Several literary journals are interested in your work! Below are a few publications with upcoming submission deadlines between mid-October and the end of the year. Entries closest to the top of the list are the most time-sensitive.

(The information below has been copied from each journal’s website.)

1. Catamaran Literary Reader Special Issue: Gardens

Deadline: October 16, 2AM CST

About:

• Catamaran accepts fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, and visual art. Themes we are especially interested in are science and nature writing, creativity and the artistic process, personal journey and travel, and innovation; any setting is fine, but the West Coast is of particular interest.
• This issue will explore our connections to the natural world through gardens. Topics can include the magic of the place, its profusion of colors, scents, sounds, healthy vegetables, enthusiastic gardeners, and similar topics. Settings may include organic farms, horticulture gardens, flower gardens or farms, cultivated landscapes, backyard gardens, centers for agronomy, the agrochemical industry, places of ecologically sustainable agriculture, Zen gardens, moon gardens, memorial public gardens, and other similar settings. From the geometric shapes of gardens in European castles, to the gardens of the Victorians on the wilder side, gardens could be seen as an expression of individuality and culture. Gardens can serve as settings we venture into to work out our imaginations. This issue will explore the beauty and truth related to gardens through essays, short stories, poetry, and art.
• Please submit your original, previously unpublished short fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, or visual art. Select one genre per submission to this category. For fiction or nonfiction, it can be any page length. For poetry a selection of 3-5 poems. For fine art up to five images. In your cover letter please include a brief bio of one paragraph and a mailing address for contributor copies. 
• The submissions will close when the submission cap of 200 is reached. 
• Note: there is a $2.99 reading fee for this submission. (General Catamaran submissions are accepted on a rolling basis year-round and have an $8 reading fee.)

Submission Page/Guidelines: click here!

2. Thin Air Magazine

Submit your fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and writing that defies genre classification to Thin Air Magazine by October 20th to be considered for Issue 31 (print issue). This year’s theme is Metamorphosis!: art that ponders the metamorphoses we see in creation, in destruction, in reflection, in meditation, in stagnation, in art itself. Submit your pieces that engage with this theme via the Thin Air Magazine Submittable page. 

Thin Air Magazine is an MFA-run literary journal based out of Northern Arizona University.

Submission Guidelines:

We charge a $3.00 submission fee for our print issue, while Thin Air Online is free. If you cannot pay this fee, please reach out to us at thinairlitmag@gmail.com. In an effort to minimize barriers and encourage work from marginalized writers, we waive this fee for a period surrounding Indigenous People’s Day.  

General and Genre-specific Guidelines:

• We accept fiction and nonfiction up to 3,000 words. 
• We accept up to three poems in one document totaling five or fewer pages.
• We only consider unpublished work. Please do not submit material previously published in anthologies, chapbooks, online, or on personal websites (including FB, Twitter, Insta, Flickr, blogs, etc.)
• We accept simultaneous submissions. If any part of your submission is selected for publication elsewhere, please notify us immediately using Submittable.
• In an effort to encourage submissions from both established and emerging writers with diverse voices, we read all submissions blind. Do not include any identifying information within your submission.
• Thin Air Magazine does not accept work from anyone affiliated with Northern Arizona University within the last 7 years.
• Thin Air Magazine aims to respond to your submission within 3-5 months. If you submit April-August, know that we likely won’t be able to respond until September when school is back in session. We appreciate your patience! Our staff is a volunteer-graduate-student-run magazine and we strive to read every submission carefully before making a decision. 

3. The Hudson Review

Deadline: November 30, 2024 [fiction submissions only, at this time]

About:

• The Hudson Review publishes fiction, poetry, essays, book reviews; criticism of literature, art, theatre, dance, film, and music; and articles on contemporary cultural developments.
• We read unsolicited submissions. Prose manuscripts should be under 10,000 words; if you have a novel, please make an excerpt of a section that stands well by itself. We do not publish work that has already been printed elsewhere or that is due to appear in book form in the near future. 
• We do not consider simultaneous submissions, and we only accept electronic submissions for fiction. 
• Please allow up to six months for decisions on unsolicited manuscripts.
• Note: The Hudson Review accepts poetry submissions from April 1 through June 30 and nonfiction submissions from January 1 through March 31. Poems or nonfiction submitted outside of these periods will be returned unread.

