These are themed submission calls and contests for fiction, nonfiction, and poetry; a couple of these outlets are open for more than one call. Some call themes are: No place like home; were wolf short stories; food poems; winter horrorland; superstition; coming of age; time travel; rituals; underground; de/composition; steampunk sleuths; dread Mondays; bodies in and out of control; starship librarians; aliens among us; and experiments with form.
THEMED SUBMISSION CALLS
Griffith Review: No Place Like Home
Griffith Review is an Australian literary and current affairs journal; they mostly publish work of Australian writers, and some work by international writers. They’re currently accepting fiction and nonfiction submissions (no poetry) on the ‘No Place Like Home’ theme, for Issue 87. “There’s no place like home – although home isn’t always a place. It could be a feeling, an instinct, a language, a person, a memory; it could be where we long to return or can’t wait to escape. But for all its symbolic resonance, home also has myriad material consequences: from the picket fence to the political arena, it raises questions of sovereignty, identity, economics, class and domestic labour. What’s the future of home ownership? What does it mean to protect endangered languages? How do our conceptions of home shift when we start new lives in different countries?”. Please note, they want prose submissions only; there will be a separate call-out for poetry later in October.
Deadline: 13 October 2024
Length: Up to 4,000 words
Pay: AUD0.75/word for print prose
Details here and here.
Flame Tree Publishing Anthologies
They have periodic announcements for speculative fiction anthologies on their blog. Currently, they are open for three speculative fiction anthologies:
— This Way Lies Madness — which “will bring together a twisted tangle of dark stories featuring monstrous manifestations of trauma and guilt, paranoia and persecution, anxiety, addiction, and crippling terror,” and “Each selected story will be accompanied by a c. 300-word introduction by the author on their reflections / personal experience that inspired the story. Once selected, authors will be contacted to supply this additional text.” Pay is $0.08/word for stories of 2,000-4,000 words, and the deadline is 13 October 2024.
— Afrofuturism – “Authors must be writing from an authentic perspective of the Black experience, whether based in the diaspora or in Africa” for this call; they pay $0.08/word for stories of 2,000-4,000 words, and the deadline is 27 October 2024.
— Were Wolf Short Stories – “We are seeking stories about werewolves, shapeshifting humans, rivalries and alliances between vampyr and werewolves. The word werewolf goes back more than a thousand years, coming directly from the Old English wer, meaning Man, and wolf. Also of interest is folklore and mythology which plays on such legends as Fenrir (born of Loki) defeating Odin at Ragnarök, and early Slavic myths and rituals in which were wolf skins are removed and stolen. Stories can explore wolves which might have been human, changing by choice at the howl of the moon, or people cursed and damned to be wolves for all time. Is that why the lone wolf is alone? The wolfish grin is a little shy? Is that why we wolf down our food? Is there a wolf inside us all? In the forests around us? Hunting us, haunting us, protecting itself and its kind.”
Deadlines: See above
Length: 2,000-4,000 words
Pay: $0.08/word
Details here (This Way Lies Madness), here (Afrofuturism), and here (Were Wolf Short Stories).
Solarpunk Magazine
They want “hopeful short stories and poetry that strive for a utopian ideal, that are set in futures where communities are optimistically struggling to solve or adapt to climate change, to create or maintain a world in which humanity, technology, and nature coexist in harmony rather than in conflict. We also publish solarpunk art as well as nonfiction that explores real world, contemporary topics and their intersection with the solarpunk movement for a better future.” Also, “Any genre of science fiction, interstitial fiction, magic realism, or fantasy has potential as a solarpunk forum—we welcome robots and elves with equal excitement.” The kind of work they want is described on their Moksha submission page, as well as the guidelines page. Non-fiction is open on an ongoing basis.
Deadline: 14th October 2024
Length: 1,500-7,500 words for fiction, 1 poem, 1,000-2,000 words for nonfiction
Pay: $0.08/word for fiction, $40/poem, and $75/essay or article
Details here and here.
Undertaker Books: Winter Horrorland Anthology
This is a fiction anthology. “We’re looking for horror stories of all subgenres that take place in winter. Please note that we are not looking for holiday-themed stories, and they will be a hard sell.”
Deadline: 15 October 2024
Length: 1,500-4,000 words
Pay: $25
Details here.
