Happy Monday! Here are some upcoming calls for submissions between the end of the month and early next year, as well as info on two fall poetry workshops over Zoom. Below this list is a description of “Writing Between the Vines,” a 2025 writers’ retreat at four California vineyards.

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

1. Kitchen Table Quarterly

Deadline: October 31, 2024

About:

Kitchen Table Quarterly is a journal preoccupied with history—true history. Each of us holds the histories of what came before: mothers, grandmothers, great-grandmothers, and on and on and on. We are made of our hometowns, our elementary schools, our diagnoses, our religions, our former loves. We are made of the wars our nations fought in and the ones that drove us from our homelands. We are made of the cake we ate hoping to ease heartbreak and the soup that our fathers brought us for comfort when we were sick. 

Kitchen Table Quarterly amplifies work that lays all of this history bare—cultural history, political history, geographical, personal—and explores how they weave together to create the way we live. We are looking for work that spills secrets and wipes the dust off of old memories. We want honesty. We want an education.

• Please only submit to one category, once per reading period.
• We only print previously unpublished works. For our purposes, personal blogs and/or social media posts do not count as previous publication; however, we do ask that you take down anything you plan to submit to us for consideration. 
• At this moment in time, we do not print translations.
• Please include a brief cover letter, as well as a short (50 words or fewer) third-person biography and links to any social media/websites you may have, when sending your submission.
• Simultaneous submissions are encouraged, but please let us know in your cover letter and notify us immediately if your work is accepted elsewhere.
• For poetry, submit no more than five poems (with a maximum of 10 pages) as a single .pdf, .doc or .docx attachment in a standard font. Each poem should begin on a fresh page. Please be sure to note the number of poems you are submitting in your cover letter and in the title of your submission. Please be sure your name does not appear anywhere in the file you submit, including the file name.
• For creative nonfiction, submit a stand-alone piece of up to 3000 words as a double-spaced .doc or .docx attachment in a standard font. Please be sure to note the word count in your cover letter and in the title of your submission. While we accept all forms of creative nonfiction, we typically prefer essays. Please be sure your name does not appear anywhere in the file you submit, including the file name. At this moment, we do not accept excerpts from larger works. 
• For artworks, please submit up to five pieces (diptychs and triptychs count as a single piece) as high quality .jpgs or .pngs. Be sure to include the title and material of each artwork in your cover letter. Yes, we count photography as artwork.

Submissions Page: https://kitchentablequarterly.submittable.com/submit

2. North American Review‘s Kurt Vonnegut Speculative Fiction Prize

Deadline: November 1, 2024

About:

The Kurt Vonnegut Prize is an annual fiction competition intended to recognize the finest speculative fiction, which can include, but is not limited to, work influenced by the postmodern science-fiction of Kurt Vonnegut. We love Vonnegut’s dark humor, but please avoid mere imitation. We welcome all forms of previously unpublished fiction—one story per submission. We are enthusiastic about all work painted with speculative fiction’s broad brush: fairy tale, magical realism, fabulism, the fantastic, horror, Afro-futurism, science fiction hard and soft, and everything in between. The winner, runners-up, and any honorable mentions may be offered publication in the North American Review’s summer issue. Additional finalists and semifinalists may be offered publication in a future issue or on Open Space. Results will be announced in January.

2025 Contest Information

• Contest Closes: November 2, 2024 at 2:00am CST
• Entry Fee: $23.00 USD
• Entry Length: 500–10,000 words
• Winner’s Prize: $1,000.00 USD
• Contest Judge: Kevin Brockmeier

The Judging Process

• Simultaneous submission to other journals or competitions is allowed with notice should your story be accepted elsewhere.
• Work previously published online or in print is ineligible for submission.
• Submissions are gathered through Submittable and packaged by the Contest Manager, who may not serve as a Contest Reader or Coordinator.
• Submissions are read by the Contest Coordinators, who are NAR Editors, as well as by fifteen or more Contest Readers, most of whom are undergraduate or graduate students at the University of Northern Iowa.
• Contest Readers receive the initial entries and select a slate of semifinalists.
• The Contest Coordinators then reduce the semifinalist list to a pool of finalists; these pieces are sent to the Prize Judge.
• The Contest Judge selects a Winner, Runners-up, and possibly a number of Honorable Mentions from the pool of finalists.
• All finalists and semifinalists will be announced on the NAR website in an Open Space post.

