Opportunities for Writers – February 2022
Opportunities for writers including writers conferences, workshops, contests, and submissions. Updated 2/14/2022.
Submit your opportunity to mail@indianawriters.org. Submit your opportunity by the 1st of the month to ensure it is included.
Have a short story, poem or other work you’re just dying to share? Check out these publications, workshop and contest opportunities for February 2022 and beyond:
*Advice on Writing Contests:
When considering contests, look to see how they handled winners’ work from previous years: Is there a list of previous winners? Where you can go to read or have access to the winning pieces of writing? Who are the judges? Are they people who you would read yourself? If you win, what kind of audience would you receive for your work? Research contests and their reputations online. Use places like duotrope.com, Poets and Writers (pw.org), the New Pages (newpages.com), or The Review Review (thereviewreview.net), to see whether there is any other information about the contest from other sources.
Poetry Ourselves Indiana — Grades 9-12
Poetry Ourselves is a statewide original poetry competition for students in grades 9-12. Whether you write lyrics to music or write sonnets about nature, young people like you have important things to say. The Indiana Arts Commission wants to celebrate your poetry through our Poetry Ourselves program.
Eligibility Requirements:
- Students in grades 9-12 in Indiana
- One poem per student
- Deadline February 14
Poetry to the Moon!
The Polaris Trilogy 2 for Asia, North & Central America
We want poems from each country on earth for inclusion in a series of anthologies that will be part of The Polaris Collection of the Lunar Codex Project, three cosmic time capsules of art, music, and poetry curated by Filipino-Canadian writer and poet Samuel Peralta. Our Polaris Anthologies will be part of the payload of the SpaceX Astrobotic Technologies’ Griffin Lander scheduled to be on the moon by the summer of 2023.
Peralta has asked Joyce Brinkman, the inaugural Poet Laureate of Indiana to be lead editor of the Polaris Anthologies through Brick Street Poetry. These poems will be sent to the moon and left there, and, of course, published and distributed here on our blue marble home.
The deadline for these anthologies is February 15th, 2022. Polaris Anthology: Rock, Air, and Water (Europe and Africa) submit to polaristrilogy1@gmail.com Polaris Anthology: Stars, Sun, and Moon (Asia, North and Central America) submit to polaristrilogy2@gmail.com Polaris Anthology: Ice, Wind, and Fire (South America, Australia, and Antarctica) submit to polaristrilogy3@gmail.com
Go to Brick Street Poetry’s page if you have more questions!
MacDowell Fellowship!
MacDowell is currently accepting applications for the Fall/Winter 2022-2023 residency season (Sept 2022-Feb-2023). MacDowell’s mission is to nurture the arts by offering creative individuals an inspiring environment in whcih they can produce enduring works of the imagination. MacDowell accepts applications from US-based & international artists working in the following disciplines: architecture, film/video arts, interdisciplinary arts, literature, music composition, theater, and visual arts.
Apply!
Open Minds Quarterly Brainstorm Poetry Contest
Open Minds Quarterly is a literary journal that features explorations of life in a mad world. We welcome writing and art from people with lived experience of what is variously called mental health challenges, mental illness, madness, and neurodivergence. We strive to promote these voices and perspectives by publishing work based on first-hand lived experience.
Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library
We’re celebrating Vonnegut’s 100th Birthday with So It Goes: 1922 – 2122, a journal dedicated to looking into the past and towards the future with Vonnegut’s legacy in mind.
Submissions are limited to one work of prose (fiction & nonfiction) that is 1,250 words max OR two works of prose (fiction & nonfiction) that are a combined total word count of 1,250 words max OR up to five poems that are 1,250 words max for all five OR five photographs or artworks. You may submit both written and visual work.
Deadline March 1!
Visit the Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library submissions page for more information
Millay Arts Core Residency Applications Open!