Consequence Magazine
They publish work “that addresses the human experiences, realities, and consequences of war and geopolitical violence through literature and art.” They accept fiction (including flash and excerpts), nonfiction (interviews, essays, and narrative non-fiction), poetry, translations, and art. All works will be considered for online and print.
Deadline: 15 October 2024
Length: Varies
Pay: $30-50 for print prose, $50 for online prose, $20/poem for print poetry, $50 for online poetry
Details here.
Rattle
This online and print poetry magazine has various sections – general submissions (send up to 4 poems), Poets Respond (where poets respond to a news story or public event from the previous week), Tributes (each tribute gathers poems from a specific ethnic, vocational, stylistic, or social group – currently, they’re reading submissions for Haibun, deadline 15 October 2024, details in the relevant section here, as well as Food Poems, deadline 15 January 2025), Ekphrastic Challenge (a monthly challenge where poets respond to a specific visual prompt, and for this month’s prompt, the deadline is 31st October 2024), and they’re also reading for a Young Poets’ Anthology (The author of the poem must have been age 15 or younger when the poem was written, and 18 or younger when submitted, deadline 15 November 2024). Also see their Critique of the Week (no payment). And they publish artwork (themed with cut-off dates, and unthemed). All free submissions are automatically considered for the annual Neil Postman Award for Metaphor, a $2,000 prize judged by the editors. They are also currently open for a chapbook prize, for which there is a submission fee.
Deadlines: Vary; see above
Length: Vary
Pay: $100 for work published online, and $200 for print magazine submissions
Details here and here.
Seaside Gothic
This UK-based magazine publishes art, fiction, poetry, and nonfiction that meet the criteria of seaside gothic literature (it is led by emotion, not reason, exploring the human experience mentally and spiritually as well as physically; It addresses duality—land and sea, love and hate, the beautiful and the grotesque; It connects to the edge, living on the seaside either literally or figuratively, and has one foot in the water and the other on solid ground). They will open for submissions soon.
Reading period: 14-20 October 2024
Length: Up to 1,000 words
Pay: £0.01/word
Details here.
Speculative City: Superstition
This magazine “embraces the motivations of speculative fiction and integrates them into a focus of setting: the city. Cities instinctively draw individuals aspiring to create communities. Speculative City endeavors to elevate the voices of these communities through literary works that explore the potentials of their lived experience through the frame of science fiction, fantasy, and magical realism.” They want stories on the Superstition theme.
Deadline: 20 October 2024
Length: Up to 5,500 words
Pay: $20-55
Details here and here.
Shooter Literary Magazine: Coming of Age
They want submissions on the ‘Coming of Age’ theme. “We’re looking for stories, essays, memoir and poetry on anything to do with the transition to adulthood: first love, hormonal angst, Saturday jobs, brushes with the law, experimentation, gaining independence, losing virginity. Literary reflections on books that made an impact during late adolescence would make particularly welcome essays. Tales of college and first steps on the career ladder are also relevant.”
Deadline: 20 October 2024
Length: 2,000-6,000 words for short prose, up to 3 poems
Pay: £25 for short prose, and £5 for flash prose and poetry
Details here.
Girl Dad Press: Sex Change & the City
For this call, they want submissions from queer writers only; they accept pitches as well as submissions. “As we envision what a queer anthology of work about Sex and the City might look like, we couldn’t help but wonder if you have an idea for something that celebrates, critiques, questions, explores and/or expands the Sex and the City collected universe (including And Just Like That… and both movies)! We are open to personal essays, critical analyses, comics, fanfic, visual art, games, power rankings, personality quizzes, and anything else that could theoretically be printed in a weird little book.”
Deadline: 7 October for pitches; 21 October 2024 for submissions
Length: Up to 1,200 words (for written pieces) or four pages (for art/comics)
Pay: $100
Details here.
Smoking Pen Press: Time Travel
They want fiction for their Read on the Run anthology series, and the theme is Time Travel. “We welcome stories involving all types and aspects of time travel, and we are open to all genres – Sci-Fi, Romance, Comedy, Fantasy, Adventure.”
Deadline: 21 October 2024
Length: 1,200-6,000 words
Pay: $20 or paperback copies (see guidelines)
Details here.
