These are themed submission calls and contests for fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Some of the themes are: cats; time travel; heredity; found fiction; dragons; winter in the city; Nordic horror; caretaking; mars colonization; and lycanthropy.
THEMED SUBMISSIONS
Cosmic Horror Monthly: Ligottian fiction
They’re open for fiction, for a special tribute issue to Thomas Ligotti. “Ligottian weird fiction is deeply philosophical and especially pessimistic and nihilistic. His work tends towards the experimental, particularly metafiction, tinged with the theatrical absurd. Think bleak urban environments, people who are more like puppets (and vice versa), human disconnection, and grotesque spectacle.”
Deadline: 7 March 2024
Length: Up to 5,000 words
Pay: $0.05/word
Details here.
Mslexia: Cats
This magazine only accepts submissions from women authors, and is accepting submissions in various genres, including on their showcase themes; the upcoming theme is ‘Cats’; “For Issue 102 we’re looking for stories about fesity felines, mercurial moggies and big wild cats.” They pay, and have different deadlines. For cat-themed fiction and poetry, the deadline is 11th March 2024; for some inclusions in Issue 102, the deadline is 8th April 2024; click on the tabs on their guidelines page for details. They also accept nonfiction (they want 300 words of nonfiction about something which happened in 1888 for their Timepiece column; see guidelines), fun stuff, as well as article and interview pitches. They have some formats that are open for submissions by their subscribers only, while others are open for all women writers. Also see their submissions policy.
Deadline: 11 March 2024 for cat-themed fiction and poetry (see guidelines); 8 April 2024 for others
Length: Varies
Pay: Starts at £30 (“We pay for everything we publish in Mslexia, aside from some uncommissioned pieces in the ‘forum’ section of the magazine” – see here.)
Details here.
Monstrous Magazine: Time Travel
Monstrous is a new horror comic magazine, and they want submissions for their second issue, on the ‘Time Travel’ theme. They want horror stories on time travel; they do not want Morlock stories. They also want pitches for articles about time travel – “It could be about the history of time travel in fiction or you can get more creative with it.” They’re also accepting finished B&W horror comics on the time travel theme (no scripts). Deadline: 15 March 2024 for flash fiction; unspecified, for nonfiction pitches
Length: 1,000-1,500 words for fiction
Pay: $0.06/word for fiction; $0.03/word for nonfiction
Details here.
Zoetic Press: Non-Binary Review
They want poetry, fiction, essays, translations, and art. Their upcoming theme is Heredity, and they’re also reading for the False Memories theme. Please remember, 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 these two themes, they are also accepting submissions for Dear Horace Greely and Heartbeats: Visual Verse sections.
— Heredity: “Maybe you have your mother’s nose, or your father’s eyes, or your grandmother’s hair, or your uncle’s earlobes. There are so many things that run in families – not just physical characteristics, but so many of our habits, tastes, and ways of thinking. The “nature vs. nurture” debate has been raging forever, although science is finding that a surprising amount of what we think of as learned behavior might actually be biological. But what else might we inherit from our families? Magic powers? A tail? ESP?
We’re looking for speculative takes on heredity – the unexpected, the impossible, the very furthest out there. We’re NOT looking for stories about inheritance – things given to us by families or friends. We’re not looking for werewolves or vampires (or any other well-known fictional monsters). We’re looking for something new – something we’ve never seen before.” The deadline is 30 April 2024, or until filled.
— False Memories: “There is a common phenomenon wherein people hear stories of their early childhoods so often that those stories turn into “memories.” It is common in dreams to have “memories” of things that happened to the dream self, but not to the real self. Or a person might believe that they took their regular medication, brought in the garbage bins, or picked up the mail when they haven’t.
We’re looking for weird and wonderful stories of not just the memories themselves, but of their production, their repercussions, their wider meanings. We’re looking for false memories that might have changed history, that led to remarkable discoveries, that impacted lives.” They don’t want stories of recovered memories. The deadline is 31 July 2024, or until filled.