Founded in 1973 and located at “Steepletop,” the historic estate of poet/activist Edna St. Vincent Millay (one of the first women to win a Pulitzer Prize), Millay Arts is a nonprofit organization that offers multidisciplinary artists residencies on our campus as well as in the community. Located in the Hudson Valley, nestled against the Berkshire foothills of Austerlitz, New York, our sylvan seven acres border Vincent’s house and gardens (maintained by the Millay Society, a separate nonprofit) and the beautiful Harvey Mountain State Forest.
Deadline March 1
NEA Creative Writing Fellowships
Deadline: March 10
Book Pipeline 2022 Unpublished Contest
Winners Receive:
$15,000 | industry circulation | executive development
The 2022 Book Pipeline: Unpublished contest is exclusively for unpublished manuscripts across six categories of fiction and nonfiction:
Literary
Mystery / Thriller
Sci-Fi / Fantasy
Young Adult
Middle Grade
Nonfiction
Select publishers and agents get first look at the top selection for each category, including Katherine Tegen Books, Creative Artists Agency, and Verve Publishing.
Winners and Runners-Up receive:
- $15,000 to winners ($2,500 for each category winner)
- Immediate circulation to publishers, agents, editors, and other execs
- Consideration from producers seeking projects for film and TV adaptation
- Additional long-term review of other books for potential circulation
Special Entry deadline March 10
Check out Book Pipeline’s website for FAQ and submissions information
Curious Creators Grants
CURIOUS CREATORS GRANTS
…calling all poets, painters,
melody-makers,
storytellers, chefs,
chaos-wranglers,
dancers, actors,
& photo-takers…
Curious Elixirs is thrilled to announce the second annual Curious Creators Grants! The Curious Creators Grants will award over $11,000 in unrestricted funds to pursue the creation of new works.
Submissions deadline is March 12, 2022.
Fourth Genre‘s Michael Steinburg Memorial Essay Prize
IN HONOR OF FOURTH GENRE’S FOUNDING EDITOR, MICHAEL J. STEINBERG.
At Fourth Genre, we value great writing. That’s why we’re proud to sponsor The Steinberg Memorial Essay Prize. The contest gives us an opportunity to highlight outstanding writers and their work. The first place winner will receive $1000 and publication in the next year’s spring issue. Finalists and the first-place winner will be announced on Fourth Genre’s Facebook, Twitter, and website. This year’s contest judge is Mary Cappello.
Check out Fourth Genre’s website for FAQs and details, and to submit. Deadline March 15
The Joel Gay Creative Fellowships
Fellows will receive a $25,000 stipend, paid monthly from the initial publication of their newsletter, as well as up to $15,000 in services from Substack, including editorial support, design assistance in developing a logo for your newsletter, access to Getty Images, Substack Defender, and other business support services. Fellows will contract directly with Substack for the stipend.
Additionally, [Roxane Gay] will meet with fellows once a month over the course of the year to provide mentorship on both craft and navigating the business of writing.
Applications are due by midnight on February 10th, and the selected fellows will be announced by March 15th.
Onyx Fest Grant Applications for Black Playwrights
For a few aspiring writers, OnyxFest 2022 – the first and only Indiana theater festival exclusively for African American playwrights – will cover all expenses required to bring scripts to life. Scripts will be accepted for consideration from December 15th up to midnight Tuesday, March 15th.
Indiana Pandemic Poetry Project
COVID-19 has created a time in history like no other; students, specifically, have faced many unique challenges because of this. With this poetry project, we hope to assemble a collective reflection in response to the trials and time at home we have faced, as we work towards the end of the Pandemic together.
Indiana students in the years of study of 4th-12th grade or the undergraduate, graduate, or doctorate levels are all welcome to submit one original poem.
WOW! Women on Writing
WE NOW HAVE TWO CONTESTS!
WOW! Women On Writing now hosts two quarterly contests: one for fiction writers and one for nonfiction writers. We’ve hosted the flash fiction contest since 2006, and over the years, writers have asked us to open up an essay contest. So we are happy to add the essay contest to our offerings. We look forward to reading your work!