Zoetic Press: Non-Binary Review – Rituals
They want speculative work – poetry, fiction, essays, translations, and art. They’re reading on the Rituals theme. They accept submissions until a cap is reached, or the deadline, whichever comes first. All submissions must have a clear relationship to the theme. Apart from the theme, they are also accepting submissions for Dear Horace Greely and Heartbeats: Visual Verse sections; they also offer feedback to 2 POC poets every month. On the Ritualstheme, they say, “Often, when we think of rituals, we think of robed, hooded figures standing around a large symbol of power etched into the floor, trying to summon a deity who will grant them their every desire. At least, that’s what Hollywood would have us believe. But the truth is that much of our lives is dictated by rituals. The Brushing of the Teeth, The Making of the Coffee, The Feeding of the Pets, The After-Work Drinks, The Watching of the Baking Show – we all have aspects of our lives where we insist on things being done just so, turning something otherwise mundane into a ritual. Rituals can be comforting, or they can be confining. They can help us make sense of our habits, and they can look strange to outside observers.
We want the best speculative takes on ritual – weird rituals, unexpected rituals, little-known rituals. We want to hear not just how rituals are enacted, but where they come from, how they get started, and what unintended consequences happen as a result.”
Deadline: 31 October 2024, or until filled
Length: Up to 3,000 words for prose; up to 3 pages for poetry
Pay: $0.01/word for prose, $10 for poetry
Details here and here.
Worldstone Publishing: Summer of Sci-Fi & Fantasy
They want science fiction and fantasy stories for this annual anthology.Deadline: 31 October 2024
Length: 1,500-7,500 words
Pay: $0.005/word; more if Kickstarter is funded
Details here.(Submissions are also open for Spring into SciFi fiction anthology from Cloaked Press. All sub-genres of science fiction are acceptable. Pay is $15 for stories of 2,500-9,000 words, and the deadline is 15 October 2024.)
Black Beacon Books: Steampunk Sleuths
This is a fiction anthology. “The genre of mystery is designed to get the cogs cranking, but let’s not forget that steampunk is all about cogs too! Why not bring them together? Steampunk Sleuths will be an anthology of four novelettes (15 – 20,000 words) featuring detectives in a steampunk setting solving peculiar crimes. The only requirements for submission will be that the means of committing the crime (murder, theft, kidnapping…) must be clearly steampunk and the reader must be given the tools to crack the case before the solution is revealed.”
Deadline: 31 October 2024
Length: See above
Pay: $50
Details here.
Rebellionlit: Three x The Fun
They want stories in all genres. While there is no theme, they do want stories that rebel in some way. They accept flash and short stories. They only want stories from writers with a US mailing address.
Deadline: 31 October 2024
Length: Up to 7,500 words
Pay: 1.5 c/word
Details here.
Whisper House Press: Dread Mondays
This is a workplace horror anthology. They have an extended submission window for writers of marginalized groups.
Deadline: 31 October for all writers, 30 November 2024 for historically marginalized writers
Length: Up to 4,000 words (prefer up to 3,000 words)
Pay: is $0.06/word
Details here.
The Last Girls Club: Underground
This is a feminist horror magazine. Their upcoming theme, for the Winter issue, is ‘Underground’. “Whether you’re hiding underground or what’s underground is coming for you or both; scare the bejeezus out of us over it. Has humanity moved underground to survive nuclear winter or have the poor retreated to abandoned tunnels unable to afford housing topside anymore? Is there a revolution brewing to destroy the topsiders and emerge to claim the new unoccupied land? Or are the topsiders dropping poison smoke bombs down to kill the sub strata humans they consider to be vermin?” They accept fiction and poetry submissions, and nonfiction pitches.
Deadline: 1 November 2024, or until filled
Length: Up to 2,500 words for fiction, up to 3 poems
Pay: $0.015/word for fiction, $10 for poetry
Details here and here.
Ninth Letter de/composition
Ninth Letter is accepting submissions on the de/composition theme for the web edition. Submissions for the themed web issue are free, and submissions for the print issue (which is also open for submissions) are charged. They have detailed guidelines on the theme, including, “The theme for this issue is “de/composition.” A bit biased, no? To think of decomposition as the dead opposite of the thing that used to be—its breaking down, its decay, its withering. Decomposition as merely putrefaction, a lesser of the former, a corpse, a husk. Let’s question this, then.
Send us your work that sees, in decay, something new. Send us work that, in content, in form, in spirit, decomposes as a way to recompose. Let us see your flies gather, the ants lick the wet bones bare.”