Deadlines: See above
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.
(They’re also accepting submissions for two other sections:
– “Dear Horace Greeley is our advice column for authors.” Details on the kind of questions you can ask, and publication of the letters, are here and here.
— “Heartbeats: Visual Verse isn’t just poetry. It’s poetry that can only work in a visual medium. We want layers of meaning and emotion; we want evocative images and surprising combinations of words, music, and visuals.” Details here and here.)
Archive of the Odd
This is a speculative fiction magazine of found fiction. Their website says, this is “a home for the strange, the uncanny, and the odd.” And, “Archive of the Odd is a biannual magazine of found fiction—stories told in the style of found footage, also known epistolary, neo-epistolary, found file, or found document fiction. Essentially, stories told in the form of other documents. All submissions must be found fiction.” Please see the website for details/examples of the work they’ve published before. They are currently open for queries only – on serializing, audio/video, finished chapbooks/booklets. They accept microfiction also, though this is harder for them to place. They will open soon for short fiction submissions, for works up to 8,000 words.
Opens on: 15 March 2024 for short fiction
Length: “500-8,000 words is preferred for the main magazine, but will consider 5,000-12,000 for a standalone chapbook publication.”
Pay: $0.01/word
Details here.
Eye to the Telescope: Dragons
This is a speculative poetry magazine. For the Dragons theme,
they say, “Even though no one can agree on what exactly dragons are, nearly every culture has mythologized them in some way. From their size to their design to their abilities to their origins, tales of dragons are as diverse as humanity itself, with some of the earliest poetry in the English language revolving around them, reinventing what dragons were perceived as for the time. In this dragon-themed call, we want your take on dragons. Feel free to draw from traditions outside the predominant Western narrative to develop an original take on these fearsome creatures or introduce under-appreciated interpretations from your own cultures. Not only can you twist the idea of what dragons are as you see fit, but you can place them in genres outside of traditional fantasy, where they have often been underutilized or absent.
Poetry that rhymes is more than welcome, and I’m open to a genre approach to submissions as much as I am to a literary one!” They also accept translations.Deadline: 15 March 2024
Length: Up to 3 poems
Pay: $0.04/word (up to $25)
Details here.
Rough Cut Press: Dream
They publish short prose from the LGBTQIA community, and have monthly themed submission calls. Send short prose on the ‘Dream’ theme.
Deadline: 27 March 2024
Length: Up to 650 words
Pay: $25
Details here.
Hearth Stories
They want fantasy and science-fiction slice-of-life stories with a focus on connection, family, relationships, comfort, and the natural world (they love stories prominently featuring nature, as opposed to tech).
Deadline: 31 March 2024
Length: 1,000-10,000 words (prefer 1,500-3,500 words)
Pay: $0.01/word
Details here.
House of Gamut: Winter in the City
Submissions are open for ‘Winter in the City’ anthology; they want dark urban stories. “Winter in the City: A Collection of Dark Urban Stories is an anthology that takes place in different cities around the world during the bleak—sometimes harsh—season of winter. Your story submission must conform to the guidelines listed below and feature the City—in fact, the title of each story will be the City of which you write. We are not looking for vampire/werewolf love trysts. We are looking for fantastical elements within the City itself. Because we all know—deep in our hearts—that nightmares and fairies, monsters and ghosts, and terrors of the real and imagined call the City their home.” And, “The “city” should be a real place—no “Gotham City” or “Hogsmeade.” PLEASE Confirm which city your story will take place in before starting to write. We prefer not want any duplicates.”
Deadline: 31 March 2024
Length: 3,000-7,000 words
Pay: $0.10/word
Details here and here.
(House of Gamut is a speculative fiction publisher, see guidelines for all their current open calls – anthology, poetry, nonfiction, as well as poetry and nonfiction reprints – here.)
