Opportunities for Writers – October 2022
Opportunities for writers including writers conferences, workshops, contests, and submissions. Updated 10/21/2022.
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.
*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.
Book discussion with Kathryn Aalto
New York Times bestselling author Kathryn Aalto will talk about her book “Writing Wild”
and then teach a writing workshop on Oct. 16 and 17 at the Limberlost State Historic Site, 200 6th St.,
Geneva.
Oct 16, 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Aalto will discuss “Writing Wild,” a book that’s part travel essay, part
literary biography and part cultural history celebrating the impact of women on nature writing over the
span of 200 years.
Admission is $20 per person, with a 25% discount for members of the Indiana State Museum and
Historic Sites. Register here.
Oct 17 1 to 4:15 p.m. Aalto will lead a writing workshop where participants can discover
ways to put themselves into the narrative and write with figurative language. The nature writing
workshop will encourage you to use your senses and observations beyond just sight. Whether you’re a
gardener, hiker, traveler, ecologist or scientist, this workshop will teach you how to write scenes and
become part of the writing itself.
Admission is $30 per person, with a 25% discount for members of the Indiana State Museum and
Historic Sites. Register here.
Written Tales Open Call: All Hallow’s Eve
Sept. 23, 2022 ~ Oct. 21, 2022
Theme to Use: All Hallow’s Eve
Form to use: short story or poem
Directions
As October 31st draws nigh, it’s time for tales which shock the soul. Let the horror stream or the allow the light to destroy the darkness. Whatever this day means to you, let us read your creative works.
Arcana Online Literary Journal
Arkana, the journal of mysteries and marginalized voices published by the Arkansas Writers’ MFA Program, is now reading for its Thirteenth Issue! Please send us your fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, illustrated narratives, short scripts for the stage or screen, translations, art, or whatever hybrid work strikes your fancy and you think would appeal to us too.
Deadline: Oct 22
Free Veterans Writing Workshop Series: Poetry in Place
Kurt Vonnegut Museum & Library
543 Indiana Avenue in Indianapolis
4th Monday of each month (unless otherwise noted) from 6:30pm – 8:30pm EST
Sign up at vonnegutlibrary.org.
Monday, October 24, 2022 | Poetry and Place | Co-Facilitated with Nicholas Reading
Workshop participants will consider the places they inhabit and the places poems create. How does the physical world provide scaffolding for a poem? For our experiences? For our emotional lives? Modeling a selection of poems, participants will write with the intention of braiding the concrete with the abstract.
Submit to the Santa Clara Review
The Santa Clara Review publishes a wide variety of work from all over the world. Our magazine is open to all and is especially interested in writing and art from Black writers, Indigenous writers, LGBT+ writers, and writers of color. Writers–send us your best poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction, including flash pieces, humor, satire, short screenplays and plays, and hybrid works. Visual artists–send us art to fill the 12 pages of full-color art and photography we publish each issue.
Deadline: Oct 26
For further submission guidelines and details, please visit santaclarareview.com.
Staging Social Justice: Writing Plays for Change
Sat, October 29, 2022, 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM EDT
Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library 543 Indiana Avenue Indianapolis, IN 46202
Click here for more information and tickets
Watermelon University “Spooky Town”
October is here, and pumpkins are everywhere. Celebrate this season by enrolling your child in SPOOKY TOWN – a Watermelon University Masterclass on October 29th from 10am-1pm at the Nora Branch of the Indianapolis Public Library.
Students will
Meet Professor Watermelon and Mister Smart at the library and stroll down to SPOOKY TOWN. In a light hearted and fun way, the group will explore this setting for inspiring topics such as: haunted houses, cemeteries, witches, goblins, jack-o’-lanterns and much MUCH more.
The group will use the library to research these topics by using the Dewey Decimal System and other library resources. Professor Watermelon will guide young scholars as they turn their research into stories. And Mister Smart will guide them as they add art and illustrations.
At the end of this 3 hours of FUN, young scholars will use the Melon Money that they earned to win prizes in the Grand Prize Auction.
Black Authors Submit To ‘Awake’, Issue 5
Use the prompt below to complete your submission:
The West is under attack! Protect your frontier and deliver your ‘isms [alive] to collect your bounty!
While the frontier is often typecast through an old western lens, your frontier can be whatever setting or undiscovered territory you want to explore. This can be a place near to you or a place not yet imagined.
Your frontier is boundless, without boundaries or borders that limit where or how far your writing can go. Think modern westerns (Greg Neri’s adaption Concrete Cowboy), cross-genre (Jordan Peele’s Nope), or even traditional/revisionist western (Jeymes Samuel’s The Harder They Fall). Leave no ‘ism’ unturned or territory underexplored. Whether through the region, era, or genre, there are no restrictions defining what, when, or where your frontier exists. Just show us, How the West Was (or still is) Black.
