These are calls and contests for fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Some of the call themes are: games; phantom worlds; work; solarpunk; soilpunk; food (and fairy tales); of love & dragons; ghost stories; personal histories; regret; and obsession.
THEMED CALLS
Graywolf Press: Graywolf Lab – Games
“Graywolf Lab is an online platform for interdisciplinary conversations and new writing hosted by Graywolf Press. Each Lab starts by gathering a small group of writers and artists for a virtual roundtable discussing a theme. Over several months, we invite responses to that conversation from more artists and writers. In July, we will be accepting contributions to our latest theme, Games. We’re looking for short fiction, essays, and poems originally in English or in translation as well as short selections of visual, graphic, multimedia, multidisciplinary, and interactive pieces that engage directly with the work already posted under the theme.
We encourage you to respond to or play with anything on Lab: Games. To start, check out our Spotlights, which showcase unique artistic practices that can be considered a game or games that could be considered art, like using an Etch A Sketch or Solo RPG games. In Table Poems, Jan-Henry Gray invents a process that could be used as inspiration for your own work. Our roundtable and our mood board present some of our own initial inspirations for the theme. We’ll keep posting pieces over the next several months. If a submission shows no familiarity or engagement with Lab, it will most likely not be accepted.” Their submission period for the Games theme will open on 7th July, and will stay open until 28th July or when their submission cap is reached, whichever is earlier. Their Submittable portal will open during the reading period.
Opens on: 7th July 2025, closes until filled
Length: Up to 5,000 words for prose, up to 3 poems, up to 5 minutes for audio / video
Pay: $200
Details here.
Dark Peninsula Press: The Cellar Door – Phantom Worlds
The Cellar Door is an anthology of dark fiction, and this will be the 6th in the series. They want submissions on the Phantom Worlds theme. “Looking for horror stories featuring nightmarish dreamscapes and alternate realities merging with our own.”
Deadline: 10 July 2025
Length: 2,000 – 6,000 words
Pay: $50
Details here.
One Art: A Journal of Poetry — Poems About Work
They want poems about work. “Poems about all types of labor (industrial, agricultural, corporate, healthcare, domestic, creative, hospitality, caregiving, education, sports, and other fields of work). … While we welcome poems about your own work experiences, we hope you’ll also consider submitting poems about the work of others, including family members, historical figures, or people you’ve observed, interviewed, or researched.” They’re looking for a variety of poetry styles.
Deadline: 12 July 2025
Length: Up to 3 poems (see guidelines)
Pay: $10/poem
Details here.
The Sprawl Mag
They want “speculative (science fiction, fantasy and horror) work that explores colonial resistance, climate hope, and cyber-feminism. But if you don’t cover those themes, that’s awesome too, we want to read what matters to you! … We encourage submissions from BIPOC, women, nonbinary, queer, and disabled writers.” They accept fiction, poetry, and art. They do not accept work that is not speculative. Submission is via a form.
Deadline: 12 July 2025
Length: Up to 1,500 words for fiction, up to 4 poems
Pay: CAD20
Details 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 soon open for submissions.
Reading period: 14 to 20 July 2025
Length: Up to 1,000 words
Pay: £0.01/word
Details here.
Solarpunk Magazine
This is a magazine of solarpunk fiction. The magazine “publishes 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. Nonfiction is open on an ongoing basis. They also accept artwork.
Deadline: 14 July 2025 for fiction and poetry, ongoing for nonfiction
Length: 1,500-7,500 words for fiction, poetry up to 5 pages (see guidelines), 1,000-2,000 words for nonfiction
Pay: $0.08/word for fiction; $40/poem; $75/essay or article
Details here and here.
(And, NonBinary Review from Zoetic Press is also accepting speculative fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and art on the Solarpunk theme till 31 July 2025. They pay up to $30 for writing. They are changing their submission periods to one month – longer for newsletter subscribers – and submission portal to Duosuma. Details here.)
The Orange & Bee
This Australian Substack-based magazine “publishes original and contemporary short stories, poems, and essays that explore, expand on, and subvert the rich traditions of international folklore, with a strong focus on fairy tales (though we also sometimes dabble in other forms of folklore, such as fables, myths, and legends).” They do not want work for children.
Deadline: 14 July 2025 (midnight AET)
Length: Up to 4,000 words for fiction and non-fiction, up to 50 lines for poetry
Pay: $0.08/word for prose, $50 for poetry
Details here and here.
