Welcome to Week 7! We have a few reminders for upcoming deadlines this week, along with some new calls for submissions from various journals.

First off, applications for the LAS Excellence in Teaching Award are due tonight. (Click here for details on how to submit your nomination.)

Research Workshop #3: “Cite, Cite, Cite!” will be held TOMORROW (February 18, 11:30 AM – 1:00 PM) in Rm. 313 of the Lincoln Park Student Center. (Click here for details.)

Applications for the St. Albans Writer in Residence Program will close this Thursday, February 20. (Click here to read about this salaried position and to access the application instructions.)

Submissions to Crook & Folly—DePaul’s own student-run literary journal (formerly known as Threshold)—will close this Sunday, February 23. This will be the final deadline for all written pieces. (Click here for details.)

Finally, below are some newly-added journals that are currently open for submissions. [We’ve also included a few journals we posted about earlier in the quarter, which likewise have upcoming submission deadlines this spring.]

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

1. Peatsmoke Journal [newly added]

Deadline: February 28, 2025

About:

Peatsmoke Journal accepts previously unpublished poetry, fiction, flash, and nonfiction. Simultaneous submissions are fine, but please let us know right away if your work is accepted elsewhere. You can include a cover letter full of amusing tidbits about you or of fascinating trivia you learned from a podcast recently, but we are not interested in reading a list of the journals your work has appeared in. What is important to us is that you are sending us writing that feels urgent and necessary, work that is ready to go out for a stroll in the world. As a journal, we are committed to publishing diverse voices of all kinds.

We know how nerve-wracking it can be to check your inbox every morning, hoping to hear back from a journal, so we do our best to make our turnaround time as quick as possible.  We will try to respond to every submission within two months, if not sooner.  Please do not send more than one submission in any genre until you have heard back from us.

If you are submitting during a paid submission period and are unable to pay the $3 submission fee, please send us an email at editors@peatsmokejournal.com letting us know, and we will waive your submission fee. Also, we offer free submissions for marginalized writers, as it is so important to us to support the words of those who have been traditionally underrepresented in the writing community.

Guidelines:

• Fiction:
  • Please send one story per submission between 1,001-7,000 words.
  • We aren’t looking for particular styles or types of writing, but here are some things we consider when reading:
    We’re into fiction that explores the human condition with empathy and curiosity. We love reading fully realized characters who are pushed and challenged, and clear, carefully-crafted sentences that bring them to life. Speculative and experimental work is absolutely welcome here. 
• Flash:
  •  An individual flash should be no longer than 1000 words. You may include up to 3 pieces per submission. 
  • We love flash with strong sentence-level writing and compelling images that hold a moment and explode it, taking us to unexpected depths in a small space. We’re excited to receive both flash fiction and flash CNF. If it’s important to you that we know the genre you’re submitting, please drop us a note in your cover letter to tell us. Realism, speculative and experimental work, or a mix of all of these,  is very welcome. Feel free to get weird — we’re here for it.
• Nonfiction:
  • Please send only one piece at a time between 1,500-7,000 words. (If you have flash CNF, please submit it in our Flash category.)
  • We aren’t looking for particular styles or types of writing, but here are some things we consider when reading: We love nonfiction pieces we can’t classify. We most admire essays that (like poetry) emphasize image, that show the process of discovery.
• Poetry:
  • Please send 1-3 poems in a single submission.
  • We aren’t looking for particular styles or types of writing, but here are some things we consider when reading: Nothing excites us more than a stellar combination of image and sound.  We’re interested in how the two collide and inform each other and the work they’re doing. Images that have energy are the best images. Sound and form that follows content are the best sounds and forms. We want to be able to understand what’s going on in your poem by the weight and lilt of it in our mouths. We read everything aloud. We pay attention to line breaks.

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

2. Ninth Letter

Deadline: Feburary 28, 2025

About:

Ninth Letter is published semi-annually in print at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. We are interested in prose and poetry that experiment with form, narrative, and nontraditional subject matter, as well as more traditional literary work.