Misti Media: Do You Really Want to Hurt Me? – Crime Fiction Inspired by the Music of Boy George and Culture Club
This is a fiction anthology. “In the 1980s, the world had never seen anything quite like Boy George and Culture Club. English pop met fashion and androgyny to usher in the New Romantic era of music. … what better way to celebrate them than with outstanding crime fiction inspired by their music? … Your work must be based on a song that’s an original Boy George and/or Culture Club song and cannot be a cover performed by them …(and) must relate strongly to the song it’s inspired by, whether that’s by the lyrics or the name.” And, “LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC characters and authors very, very strongly encouraged. Be authentic! Remember that this anthology is for Pride Month.”
Deadline: 31 March 2024
Length: Prefer 3,000-5,000 words
Pay: $25
Details here.
Sentinel Creatives: Nordic Horror
This is a fiction anthology. “We’re looking for original weird tales set in the Nordic Region that explore the human (and inhuman) experience through the lens of the weird and the horrific.
We’re looking for a diverse selection of stories that run the gamut of folklore and history in the region. Of course, this includes Viking Horror. We will, however, only be looking to include 1-2 stories in this vein.
Give us your tales of isolation, of windswept tundras, and of what lurks beneath the frozen fjords. Take us through the streets of Reykjavík, Trondheim, and Henningsvær. Show us walls that live and breathe, telling tales of their own history. Guide us to trap streets into other worlds, and the lost gods who wander them; mountains that walk the earth and seas that pulse with sentience. Show us lost maps and found people. Give us your stories of loss and tragedy, of the surreal and the uncanny.” And, “For the purposes of this anthology, the Nordic region will be said to include the territories of Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Greenland, the Faroe Islands, and Åland.”
Deadline: 31 March 2023
Length: 3,000-6,000 words
Pay: $125-200
Details here.
The Lost Poetry Club: The Four Humours
This is a new audible magazine “centering the bizarre, the horrifying, and the what-ifs.” And, “Genres: Sci-fi, Slipstream, Weird Fiction, Near-Future, Retellings, Folk-Tales, Fantasy, Magical Realism, Surrealism, Cosmic Horror, Dark Fantasy, Speculative… Formats: Mainly Short Stories, Poetry, Flash Fiction, Short Plays/Extracts, (but open to) Personal Stories, Dreams/Nightmares, Songs, Soundscapes, Fictional or Real Mini-Docs, Interviews, and whatever else you can dream up…” They’re reading submissions on ‘The Four Humours’ theme, and have detailed guidelines, including, “When our nature is out of balance; tempers, like fevers, run high. Step into the bewitching world of the Four Humours, where ancient alchemy meets the intricate tapestry of the human psyche. Dividing our episode into four sections: Sanguine, Choleric, Melancholic, and Phlegmatic.”
Deadline: 31 March 2024
Length: Short Stories/Plays/Extracts: Up to 15 mins or 1,800-3,000 words; Poetry/Flash Fiction: Up to 5 mins or 500 words; Songs/Music/Other: Up to 5 mins
Pay: “£0.015 per word or £10 flat rate for other”
Details here.
Denver Horror Collective: Frontiers of Fright – A Southwestern Horror Anthology
They want fiction for an anthology with a focus on horror in the American southwest. “Whether people found themselves in ranches, small frontier towns, saloons, railways, or mines, the American Southwest was a harsh wilderness—a desolate and isolating landscape of deserts and mountains. We want these same people and places with a horror heartbeat, spotlighting the creepy, chilling, and unnerving aspects of when the west was young. For this anthology, we are considering the southwest as places such as Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, western Texas, southern Nevada, California, and northern Mexico.”
Deadline: 31 March 2024
Length: 1,000-6,000 words
Pay: $10 for the first 1,000 words, then a half cent per word up to 6,000 words
Details here.