Deadline: 1 November 2024
Length: Up to 3,500 words for prose, up to 3 poems for the web edition
Pay: $75
Details here (scroll down) and here.
Thema: Maybe Next Time
They publish three themed issues a year. They accept short stories, essays, poetry, and art. Their upcoming theme is ‘Maybe Next Time’, and the deadline is 1 November 2024; they have other themes too, with other deadlines. They also accept reprints. Only writers outside of the US can submit by email, US-based writers have to post their submissions.
Deadline: 1 November 2024 (see guidelines)
Length: Up to 20 pages for fiction, up to 3 poems
Pay: $10-25
Details here.
The First Line Journal
They want fiction (all genres) and poetry that begins with pre-set first lines, one for each quarterly issue. For nonfiction, they want critical articles about your favorite first line from a literary work. For fiction and poetry, for the Fall issue, the first line is:
“The parking lot was empty.”
Deadline: 1 November 2024 for the Winter issue
Length: 300-5,000 words for fiction; 500-800 words for nonfiction
Pay: $25-50 for fiction, $25 for nonfiction, $10 for poetry (less postage fee for international writers – see guidelines)
Details here.
The Iowa Review: Bodies In and Out of Control
Their guidelines say, “Bodies can be prisons, and they can be imprisoned. Bodies are socially defined, surveilled, regulated, contoured; and the mechanisms of these embodied actions are legal, medical, educational, environmental, familial, religious, cultural, political — above all, political. In recent years, we have watched Black bodies being assaulted by police and by vigilantes, women’s bodies being denied their autonomy, bodies on borders being beaten back, bodies collapsing incruel heatwaves, bodies denied medical care when they challenge gender norms. The precarity and vulnerability of the body are markers of the current moment.
But bodies are also resistant and rebellious: they push physical limits for the sheer thrill of it, joyfully couple across boundaries of race and gender, risk harm in activism for social justice, extend healing touches and caring gestures.
In this special issue of The Iowa Review, “Bodies in and out of control,” we seek submissions that engage with the body/embodiment, its management and governance as well as its multiplicity, its mysteries, and its vitality. Poetry, short fiction, creative nonfiction, and other artforms are welcome.” They’re also accepting general nonfiction and visual narratives. For general submissions, they charge a fee for online submissions from nonsubscribers, but there is no fee for postal submissions.
Deadline: 1 November 2024
Length: Up to 25 pages for prose, up to 8 pages for poetry for the themed issue
Pay: $0.08/word for prose, $1.50 per line for poetry
Details here and here.
Tyche Books: Starship Librarians
This is a fiction anthology. “Badgered and beleaguered, the front line of the culture wars, enduring book bans, budget cuts, and ruthless political theatre, it’s a tough time to be a Librarian. Yet if there is to be a better tomorrow, it will be built on the art and wisdom of today. Building community, preserving knowledge, sharing art: simple principles demanding resolute determination and sincere empathy from those staffing the desks and stocking the shelves.
And the Librarians of tomorrow?
Does anyone still believe that an algorithm can fill this vital, sensitive role? Librarians function above the digital revolution’s reach. Have we realized databases, search engines, and other tech tools can never replace human librarians? In the hands of a master, such tools might increase their abilities, but the great cathedrals of knowledge and monuments of literature will never be ruled by the soulless. You can’t code empathy, program taste, or script inspiration. It’s time we recognize society should never replace empowered Librarians.
We are looking for stories about the librarians of tomorrow. Whether essential crew in the grand exploration of the space, defenders of knowledge in bleak radioactive tomorrows, or idealists in the halls of Neo-Alexandria, we want to check out your stories.
A bold Commander, brilliant science officers, resourceful engineers, but no starship crew is complete without a librarian!” Please note, they want Canadian spelling.
Deadline: 15 November 2024
Length: Unspecified
Pay: CAD50
Details here.
Book XI: A Journal of Literary Philosophy – Experiments with Form
Book XI is a journal dedicated to publishing personal essays, memoir, fiction, science fiction, humor, and poetry with philosophical themes. The journal is affiliated with Hamilton College’s Arthur Levitt Center for Public Affairs. For the ‘Experiments with Form’ theme, they say, “We’re looking for stories or essays that use borrowed forms (memos, Yelp reviews, maps, encyclopedia articles, etc).
We will consider only previously unpublished and philosophically informed creative work (though our understanding of “philosophically informed” is capacious). You may submit text or images or both. All submissions should be made through Submittable.”