We do not accept previously published work, including self-published work on websites, blogs, etc. Simultaneous submissions are welcome! Please send a message withdrawing your poem(s) or flash piece(s) immediately upon acceptance elsewhere. Please only send only one submission per genre at a time. We ask that previous contributors wait three years from your publication date before submitting again. 

We accept electronic submissions via Submittable. We do not accept submissions by email attachment. Email submissions will not be read.

Guidelines:

• For poetry, please submit 3-5 poems (max. 8 pages) at a time.
• For fiction and creative nonfiction, submit one story or essay up to 8,000 words at a time. For flash, you may submit up to 3 pieces with a total word count totaling no more than 4,000 words.
• If you classify your work as “hybrid,” please submit to the genre category you feel your submission most closely applies. You are welcome to leave a note in the cover letter field with any details you think our reading team would find helpful. We will make sure your submission gets to the right team and receives the attention and consideration it deserves.
• Submission Fee:
  • We charge a $3 reading fee to pay for Submittable and to contribute to our author payments. Fees are waived from December 1-31 or until we hit our cap of 300 submissions per genre.
• Fee Waivers:
  • A limited number of fee waivers are available for writers for whom the submission fee would present undue financial hardship. Please send a short email to ninthletter9@gmail.com to request a fee waiver. No proof of income or other sensitive information is required.
• Publication Terms & Payment:
  • Ninth Letter pays $25 per poem and $100 for prose upon publication and two complimentary copies of the issue in which the work appears. Contributors also receive an exclusive subscription discount offer at the time of acceptance. Ninth Letter acquires First North American Serial Rights (FNASR). We ask that you acknowledge Ninth Letter upon reprint of your work.
• Response Time:
  • We strive to respond to your submission within six months. Please wait until that time has elapsed before querying about the status of your submission.
  • Submissions are free and will be capped at 325 subs per genre. Once we hit the submission cap in any genre, that genre will close automatically in Submittable.

Click here to view the submission page for all submission categories.

3. The Rumpus Prize for Poetry, Fiction, and Creative Nonfiction

Deadline: March 2, 2025, 11:00 PM

About:

• $3,600 in prizes:
  • $1,000 first-place prize and publication in three genres: poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction
  • Honorable mentions receive $200 and publication in each of the three genres
• All submitters can opt-in if they’d like to be considered for publication by The Rumpus, regardless of whether they’re named a winner or finalist.
• Finalists will be contacted in May 2025. Winners will be announced publicly and published by June 2025. 
• Writers age 18 and over are eligible to enter.
• Simultaneous submissions are acceptable, but previously published material in any format (including blogs and social media) is not eligible. Submissions can be withdrawn from the submission system if accepted elsewhere. However, entry fees will not be refunded. Individual parts of a poetry submission (i.e. a single poem in a set) can be withdrawn by sending a message through Submittable. However, additional work will not be permitted as replacement. 
• The cost to submit is $20 per set of 2–4 poems (10 pages max), $20 per story, and/or $20 per essay or up to 3 flash creative nonfiction pieces. Writers may submit multiple groups of poems, but each entry will include a $20 submission fee. 

Guidelines:

• For POETRY submissions:
  • Submit 2–4 poems per entry. Combine all poems into a single document. For poetry, we are seeking to publish the single best poem or set of 2–3 poems. The entire submission should not exceed 10 pages. Poems must contain only the poem title(s) and poem(s) without the author’s name or contact information anywhere on the submission itself. While we embrace and consider poems with diverse page presentations, there may be situations where we are unable to accommodate poems with special formatting as seen on the page.
• For FICTION submissions:
  • Submit one story, up to 5,500 words total, per entry. Stories must contain only the story title and story itself without the author’s name or contact information on the submission itself. Submissions should be at least 12-point font and double-spaced for readability.
• For CREATIVE NONFICTION submissions:
  • Submit one essay or creative nonfiction piece (up to 4,000 words total) or up to 3 flash nonfiction pieces (up to 4,000 words total for all pieces combined) per entry. Entries must contain only the title(s) without the author’s name or contact information on the submission itself. We are open to all forms of creative nonfiction but are most interested in personal essays, lyric essays, memoir, and other literary forms. Submissions should be at least 12-point font and double-spaced for readability.

