNI or (with the writer’s permission) AGNI Online. Closes 31 May.
NBC Writers on the Verge
is a 12-week program focused on polishing writers and readying them for a staff writer position on a television series. The program will consist of two weekly night classes, which will typically be held on Tuesdays and Thursdays (7-10pm), weekly at NBCUniversal in Universal City, California, from October to January. Applications open on 1 May and close on 31 May.
New England Review
was founded by poets Sydney Lea and Jay Parini in New Hampshire in 1978. It welcomes submissions of fiction, poetry, nonfiction, drama, translation and creative writing for the NER website. New submissions will be accepted until 31 May.
Wellstone Center in the Redwoods
offers four writing fellowships per year, as well as week-long writing residencies and an emerging writer’s residency. The Center is located in the Santa Cruz Mountains in California, four miles from the Pacific Ocean. The next fellowship application deadline is 1 June.
Harvard Review
publishes short fiction, poetry, essays, drama, and book reviews. Writers at all stages of their careers are invited to apply, however, it only publishes a very small fraction of the material received. Submissions close on 1 June.
Literary Journal of the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library
is accepting submissions for its sixth annual issue. The theme is ‘A Little More Common Decency’. The journal accepts submissions of poetry, creative non-fiction, short fiction, original artwork, and/or photography related to the theme. The deadline is 1 June.
Fourteen Hills
is edited by graduate students in the creative writing program at San Francisco State University. It is committed to presenting a diversity of experimental and progressive work by emerging and cross-genre writers. Submissions close 1 June.
Ploughshares
reopens to submissions on 1 June. Writers are asked to include a short cover letter citing major publications and awards, as well as any association or past correspondence with a guest or staff editor.
Meanjin
was founded in 1940 in Brisbane by Clem Christesen. Currently based in Melbourne, Meanjin is committed to publishing the best new writing from Australia and the world. The journal is accepting fiction, essay and memoir submissions until 3 June.
Willow Springs Books
invites submissions for the 2017 Spokane Prize for Short Fiction. The winner receives US$2000 plus publication. Manuscripts should be no less than 98 pages (with no maximum page count) and include at least 3 short stories. Entries close 5 June.
Big Issue Australia
is currently considering submissions for its fiction issue. Previous editions have featured, among others: Christos Tsiolkas, Frank Moorhouse, Alice Pung and Cate Kennedy. Stories must be no longer than 3000 words and the writers can be based anywhere in the world. Closes 5 June.
Norton Writer’s Prize
is awarded annually for an outstanding essay written by an undergraduate student. Literacy narratives, literary and other textual analyses, reports, profiles, evaluations, arguments, memoirs, proposals, mixed-genre pieces, and more are eligible provided they were completed for an undergraduate writing class. Entries close 15 June.
Curt Johnson Prose Award
is run by December magazine, a magazine whose many accomplishments include being the first to publish the work of Raymond Carver. Open to stories up to 8000 words in length, the fiction winner receives $1500 and publication in the magazine; second place receives $500 and publication. Prizes are also offered for non-fiction. Entries close 15 June.
Fiction
is a semiannual publication established in 1972. It is looking for the best new writing available, leaning toward the unconventional, and accepts a variety of genres: experimental, satire, literary, translations, and contemporary. The current reading period closes on 15 June.
Creative Nonfiction
is seeking submissions on the theme ‘Starting Over’. All essays must under 400 words, tell true stories and be factually accurate. Submissions close on 19 June.
Mslexia Women’s Pamphlet Competition
is for short collections of 20-24 pages of 18-20 poems.First prize is publication plus £250, 25 complimentary copies of the pamphlet and a 10 percent royalty on sales. One or more poems from the pamphlet will be published in Mslexia magazine. Open to women poets worldwide. Closes 13 June.
A3 Review
is seeking contributions under 150 words on the theme ‘Dates and Dating.’ The editors welcome submissions of prose, poetry, graphic stories, photography, paintings, drawings, and other visual and word-based creations. Closes 24 June.
Puritan: Frontiers of New English
is an online, quarterly publication based in Toronto. They publish new fiction, poetry, interviews, essays and reviews. Submissions received before 25 June will be considered for the summer issue.
Newcastle Poetry Prize
is one of Australia’s oldest literary prizes and has an AUD$22,000 prize pool. The entry must be a poem, or suite of poems, by a single author totalling no more than 200 lines and all entries will be considered for inclusion in an anthology. This prize is open to Australian residents only. Entries close 30 June.
Bellevue Literary Review
seeks high-caliber, unpublished work, broadly and creatively related to the themes of health, healing, illness, the mind, and the body. Submissions close on 30 June.
The Creative Nonfiction Foundation
has announced that it is launching a new monthly magazine, set to debut this fall. Each issue of TRUE STORY will feature one exceptional work of creative nonfiction, which will be distributed in print and digitally (though not available online). Submissions should be between 5,000 and 10,000 words long, on any subject, in any style.
hitRECord
is seeking irreverently humorous etiquette lessons for the modern adult. Lessons should be humorous and lighthearted, and only one or two sentences in length.
Catapult
is accepting narrative nonfiction submissions for its online magazine. Catapult welcomes personal essays, lyric essays, reportage, and unconventional prose which resists categorization. All contributors will be paid.
McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern
is currently accepting fiction submissions. Interested advised that the editors are not ” concerned about writing degrees or past publications, though, so don’t be daunted if you don’t have an MFA or much in the way of previously published work” but are warned that response times can be lengthy.
Representation Matters Mentor Program
connect self-identified people of color who are interested in publishing and literature with publishing professionals who can help their mentees learn about, and get a foothold in, the publishing industry. The program is currently focused on editorial only, but may expand to other areas of publishing in the future. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis.
The Sun
is an independent, monthly magazine based in North Carolina that publishes personal essays, short stories, interviews, poetry and photographs. All contributors are paid (up to $1500 for fiction) but the magazine receives over 1000 submissions per month, meaning responses can take three to six months.
Guernica
welcomes submissions from writers and visual artists at all stages of their careers. It is currently accepting submissions of nonfiction, fiction, poetry, photo essays and short videos. Simultaneous submissions are acceptable, as long as you immediately notify the Guernica editors that your piece has been accepted elsewhere.
