Each month, the Ashland MFA Program receives calls for submissions and contest deadlines, which it publicizes in its monthly newsletter. Listed below are this month's calls for submissions.
Journal Submissions
Riprap Literary Journal is now accepting submissions for issue 38. They welcome submissions in poetry, short fiction, flash fiction, creative nonfiction, photography, and art. Submissions will close on Friday, December 4th.
https://riprapliteraryjournal.submittable.com/submit
Guide to Kulchur Creative Journal is accepting submissions through November 15 for Issue 6. Send up to 10 pages of poetry, fiction, or creative nonfiction to submissions.gtkjournal@gmail.com. Full guidelines and past issues available at link below.
https://guidetokulchur.com/gtk-creative-journal/
Fiction International is accepting submissions for its annual print journal during the period October 1, 2015 - February 15, 2016. The theme this year is Taboo. Interested writers are invited to visit our submission guidelines page at: http://fictioninternational.sdsu.edu/wordpress/submit/ Fiction International publishes an award winning annual journal that encourages formal innovation and social activism. We are located on the campus of San Diego State University, and the journal is edited by Harold Jaffe. Each issue revolves around a theme and features a wide variety of fiction, nonfiction, indeterminate prose, and visuals by leading writers and artists from around the world. We generally publish between 25 to 30 texts and visuals with each journal. To get an idea of what we are looking for, please visit our catalog page for sample texts: http://fictioninternational.sdsu.edu/wordpress/catalog/
Glassworks publishes nonfiction, fiction, poetry, hybrid pieces, craft essays, new media, and art both digitally and in print. We are currently reading until December 15, 2015 for our spring and fall 2016 print issues. They also publish flash fiction, prose poetry, and micro essays in our online edition Flash Glass monthly. Submissions for Flash Glass are accepted on a year-round, rolling basis. More information about our magazine, sample issues, and our submission manager can be found at www.rowanglassworks.org .
Lumen is a project for (and by!) cis women, trans-women, and non-binary people. We are interested in poetry, fiction, personal essays, and interviews that examine how we move through the world, both as complex individuals and as members of larger communities. The conversations we are interested in are those that shed light on our stories—on our struggles, our triumphs, and all the in-betweens. New reading period will start later this month. Blogs may be submitted anytime at:
https://lumen.submittable.com/submit
Southern Review has reopened submissions for poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. In addition to mail submissions, we’re excited to announce that this submission period, prose writers will be able to submit fiction and nonfiction electronically!
http://thesouthernreview.org/submissions
Graduate Student Poetry Only. We invite graduate students to submit to Claremont Graduate University's Foothill: a journal of poetry. Foothill is the first and only literary journal that exclusively publishes graduate student poetry. Sign up for an online subscription at http://www.cgu.edu/pages/9078.asp.
Lunch Ticket, is "a Feast of Words and Art" published twice-yearly. The journal publishes Poetry, Fiction (and Flash), Creative Nonfiction (and Flash), Young Adult (13+), Literary Translation & Multi-Lingual Texts, and Visual Art. The reading period for the Winter/Spring Issue, published in December of each year, runs from August 1-October 31. They also host two prizes, the Diana Woods Memorial Prize in Creative Nonfiction and The Gabo Prize for Literature in Translation & Multi-Lingual Texts. Both prizes are open for submissions in February and August. Amuse-Bouche, their special features column accepts submissions during January and July.
http://lunchticket.org/
Contests
Lost Roads Press' annual Brigham Award for Women Writers is accepting poetic manuscripts through October 31, 2015. Entries must be written by women (or anyone identifying as a woman) living in rural areas or away from the coasts in cities with less than a million people.
http://lostroads.org/
The 2016 Saints and Sinners LGBT Literary Festival's Writing Contest’'s deadline has been extended! The new deadline is November 2, 2015. Entrance Fee is $20 per entry.
http://sasfest.org/#contest
Blue River Editor's Award. Blue River, Creighton University’s new literary magazine, publishes the best writing from current and recent creative writing graduate students. $500 awarded to the best submission in fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry. All entries considered for publication. Deadline: March 1, 2016; $15 fee.
https://blueriver.submittable.com/submit
The Poet’s Billow, an organization dedicated to increasing the exposure of poetry, is extending their deadline for the Atlantis Award to November 1st. The Atlantis Award is given to a single best poem. The winning poet receives $200 and will be featured in an interview on The Poet’s Billow website. http://thepoetsbillow.org/poetry-awards/the-atlantis-award/
The Writer's Block Fiction and Creative Non-Fiction Contest, in conjunction with Blue Mesa Review offers a $500 prize, plus publication in Blue Mesa Review. There's an $11 submission fee; which, beyond the $500 prize, Blue Mesa Review is generously donating to the LLA and the Writer's Block Festival. Manuscripts are being accepted now at SUBMITTABLE through November 1, 2015.