The Last Girls Club: Monkey’s Paw/Answered Prayers
This is a feminist horror magazine. For the Monkey’s Paw/Answered Prayers theme, they say, “You’ve got everything you ever wanted and it’s awful. More tears have been shed over answered prayers than unanswered ones. Show us the folly of wishes. Terrify us with consequences. Keep us up at night dreading a knock on the door or an envelope in the mail.” They accept fiction and poetry submissions, and nonfiction pitches.
Deadline: 15 July 2025, 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.
Fairy Tale Review: Food
They want fairy tale informed work. They accept prose fiction, verse fiction, nonfiction, creative scholarship, and poetry. They’re accepting work on the food theme. They also accept translations.
Deadline: 15 July 2025
Length: Up to 30 pages
Pay: $50
Details here and here.
Cleis Press: Best Women’s Erotica of the Year – Erotic Adventures
They want previously unpublished stories on the theme, erotic adventures. “Writers who have been previously published are preferred, but it is not a requirement.” And, “Cleis Press likes stories that are inclusive and diverse, so characters on the LGBTQ+ spectrum, those that have disabilities, or represent a minority are always appreciated.” Please read their guidelines carefully, including the tropes / themes they do not want.
Deadline: 15 July 2025
Length: 2,500-5,000 words
Pay: $100
Details here.
Altitude Press Flash Fiction Anthology: Gen X
They’re reading flash fiction on the Gen X theme for an anthology; the call is open to all writers. The audience for this anthology is young adult (YA) to adult. Regarding genres/categories accepted, “Literary, Romance, Sci-Fi & Spec Fic, Mystery, Fantasy, Fairy Tale Retellings, Historical Fiction, Humor/Satire, Paranormal, Magical Realism, and others.”
Deadline: 15 July 2025
Length: 1,500-2,000 words
Pay: $25
Details here.
Chicken Soup for the Soul: Grandmothers
“A Chicken Soup for the Soul story is an inspirational, true story about ordinary people having extraordinary experiences.” They publish true stories and poetry. Their upcoming theme is Grandmothers. They have detailed guidelines, including, “Everyone has a great story about the unconditional love between grandmothers and their grandchildren. We are looking for heartwarming, insightful, and humorous stories celebrating grandmothers.”
Deadline: 15 July 2025
Length: Up to 1,200 words
Pay: $250
Details here (general guidelines; also see the ‘How to submit’ tabs on the page) and here (themes)
(They have other themes too, with later deadlines; see all the themes here.)
Flame Tree Anthologies
Flame Tree is launching romantic fantasy anthologies. Submissions are open for the first two, titled A Breath of Time and Of Love & Dragons.
— A Breath of Time: “Lost loves, love discovered, love unreachable unless Time itself is conquered, these and many other time-bending, time traveling, time feasting themes can spark your imagination for stories of alternate history, of ancient forests returning to haunt the present and great adventures through dreams and timeless mountain tops, all with hearts beating to the rhythm of romance.”
— Of Love & Dragons: “Dragons may be fierce but they are symbols of great power, and the bond between human and dragon, once forged can never be broken. Or can it? Can romance deal a deathly trail of vows abandoned, or forgotten, can realms beyond our time conjure tales of Dragon Lords and warrior princesses, of great rivalries and oceans yearning with desire and determination, can you tempt the ancient ways into new meanings, and new stories.”
And, “Please specify in the body of the email which anthology theme (A Breath of Time, or Of Love & Dragons) your story is for.” They also accept reprints for their anthologies.
Deadlines: 20 July 2025
Length: 2,000-4,000 words
Pay: $0.08/word for originals
Details here.(Flame Tree is also open for The Valkyries and Odysseus anthologies; both of these are part of their Myths, Gods, and Monsters series, story length is 3,000-4,000 words, pay $0.08/word for originals, and the deadline for both is 24th August 2025. They usually announce their anthology themes here.)
Tractor Beam
They publish soilpunk stories, pieces that present an optimistic view of the earth. They are reading submissions for Issue 3: “For our upcoming issues, we’re specifically seeking stories celebrating decay and rot, ice and snow (the frozen earth), the ocean and soil under water, fashion and style, soil as tech, soil as the origin of life and anti-apocalyptic futures. Literal or abstract, near term or on distant horizons: worlds can take inspiration from innovations or alternative practices in earth and material science, regenerative agriculture, food, microbiology, and more.” They want stories up to 6,000 words, graphic novellas at 16 panels, or multimedia. Submission is via a form on the website.