Submission Page: https://www.hudsonreview.com/submissions/

4. Chestnut Review [call for chapbooks]

Deadline: November 30, 2024, 11:59 PM CST

About:

• Chestnut Review holds an open chapbook reading period twice per year, March 1-April 30 and October 1-November 30, with a goal of selecting four manuscripts from the queue regardless of genre, to be published and promoted in tandem with our quarterly issues. We reserve the right to publish more or fewer chapbooks based on the quality of the submissions received.
• Manuscripts will pass through a multi-stage reading process involving the readers and editors of Chestnut Review, who will select chapbooks for publication.
• Guidelines
  • Chapbooks may be poetry, prose, or hybrid. When submitting, please select the genre that aligns the most closely with your chapbook.
  • No images or other media.
  • Length: 15-25 pages of poetry, or 15-35 pages of prose.
  • Times New Roman, 12-point font is preferred, single-spaced for poetry and double-spaced for prose. Please start all pieces on a new page. 
  • Pieces may have been published individually, but never as a collection. At least 50% of the pieces (NOT pages) must be unpublished at time of manuscript submission.
  • Simultaneous submissions are accepted, but please let us know immediately if the collection has been accepted elsewhere via Submittable.
  • Multiple submissions: you may submit once for free if you match the identifying categories. If you wish to submit an additional manuscript,  please submit under the relevant paid category.
  • Submit works written in English only. Translations are not accepted.
  • Please submit your manuscript in a .doc or .docx format.
  • We do not read anonymously. You may include your name and other identifying information.
  • Include a title page, a table of contents, and any acknowledgements. If you have previously published any pieces, please indicate that clearly along with the venue. These do not count towards the page total.
  • Submission fee is on a sliding scale between $6-$12. Please pay what you can afford by selecting the appropriate option from the list. If you need a full fee waiver, please contact maria@chestnutreview.com.
• Payment and Promotion
  • Selected authors will receive an honorarium ($150) and 50 copies of their chapbook in hard copy, as well as an EPUB version.
  • Authors earn 30% royalties on all Amazon sales of the chapbook, paid annually.
  • Chapbooks will be advertised in Chestnut Review and featured for sale on Amazon.com and via our website.
  • Authors will be interviewed in a quarterly issue of Chestnut Review.
  • Authors will be promoted at in-person events such as AWP and virtual events which authors are welcome to design and plan in tandem with staff.
• Feedback
  • Submitters may choose to receive paid feedback from a Chestnut Review reader that includes our standard summary of your piece plus 2-4 strengths and 2-4 suggestions on the chapbook as a whole. While the feedback may highlight individual pieces, it will focus more on general suggestions for the entire work.
  • Submitters may choose (in addition to, or instead of paid feedback) editorial feedback from a chapbook editor, which includes robust in-line comments on the entire document and a 1-2 paragraph letter with overall thoughts.

Submission Page: https://chestnutreviewauxiliary.submittable.com/submit

5. DUM DUM Zine‘s Music Issue

Deadline: December 1, 2024, 11:59 PM

About:

• It’s no secret that this zine was founded with a deep love of music in mind, not to mention the rupture and merging of form and format. That means we’ll be accepting “traditional” music rag stories as well as the unexpected, the undreamt of, and the very thing music is all about: community. Send us your music love letters, review haikus, lyrical reimaginings, tour diaries, and then some. The sky’s the limit!
• Submissions (2,000 words or less) will be accepted in the following categories:
  • Lyrics
  • Poetry
  • Fiction
  • Letters
  • Essays
  • Reviews
  • Non-fiction
  • Micro-fiction
  • Prose poetry
  • Photo essays
  • Concrete Poetry
  • Experimental scores

Submission Details:

• To submit, email: submit {at} dumdumzine {dot} com with Subject line: “Issue No. 8 + ___your_name___”
• Have a question about submissions? Ask an editor anytime. Slide into our DMs or send us an email at info {at} dumdumzine {dot} com

6. The Citron Review

Deadline: December 6, 2024, 6:00 PM

About:

• We use Submittable to manage all submissions to The Citron Review. Email and snail mail submissions are not accepted. All currently open submission categories are detailed on the Submittable page. All genres read submissions from February 1st until about December 6th.
• This summer we’ll have a summer break from July 2 – July 31.
• Each month, our submissions may close briefly, if/when we reach our Submittable limit.
• All manuscripts submitted to The Citron Review must be original and previously unpublished. Please contact us at citronreview@gmail.com if you haven’t heard from us before the next issue since you submitted is published.
• We welcome our past contributors to submit new work, but we ask that you please wait two years from the date of your last Citron publication before sending new work.