Click on the links below to jump to:
Quarterly Flash Fiction Contest
Quarterly Creative Nonfiction Essay Contest
Wilma Gibbs Moore Fellowships
Indiana Humanities is pleased to offer the Wilma Gibbs Moore Fellowships, which provide $5,000 stipends to support new humanities research that explores anti-Black racial injustice and structural racism in Indiana and that considers how Black Hoosiers have responded.
Deadline March 31. Learn more about applying for the Wilma Gibbs Moore Fellowships
“Dear Yusuf” Anthology
Dear Yusef: Essays, Letters, and Poems For and About One Mr. Komunyakaa
Edited by poets John Murillo and Nicole Sealey
Wesleyan University Press
Call for Submissions: The editors are seeking poems, letters, personal and critical essays to be considered for an anthology to be published by Wesleyan University Press, celebrating the life and work of internationally acclaimed poet and professor Yusef Komunyakaa.
Submission Guidelines:
The publisher welcomes original poems, letters, critical and personal essays of any length. Both unpublished and previously published work is welcome providing authors retain North American rights. Submissions from writers who identify as trans, gender non-conforming, non-binary or women are strongly encouraged.
Only submissions sent in Microsoft Word format will be considered.
Submission deadline is August 1, 2022. Authors should allow 6-8 weeks for the selection process.
Please send submissions and questions to dearyusefanthology@gmail.com.
Authors will be compensated $50 and two complimentary copies of published anthology.
Yusef Komunyakaa is the author of nearly twenty volumes of poetry and prose, and his plays and librettos have been performed to international acclaim. His honors include the Pulitzer Prize for poetry, the Wallace Steven Award from the Academy of American Poets, the Poetry Foundation’s Ruth Lily Poetry Prize, and the William Faulkner Prize from the University de Rennes among others. He has served as Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets from 1999-2005 and has taught in the Cave Canem workshop/retreat, as well as at many universities including the University of New Orleans, Indiana University, Princeton University, and New York University where he currently serves as Distinguished Senior Poet in the creative writing program.
INverse Poetry Archive now Accepting Entries
INverse celebrates and preserves the diverse range of Indiana poetry for future generations of Indiana writers and readers. Founded by the 2018-2019 Indiana Poet Laureate, Adrian Matejka, the archive is a collaboration between the Indiana State Library and the Indiana Arts Commission. The archive is conceived to be a repository for all Hoosier poets, from amateur to professional.
Submissions accepted from February 1 – April 30
Storm Cellar: A Literary Journal of Safety and Danger
Storm Cellar is a nationally distributed, independent literary arts magazine rooted in the Midwest, appearing in print and ebook editions. This is a journal of safety and danger. We want your prose, poems, chimeras, and ideas penned on envelopes in buses and train cars. The magazine aims to publish amazing work by new and established writers and artists, present a range of styles and approaches, and cure (not merely displace) boredom. If you write one thing to be read while waiting for the all-clear to sound, send it here.
-La Libreta- Open for Submissions
-La Libreta- is published online three times each year. We publish the work of intergenerational writers and artists of color from the Bronx and beyond that identify as women.
Submissions open Dec 1
Please read and follow submission guidelines.
More than a publication; a community.
Of Rust and Glass is a literature and arts publication featuring talent from all across the Midwest United States, including writers, artists, photographers, videographers, musicians, and everything in between. It is a celebration of the thriving creative spirit within our wonderful community.
Quarterly themed submissions, rolling submissions yearlong.
Cutleaf Journal Open to Submissions
Cutleaf publishes a new issue twice a month. We welcome unsolicited original prose (both creative nonfiction and fiction) and poetry from established and emerging writers.
Work published online in Cutleaf may be chosen for inclusion in the print Cutleaf Reader.
You can find updated submission guidelines here.