Deadline: 21st July 2025
Length: See above
Pay: $1,000
Details here.
Flash Frog: Ghost Stories
They publish flash fiction. They are accepting only ghost stories through July, and will resume for unthemed submissions from August onwards.
Deadline: 31 July 2025 (for ghost stories)
Length: Up to 1,000 words
Pay: $25
Details here.
Death’s Head Press: Deep Anthology
Death’s Head Press is an imprint of Dead Sky Publishing. They are open for a fiction anthology. “Death’s Head Press continues its exploration of dark horizons. This time we seek the abyss.
We’re putting together an anthology for lovers of the unexplored depths of our planet and the universe. We are looking for stories between 2,500 and 10,000 words that dive into the dark.” The title of the anthology is to be decided. They’ve posted this open call on Instagram.
Deadline: 31 July 2025
Length: 2,500-10,000 words
Pay: $0.05/word
Details here.
Parlor Ghost Press: Spook Hollow – Tales of Ozark Horror
Parlor Ghost Press is an imprint of Watertower Hill Publishing, and they want fiction for an anthology. “What we are looking for: horror stories set in the Ozark mountains–either your own take on a story from Ozark folklore or an original tale featuring Ozark locations/atmosphere/beliefs/etc. We want all the spooks, haints, hags, and boogers. Give us the mist rising out of the hollers and the mysterious sounds from the woods, the strange lights in the sky and the distant cackle of Old Granny in her hidden shack.
We want horror, but we want it PG—no extreme horror or erotic horror, please. Just a good modern take on the venerable myths, magic, and monsters unique to the Ozark area.”
Deadline: 31 July 2025
Length: 3,000-6,000 words
Pay: $50
Details here.
Black Hare Press: Dark Moments – Ghost Ships
Black Hare Press publishes horror and dark speculative fiction; they run a themed monthly drabble challenge, titled Dark Moments, each month. For July, the theme is Ghost Ships: “we invite you to board the haunted decks of ghost ships lost to time and storm. Picture spectral vessels adrift in swirling ocean mist, crewed by the damned and desperate to lure the living into their eternal voyage. Give us your best 100-word tales—microfiction dripping with maritime dread, haunted crews, cursed treasures, or phantom calls echoing across midnight waves. Whether your ship is a tattered wreck or a vanished luxury liner, let your imagination drift into the unknown. All genres welcome, as long as your story captures the chilling spirit of the theme.” Submissions have to be exactly 100 words. They will publish 12 stories in August, from this open call.
Deadline: 31 July 2025
Length: 100 words (see guidelines)
Pay: $0.04/word
Details here.
Undertaker Books: Horror on the Range
They want horror stories of all subgenres that take place in the old West. “From gunfights on Main Street to train robbers and cattle rustlers, we want your horrific tales from the old West!”
Deadline: 31 July 2025
Length: 2,000-4,000 words
Pay: $25
Details here.
(And, Shacklebound Books is also looking for stories up to 1,000 words for a Weird West anthology, pays $0.02/word, deadline 31 July; they’re also looking for dark fairy tale drabbles of exactly 100 words, no cash payment, details of both calls are here;
— Also, Burial Books, which publishes Western and crime fiction, wants short Western short stories, no fantasy, and prefers 19th C. setting, pays $10 for stories of 2,000-8000 words, deadline 1 August; they also have other ongoing projects; details here;
— Saddlebag Dispatches also publishes short stories, poetry, and nonfiction articles about the West, deadline 1 August 2025, no payment mentioned, details here.)
The Reclamation Era: Redacted – What Divorced Women Aren’t Telling You
The Reclamation Era is a Substack-based project, and they’re open for submissions for personal essays by divorced women – they want works on any topic related to your personal experience with divorce. They have detailed guidelines, including, “The Redacted weekly Substack column will feature anonymous personal essays about the author’s experience with divorce as well as shorter form stories. A selection of longer form anonymous stories will be published as a print and digital anthology in 2026.” They want writing in various lengths/formats. There is payment for successful anthology submissions, and optional payment for Substack essays, and no payment for shorter formats – see guidelines.
Deadline: 31 July 2025
Length: Varies
Pay: $125 for essays in the anthology
Details here and here.