Manuscript Preparation Rules

• Each entry can consist of only one file.
• We only accept Microsoft Word (.docx) and Google Doc (.doc) files; we do not accept PDFs.
• Remove all identifying information from the document: no names, addresses, or other identifying information should appear anywhere on the manuscript.
• Remove all pagination as we have an internal system for managing page numbers.
• Do not include a cover page.
• If possible, please use single-spaced Times New Roman 12pt font with one inch margins.
• If possible, center and bold the title at the top of the page using Title Case.
• Entries over 10,000 words are ineligible, and please note we determine word count using Google Docs, which may yield a different—usually smaller—count than other programs, and here’s why.
• These rules allow for a consistent double-blind reading and management of the contest, which reduces the possibility of unconscious bias.
• Disregarding these rules may result in disqualification; no refund will be offered.
• Should you have questions or concerns about your submission, please send a message via Submittable or contact the Contest Manager at nar@uni.edu.

Submissions Page: https://northamericanreview.submittable.com/submit

3. Sun Magazine “Reader’s Write” [#1]: “All Night”

Deadline: November 1, 2024

About:

Readers Write is a feature in The Sun where readers share their personal writing on a given topic—a unique fixture of the magazine since the section’s inception in 1978. Send us your true story on an upcoming topic, and if we publish it you’ll receive a complimentary one-year subscription. Writing style isn’t as important as thoughtfulness and sincerity, and topics are intentionally broad to give room for expression and interpretation

• There are times staying up all night is an adventure: sleepovers; endless coffees with friends at the 24-hour diner; awaiting the sunrise with a lover. And then there are times you’d give anything to get some sleep: battling insomnia; pulling an all-nighter before an exam; waking up every hour to soothe a crying baby. Do you work the night shift? Find you’re most creative in the wee hours? Have any strange nocturnal habits? Don’t sleep on it: the deadline for sending us your true stories is November 1.

Submissions Page: https://thesunmagazine.submittable.com/submit/247163/readers-write-2024

4. Sun Magazine “Reader’s Write” [#2]: “Complexion”

Deadline: December 1, 2024

About:

• A barrage of pimples when you were younger. A steadily increasing number of freckles as you age. A whole lot of melanin, or maybe not much at all. Are you someone who can never find the right shade in the makeup aisle? Does the “flesh” crayon really miss the mark? Take a long look in the mirror, then send us your true story about “Complexion” by December 1.

Submissions Page: https://thesunmagazine.submittable.com/submit/247163/readers-write-2024

5. Exposition Review: “Spring”

Deadline: December 15, 2024

About:

• We accept work in all forms: fiction, flash fiction, nonfiction, poetry, scripts for stage & screen, experimental narratives, visual art, film, and comics.
  
• Read more about the theme and how to submit:
  • When one reaches a milestone anniversary—ten years, for example—it’s a moment of both reflection and anticipation, a period of celebrating the past and looking forward to the future, an occasion to marvel at the cyclical nature of time and revel in a new beginning.
  • Exposition Review is at just such a juncture as we open submissions for Vol. X—proud of all that we have accomplished in our pages and our community in Vols. I through IX, and excited for the growth that lies ahead.
  • And we’re looking to ride that momentum with “Spring”—the sense of renewal and rejuvenation that comes with the season. Springs are also life-giving sources—of water or, say, creativity. They’re elastic and resilient, snapping back into place with reverberating force. To spring is to bounce forward (or backward), to release from captivity, or to pay for drinks—always with a sense of energy in the transition from one state to another.
  • So for Vol. X—a milestone issue for Expo—bring us your spring breaks, your spring fevers, your spring rolls. Tell us tales that spring a surprise or spring a leak or spring a trap. We’re looking for stories that well from the imagination, language that leaps off the page, writing that’s liberated from the constraints of genre and crackles with the energy of a spring storm.
    
    Spring it on.
    
• For all submissions received by October 31, 2024, we guarantee personalized feedback. All accepted work will receive $50.00 USD as payment. Free submission days will be on December 3 (Giving Tuesday) and December 10 (Human Rights Day).