How to collect your bounty:
- Choose your bounty (see below)
- Document your western encounter with an ‘ism (racism, homophobia, etc.)
- Turn in your bounty via Submittable
Deadline: Oct 31
More information on the publication and submissions
Tofu Ink Arts Press 2023 Open for Submissions
Submission Guidelines: All 2023 submissions must be made via our Submittable page. We are seeking 1-3 polished poems and/or art of any style of less than 5 pages (12 font Times New Roman, single spaced). Your name must appear on the work. Include a title page with list of work titles. Please provide a brief bio in third person.
Deadline: Oct 31
Raleigh Review Flash Fiction Prize; Poetry Submission Gates Open
Raleigh Review is now open to flash fiction prize submissions and to poetry submissions until Halloween at Midnight.
And don’t forget the gate for Raleigh Review short fiction submissions opens on Oct. 1st and shall also close on Halloween.
Deadline Oct 31
Women, Queer, Trans, NB Issues Anthology Submissions Open
Querencia Press is looking for visual art, poetry, fiction, non-fiction (including memoir), and hybrid work for our first ever Women’s, Queer, Trans & NB Issues Anthology.
Deadline Oct 31
THE TWO SYLVIAS PRESS 2022 WILDER SERIES POETRY BOOK PRIZE
Women Poets over 50 — This is for you!
We’re looking for FULL-LENGTH manuscript (48-80 pages). The chosen manuscript receives $1000, 20 author copies, an art nouveau locket, and publication with Two Sylvias Press!
All manuscripts submitted will be considered for publication!
Deadline Dec 31
Lots more info here
Young Writers: Watermelon University Open for Enrollment!
Each month on a Saturday, young scholars are invited to meet Professor Watermelon and Mister Smart at the Indianapolis Public Library. For three adventurous hours, the class dives into a themed topic, like a mythical forest, a spooky town or a harvest garden. These amusing settings are chosen to inspire a wealth of ideas and topics for young scholars to cultivate and use as springboards for creative writing and drawing. Young scholars research their topics by using the Dewey Decimal System and other valuable tools/resources found at the library. These academic skills are presented in a FUN and creative way, while children make stories, make art and make friends!
A Murder of Crows: Speculative Fiction Literary Journal
A Murder of Crows accepts submissions of short speculative fiction & art.
Submissions for the Spring 2023 Issue 1 are now open!
Submissions to both categories by the same writer/artist are accepted.
The submission window will run from September 15th – November 15th, 2022 for the Spring 2023 Issue
Voicemail Poems Submission Deadline!
It’s an adventure to read through these submission guidelines! What a fun idea. Submit by Oct 1.
SCARS: A Healing Anthology
Poems and Short Stories about Overcoming Trauma, Healing, and 8 Health
Submissions for SCARS – A Healing Anthology is open through December 31, 2022. The book will be published during National Mental Health Awareness Month, May 2023. All submissions must include your name (plus pen name if you use one), address, email address, and signature. Limit three poems/short stories per person. The SCARS book may be published in a variety of formats including physical, electronic and audio. Proceeds will be donated to mental health organizations such as 988lifeline.org and NAMI.org.
Submissions open until Dec 31
Click here for more information and the submission form
Annual Submission Deadline for The Polk Street Review
The Polk Street Review (TPSR) is a unique anthology and creative place-making project that publishes submissions from creatives across the globe. TPSR is published annually by Community Education Arts Press, a division of Community Education Arts (a 501c3 nonprofit Arts organization based in Noblesville, Indiana). TPSR is a one-of-a-kind anthology dedicated to publishing prose, poetry, song lyrics, and artwork images with a global perspective. We welcome submissions from both professional and amateur creative artists. Our annual submissions deadline is November 01. Annual editions are published each February (for example, submissions sent in by 01 Nov 2022 are published in the Feb 2023 edition). The Polk Street Review project has received international status with submissions and followers from all over the world.
Mid-American Review’s Winter Wheat Festival of Writing
November 10-12, 2022
A conference of generative writing workshops, readings, and opportunities to interact with fellow writers, the festival is free and open to the public and provides an excellent opportunity to find new submitters and readers. also features a bookfair.
This year’s bookfair will take place from 9:30 am to 4:00 pm on Saturday, November 12, on the campus of Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio.
If you’d like to participate, please fill out the Bookfair registration form on our Winter Wheat website. Please email us (winterwheat@bgsu.edu) any flyers or logos you wish to use by Wednesday, November 9. Also, please remember to fill out the attendee registration form in addition to registering for the Bookfair. In the meantime, as the schedule develops, we will keep you apprised of locations and other details.
Speed City Sisters in Crime
We have opened submissions to our chapter’s ninth short story anthology, to be published in November of 2023 in time for our chapter’s 20th anniversary in 2024.
