Deadlines: October & November 2024
Every middle of the month: new deadlines, new contests, and new opportunities for your work to find its audience. Here is a roundup of ten submission opportunities with deadlines in October or November, including Black Lawrence Press, The Comstock Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, and more.
This fall, we’re focusing on presses that are publishing chapbooks. Palette Poetry will open for submissions of micro chapbooks (ten page collections) of poetry at the end of the year! In the meantime, register for our micro course with helpful advice and lessons on collecting your poetry.
DEADLINE: 10/23
Dear Poet,
This form is only meant for you if you have a collection of poems that you want to publish as a poetry book. The minimum number of pages a book must have is 40. This can include graphical representations too.
Reading Fee: $10
DEADLINE: 10/31
Final Judge: Ilya Kaminsky
The Helena Whitehill Book Award is a prestigious national poetry prize for adult writers. Established in 2002, the Prize has drawn submissions from around the country that have been judged by renowned poets such as Martha Collins, Patricia Smith, and Tony Hoagland.
The Helena Whitehill Book Award includes a cash award of $1,000 in addition to publication by Tupelo Press, a book launch, national and international distribution by the University of Chicago Press, a one-week residence at Gentle House on the Olympic Peninsula, and unlike our other prizes, open to submissions of poetry, chapbook or full length, no page limit, and also open to creative non-fiction, no page limit. Manuscripts are judged anonymously and all finalists will be considered for publication. Please read the complete guidelines before submitting your manuscript.
Who May Submit
The Helena Whitehill Book Award is 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. Employees of Tupelo Press and authors with books previously published by Tupelo Press are not eligible. This contest is open to all poets, regardless of prior publication history.
Manuscript Requirements & Ethical Guidelines
Submit a previously unpublished, full or chapbook-length poetry manuscript, or creative non-fiction manuscript with a table of contents. There is no mandatory page count. All manuscripts will be read and considered with full respect, regardless of length, and no manuscript will be rejected simply because it’s shorter or longer.
Reading Fee: $30
DEADLINE: 10/31
Our fall issue’s theme is Halloween!
We want all things spooky! Cozy horror included! We are looking for thrilling and unique writing that captures the spirit of horror. Don’t forget that the most important part of horror is the fun.
Pieces that depict gratuitous violence, excess gore, or hateful violence targeting gender, race, sexuality, and other protected classes will not be accepted.
Reading fee: none
DEADLINE: 10/31
Black Lawrence Press: POETRY – Black River Chapbook Competition
Twice each year Black Lawrence Press will run the Black River Chapbook Competition for an unpublished chapbook of poems or prose between 16-36 pages in length. The contest is open to new, emerging, and established writers. The winner will receive book publication, a $500 cash award, and ten copies of the book. Prizes are awarded on publication.
Reading Fee: $18
DEADLINE: 11/1
The Fresh Voices Fellowship supports one emerging Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian, or other writer of color who does not have an MFA in creative writing nor an advanced English degree (MA, PhD), and is not currently enrolled in a degree-granting program.
One writer, in prose or poetry, will receive:
- A $2000 stipend
- Publication in a print issue of Epiphany
- A one-year subscription to Epiphany
- The opportunity to participate in the editorial and publication process of a small non-profit literary magazine, and to build close relationships with the editorial team during the course of a twelve-month fellowship
- A Q&A to be published on Epiphany’s website
We encourage writers who work outside the traditional literary and academic systems to apply, and applicants must not have an advanced degree in English, creative writing, or other related fields, and must not be enrolled at the time of application in any degree-granting program. Applicants must also have not have published or be contracted to publish a book.
Reading Fee: none
DEADLINE: 11/1
Final Judge: Abayomi Animashaun
First Prize: $1000 plus publication and 50 author’s copies
Submit 25-34 pages of poetry, single-spaced. Single poems may be more than 1 page long. Consider the smaller chapbook page when calculating line lengths and page breaks. Maximum line length is generally about 70 characters.
