Deadlines: April & May
Every middle of the month: new deadlines, new contests, and new opportunities for your work to find its audience. Here is a roundup of submission opportunities with deadlines in April or May, including Palette’s Emerging Poet Prize, the Ghost Peach Press Prize, and Frontier’s Chapbook Contest, as well as other submission opportunities.
DEADLINE: 04/17—coming up soon!!
This individual poem prize is specifically for emerging poets, and will only accept submissions from poets with no more than one full-length collection out at the time of submission—though poets who haven’t yet published a book are especially encouraged to submit. The winning poet will be awarded $3000, publication, and a brief interview in Palette Poetry. Second and third place will receive $300 & $200 respectively and publication. The top ten finalists will be selected by Palette editors, and guest judge Safia Elhillo will then select the winner and two runner-ups from among the ten finalists!
Reading Fee: $20
DEADLINE: 04/15
Submissions to the 2023 Etel Adnan Poetry Prize are now open for full-length poetry manuscripts by Arab American poets. Series edited by Fady Joudah and Hayan Charara. Only first or second full-length books of poetry may be submitted. Chapbooks are not considered as a previous publication in this regard. The winner will be announced by September 15.
Reading fee: $25
DEADLINE: 05/01
Ghost Peach Press Prize
This contest for a first or second full-length poetry collection is open to any poet writing in English who has not yet published more than one full-length book in poetry (poets with multiple chapbooks are eligible), and offers a cash prize of $1,000 and publication, as well as ten copies of the published book. Entries will first be read blind by GPP and Birdcoat’s panel of editors, and 2022 judge Eduardo C. Corral will choose the winning collection from ten finalists.
Reading Fee: $22
DEADLINE: 05/01
The Loraine Williams Poetry Prize is an award for a single poem, to be published in The Georgia Review. The winner will receive an honorarium of $1,500 and an expenses-paid trip to Athens, Georgia, to give a public reading with the judge. This year’s judge is Dawn Lundy Martin. The winning poem and author will be announced by August 15, and the poem will appear in the Winter issue of the same year. All submitted poems will be considered for publication in The Georgia Review; any selected will be paid our regular poetry honorarium of $4 per line.
Reading fee: $15; Georgia Review subscribers submit for free
DEADLINE: 05/06
Mizna: the Black SWANA Issue
For their winter 2022 issue, guest-edited by Safia Elhillo, Mizna is seeking works that demonstrate the infinitely varied and kaleidoscopic nature of the Black SWANA (South West Asian and North African) experience. The work itself does not have to be about the Black SWANA experience— rather, through the range of themes, forms, genres, and voices, Mizna hopes to assemble an issue that serves as a platform for critical exchange between authors and as a record of the current moment as it pertains to the Black SWANA experience. Literary works of poetry, visual poetry, fiction, flash fiction, nonfiction, creative nonfiction, comics, collage, invented forms, and any forms of mixed print or hybrid work will all be considered. Those submitting work should identify as Black. Simultaneous submissions are accepted.
Reading fee: none
DEADLINE: 05/07
Nat. Brut’s principal mission is to showcase the work of writers and artists who have been historically devalued or pigeonholed by art and literary institutions. They publish work that has been buried, ignored, and disappeared from public consciousness. Please submit up to 5 poems for consideration. Simultaneous submissions are accepted. Note: submissions are accepted via google form.
Reading fee: none
DEADLINE: 05/15
Poetry submissions may be on any subject or in any form. Please submit no more than five poems. For more information about poetry submissions, see the poetry editor’s statement. SIR pays contributing authors at two rates: $75 (five layout pages or fewer accepted for publication) and $150 (six layout pages or more accepted). Contributors also receive two complimentary copies of “their” issue and a year’s subscription to the magazine.
Reading fee: $3
DEADLINE: 5/15
Frontier Poetry Chapbook Contest
Manuscript should be 10-30 pages, and on the whole unpublished, although individual poems can be previously published. The winner of the Chapbook Contest will receive $2000 and publication of the free, downloadable chapbook on Frontier, and 50 physical author copies to share and sell. The chapbook will also be distributed to tens of thousands of readers, editors, agents, and magazines through Frontier’s newsletter. The guest judge Tom Sleigh will select the winner this year from ten finalists selected by Frontier’s editorial team.
Reading Fee: $20
DEADLINE: 5/30
Nashville Review
NR welcomes submissions of 1-3 poems (10 pages total) in one document. All submissions must be previously unpublished, and simultaneous submissions are encouraged. There is no fee to submit and Nashville Review is proud to pay contributors: $25 per poem and $100 for prose and art pieces.
Reading fee: none
DEADLINE: 5/30
Kweli Journal
Kweli’s mission is to nurture emerging writers of color and create opportunities for their voices to be recognized and valued. They welcome original, unpublished work from emerging and established writers of color. Submit up to 3 poems totaling no more than 6 pages. Simultaneous submissions are accepted.
Reading fee: none