Walden Woods Projects “Live Deliberately” Essay Contest
The Contest is open to youth around the world ages 14-18 (and 19-year-olds enrolled in high school or the equivalent). The cash prize for the winner in each age group is $500!
The deadline for submission is February 21, 2022. Please visit the Live Deliberately Essay Contest website to view this year’s prompt, download a shareable flyer, and learn more about how youth can submit their essays. https://www.walden.org/education/essay-contest/
The Walden Woods Project works to preserve the land, literature and legacy of Henry David Thoreau. The spirit of environmental stewardship and social responsibility are both hallmarks of Thoreau’s legacy. And, of course, he combined those concepts with writing to make a difference in the world. We hope that this year’s prompt will be of interest to youth involved with your organization, who also use writing as a powerful tool for positive change and self-expression.
Acre Books open to submissions
Acre Books, the book-publishing offshoot of The Cincinnati Review, aims to build on the excellence that its parent publication has become known for. Like CR, our small press will focus on surprising, imaginative, and absorbing works—of poetry, fiction, literary nonfiction, and hybrid forms—that are expertly crafted and beautifully polished, and that engage readers aesthetically as well as emotionally. We are devoted in particular to finding, and bringing to a broad readership, remarkably talented newcomers. Initially we will bring out 6 titles annually, but we intend in the coming years to expand our lists and our staff. Visit our home page to subscribe to our mailing list.
Acre’s titles are distributed by the CDC (Chicago Distribution Center).
The American Poetry Review Seeks Submissions
Seeking poetry submissions, submissions for first book prize, and prose writing related to poetry such as book reviews and interviews. Visit them on Submittable to learn more.
Seeking Submissions for Meditation Anthologies
Hazelden Publishing is the leading publisher of addiction recovery and self-help resources. Part of the?Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation, the nation’s largest nonprofit treatment provider, we offer a variety of accessible and life changing materials–from daily meditations to evidence-based programs.
In the past, our meditation-a-day format books have been written by a single author. Now, we are taking the opportunity of using the 365 days in a year to expand the number of voices we can uplift and recognize.?The more people who hear about the call for submissions, the more inclusive, reflective of the community, and useful the final books will be.
Complete information about How We Heal: Meditations for Reclaiming Our Voices from Addiction and Sexual Trauma is available here: https://www.hazelden.org/store/publicpage/meditations-anthology-writing-detail
Complete information about Leave No One Behind: Daily Meditations for Service Members and Veterans in Recovery is available here: https://www.hazelden.org/store/publicpage/meditations-anthology-writing-leave-no-one-behind
The Flying Island: New Look for 2021!
Flying Island, the Online Literary Journal of the Indiana Writers Center accepts submissions on a rolling basis from Indiana residents and those with significant ties to Indiana.
- Fiction: up to 5,000 words
- Nonfiction: up to 3,500 words
- Poetry: up to three poems, no more than 50 lines each.
Visit the journal and submit your work.
Washington Post Seeking Op-eds
In our effort to bring in more voices from across America, the Washington Post’s op-ed department would like to hear from writers with a wide variety of backgrounds, interests and outlooks. The one constant should be that they are good writers with strong viewpoints, and value facts and reasoned argument over invective. We’ll welcome one-off submissions, or pieces on breaking news events that we solicit, but we also hope that some writers will develop into regular contributors.
The Washington Post maintains a high bar for acceptance: We receive a large volume of op-ed submissions and have limited space, so even worthwhile op-eds might not be accepted if they don’t meet our needs at the moment. But our having a designated venue for op-eds from across the country does expand the possibility that your submission could find a home here. (A good target length for op-eds is 750-800 words.)
Here are some examples of writing that would fit into this category. As you can see, the range of topics is broad – political, personal, analytical, humorous, legal, business-oriented, you name it. What ties them together is that they don’t originate in Washington or universities or think tanks or other common sources of opinion articles. They bring first-hand experience or on-the-ground knowledge to bear on matters that may be local to the writer but could easily be of interest to readers everywhere.