Ninth Letter: Caretaking
Ninth Letter is accepting submissions on the ‘Caretaking’ theme for the web edition. Submissions for the themed web issue are free, and submissions for the print issue are charged. They have detailed guidelines on the theme, including, “To define Caretaking, to our mind, as being separate from but not exclusive to love: sometimes we find our way to it, but other times we are chosen to take it on.
Send us fiction, poems and essays that capture and navigate practices of care for others. This call for submissions is not limited to care for people, but for care of anything other than ourselves. We want pieces that show both caretakers and cared for in a variety of settings and circumstances – through difficulties and successes.”
Deadline: 31 March 2024
Length: Prose up to 3,500 words, up to 3 poems
Pay: $75 for prose, $25 for poetry
Details here and here.
Air and Nothingness Press: Moving Across the Landscape in Search of an Idea
Their website says, “We are looking for stories with 1500 words divided as follows: long titles (minimum 250 words [though we know this might be difficult so, as long as it is an obnoxiously long title, we’ll be ok]), concise narratives (minimum 250 words, maximum 800 words) and copious footnotes, endnotes, marginalia, indices and glossaries (minimum 250 words, maximum 800 words). Authors are welcome to shift word counts between these three parts of their submission, but they must stay within a range of 1500 words for the total submission (ex. a 500 word title, a 600 word narrative, and 400 words of footnotes.). Stories are welcome to be submitted in any genre. … Authors may explore any genre with their stories (yes poetry too!) and we encourage a wide variety of ideas and interpretations.”
Deadline: 31 March 2024
Length: Up to 1,500 words
Pay: $0.08/word
Details here (download the full guidelines from this page).
WolfSinger Publications: The Dragon’s Hoard 2
This is a fiction anthology. “Dragons love…well…their hoard. Be it a hoard of gold, gems, books, virgins, whatever your dragon loves to collect and hoard. Or maybe your dragon doesn’t have a hoard—well then WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOUR DRAGON? —All dragons have a hoard—don’t they? If he doesn’t—then explain why not. … Since dragons are primarily a creature of fantasy I’m sure we’ll get plenty of fantasy stories; but we’ll take science fiction as well as any other speculative fiction genre, but you MUST be creative. A creative twist on the idea of dragons and their hoards is the most important part of the story.”
Deadline: 31 March 2024
Length: 2,500-7,500 words
Pay: $15 + royalties
Details here.
(Submissions are also open for Zehlreg Augustus Grindstone’s Spectacular Western Oddity Emporium anthology; they want “short stories, flash fiction, and poetry submissions for publication in a magnificent anthology where the Wild West meets the vast worlds of Fantasy!” Please note, contributor payment depends on crowdfunding, for this project. The deadline is 31 March 2024. Details here.)
Critical Blast Publishing: The Fables Next Door
This is a fiction anthology. “We are looking for stories that involve characters from recognized fairy tales placed in a modern setting where normal people meet and interact. All genres welcome as long as the theme is met.” Query for reprints.
Deadline: 31 March 2023
Length: 2,000-10,000 words
Pay: $25
Details here.
Alien Dimensions: Mars Colonization 2033
This is a space fiction magazine, and they want fiction on the ‘Mars Colonization 2033’ theme. The editor wants stories set on barren Mars, with lots of great science, set in 2033, and “Something alien happens!” Also, “Set it in space and include some friendly non-humanoid aliens helping to solve a pseudo-scientific problem. More cerebral than stomach! Space fiction!”
Deadline: 31 March 2024
Recommended length: 5,000-7,000 words (see guidelines)
Pay: $20 (see guidelines)
Details here.
Terrain.org
This magazine focuses on place, climate, and justice. They publish fiction, poetry, essays, articles, artwork, videos, and other contributions, as well as translations. They particularly seek underrepresented voices (see guidelines). General poetry submissions are closed, while general fiction and non-fiction are open; submissions for ARTerrain and Letter to America are open year-round.