Deadline: 15 December 2024, or until filled
Length: 1,000 and 5,000 words for prose
Pay: $200 for prose, $50 for poetry
Details here and here.
THEMED CONTEST CALLS
(There are other unthemed contests that are open now, including:
— The inaugural poetry prize by Peripheries, the literary & arts journal published by Harvard Divinity School & Center for the Study of World Religions; prizes are $700 and $500 for a poem, deadline 15 October 2024, details here.
— Poetic Justice Institute: Editor’s Prize for BIPOC writers for a poetry manuscript; no fee for BIPOC writers; prize $1,000, publication, deadline: 15 October 2024, details here and here.
— Amy Lowell Poetry Travelling Scholarship, for a poet of American birth who is willing to spend a year outside the continent of North America; applications have to be mailed. One of the requirements is a poetry sample; prize approximately $74,000 adjusted for inflation; deadline: 15 October 2024 (must be received by this date); details here (application instructions), here (FAQ – includes link to application form), and here (home page).
— The Commonwealth Short Story Prize, for writers from the Commonwealth, see the list of eligible countries here – send a piece of unpublished short fiction in any genre, including translations, overall prize £5,000, regional prizes are £2,500 each, deadline: 1 November 2024, details here.
— the PEN/Robert J Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers, an award for 12 emerging fiction writers for their debut short story published during a given calendar year in a literary magazine or cultural website; submitted stories must be published in the calendar year prior to the corresponding awards ceremony (see FAQ – scroll down on the guidelines page); prizes $2,000 each, deadline: 1 November 2024; details here and here.
— Black Mountain Institute: Shearing Fellowship, a residential fellowship for emerging and distinguished writers who have published at least one book with a trade or literary press; while there are no formal teaching requirements, this is a working fellowship (see guidelines). Pays $46,500 over 9 months, residency, deadline 1 November 2024, details here.
— Bennington College Young Writers Award, an international contest for Students in 9th to 12th grades or secondary school, categories are poetry (a group of three poems), fiction – a short story (1,500 words or fewer) or one-act play (run no more than 30 minutes of playing time), and nonfiction – a personal or academic essay (1,500 words or fewer). Prizes $1,000, $500, $250 each in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry categories, and scholarships, deadline: 1 November 2024, details here and here.
— John Updike Tucson Casitas Fellowship, a cash award of $1,000 and a two-week residency at the Mission Hill Casitas in Tucson, Arizona; writers with any type of literary project are welcome to apply, as are scholars working on Updike criticism; multimedia projects will also be considered; a proposal and writing sample are part of the application; deadline 1 November 2024, details here –scroll down for the Tucson Casitas Fellowship – the page also has details of all grants, scholarships, and awards by the John Updike Society.)
Welter: 60 Years, 60 Words Contest
Welter is a print and online journal affiliated with the University of Baltimore. To celebrate 60 years of the journal, they want 60-word submissions. “Designed to honor Welter’s 60 years of publishing outstanding writers and visual artists from across the globe, our “60 Years, 60 Words” contest is your chance to be recognized as a champion of constraint. Give us 60 of your most provocative, compelling, relevant words for a chance to win $60 and featured publication in our Fall issue.” They’re also open for their regular submissions of poetry and prose.
Value: $60 for the contest
Deadline: 11 October 2024
Open for: All writers
Details here and here.
One Story: Adina Talve-Goodman Fellowship
This is for an early-career writer of fiction who has not yet published a book and is not currently nor has ever been enrolled in an advanced degree program – see guidelines. “We are seeking writers whose work speaks to issues and experiences related to inhabiting bodies of difference. This means writing that centers, celebrates, or reclaims being marginalized through the lens of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, class, religion, illness, disability, trauma, migration, displacement, dispossession, or imprisonment.” Apart from the $2,000 stipend and tuition to attend One Story’s week-long summer writers’ conference, it offers free tuition for all One Story online classes and programming; a full manuscript review & consultation with One Story Executive Editor Hannah Tinti (story collection or novel in progress up to 150 pages/35,000 words). A fiction writing sample of 3,000-5,000 words is part of the submission requirement.
Value: $2,000
Deadline: 9 October 2024
Open for: Early-career writer of fiction (see guidelines)
Details here.
(And, their One Teen Story Contest for teenagers is open, and will close on 2nd December, see here.)