Flash Fiction Online: Regret
This magazine publishes literary and speculative flash fiction. They are currently open for regret-themed submissions. “You can’t get stuck in the past forever, but too often we don’t make space for moments of reflection about what could have been. How could we do better? Be better? Will knowing conclusions change our decisions? Regrets, both small and large, are what drive our self-improvement, especially at the beginning of a new year. And sometimes, it’s the lack of regrets that results in the greatest of consequences, throwing us down vicious cycles where nothing is ever learned or realized. (Some key words for inspiration: Melancholy, Reflection, Reconciliation, Realization, Reminiscence, Rememory, Vicious cycles, Guilt, Acceptance)”.
Deadline: 31 July 2025 for themed submissions
Length: 500-1,000 words
Pay: $100
Details here.
Brink: Obsession
They accept fiction, nonfiction, poetry, hybrid works, translations, as well as video essays and cinepoetry. They want submissions on theobsession theme. Their general submission guidelines say, “We accept a variety of creative work from every genre and work that resists any genre. We are most interested in work that presses creative boundaries, uses more than one medium to tell a story, and both looks and feels different on the page. Additionally, we look for submissions that engage the theme of each issue alongside the idea of being on the brink.” Regarding the obsession theme, “At first glance, obsession indicates preoccupation. It gestures toward desire. Obsessions command our attention, motivate our actions, and are always top of mind. But the etymology of obsession hints at a different story. The root of the word indicates the action of besieging, or, as we might say in today’s language, sitting. When you obsess, you place yourself before something—an object, a person, an idea, a task. This posture is not passive; it is active. Your presence is an investment. Your presence indicates your desire to absorb, encompass, and command. To learn. Please note, we are not interested in stories of harassment, stalking, or unequal displays of power or abuse.”
Deadline: 31 July 2025
Length: Varies
Pay: $25-100
Details here and here.
Mysterion: Christian speculative fiction
They want science fiction, fantasy and horror stories that engage meaningfully with Christian themes, characters or cosmology. The stories need not teach a moral, or be close to an approved theological position, or be pro-Christian. They are especially interested in stories that show Christians from cultures beyond those of the United States, Canada, and Western Europe. They also accept translations and reprints. They have two annual reading periods for fiction, January and July. Art is accepted through the year.
Deadline: 31 July 2025
Length: Up to 9,000 words
Pay: $0.08/word for originals
Details here and here.
Temporal Lobe Literary: The Hippocampus Anthology – Personal Histories
Their guidelines say, “Write, capture, or draw a memoir, a flashback, a feeling. Maybe interview someone close to you; sit them down and let them speak. Tell us or show us how yours or someone else’s existence, stories, and moments have been history—something that deserves to be preserved, written down, and remembered.
How has yours or another’s story been part of something larger in a lifetime? Beyond a lifetime? In the course of many lifetimes? How has this particular piece of the past crept into the present?” They accept nonfiction, creative nonfiction, creative nonfiction poetry, and art on this theme.
Deadline: 31 July 2025
Length: Up to 15 pages for prose, up to 100 lines for poetry
Pay: $15
Details here.
The First Line Journal
They want fiction (any genre) 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, the first line for the Fall issue is:
‘Her truck took the sharp turns of the mountain road with ease.’
Deadline: 1 August 2025
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 contributors – see guidelines)
Details here.
Slashic Horror Press: Fearmoji – Queer Emoji Horror Anthology
This is a fiction anthology. “This theme is very open, but must feature emojis as the primary driving force of the narrative. Give me sentient emojis, cursed emojis, a secret combination of emojis that unlocks a demon, a serial killer whose signature is the love heart reaction, disaffected youths whose use of the shrug emoji comes back to haunt them, a coder with an emoji axe to grind… The potential here is limitless.” The editor wants “Adult queer horror body horror. I will also accept horrormance, splatterpunk, and extreme. As long as your story revolves around emojis (any emoji, I don’t care), has the body horror element, and is queer, I am in.”
Deadline: 1 August 2025
Length: 4,000–7,500 words
Pay: $25
Details here (scroll down)
(Slashic is also open for a themed novella call with a later deadline; see here.)