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

4. Mistake House Magazine

Deadline: March 15, 2025

About:

Mistake House Magazine seeks student work that playfully defies easy categorization and pushes the boundaries of form. In our May 2020 issue, Mistake House Magazine rolled out a new tag line: a space between ordinary and odd. Simply, we offer an open invitation to send us work with heart and work that tells us something fresh about the ordinary and odd world we think we know.

We welcome variety in subject, form, and perspective, including all modes of literary writing from domestic realism to speculative fiction to experimental poetry and beyond.

Submitting writers should want their work to contribute to a larger dialogue in the world. Mistake House Magazine seeks to participate in the literary community’s urgent efforts to draw on moral courage to write about pressing issues in the world today. We believe that writing honestly about current human issues is a way to be involved and make a positive impact.

Each year our editors award a $100 Editors’ Prize in Fiction, Poetry, and Photography. Published student work appears alongside prominent poets and artists featured in our Soap Bubble Set.

Guidelines:

• Works in Translation
  • While we publish all works in English, we welcome the opportunity to publish global submissions and will accept work in any language. However, since we do not have an editorial staff to handle translation into English, we ask that submissions in languages other than English be accompanied by an English translation. If accepted, Mistake House will publish both versions, the original and the author’s English translation, side by side.
• A Call for Photography
  • Mistake House Magazine also considers submissions of original photography by students enrolled in graduate and undergraduate programs. In photographic submissions, too, we are particularly interested work expressive of documentary poetics. Submitted photographs should speak to our editorial mission and to the “space between ordinary and odd” in which we currently find ourselves. 
• The Basics
  • Please provide a cover letter—no longer than one page—including: a brief bio; the name of the college or university you attend and your degree program or major; your contact info: and a brief statement about why your submitted work is a good fit for Mistake House.
  • The submission fee of $5 helps to defray our operating expenses.
  • Mistake House acquires first North American publication rights. All rights revert to the author after publication, though we request acknowledgement of first appearance in this journal.
  • We accept the following as Word documents or PDFs only:
    • Fiction: one story, preferred maximum 5,000 words
    • Poetry: up to three poems, preferred maximum 40 lines per poem
  • We accept the following as 300 dpi jpegs or tiffs:
    • Photography: black and white or color, up to three photographs
  • Three Editor’s Prizes of $100 are offered annually: one for fiction, one for poetry, and one for photography.  Prizes will be announced upon publication on May 1, 2025.

Submission page: https://mistakehouse.submittable.com/submit

Mistake House Magazine is an online literary journal published by students at Principia College.

5. Chestnut Review [newly added]

Deadline: March 31, 2025

About:

• Unpublished work only. Chestnut Review only accepts unpublished work that has not appeared in any publicly-accessible form previously, including online. NOTE: art and photography submissions may have previously been presented online, but are eligible for publication if they have not been featured in another magazine, website, or venue besides an artist’s portfolio or webpage. Work that is contracted to be published is considered published. Do not submit work from a volume that has been contracted with a publisher.
• We do not accept submissions of AI-generated work. If a submission is sent to us claiming to be author work but then discovered or identified as AI-generated, it will be rejected and the author no longer welcome to submit in the future. We reserve the right to withdraw acceptances from any work found to be AI-generated, even if after publication. Such work will be removed from our online platform and all print editions.
• Language: English. We welcome written works that engage culture through languages other than English if the majority of the piece is in English. We do not publish translations in any form. Epigraphs in other languages are fine as long as the piece provides a translation or sufficient context to appreciate the text.
• Countries of origin. Any artist from anywhere in the world may submit.
• Simultaneous submissions are encouraged provided you message us on Submittable if you need to withdraw a piece.
• One active submission per category at a time. We’re excited to read your work, but please let us consider each piece in turn. As long as you have received a reply to your previous submission, you may submit again as often as you wish.
• No re-submissions. Writing is a process, but if we’ve already read and declined a piece as a regular submission (magazine or chapbook), please don’t send us revisions for reconsideration or resubmit unless directly requested.
• Submitting after publication. We ask that artists wait two years from their appearance in the magazine to submit again. This only applies to the magazine; published artists may submit manuscripts for chapbook consideration at any time the reading periods are open.
• Genre. If you have work that doesn’t fit neatly into the below categories, that doesn’t mean we won’t want to see it. Choose the most appropriate and include a note—we’ll figure it out.
• Titles. Please note that we do not have a title field for submissions and the system will auto-number your submission. This is no cause for concern.