Eye Contact Award in Genre Flash Fiction
This is a prize for genre flash fiction by Eye Contact Magazine; for this cycle, they want a romance story of up to 1,000 words. The prize is sponsored by Seton Hill University and its MFA program in Writing Popular Fiction.
Value: “a cash prize (or gift card equivalent) of $250”
Deadline: 25 October 2024
Open for: Unspecified
Details here.
Preservation Foundation Essay Contest: Travel Nonfiction
They want essays, 1,000-5,000 words, by unpublished writers (see guidelines). They are currently reading for the Travel Nonfiction category – “Stories should be factual and true accounts of a trip taken by the author or a person or persons known by the author.” Please read the guidelines carefully; “contest runners-up and winners are expected to remain on the site for as long as the Preservation Foundation exists.”
Value: $200; $100
Deadline: 30 October 2024
Open for: All unpublished writers (see guidelines)
Details here.
U.S. Naval Institute General Prize Essay Contest
This prize is for an essay of up to 3,000 words on rethinking how Sea Services will have to address national, strategic, and operational challenges in an era of intense global competition, and how they will have to fight – see guidelines for the theme details/suggestions. The contest is open to “all contributors – active-duty military, reservists, veterans, and civilians”, according to their guidelines.
Value: $6,000, $3,000, $2,000
Deadline: 31 October 2024
Open for: “All contributors – active-duty military, reservists, veterans, and civilians”
Details here.
(They also have a photo contest, with an end-September deadline.)
The Academy of American Poets: Treehouse Climate Action Poem Prize
This is an opportunity for US poets. The Treehouse Climate Action Poem Prize for “exceptional poems that help make real for readers the gravity of the vulnerable state of our environment at present.” Poems could also be submitted in Spanish but must be accompanied by an English translation. Entries must be uploaded to Submittable as .doc, .docx, or .pdf files; and for entries by Performance or Spoken Word poets, most audio formats are accepted. Send one poem.
Value: $1,000; $750; $500
Deadline: 1 November 2024.
Open for: US poets
Details here and here.
(See all of The Academy of American Poets’ prizes here.)
She Does the City: New Voices Fund
This fund is open to women, non-binary, and transgender writers, who have less than 20 bylines to their name and are Canadian residents, by She Does the City. “The New Voices Fund has been established to offer opportunities to talented writers who’ve not yet been discovered. If you love to write about the arts and entertainment, or have a compelling personal story to share, you’ve come to the right place. Chosen writers will receive a $200 honorarium.” Some of the topics they are interested in are: unique perspectives within Canada’s arts & entertainment industry; creative projects that inspire positive change; strong opinions, or emotional responses, to contemporary art and pop culture (recent films, TV series, plays, books, art exhibits).
Value: CAD200
Deadline: Unspecified
Open for: Emerging Canadian women, non-binary, and transgender writers (see guidelines)
Details here
(Also see She Does the City’s general pitch guide for freelancers here.)
Society of Authors: Strachey Trust Grants
This grant fund is open to all UK authors (see guidelines), who wish to access UK-based archives/collections. The author must be working on a specific full-length literary project which has a strong likelihood of publication. The Strachey Trust promotes access to, and availability of, manuscripts of use to historians, biographers, and other researchers, as well as assisting in the tracing of copyright holders.
Value: £500
Deadline: Ongoing
Open for: UK writers
Details here.
BONUS: Writers Omi Residency
This residency is at Ledig House, a couple of hours north of New York City. It has an impressive alumni list, including Booker, PEN/Faulkner Award and Commonwealth Prize winners. Guests may select a residency of one week to two months; about ten writers at a time gather to live and work in a rural setting overlooking the Catskill Mountains. There is no cash award. They also have a translation lab. Published writers and translators can apply. The application deadline is 15 October 2024. Details here.
BONUS: The Young Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction
This is a prize for young UK writers for two categories, ages 11-15 and 16-19. They want historical fiction of 800-2,000 words. The fiction can be in any form – a story or an extract from a longer work, a poem or drama script, a fictional diary, letters, or reportage. The story can be set at any time in history, as long as it is an identifiable period before the author was born, in a world recognisably different from the present. They want mailed entries only. Winners get a £500 travel voucher, and their work published. The deadline is 31 October 2024. Details here.
Bio: S. Kalekar is the pseudonym of a regular contributor to this magazine. She can be reached here.