Starship Blunder Anthology
This is a shared-world anthology, the second one in this universe. They have detailed guidelines, including, “As soon as the Starship Wonder goes on her inaugural mission, it becomes clear to her crew that there’s nothing wonderful about the new starship. They immediately start referring to their new ship as Starship Blunder as they wonder, did the Conglomeracy commission a new starship because the fleet needed another vessel, or because they just wanted somewhere to stuff the misfit crew away from the more elite spacecraft?” About the theme, they say, “This is a shared universe anthology. Stories should be set in the Starship Blunder universe. Embrace humor, delve into deeper themes, or spin a romantic tale under the stars. Include some diverse characters and a mix of genres.”
Deadline: 1 August 2025
Length: 2,000-8,000 words
Pay: $35
Details here and here.
Dark Waters Anthology
Dark Waters is a dark fiction literary podcast, and they are looking for stories for their third anthology. “Prompt: Whatever “dark waters” means to you – stories of trepidation, the unknown, the dangerous, the creepy, the suspenseful. Crime, horror, and noir genres preferred. All stories are welcome, but we are not particularly interested in high fantasy, cosmic horror, romance without crime/horror/noir serving as the main element, or historical pre-1940s (or thereabouts).” They are not looking for “Just a body in the water story, unless you think you have a really cool concept. Water can be incorporated, but we encourage you to think more metaphorically, rather than literal water.”
Deadline: 1 August 2025
Length: Up to 7,000 words
Pay: “up to $25, depending on length/option for contributor copy”
Details here.
Lucky Jefferson: Awake – Homecoming
Awake is a zine by Lucky Jefferson for Black writers and artists only. They want poetry, prose, and art submissions on the Homecoming theme. “”Home” is elusive for many folks in the Black diaspora. We seek to find home in our communities, in our culture, in our bodies, and in each other. Homecoming invites Black writers to reflect lovingly on the spaces, places, and people that have made them feel at home—like they belong. Whether it’s a barber shop in your neighborhood, your auntie’s kitchen table, or your favorite sweater, share a poem expressing your love and devotion. Your work does not need to follow any specific structure, but should celebrate and pay homage to your subject.” This will be a print issue.
Deadline: 1 August 2025
Length: Varies
Pay: $15-50
Details here and here (see the relevant category in Submittable).
(Lucky Jefferson has a few calls for writers open now, see their Submittable page for details.)
Splinter: First Nations Issue
Splinter is an Australia-based journal and they want submissions of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry from First Nations people for this issue.“Whether you’re Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander, Māori, Sámi or belong to another first peoples community, we want to hear your voice. For the First Nations issue, we are looking for writing that speaks to the weight and wonder of living as First Nations people — where past, present and future aren’t separate but walk together. … We’re interested in the fractures and the fight, the moments of stillness, the ridiculous. What does it mean to carry culture, to carry knowledge in a world that wants us to forget? What does survival feel like today — and what does joy look like in the cracks?” They publish profiles, essays, memoir, criticism, fiction, poetry, writing about writing, as well as experimental work. And, “For profiles, essays, writing about writing, and criticism, we are looking for pitches of ideas (rather than completed works). For memoir, poetry, and fiction we are looking for submission of completed works.”
Deadline: 3 August 2025
Length: Varies (see guidelines)
Pay: AUD250-900
Details here (scroll down) and here.
THEMED CONTESTS
(There are also some unthemed contests open now, including
— The Stony Brook Short Fiction Prize: For short fiction of up to 7,500 words, open to undergraduates enrolled full time in US and Canadian universities and colleges. Prize $1,000, deadline: 14 July 2025; details here.
— The FSG Writer’s Fellowship: This fellowship, from Farrar, Straus and Giroux, is a yearlong program designed to give an emerging writer from an underrepresented community additional resources to build a life around writing: funding, editorial guidance, and advice on how to forge a writing career. It is a remote opportunity for unpublished U.S. writers of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. The prize is $15,000, deadline: 18 July 2025, details here and here.
— Faber Children’s: FAB Prize: For undiscovered BAME writers and illustrators; you can read the prize announcement for 2025 here. Entrants must be of black, Asian or minority ethnic background and UK- or Ireland-based. Entries must be text or artwork for children. Offers a worldwide publishing contract for a writer; second place £500; and other non-cash prizes for both winners, deadline: 25 July 2025, details here
— Briefly Write Poetry Prize: Open to all writers, “celebrates and rewards bold, succinct writing. We want well-crafted poems up to 10 lines. We want innovative language, strong imagery and a subtle, focused composition.” Send one poem. Submission is via a form on their website; prizes £40, £25, £15, deadline: 31 July 2025, details here.