Guidelines:

• Poetry:
  • Length and format are open. Poems should be single-spaced and all in one document. Begin each poem on a new page, and clearly indicate when a poem extends beyond one page. There are no absolute length limits, but remember that the longer a poem, the better it has to be.
  • Formatting: our print/online page width is about 55 characters. Poem lines longer than this will need to be reformatted. You do not need to reformat until after acceptance.
  • Free Submissions: Submit 1-3 poems.
  • Paid Submissions: Submit up to 6 poems (see Submittable for fee).
  • Feedback: We offer specific feedback on up to three poems for a small fee (see below). If you are submitting more than three poems but do not specify which ones you’d like feedback on, our staff will select three for which they will provide critique.
  • Editorial Feedback: We are also offering editorial feedback on your packet of poetry from a Chestnut Review Poetry Editor including a full document markup of three of your poems and a 1-2 paragraph overall response about your work.
  • Authors who have appeared in the magazine must wait two years before resubmitting in any genre category.
• Flash:
  • Submit one piece of up to 1000 words, single-spaced throughout. Include word count(s) in header. Writers may only have one active submission in this category at a time.
  • Feedback: We offer specific feedback on your work for a small fee.
  • Editorial Feedback: We are also offering editorial feedback on your work from a Chestnut Review Editor including line and developmental edits and a 1-2 paragraph overall response.
    Authors who have appeared in the magazine must wait two years before resubmitting in any genre category.
• Prose:
  • Submit one piece between 1000 and 5000 words, single-spaced throughout. Prose submissions can be works of fiction or nonfiction. We do not accept excerpts of longer works. [There is a $5 reading fee for this category.]
  • Feedback: We offer specific feedback on your work for a small fee.
  • Editorial Feedback: We are also offering editorial feedback on your work from a Chestnut Review Prose Editor including line and developmental edits and a 1-2 paragraph overall response.
  • Authors who have appeared in the magazine must wait two years before resubmitting in any genre category.

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

6. The Opal Literary Magazine [newly added]

Deadline: April 15, 2025

About:

The Opal is committed to publishing captivating fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction across genres, particularly from emerging writers who are new to the craft.

The word “opal” originates from the Latin term opalus, which means “precious jewel” combined with the Greek opallios, meaning “to see a change in color”. We believe the written word is a precious jewel that changes how we see the world, empowering us to walk with the faith and confidence that opal stones symbolize.

Launched in 2022, The Opal is a literary magazine in association with Spalding University. Staffed entirely from Spalding’s lauded Creative Writing BFA Program. We believe here at The Opal that all genres hold value in the writing sphere, as the written word is a precious jewel that changes how we see the world. We have set out to instill faith and confidence in emerging writers looking to make their mark in the publishing sphere.

Guidelines:

• For fiction and CNF, we accept pieces up to 3,000 words in length, but shorter pieces are strongly preferred.
• For poetry, we accept 1-3 poems, with a page limit of five pages.
• Submissions should be in proper manuscript format (standard font type, 12-point, double spaced, 1-inch margins). We accept doc, docx, and rtf formats.
• We accept one submission per writer per category during each submission cycle. (i.e. you may submit a fiction short story, a nonfiction essay, and some poems for the same issue, but you may not submit three fiction pieces for the same issue.)
• If your work is rejected, do not resubmit it unless it has undergone substantial revision (see our FAQ page for clarification).
• We only accept previously unpublished work.
• We accept simultaneous submissions, but please notify us immediately if your piece is picked up elsewhere.
• While strong language/expletive content is allowed, it must be extremely justified; we do not accept pieces that include vulgar content for shock value.
• If your piece contains material that may be triggering (sexual assault, suicide, etc.) please place a content warning at the start of your submission. (NOTE: This will not dissuade us from accepting your work, but we like to know what to expect.)
• Any work that seeks to silence or undermine underrepresented voices or capitalize on current world issues for personal gain will be automatically rejected.