Submissions Page: https://expositionreview.submittable.com/submit

6. Sun Magazine “Reader’s Write” [#3]: “Records”

Deadline: January 1, 2025

About:

• The album that’s gotten you through every breakup. The fastest hundred-meter dash your school has ever seen. The genealogical research that uncovered your family’s past. The conviction signed by a judge. The marriage certificate that affirmed a relationship, or the divorce papers that ended it. There are all kinds of records. Send us your true story of the one you can’t forget by January 1.

Submissions Page: https://thesunmagazine.submittable.com/submit/247163/readers-write-2024

7. American Poetry Review‘s Stern Prize

Deadline: January 1, 2025, 11:00 PM

About:

In honor of the poet Gerald Stern, The American Poetry Review is happy to announce a new book award—The Stern Prize. 

• The prize of $2,000 will be awarded in 2025, with publication by The American Poetry Review in partnership with Copper Canyon Press in the same year. The author will receive a standard book contract, with royalties paid in subsequent years. 
• The prize is open to all poets age 50 and over, regardless of previous publication history. 
• A committee of editors and board members of The American Poetry Review will judge. APR complies with the CLMP Code of Ethics in the administration of this contest. 
• To be considered for the prize, submit a manuscript of 48 pages or more, single-spaced, paginated, with a table of contents and acknowledgments, with a $25 entry fee.
• Manuscripts must be received by January 1, 2025. The winning author and all other entrants will be notified by February 28, 2025. The winning book will be published in December 2025. 
• You may simultaneously submit your manuscript elsewhere, but please notify us immediately if it is accepted for publication. Submission of more than one manuscript is permissible; each must be entered separately.
• The winning author will have time to revise the manuscript after acceptance, but please send no revisions during the reading period. 

Submissions Page: https://americanpoetryreview.submittable.com/submit

8. Ploughshares

Deadline: January 15, 2025, noon EST

About:

Ploughshares welcomes unsolicited submissions of fiction, poetry, and nonfiction during our regular reading period. Ploughshares has published quality literature since 1971. Our award-winning literary journal is published four times a year; our lively literary blog has published innovative book reviews, intriguing interviews, and clever critical essays. Since 1989, we have been based at Emerson College in downtown Boston.

• We accept up to 6,500 words of prose, and 1-5 pages of poetry.
• If you are submitting to our Fall Longform issue, we accept up to 15,000 words. Please note that past Longform issue contributors may not be published again in a future Longform issue. Excerpts of longer works are welcome if self-contained, and translations are welcome if permission has been granted by the original author.
• Queries to the Look2 Critical Essay series are welcome (see guidelines here).
• It would be much appreciated if you kept the following in mind when submitting your work:
  • Typed, double-spaced pages. (Single-spacing is welcome for poetry).
  • Numbered pages.
  • If in hard copy, submit with text on one side of the page.
  • We do not consider:
    • Unsolicited book reviews and criticism.
    • Previously published work. If your submission is part of a forthcoming book, let us know in your cover letter and the expected publication date.
    • Work written by individuals currently affiliated with Ploughshares or Emerson College as a volunteer screener, intern, student, staff member, or faculty member.
  • We cannot accommodate revisions, changes of return address, or forgotten SASEs. We cannot be responsible for delay, loss, or damage.
    
• Cover Letters
  • We encourage you to include a short cover letter with your submission. It should reference:
  • Major publications and awards.
  • Any association or past correspondence with a guest or staff editor.
  • Past publication in Ploughshares.
    
• Contributor Honorarium
  • Payment is upon publication:
  • $45/printed page, $90 minimum per title, $450 maximum per author.
  • Two contributor copies of the issue.
  • A discounted rate for additional contributor copies.
  • A one-year subscription.
    
• Simultaneous vs. Multiple Submissions
  • We do not consider multiple submissions, so please send only one manuscript at a time, either by mail or online. Do not send a second submission until you have heard about the first. Simultaneous submissions to other journals are welcome as long as they are identified as such and we are notified immediately upon acceptance elsewhere.
    
• If you are working on submissions with an agent, or are an agent submitting work on behalf of an author, please read our note on simultaneous submissions with an agent.