Extra note: It’s best to send pieces in both an attachment and pasted into the email (reading in the email is fastest, but if there are links within the text, they convert more easily from a document).
Send op-eds to Mark Lasswell, Mark.Lasswell@washpost.com
Write for Sixty Inches from Center
Sixty welcomes writers and artists of all experience levels to pitch ideas for traditional and experimental arts writing around topics, and practices that are relevant to the cultural landscapes of the Midwest.
Priority will be given to writing by, about, and for BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ artists, artists with disabilities, and the long list of writing, art-making, and cultural practices that have been neglected in mainstream conversations and canons about art and culture. We publish writing, photography, art, archive materials, video, and conversations that are thoughtful, generative, experimental, and relatable to a variety of readers.
Once a pitch is accepted, writers have full and free access to our editors, transcribers, translators, photographers, and illustrators to support the creation and completion of the final piece.
To see what type of articles they publish and other guidelines, visit the link.
Driftwood Press Submissions Open
John Updike once said, “Creativity is merely a plus name for regular activity. Any activity becomes creative when the doer cares about doing it right, or better.” At Driftwood Press, we are actively searching for artists who care about doing it right, or better. Driftwood Press is a bi-annual literary magazine founded in Tampa, FL in 2013.
As of 2018, we pay our contributors (see guidelines for rates) for each contribution made to our magazine.
At Driftwood Press, we are actively searching for artists who care about doing it right, or better. We are excited to receive your submissions and will diligently work to bring you the best in full poetry collections, novellas, graphic novels, short fiction, poetry, graphic narrative, photography, art, interviews, and contests.]
Visit their website for more information and to submit your work.
Extinction Rebellion Creative Hub Open for Submissions
Welcome to the Extinction Rebellion Creative Hub: an anthology of songs, fiction and poetry that’s inspiring, meaningful and original, and that reflects the principles, concerns and values of the Extinction Rebellion from a global, regional or local perspective.
This collection is a voice and a resource for Extinction Rebellion members everywhere, and a contribution to the global XR profile in the wider world.
Find out more and submit your work.
blankcoverpress.com
Submissions open in all genres!
For submissions, email: submissions@blankcoverpress.com
https://blankcoverpress.com
McSweeney’s Internet Tendency: A Force Outside Myself: Citizens Over 60 Speak
Deadline: Rolling
If you are 60 or older, we’re interested in your thoughts right now and hope you can write a short first-person narrative. (100-500 words) Send entries to Kitania Folk at aforce@mcsweeneys.net and watch our site for ongoing updates.
Awakenings Review Seeks Poetry, Fiction, Nonfiction, Photography, and Art
Established in 2000, The Awakenings Review is an annual lit mag committed to publishing poetry, short story, nonfiction, photography, and art by writers, poets and artists who have a relationship with mental illness: either self, family member, or friend. Our striking hardcopy publication is one of the nation’s leading journals of this genre. Creative endeavors and mental illness have long had a close association. The Awakenings Review publishes works derived from artists’, writers’, and poets’ experiences with mental illness, though mental illness need not be the subject of your work. Visit www.AwakeningsProject.org for submission guidelines.
Hip Mama magazine is looking for unique, creative, strong, edgy, alternative parenting stories for upcoming issues.
Check out the magazine here.
Send submissions to: hipsubmissions@gmail.com
Complete Guide to 2021 Artist Grants & Opportunities
A list of the top international open calls, residencies, fellowships, and awards that we believe will benefit artists during the upcoming year! The complete list is broken down into six categories: grants, residencies & fellowships, calls-for-entry, publications, COVID relief funds, and opportunity sites.
This list will be updated throughout the year, so make sure to bookmark the page, check back often. View the list.
Poets & Writers: New Writing Contest Deadlines!
For information regarding writing contests and deadlines:Go Here
WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE YOUR OPPORTUNITY LISTED HERE? Email the details to: mail@indianawriters.org
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