Submission Page: https://theopalmag.com/submit/

7. The Threepenny Review

Deadline: April 15, 2025

Guidelines:

• At present The Threepenny Review is paying $400 per story or article, $200 per poem or Table Talk piece. This payment buys first serial rights in our print and digital editions, and the copyright then reverts to the author immediately upon publication.
• All mailed manuscripts must include a stamped, self-addressed envelope for our reply. Submissions should be mailed to:

The Editors
The Threepenny Review
PO Box 9131
Berkeley, CA 94709

• All online submissions must consist of a single document in Word format (.doc or .docx). If you are submitting prose, the document should consist of a single article or a single story. If you are submitting poetry, please group your poems into one document containing no more than five poems, because the online system will not accept more than a single document from each person. Please include your name and address somewhere on the document as well as in our submission form.
• We do not print material that has previously been published elsewhere, and we emphatically do not consider simultaneous submissions. We do our best to offer a quick turnaround time, so please allow us the privilege of sole consideration during that relatively brief period; writers who do not honor this request will not be published in the magazine.
• Response time for submissions ranges from two days to two weeks for online submissions. (It can take up to two months for mailed submissions, and only those that come with SASE will get a reply.) If you submit online and have not heard from us within two weeks, you should assume that we did not take your work and that it is free to go out elsewhere; we do our best to respond to everyone, but some emails inevitably go astray. If your submission is accepted, you will definitely know, so please do not contact us if you do not hear from us.  
• We strongly recommend that you stay within our length limits. As a rule, critical articles should be about 1200 to 2500 words, Table Talk items 1000 words or less, stories and memoirs 4000 words or less, and poetry 100 lines or less. (Exceptions are occasionally possible, but longer pieces will have a much harder time getting accepted.) We prefer to read prose submissions that are double-spaced; poetry can be single-spaced or double-spaced.
• Critical articles that deal with books, films, theater performances, art exhibits, etc. should cite these occasions at the front of the article, using the following format:

Theater Piece
by Playwright’s Name,
directed by Director’s Name.
Theater, City,
Season 20__.

Art Exhibition Title,
Gallery or Museum, City,
Start Date–End Date.

Book Title
by Author’s Name.
Publisher, Year Published,
Price (cloth) (paper).

• Remember that The Threepenny Review is quarterly and national (and in some respects international); therefore each “review” should actually be an essay, broader than the specific event it covers and of interest to people who cannot see the event.
• Writers will be consulted on all significant editing done on their articles, and will have the opportunity to proofread galleys for typographical errors.
• We do not read submissions from mid-April through December, so please do not submit work then. Any material sent to us during that period will be discarded unread.
• Emailed submissions will be discarded unread. The only two ways to submit work to us are through the mail and via our online system.

Submission Page: https://www.threepennyreview.com/online_submissions/

8. ABA Journal / Ross Writing Contest for Legal Short Fiction

Deadline: May 1, 2025, 5:00 PM CDT

About:

The ABA Journal, the flagship magazine of the American Bar Association (“ABA”), sponsors the annual ABA Journal / Ross Writing Contest for Legal Short Fiction (the “Contest”).

Entries should be original works of fiction, no longer than 5,000 words. Entries should illuminate the role of law and/or lawyers in modern life. The winner will receive a prize of $5,000.