They are also reading submissions for a special call; they have detailed guidelines on the ‘Climate Stories in Action’ theme, including, “Narratives and art that center solutions (about climate action), introduce us to everyday climate heroes, and showcase the joy discovered through community engagement often lead to feelings of agency and possibility.
The “Climate Stories in Action” series will expand our vision of climate activism and help people imagine meaningful ways to be involved. We are inviting storytellers to submit poetry, nonfiction, fiction, art and multimedia pieces that showcase climate activism in professional, civic and community life. We are interested in stories that help shift our cultural mindset from despair to creative possibility and from isolation to collective purpose.” They will publish 12 pieces in this special series.
Deadline: 31 March 2024 for general prose; 8 April 2024 for Climate Stories in Action
Length: Up to 5,000 words for prose
Pay: $200 for Climate Stories in Action series; at least $50 for regular contributions
Details here and here.
(Terrain.org also has an annual Editor’s Prize of $500 per genre for underrepresented writers for which there is no submission fee, and another prize, for all writers, for which there is a submission fee – see guidelines).
LampBlack Lit: Community
This is a magazine dedicated to voices from the Black diaspora. They’re reading submissions of prose and poetry for their ‘Community’ issue. “While capitalism fuels armed conflicts across the known world, it simultaneously facilitates the broadcast of genocides in Palestine, Sudan, and Congo; we have all been implicitly asked to pick sides. But what of those who do not choose? Of those that do not feel it is their place? — What creates the duty of community and who are its participants? What is its role? Lampblack’s Community issue seeks to interrogate these questions through writing…. Offer us work that best represents who you are as a writer. We will consider all submissions, regardless singularly on the strength of its craft. If you are looking for a prompt, feel free to write about what community means to you.”
Deadline: 1 April 2024
Length: Up to 15 pages for prose, up to 5 pages for poetry
Pay: $350
Details here.
Hawk and Cleaver: The Other Stories Podcast
Hawk and Cleaver publishes horror, sci-fi, and thriller fiction on their podcast, The Other Stories. They want tales that terrify, scar and haunt. Their upcoming themes are: Dark Magic (deadline 1 April); Cryptids (deadline 29 April); Mazes (deadline 27 May 2024). They have other themes listed too, with later deadlines.
Deadlines: See above
Length: Up to 2,000 words
Pay: £15
Details here (click on submission form for length and payment details).
Snake Bite Books: Creature Feature Classics #1 – Lycanthropy
This is “an anthology series exploring everybody’s favourite horror monsters. We’re starting off with a classic; the full-moon afflicted lycanthropes.
We’re looking for a variety of stories so feel free to go in any direction your brain might wander – tales set in the medieval ages, tales set in a dystopian nuclear fall-out, tales set in a robot-dominated 2050 where werewolves live underground in the sewers and hunt survivors of the robot revolution, almost any sub-genre and time goes.”
Deadline: 1 April 2024
Length: 3,000-8,000 words
Pay: £20
Details here.
Kangas Kahn Publishing: Fear of Clowns – A Horror Anthology
This is a horror fiction anthology, and the theme is clowns. “As usual, we’re less concerned with theme than we are with entertaining stories. We’re not necessarily looking for a clown-murdering-people story–if that’s your story, it better bring something new to the table. Ask yourself, does this story belong in a book called Fear of Clowns? If the answer is yes, send it!”
Deadline: 1 April 2024
Length: 1,000-4,000 words
Pay: $0.08/word
Details here.
Book Worms: Rock n Roll
This is a mail-order only horror zine. They want horror fiction and nonfiction on the Rock n Roll theme. “From hair-raising riffs to head-banging oblivion, horror and rock n roll are a match made in Hell! … We generally enjoy “fun”, “80s style” horror reminiscent of the zine’s old-school vibe, but we’ve also been blown away by fresh voices that take the genre in a new direction.” Please note, submissions have to be mailed.
Deadline: 30 April 2024
Length: Up to 1,500 words
Pay: $0.08/word
Details here.