https://writersblockaward.submittable.com/submit
Alice James Book Contest flyer and competition guidelines can be found here: Alice James Award. The postmark deadline for manuscripts is November 1, 2015. Both new and established poets are encouraged to submit to our competition.
https://alicejames.submittable.com/submit
PEN/Fusion Emerging Writers Prize is currently accepting submissions and it recognizes a promising young writer under the age of 35 for an unpublished work of nonfiction that addresses a global and/or multicultural issue. Eligible applicants will have the chance to have their work read by distinguished writers and editors Marie Arana, Manuel Gonzales, and Johnny Temple of Akashic Books. The winner will receive a $10,000 cash prize and be honored at our 2016 PEN Awards Ceremony next spring. Additional details on the award, including application guidelines, can be found here. Submissions close on October 26.
The Miami University Press Novella Prize is currently accepting submissions through October 15th. Submissions must be between 18,000 and 40,000 words and require a $25 dollar reading fee. The Novella Prize winner is offered $750 against royalties, a standard contract, publication, and ten copies of the book. All entrants receive a copy of the winning book. For more information and guidelines check out their website at http://www.orgs.miamioh.edu/mupress/novella/.
Columbia: A Journal For Literature and Art is now accepting original work in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry for the Issue 54 Writing Contest. One winner from each genre will receive a $500 cash prize and publication in Issue 54, due out this spring. This year’s judges for their respective genres are Fiction: Max Apple, Nonfiction: Mark Greif, Poetry: Martin Espada.All entries will be considered for online publication. There is a $15 entry fee and the entry deadline is December 31, 2015.
https://columbiajournal.submittable.com/submit/47335
River Teeth: A Journal of Nonfiction Narrative is still accepting entries in their Nonfiction Literary Book Contest, judged by Andre Dubus III. Deadline is October 15, 2015. Feel free to submit or share the guidelines below.
http://www.riverteethjournal.com/contests
Poetry Society of America has a new year of awards underway. Each year from October to December the Poetry Society offers contests for poets at all stages of their careers, including Chapbook Fellowships for poets who have not yet published a full-length collection, a new first book contest, and an award for a poet over forty who has published no more than one book.http://www.poetrysociety.org/psa/awards/annual/
Permafrost's 2016 Nonfiction Book Prize competition is already underway, but there's still time to throw your work into the ring! Essay collections, memoirs, travel writing, literary journalism, we want to read it all. We'll be accepting submissions until December 1st, so make those final edits to your manuscript and send it our way. Scott Russell Sanders will be judging our contest and the winner will receive $1,000. If that's not enough incentive, the winner's manuscript will be published through the University of Alaska Press! Check out the contest guidelines on our website for more information.
http://permafrostmag.com/1st-annual-book-prize-in-nonfiction/
Conferences, Residencies, and More
Lambda Literary's 2016 Writers Retreat for Emerging LGBTQ Voices is now accepting applications. The Retreat will be held July 24-31, 2016 on the campus of the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles. Faculty include Andrew Holleran (Fiction workshop), Benjamin Alire Sáenz (Young Adult Fiction workshop), Joy Ladin (Poetry workshop), Sarah Schulman (Nonfiction workshop), and Robert O’Hara (Playwriting workshop).
http://www.lambdaliterary.org/writers-retreat/application/
The Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts is accepting applicants for their 2016-17 writing fellowships in poetry and fiction. Writers who have not yet published a full-length book of creative work are welcome to apply. Fellows receive a seven-month stay (October 1 - April 30) at the Work Center and a $750 monthly stipend. Fellows do not pay or work in exchange for their Fellowships in any way. Fellows are chosen based on the excellence of their work. The deadline for the 2016-17 Writing Fellowships is December 1, 2015.
http://web.fawc.org/writers
The Baltic Writing Residency is currently accepting applications for the a month-long residency in Stockholm, Sweden. The deadline is December 15th, 2015. Applications can be sent via submishmash (http://balticwritingresidency.submittable.com/submit). The BWR provides $1,000, and a cottage in Stockholm for one poet, playwright, or writer of fiction working in English. The deadline for the BWR chapbook contest--judged by Valzhyna Mort--is February 15, 2016, the deadline for the 2 - 8 week long residency at Bernheim Arboretum & Research Forest is April 15, 2016; and the deadline for the Kentucky Writers Fellowship (for writers with KY connection) is May 15, 2016.
http://balticresidency.com/
Something to add? Send it to mfa@ashland.edu. We're especially interested in opportunities that cater to new and emerging writers.