Submissions Page: https://pshares.org/product/manuscript-submission/

9. Southern Cultures: “Country Music’s Mythology”

Deadline: February 3, 2025, 11:00 PM

About:

Southern Cultures, the award-winning, peer-reviewed quarterly from UNC’s Center for the Study of the American South, encourages submissions from scholars, writers, and artists for a special issue, Country Music’s Mythology, to be published Winter 2025. We will accept submissions for this issue through February 3, 2025.

• The question of what defines country music is as old as the genre itself. Is it a lyric? A sound? A twang? Who listens to country music? Who can call themselves a country artist? Such questions have animated fans, musicians, and scholars alike over the past century.
• One feature has always surrounded country music: mythology. Scholar Richard A. Peterson observes that country music is defined by “fabricating authenticity.” As Bill C. Malone, a founder of country music studies, puts it, “Country music is full of songs about little old log cabins that people have never lived in; the old country church that people have never attended.” The genre is as mythologized as the region with which it’s most closely associated, and it remains one of the South’s biggest cultural signifiers. 
• It is an especially apt moment to reflect on country music’s significance. In tangible ways the genre has never been more popular. Last summer, country songs claimed the top three spots on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for the first time. Pop stars, from Beyoncé and Lana Del Rey to Post Malone, have gone country. Nashville, the home of the country music business and a vacation destination where fans live out the genre’s myths as weekend cowboys, welcomed a record-breaking 16.8 million visitors in 2023. The current country music craze comes as the country music business celebrates a century of steady growth and the adoration of fans worldwide. One of the music’s biggest mythmakers, the Grand Ole Opry—the radio program that continues to sell itself as the “show that made country music famous”—will celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2025. 
• We call for submissions that reckon with and shed light on how country music’s mythologies have been constructed. The music industry has played perhaps the largest role in crafting country music’s myth. First called hillbilly and old-time music, the genre was invented by record executives in the 1920s as a marketing category associated with rural white southerners. This process of commodification did not reflect a full picture of how people enjoyed music in practice, regardless of race, class, ethnicity, or region, both in and outside of the South. A century-long process of whitewashing in the genre has since obscured a more diverse set of country music innovators and fans who have continually pushed the music forward. A century later, however, country music continues to be superficially tied to a white, rural, and southern identity. How has this myth been upheld?
• We welcome critical perspectives that offer new insights into the workings of country music’s myths of the past, present, and possible futures.
• Submissions can explore any topic or theme, and we welcome investigations of the region in the forms Southern Culturespublishes: scholarly articles, creative nonfiction, memoir (first-person or collective), interviews, surveys, photo and art essays, and shorter feature essays. 
• Possible topics and questions to examine might include (but are not limited to):
  • The role of industry, for example the Country Music Association, the Grand Ole Opry, advertising and brand endorsements, tourism, etc.
  • The impact of these mythologies, especially as it relates to race, class, sexuality, and gender
  • How marginalized voices crafted their own narratives. Are there alternate country imaginaries? Ones that are not white or rural; ones that are queer?
  • How country music’s mythologies have interacted with other cultural symbols tied to the South, for example college football, NASCAR, food, religion, and fashion
  • How country music’s popularity outside of the US South has challenged or reaffirmed mythologized ties to the region
  • The role of writers and media in defining what country music is and how it is mythologized; who are the gatekeepers?
• As Southern Cultures publishes digital content, we encourage creativity in coordinating print and digital materials in submissions and ask that authors submit any potential video, audio, and interactive visual content along with their essay or artist’s statement.

Submissions Page: https://southerncultures.submittable.com/Submit

Fall Poetry Workshops (with Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo)

With a focus on “Remembrance” for October and “Gratitude” for November, these two-hour Zoom courses will include grounding exercises from ancestral traditions, readings from BIPOC poets, and poetry prompts. Time will be left at the end for shares and reflection.

(Ticket cost: $30 per workshop or $50 for both)

Workshop #1: “Remembrance”: October 30, 2024, 6:00 – 8:00 PM

About:

In honor of Dia de los Muertos on November 1st & 2nd, participants will learn about the ancestral traditions of the holiday, which mix humor, celebration, and remembrance. In this two-hour writing workshop, participants will be offered writing prompts inspired by calaveras, ofrendas, and cempoalxóchitl (marigolds). All participants will be given examples of Dia de los Muertos poems to read before writing some of their own. Time will be left at the end for sharing and reflection.

