Deadlines: October & November 2020
Every middle of the month: new deadlines, new contests, and new opportunities for your voice to find the world. The next four weeks include: our own Brush & Lyre Prize, Frontier’s OPEN, Taco Bell Quarterly, so many great first book prizes, and more.
DEADLINE: 10/18
We are so thrilled to offer poets space with the Brush & Lyre Prize to stretch their creativity into new and exciting projects. This unique multimedia contest will accept work that incorporates poetry into new media formats, including but not limited to: music, video, art, photography, sculpture, and performance—use the communication technique that you feel most creatively gets across the experience of your poetry. You choose the creative canvas. $3500 will be awarded and all winners will be published on Palette Poetry.
Reading Fee
DEADLINE: 10/15
The Watering Hole Manuscript Coaching Fellowship
The Watering Hole invests in pursuing the craft of poetry. We are a home where poets of color in the South can learn and grow at each others’ feet. The purpose of this fellowship is to give up to six unpublished poets of color guidance with their manuscript in progress. The poets will spend Dec. 26-30 in community with each other and under the guidance of one of our former TWH Retreat facilitators. (This is not the application for the Winter Retreat.) Please submit a query letter and a manuscript of 10 pages, up to 10 poems. Do not include your name on these documents; judging will be blind. If you are accepted, you will need to turn in your full manuscript 40 to 65 pages within 15 days of acceptance and send your deposit within 30 days of acceptance. Manuscript Coach: Tyehimba Jess.
Reading fee
DEADLINE: 10/15
Amy Lowell Travelling Scholarship
Any poet of American birth who is able and willing to spend one year outside the continent of North America is eligible. There is no age requirement, and there is no requirement that applicants be enrolled in a university or other education program. While many recent winners have been published poets, there is no requirement that applicants have previously published their work. The submitted writing sample must consist of either (1) up to 40 typed pages or (2) a printed volume of your poetry and no more than 20 additional typed pages. The 2021-2022 Scholarship award will be approximately $60,500, adjusted for inflation.
DEADLINE: 10/15
The Windhover
The journal is dedicated to promoting poetry, fiction and creative nonfiction that considers Christian perspectives and engages spiritual themes. Simultaneous submissions are acceptable provided that you let us know that your work has been accepted elsewhere. Send one prose piece or no more than five poems submitted in one document. (Works longer than 4,000 words are not considered.)
DEADLINE: 10/19
Bronx Council on the Arts 2021 Arts Fund
Arts Fund (AF) aims to develop Bronx artists and small arts organizations through its support of high quality arts projects that engage Bronx audiences in a diverse array of artistic works in all disciplines, genres and styles. Bronx-based individual artists, artist collectives and 501c3 arts organizations with an organizational budget below $100,000 are invited to apply for grants of up to $5,000 that contribute to the cultural life of the borough. Individual Bronx residents and artist collectives* do not need a fiscal sponsor; they may apply directly to this program. Individual artists applying in literary arts submit: proof of Bronx residency, letter of commitment, project budget (matching requirement waived due to COVID-19), project summary, full application (extensive), and appropriate work samples created within the last 3 years (limited to 10 files).
DEADLINE: 10/20
Eyelands Book Awards
Eyelands Book Awards is an international competition for both published and unpublished books, organized by Eyelands Literary Magazine in collaboration with Strange Days Publications. Grand Prize for Published Books is a 5-day holiday in Athens, Greece, while the winner of the Unpublished Books category wins a publication contract with Strange Days Books and translation into Greek. Novels, Novellas, Short Story Collections, Historical Fiction, Memoir, Children’s Books, Graphic Novels, and Poetry Collections are eligible. All Published Books must have been published between September 20, 2016 and September 20, 2020. Submissions accepted via email or post, simultaneous and multiple submissions allowed, more prizes, certification documents, handmade ceramics for finalists. Judges: P.H.C. Marchesi (children’s books/graphic novels), Andriana Minou (poetry, sort) Gregory Papadoyiannis (novels/ novellas, historical fiction/memoir). Grand Awards Judge: P.H.C. Marchesi
Reading Fee
DEADLINE: 10/22
OAC Literary Creation Projects Grant
The $12,000 grant supports Ontario-based literary artists to complete new works for book-length publication. You must be an Ontario resident with a permanent physical address in Ontario and have a recent professional publishing history with: at least one traditionally published book (minimum of 48 pages) for which you have a publishing contract and receive royalties; or at least three traditionally published short stories, comics, poems or other works for which you have received payment, or a professional self-publishing practice, demonstrated by either sales of more than 400 copies of a self-published work of prose or 200 copies of a self-published work of poetry within the 24 months prior to your first application to this program. Student or academic publications, including scholarly monographs and articles published in peer-reviewed academic journals, may not be used to establish eligibility.
DEADLINE: 10/24
Little Patuxent Review is a community-based publication focused on writers and artists from the Mid-Atlantic region, but all excellent work originating in the United States will be considered. You may submit one fiction piece of no more than 5,000 words, one nonfiction piece of no more than 3,500 words, or a maximum of three poems of up to 100 lines each.
DEADLINE: 10/31
Blue Light Books Prize
We will read poetry collections for this year’s Blue Light Books Prize. The first two weeks of the submissions window (opening Sept. 1), you can submit for 1/2 off so prepare your manuscripts now! Manuscripts should be 48-75 pages, not including table of contents and acknowledgements. Writers are welcome to include an acknowledgments page if portions of the manuscript have been previously published. Please leave names and other identifying information off the submission. The prize winner will receive a $1,000 prize from Indiana Review, along with a publishing contract including $1,000 against future royalties from IU Press. The winning Blue Light Books collection will be published in trade paperback format and displayed at the following Association of Writers and Writing Programs Conference. The winner will also be flown out to read a selection of their work at the annual 2021 Blue Light Reading in beautiful Bloomington, IN.