New York Times: Modern Love
Modern Love is NYT’s nonfiction column, and their reading period has just opened. They want “honest personal essays about contemporary relationships. We seek true stories on finding love, losing love and trying to keep love alive. We welcome essays that explore subjects such as adoption, polyamory, technology, race and friendship — anything that could reasonably fit under the heading “Modern Love.” Ideally, essays should spring from some central dilemma you have faced. It is helpful, but not essential, for the situation to reflect what is happening in the world now.” Also, “Love may be universal, but individual experiences can differ immensely and be informed by factors including race, socio-economic status, gender, disability status, nationality, sexuality, age, religion and culture.” Send essays of 1,500-1,700 words. Modern Love has two submission periods, September through December, and March through June. Writers are paid. Send submissions to modernlove (at) nytimes.com. They especially welcome work from historically underrepresented writers, and from those outside the US. Details here.
Deadline: 30 June 2024
Length: 1,500-1,700 words
Pay: Unspecified
Details here.
(Also see NYT’s Tiny Love Stories column; these are also personal essays similar in theme to Modern Love, but much shorter, of 100 words.)
THEMED CONTESTS
ALTA Travel Fellowships
Each year, several fellowships are awarded to emerging translators (someone who does not yet have a book-length work of translation published or under contract) to help them pay for hotel and travel expenses to the annual American Literary Translators Association (ALTA) conference. Part of the application requirement is up to 10 pages of translated work (poetry or prose – see guidelines). “While the Travel Fellowships are open to all applicants, we especially encourage applications from translators of color, translators with disabilities, and LGBTQ+ translators.” They also have the Peter K. Jansen Memorial Travel Fellowship, which is preferentially awarded to one emerging translator of color or a translator working from an underrepresented diaspora or stateless language (apply using the ALTA Travel Fellowship application, and check the Jansen Fellowship eligibility box in the application form – see guidelines). Also see ALTA’s other awards for published works, including the international ALTA First Translation Prize, inaugurated in 2024, for emerging literary translators and their editors – $2,000 to the translator and $1,000 to the editor – open to all genres, awards one debut literary translation from any other language into English published in the previous calendar year.
Value: $1,000 each
Deadline: 18 March 2024
Open for: Unspecified
Details here and here (scroll down).
(Also see ALTA’s Emerging Translator Mentorship Program, the deadline for which has passed.)
A Public Space Writing Fellowship
“Writers who have not yet contracted to publish a book are invited to apply to the 2024 Writing Fellowships. Submissions of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry are welcome. Three fellowships will be awarded.” The fellowship aims to “seek out and support writers who embrace risk in their work and their own singular vision.” One of the submission requirements is a writing sample; one unpublished piece (for prose, a limit of 6,000 words; for poetry, up to 15 pages). If selected, the submitted manuscript is the piece that will be published in the magazine.
Value: $1,000, mentorship, other non-cash prizes
Deadline: 31 March 2024
Open for: Writers who have not yet contracted to publish a book with a US publisher (see guidelines)
Details here and here.
Robert B. Silvers Foundation: Silvers Grants for Work in Progress
Anglophone writers of any nationality may apply for their grants to support long-form essays (essay-length or book-length) in the fields of literary criticism, arts writing, political analysis, and/or social reportage. Grants may not be used to fund translation. Applicants should have an editorial agreement with a publication or publishing house for the work under consideration. Some of the submission requirements are a writing sample, project description, and a full responses to their financial questionnaire. And, “Your responses to the financial questionnaire should include all anticipated costs and should state other sources of funding, including book advances. Priority is given to projects that have not been supported by a significant advance.
The writing sample can be from the writer’s work in progress or from a previously published essay, article, or book.”
Value: Up to $10,000
Deadline: 31 March 2024
Open for: All writers
Details here.