— Granum Foundation Prizes: They’re open for the Granum Foundation Prize and the Granum Foundation Translation Prize, for works in progress, to help US-based writers complete substantive literary projects, including novels, memoirs, books of poetry, short story collections, and translations. The prize is $5,000, with up to three finalist prizes of with $500 or more each; and the Translation Prize is $1,500 or more; deadline 1 August 2025; details here. )
The H G Wells Short Story Competition
This is an international short story contest; they want short fiction of 1,500-5,000 words on this year’s theme, The Middle Ground (see FAQ). There is no fee for The Margaret and Reg Turnill Competition for young writers, i.e. for those under 21 years, and the prize for that is £1,000.
Value: £1,000
Deadline: 8 July 2025
Fee-free for: Writers under 21
Details here and here.
The Burlington Contemporary Art Writing Prize
This is a prize for an art exhibit review. “To enter the prize, entrants should submit one unpublished review of a contemporary art exhibition by the specified deadline. ‘Contemporary’ is defined as art produced since 2000. The exhibition under review can be staged anywhere in the world, but it should be current or have closed within the last six months at the date of submission.” Regarding eligibility, they say, “Entrants must have published no more than six pieces of writing in print or online, in any language or country, prior to their submission. This does not include personal blogs and websites.” Before entering, applicants are encouraged to read reviews recently published on Burlington Contemporary.
Value: $1,000
Deadline: 14 July 2025
Open for: Emerging writers
Details here.
Reach Your Apex: Weird West Quick Draw
This is a Weird West flash fiction contest; they want stories of up to 1,000 words. Please see their detailed guidelines, including, “Weird western is a literary genre that fuses the gritty, sometimes brutal reality of life on the American frontier with elements of fantasy, horror, and science fiction. It’s often also called gothic western, historic fantasy or fantasy western.” Apart from the cash prize, the first place winner will have their story published in Apex Magazine, and the other two winners will have their stories published on the Reach Your Apex website.
Value: $100, $50, $25
Deadline: 15 July 2025
Open for: All writers
Details here.
The Helen Schaible International Sonnet Contest
For this contest, they have two categories: a traditional sonnet, which can be Shakespearean or Petrarchan, and a modern sonnet. Poets can enter work in one or both categories (see guidelines).
Value: $50, $30, $20
Deadline: 15 July 2025
Open for: All poets
Details here.
“Canne al Vento” International Literary Prize
“The Municipality of Galtellì, in collaboration with Jane Austen’s book Club Association, promotes the 2025 edition of the Galtellì “Reeds in the Wind” International Literary Prize, competition dedicated to Grazia Deledda, Nobel Prize for Literature.” They have detailed guidelines, including, “Submissions, never previously published in any form, must explore themes dear to Grazia Deledda—all found in her novel Canne al vento:
from religious sentiment to the characteristics of social classes, from the description of anthropological-cultural and environmental dimensions to the defense of identity, etc. Stories must be between 5,000 and 7,000 characters, including spaces (excluding the title).” Submissions can be in English, Italian, or Sardinian.
Value: EUR500
Deadline: 20 July 2025
Open for: All writers
Details here and here.
Strive Publishing & Free Spirit Publishing – Black Voices in Children’s Literature
This is a contest for US-based Black writers, and Free Spirit Publishing is an imprint of Teacher Created Materials (TCM). They want children’s stories by and about Black people. “Eligible entries will include original children’s books for ages 0–4 (50–125 words) or for ages 4–8 (300–800 words) featuring authentic, realistic Black characters and culture and focusing on one or more of the following topics: character development, self-esteem, identity, diversity, getting along with others, engaging with family and community, or other topics related to positive childhood development. Religious and fantasy themes will not be considered.”
Value: $1,000, $500, $250
Deadline: 22 July 2024
Open for: Black writers in the US
Details here and here.
(Their Submittable page also has details of their other calls currently open. Also see TCM’s Manuscript Submissions and Writing Contests tab; Free Spirit and Con Todo Press will open for a Latino Voices in Children’s Literature contest in September.)