Reading Fee
DEADLINE: 10/31
Hotel
Submissions open Oct. 1. We welcome (non-academic) essayistic work; thought pieces, fragments & interviews, alongside short fiction, non-fiction & poetry. Please send up to 4 pages of poems, 4000 words of prose, excerpts from longer works, & pitches for non-fiction pieces.
DEADLINE: 10/31
Sunken Garden Chapbook Poetry Prize
The Sunken Garden Chapbook Poetry Prize includes a cash award of $1,000 in addition to publication by Tupelo Press, 25 copies of the winning title, a book launch, and national distribution with energetic publicity and promotion. Manuscripts are judged anonymously and all finalists will be considered for publication. Open to anyone writing in the English language, whether living in the United States or abroad. Translations are not eligible for this prize, nor are previously self-published books. Submit a previously unpublished, chapbook-length poetry manuscript with a table of contents. There is no mandatory page count. We suggest in the area of 20 to 36 pages, but all manuscripts will be read and considered.
Reading Fee
DEADLINE: 10/31
Benjamin Salmon Poetry Award
This award is for a previously unpublished original collection of poetry. Award is $3000, publication of the awarded collection by Red Hen Press, and a four-week PLAYA Residency. Name on cover sheet only, 48 page minimum, 96 page maximum. 2020 Judge: Jeffrey Harrison
Reading fee
DEADLINE: 10/31
APR/Honickman First Book Prize
The prize of $3,000, with an introduction by the judge and distribution of the winning book by Copper Canyon Press through Consortium, will be awarded in 2021 with publication of the book in the same year. The author will receive a standard book publishing contract, with royalties paid in addition to the $3,000 prize. This year’s final judge is poet Ada Limón. The prize is open to poets who have not published a book-length collection of poems with a registered ISBN. To be considered for the prize, submit a manuscript of 48 pages or more, single-spaced, paginated, with a table of contents and acknowledgments.
Reading fee
DEADLINE: 11/1
The Briar Cliff Review Annual Contests
First-place winners will receive $1,000 in each of the three categories and will be published in the next edition of The Briar Cliff Review. Submit up to 3 poems, one short story of up to 5000 words or one essay of up to 5000 words per entry. Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but notify us immediately upon acceptance elsewhere.
Reading Fee
DEADLINE: 11/1
The Minnesota Review
As a review-style journal of literature and the critical humanities, the minnesota review features critical commentary aimed at scholars of literature and culture, alongside contemporary poetry and short fiction. We publish all types of poetry and short fiction (up to 5,000 words). Payment will be in the form of two free copies of the issue in which your work appears, which we will send to you upon publication.
DEADLINE: 11/1
Taco Bell Quarterly
Taco Bell Quarterly is currently looking for literary/creative essays, short stories, fiction/prose, poems, multimedia, your stupid status updates, whatever, that explore any and all elements of Taco Bell. An elegy for the discontinued menu items? Fine. An experimental essay about marine biology and the XXL Grilled Stuft Burrito? Awesome. Review the new Beefy Fritos Burrito and how it reminds you of the time your grandma died? We want it. Something that introduces us to inventive form, dynamic language, and strong voice. Or not. We’re not judgy and pretentious. We’re Taco Bell Quarterly. Write what it takes to tell your story. But seriously, people’s attention spans are like 500-1500 words.
DEADLINE: 11/2
Alice James Award
The Alice James Award welcomes submissions from emerging as well as established poets. Entrants must reside in the United States. The winner receives $2000, book publication, and distribution through Consortium. The winner will also receive a $1000 honorarium and give a reading at the University of Maine at Farmington. Manuscripts should be 48 – 80 pages in length. Screening for the Alice James Award is blind. Because of this, no contact information is allowed within your manuscript, including within the filename, if electronically submitted.
Reading Fee
DEADLINE: 11/11
Granta
Granta is committed to championing new voices and is open to unsolicited submissions of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. We consider all submissions for both print and online publication. During every opening period, we offer 100 free submissions to authors on low incomes. If you are a low-income writer and would like to apply for free entry, please read our guidelines for low-income entry below.
DEADLINE: 11/14
Walt Whitman Award
The Academy of American Poets First Book Award is a $5,000 first-book publication prize. The winning manuscript, chosen by an acclaimed poet, is published by Graywolf Press, a leading independent publisher committed to the discovery and energetic publication of contemporary American and international literature. The winner also receives an all-expenses-paid six-week residency at the Civitella Ranieri Center in the Umbrian region of Italy, distribution of the winning book to thousands of Academy of American Poets members, and promotion in American Poets magazine. The 2021 judge is Claudia Rankine.
Reading Fee
DEADLINE: 11/15
Perugia Press Prize
Poets must be women, which is inclusive of transgender women and female-identified individuals. Because gender inequity still occurs in publishing, it is part of our explicit feminist mission to support and promote women’s voices in print. Perugia Press seeks to highlight marginalized and underrepresented voices in our publications, and to that end we encourage submissions written by poets of all abilities, ages, and sexual orientations, and from across all cultural, socio-economic, ethnic, racial, and religious backgrounds. Poets must have no more than one previously published full-length book. We are open to considering hybrid manuscripts, including those incorporating visuals or created in collaboration. Book publication and a $1,000 prize.
Reading Fee
DEADLINE: 11/15
2020 Frontier Open
In our pursuit to recognize today’s best poets, we want to celebrate one outstanding piece of poetry, OPEN to all poets, with a $5000 award and publication. Ten finalists will also receive $100 each and all winners will earn publication with Frontier Poetry. The Frontier staff will select the winners and finalists. The winners and honorable mentions will be announced in February 2021.
Reading Fee