Click here to sign up for this workshop and buy your ticket(s).

Workshop #2: “Gratitude”: November 27, 2024, 6:00 – 8:00 PM

About:

Writing is an act of reciprocity with the world; it is what I can give back in return for everything that has been given to me,” writes Native American scientist and author, Robin Wall Kimmerer. This workshop will honor Native American traditions of gratitude and acknowledgement for the land and its ancestors. Over two hours participants will have an opportunity to read, discuss, write about gratitude in varied ways. Time will be left at the end for sharing and reflection.

Click here to sign up for this workshop and buy your ticket(s).

Writing Between the Vines Retreats for Writers

Writing Between the Vines offers writers a space to work, a place to create, surrounded by the beauty and majesty of vineyards. Funded through application fees and in partnership with wineries, Writing Between the Vines provides writers the time to focus on works in progress or cultivate new ideas in residencies of up to one week in length at no charge. The 2025 retreats are at four vineyards in California.

Retreats will take place at the following locations:

• Moshin Vineyards – Healdsburg, California (February 2 – 8, 2025)
  • Moshin Vineyards is located in the heart of the bucolic Russian River Valley in Sonoma County California. The winery features four tiers for gravity-flow production and is set on a gentle sloping property along historic Westside Road – a rural winegrowing area famous for stellar Pinot Noir. The winery guest suite is a studio apartment with private entrance located within the winery building just behind the tasting room.
  • The Russian River is located just across the street from the winery and has walking paths all the way to the beautiful Wohler Bridge, which was built in 1922. To the east of the winery are two of our estate vineyards covering approximately five acres. At the top of the Rosalina Vineyard is a viewing area and picnic table – perfect for a lunch outing or quiet reflection.
  • Close by is the hamlet of Forestville (5 min. drive) which features a handful of nice restaurants, a grocery store, post office and gas station. The delightful town of Healdsburg (15 min. drive) is north of us and is a veritable cornucopia of dining options. There you can find world-class restaurants, grocery store, art galleries, tasting rooms and much more.
  • Click here for full details.
    
    
• West Wines – Healdsburg, California (February 3 – 7, 2025)
  • West Wines is a family winery in Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma County run by Katarina Bonde and Bengt Akerlind since 1998. Their winemaking style weighs heavily on traditional French methods enhancing elegance and complexity combined with the fruity and rich flavors from the estate grown grapes.
  • The guest house is shaded by a 100-year-old oak tree, this very special home ‘lives’ on 30 vineyard acres and is off Dry Creek Road, just one mile west of the north end of charming, upscale, historic, Healdsburg in the heart of Sonoma County’s Wine Country.
  • Click here for full details.
    
    
• CAST Wines — Geyserville, California (February 2 – 8, 2025)
  • The two-bedroom guest house at CAST Wines is the perfect place for two to four writers to work in collaboration or individually on solo projects and draw inspiration from the surrounding beauty of the vineyards.
  • CAST Wines’ estate vineyard consists of 80% Zinfandel and 20% Petite Sirah, providing grapes for several wines, was planted in 2000 by noted Sonoma County vineyard manager Ulises Valdez. Prior to 2000, the land was part of a large sheep ranch for decades – the heard still exists on a smaller parcel just up the street at Canyon Road.
  • Located in the Dry Creek Valley AVA and within Sonoma County, the land and surrounding farms have a long history of rich agricultural bounty, from prunes, apples and peaches to wine grapes, primarily farmed by families and small operators like CAST.
  • Click here for full details.
    
    
• Keller Estate Winery – Petaluma, California (February 2 – 8, 2025)
  • Keller Estate Winery is located in the Petaluma Gap region of the Sonoma Coast. On our family property we grow grapes, olive and farm in a sustainable and holistic philosophy. It is our love for our property and for our family that drives us to produce wines that showcase the elegance; finesse to create food friendly wines meant to be enjoyed with family and friends. 
  • Keller Estate’s Brickhouse Apartment has 2 bedrooms with serene views.
  • Click here for full details.