Submissions are open to all who are Speed City chapter members in 2022/2023.
Attached to this email are the complete submission guidelines for our new publication.
Title: Amber Waves of Graves
Editors: Lillie Evans, Tony Perona and Stephen Terrell
Theme: Rural settings, country graveyards and small-town life in Indiana can be beautiful. And deadly.
The complete submission guidelines are also available online on our website.
Rialto International Poetry Contest
The RSPB and The Rialto are additionally working with BirdLife International, the Cambridge Conservation Initiative and the University of Leeds Poetry Centre. There’s a fantastic range of prizes on offer and prizewinners will be invited to read their poems at an event with Ian McMillan at CCI in June 2023.
The closing date for entries is midnight on 1st March 2023.
As well as offering poets the chance to win considerable cash prizes and publication of their poems, the competition supports conservation and poetry. We are working in partnership with leading independent UK poetry magazine, The Rialto, as we feel the magazine will be the perfect place to showcase the winning entries.
Prizes
1st PRIZE £1000
2nd PRIZE £500
3rd PRIZE £250
Our judgeis celebrated poet, Ian McMillan.
Ian McMillan is a writer and broadcaster who presents The Verb on BBC Radio 3 every Friday night. He’s written poems, plays, a verse autobiography Talking Myself Home and a voyage round Yorkshire in Neither Nowt Nor Summat. His new book with Bloomsbury is My Sand Life, My Pebble Life a memoir of a childhood and the sea (pub.9 June 2022). Ian’s most recent collection is To Fold The Evening Star – New and Selected Poems (Carcanet).
The entry fee is £7 for the first poem and £4 for each subsequent poem.
Full details and the facility to enter online can be found on The Rialto website
The Flying Island
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.
Please follow this link to carefully read their guidelines and submit your best work – the competition will be extraordinary as they have some key pieces from very well known authors already.
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.
Currently seeking submissions for themed releases:
“Fall” Submissions open through 9/15/2022
For more information on these themes visit our submissions page.
Old Iron Press open to submissions!
Old Iron Press is a female-led small press dedicated to retooled classics and new voices innovating the familiar. Existing apart from traditional publishing with an entirely different set of values, we are focused on originality over sales.
Submissions for our inaugural anthology, “Playing Authors,” will go live on May 1, 2022 and run until October 1, 2022. Selected contributors will receive one free contributor copy and an honorarium..
Inspired by the classic game of Authors, originally published in 1861, we are asking what it means to be an author—and an Author.
For more information, visit our submission guidelines at www.oldironpress.com.
The Paper 24-7.com accepting articles
We are two small local newspapers – one in Crawfordsville and the other in Noblesville. We have an electronic Sunday edition in Crawfordsville that is similar to newspapers of yesteryear – pages devoted to food, health, home, etc. We also have a Voices section and get submissions from writers from all over.
How to submit for Sunday Voices:
E-mail your article to Tim Timmons at ttimmons@thepaper24-7.com. Do not attach the article, simply include it in the body of the e-mail. Also include a brief bio and jpeg mugshot and note that you agree for Sagamore News Media to publish your piece. Although SNM does not pay for submissions, we do have a paid Sunday readership and your work will be available to our circulation base and also on our website. SNM does not accept third-party submissions. Each one must come from the author.
Authors Publish 32 Magazines that Publish Flash Fiction
These magazines publish flash fiction; a few also publish micros. Many of them publish longer work too, as well as other genres, like nonfiction and poetry. Most, but not all, of these are open for submissions now. They are a mix of genre and literary outlets, and listed in no particular order.
Authors Publish 5 Paying Literary Magazines
These magazines pay for fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. They are a mix of literary and genre markets.
Inked Voices
A Platform for Writing Groups and an Online Space for Writers
With Inked Voices, writing groups and workshops can collaborate intimately despite distance and strange schedules. We are not a giant critique forum, but a collection of small workshopping communities.
Join the community and check out the plans
The Glacier: Poetry for the Coming Ice Age now Accepting Submissions
The Glacier is an online literary magazine based out of Indiana University South Bend. The magazine is accepting submissions of poetry, visual art, and fiction for its inaugural issue.
Curated by poet and artist David Dodd Lee and managed by editor and poet Austin Veldman, The Glacier is a sister press to both 42 Miles Press and Twyckenham Notes, both also of South Bend, Indiana.
We seek the best art possible. Accepted work will be presented in a clean online aesthetic. For an idea about how your work will be presented, please visit the latest issue of Twyckenham Notes.
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.
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.
– December 1st deadline – for publication on January 30
– April 1st deadline – for publication on May 30
– August 1st deadline – for publication on September 30
Please read and follow submission guidelines.
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.
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
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.
Complete Guide to 2022 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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