Parsec Ink Short Story Competition: AI Mythology
Parsec Ink also publishes the annual Triangulation anthology series. They are open now for a short speculative fiction contest by non-professional writers, who have not met the eligibility requirements for SFWA Full Membership. The theme is AI Mythology. Send stories of up to 3,500 words.
Value: $200, $100, and $50 for adults, and $50 for the best youth story
Deadline: 31 March 2024
Open for: Non-professional writers (see guidelines)
Details here and here.
Sisters in Crime: Eleanor Taylor Bland Crime Fiction Writers of Color Award
The Eleanor Taylor Bland grant is administered by Sisters in Crime, an international organization of mystery authors, readers, publishers, agents, booksellers and librarians which promotes “the ongoing advancement, recognition and professional development of women crime writers.” This international grant is for supporting the recipient in crime fiction writing and career development activities. The writer may choose activities that include workshops, seminars, conferences, and retreats, online courses, and research activities required for completion of the work. This is for an emerging writer of color (see guidelines). The application process includes a writing sample – an unpublished piece of crime fiction, An unpublished work of crime fiction, aimed at readers, from children’s chapter books through adults. This may be a short story or first chapter(s) of a manuscript in-progress of 2,500 to 5,000 words.
Value: $2,000; the winner can choose from a range of activities
Deadline: 31 March 2024
Open for: Emerging writers of color
Details here. (Download the 2024 press release.)
Wergle Flomp Humor Poetry Contest
This prize is for humor poetry. Submit a poem of up to 250 lines.
Value: $2,000 and a two-year subscription to Duotrope; $500; $250; 10 prizes of $100 each
Deadline: 1 April 2024
Open for: All poets
Details here.
Cymera-Shoreline of Infinity Prize for Speculative Short Fiction
This is a speculative fiction contest for writers who are Scottish by birth or inclination (see guidelines), ages 14+ years. Send a story of up to 2,500 words. The stories that are selected for the shortlist will be published on the Cymera (Scotland’s festival of science fiction, fantasy, and horror writing) website after the festival.
Value: £150
Deadline: 31 March 2024
Open for: Scottish writers (see guidelines)
Details here.
The Mike Resnick Memorial Award
This award is sponsored by Galaxy’s Edge magazine and Dragon Con. They want a science fiction story by a new writer (who has not been paid a per-word rate of 6 cents a word or more or received a payment for any single work of fiction totaling more than $50). Send stories up to 7,499 words. Writers do not need to be members of Dragon Con.
Value: $250, $100, $50
Deadline: 1 April 2024
Open for: New writers
Details here (scroll down), here, and here.
Maya Angelou Book Award
This award, for US writers, is for a work has demonstrated a commitment to social justice. It is for books published in 2023, or scheduled to be published until November 2024. The award alternates between poetry and fiction, and for this cycle, books of fiction (both novels and short story collections) are eligible. Entrants must be available for a two-week reading tour at partnering educational institutions in Missouri (see guidelines). Entries have to be made by publishers only, not writers.
Value: $10,000
Deadline: 1 April 2024
Open for: US writers
Details here.
A couple of contests with later deadlines:
— Whiting Foundation’s Creative Nonfiction Grants: Grants of $40,000 each will be awarded to writers of creative non-fiction books – projects that were under contract with a publisher in the US, UK, or Canada. It is intended for multiyear book projects requiring large amounts of deep and focused research, thinking, and writing, after significant work has been accomplished; the deadline is
23 April 2024. Details here.
— The Black Orchid Novella Award: This is an international contest for novellas (15,000-20,000 words) that confirm to the tradition of Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe series (see guidelines). They should focus on the deductive skills of the sleuth. They are not looking for derivatives of the Nero Wolfe series, or the milieu. The prize is $1,000 and publication in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, and the deadline is 31 May 2024. Submission is via a form. Details here (also download the flyer from here.)
Bio: S. Kalekar is the pseudonym of a regular contributor to this magazine. She can be reached here.