Speculative Literature Foundation Grants
These are grants for writers of speculative literature, and they have various grants in through the year. The upcoming ones are The Diverse Writers Grant, for writers from an underrepresented and underprivileged backgrounds, pays $500, open 1-31 July; The Diverse Worlds Grant, for work that best represents diversity, regardless of the writer’s background, pays $500 also open 1-31 July. The grants have various eligibility and submission guidelines, please read them carefully before applying. Please send submissions only during the specific grant application periods.
Value: $500-1,000
Deadline: 31 July 2025
Open for: Writers of speculative literature
Details here.
Broad Ripple Review
They want literary fiction (including flash) and creative nonfiction (including memoir, lyric essay, and narrative nonfiction), up to 4,000 words. “We are drawn to voices that are confident without being showy, inventive without losing clarity, and emotionally complex without sentimentality. Whether traditional or experimental, each piece should reflect serious attention to craft and leave a lasting emotional or intellectual impression.” And, “we are not the home for genre fiction, speculative work, or horror unless those elements are secondary to the language and interior concerns of the piece.” They are reading submissions for their first issue, to be launched in Fall 2025. They will award $200 each to one piece of fiction and one of nonfiction, and all submissions to the magazine will be considered for this prize.
Value: $200 each for fiction and nonfiction
Deadline: 31 July 2025
Open for: All writers
Details here and here.
Sisters in Crime: Pride Award for Emerging LGBTQIA+ Crime Writers
This is a grant for an emerging writer in the LGBTQIA+ community. It is for 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. An unpublished writer is preferred, but writers with publication of not more than 10 pieces of short fiction and/or up to 2 self-published or traditionally published books are also eligible. Also, winners and any runners-ups who wish to maintain their anonymity, may do so, or they may choose to select a pen name for announcements. Please note, you have to register/log in to access the submission portal.
Value: $2,000
Deadline: 31 July 2025
Open for: Unpublished/emerging LGBTQIA+ writers (see guidelines)
Details here.
(See all of Sisters in Crime grants/awards here.)
(A couple of contests with later deadlines are:
— The Forum Essay Prize: Anniversaries: This is an essay prize from Oxford Academic / Oxford University Press and is open to all researchers, whether early-career or established, on the theme of Anniversaries. They have detailed guidelines, including, “To mark the 60th anniversary of Forum for Modern Language Studies, we are looking for … essays that use academic research to pursue innovative questions. … The topic may be addressed from the perspective of any of the literatures and cultures (including literary linguistics, translation and comparative approaches) normally covered by the journal: Arabic, English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish. Please note that material of a predominantly social science or sociological nature falls outside our scope. We are seeking submissions that focus on literature, film, art or other cultural outputs that relate to the subject of anniversaries, be that through engaging with the theme more broadly, or with regard to specific anniversaries as they relate to the discipline(s) covered by Forum for Modern Language Studies.” The winning essay will also get published in an issue of Forum for Modern Language Studies. The prize is £500, and the deadline is 15 August 2025. Details here.
— Lucky Jefferson Poetry & Prose Contest: Anyone over the age of 10 is free to submit; poetry up to 14 lines or prose up to 1,500 words. There will be two winners, one for poetry and one for prose, and the prizes are $100 each. Please note, apart from the winners’ work, other writers’ work will also be published by them digitally in The 365 Collection, and there will be no compensation. The deadline is 17 August 2025. Details here and here – see the relevant category in Submittable.
— Amazon: Kindle Storyteller Award: This is an international award for those who publish their work through Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing in English in any genre. Entrants must make the book available for sale in both digital and print versions through KDP between 1st May 2025 and 31st August 2025. The book must be at least 24 pages long, and can have a maximum of 2 co-authors. Please note, the books must be published through their KDP Select program (be only available on Amazon), and readers play a significant role in winner selection (see Terms & Conditions – which also lists ineligible countries/nationalities – and General Competition Questions / FAQ). The book can have up to two co-authors. The prize is £20,000, and the deadline is 31 August 2025. Details here.
— The Academy for Teachers – Stories Out of School Flash Fiction Contest: They want honest, unsentimental stories, of 6-499 words, about teachers and schools. The contest is open to all writers, whether or not they are a teacher. The story’s protagonist or narrator must be a K-12 teacher. Sentimentality is discouraged and education jargon is forbidden. The prize is $1,000, and publication in A Public Space. The deadline is 7 September 2025. Details here and here.)
Bio: S. Kalekar is the pseudonym of a regular contributor to this magazine. She can be reached here.