Guidelines are available on our website: www.comstockreview.org
Reading fee: $32.50
DEADLINE: 11/10
Moonstone Arts Center: Moonstone Annual Chapbook Contest 2024
Winner will receive
- $500 cash prize
- Publication and 25 copies of the book*
- Promotion on our website
- Reading at one of our venues in Philadelphia (or virtual reading, if preferred)
Please submit about thirty-five pages of poetry. Individual poems may have been previously published, but the work as a whole must be new. Simultaneous submissions to other publishers or contests are permitted so long as you promptly notify Moonstone Press if the manuscript is accepted elsewhere.
The contest will be judged by the Editorial Committee at Moonstone Press and our final judge, Lynn Levin.
Reading Fee: $15
DEADLINE: 11/11
Are you ready to gather your poems into a collection? In this micro course, each day for 15 days, you will receive a new prompt to help you write, organize, or edit your in-progress poetry collection. Don’t worry if you don’t have a lot of poems to work with yet—at the end of the course, you will receive all of the prompts for future review, so you can continue to revise and collect your poetry.
Many brilliant presses are looking for full collections of poetry, chapbooks, and micro chapbooks (including Palette, later this year!), but gathering enough poems for a collection might seem a daunting task. Throughout the 15 days of the micro course, the editors at Palette will offer their advice on compiling an effective collection of poetry. At the end of the micro course, you’ll also receive a curated list of poetry collection submission opportunities!
You can look forward to micro lessons focused on setting your poetry goals, organizing your body of work, identifying your “twin” and “turning point” poems, finding the title of your collection, choosing the order of the poems, deciding on the length of the collection, and much more!
Your micro course lessons will be sent via email every weekday for three weeks, starting November 11 and ending November 29. Palette Poetry will open for micro chapbook (a ten-page collection of poetry) submissions on December 9, so we hope this micro course will help you prepare your poetry for submission!
We’re excited to help you collect your wonderful poetry!
Reading Fee: $15
DEADLINE: 11/16
Poems may be submitted by the poet, or by a parent/legal guardian, or a teacher. Teachers may select at most five students per year and submit on their behalf, with the assurance to us that you will be able to help us get a parent’s signed permission prior to publication. Please remember that we will be choosing our favorite 20 poems from thousands submitted—try not to get anyone’s hopes up prematurely.
The author of the poem must have been age 15 or younger when the poem was written, and 18 or younger when submitted. The poets may use their whole name, first name, or a pseudonym at their parents’ discretion. We will not publish any contact information.
Upon acceptance, a parent or legal guardian must sign a release allowing us to publish the poem. Contributors receive ten complimentary copies of the anthology as payment, which will also be shipped to every Rattle subscriber with our summer issue. Parents and family members may purchase additional copies at our cost to print/ship.
Reading fee: none
DEADLINE: 11/30
Beloit Poetry Journal: 2024 Chad Walsh Chapbook Series
Beloit Poetry Journal invites submissions for The Chad Walsh Chapbook Series.
- Open to any poet writing in English, regardless of publication history
- $2500 prize, 50 author copies (perfect bound, full-color cover), and an in-depth editorial consultation
- Winning chapbook distributed to every BPJ subscriber and sold separately (print run of approximately 1,500)
- BPJ editors will read all submissions and select a manuscript for publication
- Submissions open October 1–November 30, opening and closing at midnight Eastern Time
- Results announced in late winter/spring
- Selected manuscript published in spring/early summer
Guidelines
- Submit (via Submittable) a manuscript of 20-35 pages of poetry (including the table of contents and acknowledgments page); each poem should begin on its own page.
- Reading fee of $20 per entry. You may submit additional manuscripts by paying an additional reading fee for each. A limited number of fee-free entries are available to poets for whom the reading fee presents a hardship. (Email us at bpj@bpj.org for details.)
Reading fee: $20