Submission Guidelines:

• Micros in Fiction, Poetry and Creative Nonfiction (100 words or less): Submissions should be no more than one hundred (100) words. You may submit up to five (5) micro selections per quarter. If submitting multiple selections at once, please submit each selection as a separate Word document.
• Flash Fiction (101 – 1,000 words): Submissions should be no more than one thousand (1,000) words. You may submit up to two (2) flash-fiction selections per quarter. If submitting multiple selections at once, please attach each selection as a separate document.
• Creative Nonfiction (101 – 1,000 words): All types of creative nonfiction (memoir, essays, etc.) are acceptable. Submissions should be no more than one thousand (1,000) words. You may submit up to two (2) creative nonfiction selections per quarter. If submitting multiple selections at once, please attach each selection as a separate document.
• Poetry (30 lines or less): You may submit up to five (5) poetry selections per quarter. If submitting multiple selections at once, please attach each selection as a separate document.

Submission Page: https://thecitronreview.submittable.com/submit

7. Glassworks Magazine

Glassworks publishes nonfiction, fiction, poetry, hybrid pieces, and artwork, both digitally and in print. They are currently reading until December 15, 2024 for their 2025 print issue.

Glassworks also publishes flash fiction, prose poetry, and micro essays (under 750 words each) every month in their online edition, Flash Glass. Submissions for Flash Glass are also accepted through December 15, 2024, and occasionally reopen throughout the year.

More information about Glassworks and Flash Glass, sample issues, submission guidelines, and a link to submit via Submittable can be found at www.rowanglassworks.org.

8. The Southern Review

Deadline: January 1, 2025

About:

• The Southern Review welcomes unsolicited work during our submissions period. We will consider only work that has not been published in print or appeared online previously in English. If AI has been used to generate any portion of your submission, you must disclose this on the piece or in your cover letter.
• We accept simultaneous submissions but ask that you notify us promptly if your work is accepted elsewhere; send an e-mail to southernreview@lsu.edu with the subject line “withdrawal.” Please do not send submissions to our e-mail address; they will be discarded. The Southern Review cannot consider work from anyone currently or recently affiliated with Louisiana State University, which includes those who have studied or worked there within the past four years. We recommend that before submitting work you familiarize yourself with the journal’s aesthetic by subscribing.

Submission Guidelines/Submission Pages:

• Poetry: We accept poetry submissions online through our submissions manager. Send no more than either five poems or fifteen pages, and use a 12-point font. The online submission form can be found at submissions.thesouthernreview.org. Please note that there is a $3 service charge for submissions. Submissions that are not accompanied by this service charge will not be considered.
• Fiction and Nonfiction: We accept prose submissions online through our submissions manager. The online submission form can be found at submissions.thesouthernreview.org. Please note that there is a $3 service charge for submissions. Submissions that are not accompanied by this service charge will not be considered.
  • For prose, submit one story or essay. (You may submit both a story and an essay if you wish; please submit them separately.) We rarely publish work that is longer than 10,000 words, though we will consider it.
• Translation: We accept submissions of translations in all genres online through our submissions manager. The online submission form can be found at submissions.thesouthernreview.org. Please note that there is a $3 service charge for submissions. Submissions that are not accompanied by this service charge will not be considered.
  • Please submit only one translated story, essay, or packet of poems at a time. We request that each translation is accompanied by a statement indicating that the English translation rights are available as well as a copy of the original text. We do not consider novel excerpts unless they stand alone so flawlessly that we cannot tell that they are excerpts.

The Southern Review pays $50 for the first printed page and $25 for each subsequent printed page with a maximum payment of $200, plus two copies of the issue in which the work appears, and a one-year subscription to The Southern Review.

In case you missed it:

From literary magazines to opportunities for publishing and industry recognition, check out these upcoming contests for writers!

The deadline for the PEN America Emerging Voices Workshop is also coming up on October 5. Click here to find out more.