Guidelines and Contest Details:

• Entries must be original works of fiction of no more than 5,000 words that illuminate the role of the law and/or lawyers in modern society.
• The winner will receive a prize of $5,000.
• Entrants must be U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents and 21 years or older by May 1, 2025. The winner is responsible for all taxes associated with receipt of the prize. As a condition of receiving the prize, the winner must submit a completed IRS Form W-9.
• The ABA Journal will accept only one entry by any individual author. Joint entries are not permitted.
• Entries must be submitted via email to webmaster@abajournal.com. Please attach your story as a .doc or .pdf file to your email with the subject line Ross Writing Contest Submission, and include your full name, mailing address, daytime phone number, and whether you are an ABA member. [ABA membership is not necessary to win.]
• Entries may be unpublished or published no earlier than December 1, 2024. Entries posted publicly on the internet, regardless of the forum or venue, will be considered published for the purposes of the Contest, as would be any entry published in a print publication or literary journal of any kind. The ABA Journal will be the sole judge of an entry’s eligibility.
• The author of any work submitted will retain copyright to his or her entry. However, by submitting a work for consideration in the contest, the winning author grants the American Bar Association and/or the ABA Journal a non-exclusive, perpetual, worldwide license to publish the work in its periodicals, books, anthologies, e-books, audiobooks or any other publication platform, whether print or digital or hereafter developed, without further compensation.
• Contest entries will be judged by a panel selected by the editor and publisher of the ABA Journal and the winner confirmed by the ABA Journal Board of Editors. All decisions are final. Entries will be judged on creativity, plot exposition, legal insight and character development. The winner will be notified by email on or before July 5, 2025. The winner will be notified prior to any public announcement. If the winner does not respond within five business days, or if the email is returned as undeliverable, the winner forfeits all rights to the prize and an alternate winner will be chosen.
• ABA officers, directors, staff members, members of the ABA Journal Board of Editors and their immediate household or family members, and freelance writers for the ABA Journal who have been paid for articles published after January 1, 2024, are not eligible to enter or win.

For full details, read here: https://www.abajournal.com/contests/ross_essay/

9. Redivider

Deadline: May 1, 2025

About:

Redivider is looking for new and under-published voices. We crave fresh, off-beat, and inventive work that challenges what should be valued both within and across literary genres. Send us pieces that rupture our reality and reflect a moment caught in time. We want work that resonates, endings that stay with us long after the work has finished, emotional truths from complex characters that leave us with goosebumps, and explorations of the everyday examined from the side, rather than straight on.

Send us what you’re scared to submit elsewhere; we might just enjoy it.

Redivider will not consider submissions that endorse prejudice, racism, xenophobia, classism, sexism, ableism, fat-shaming, homophobia, or gratuitous violence. We reserve the right to reject such submissions outright and reject further submissions from the author. We also reserve the right to remove content from our journal if an author is known to be harassing or abusive. We do not accept plagiarized content in any form for publication in our journal. Any submitters known to submit plagiarized work will be blacklisted from all current and future publications at Redivider. Redivider does not accept work that has been even partially created with the use of AI.

Authors will receive a contract upon acceptance. Redivider requests first serial rights, and all rights revert back to the author upon publication. Authors retain copyright to their work published in Redivider. If the work is later republished, we request that you note its initial publication in Redivider. We also request the right, with author permission, to use your work for promotional purposes. We ask that authors who are accepted with us wait 2 years before submitting work again.

Guidelines:

• Poetry (10-12 per issue)
  • Length guidelines: 5 poems, 10 pages max
  • Please submit no more than five poems per submission, up to ten pages, as a single document. We can publish poetry featuring complex enjambment and indentation, but please be reasonable with longer poems, as each work must be carefully typeset, line-by-line, to show up as the artist intended on a web page.
• Fiction (4 per issue)
  • Word count: 1,200–6,000 words
  • Please submit one short fiction piece at a time. Stories shorter than 1,200 words should be submitted under Flash Fiction. Texts should be double-spaced in 12pt Times New Roman or a similar serif typeface. Redivider will happily consider genre writing with strong enough prose, though hard science fiction, high fantasy, and tawdry romance will probably fit better at another journal.
• Flash Fiction (2 per issue)
  • Word count: 1,200 words or less
  • Please submit no more than three flash fiction pieces per submission. These pieces will be evaluated by the Redivider Fiction Team and published in a dedicated section apart from other full-length short fiction. Texts should be double-spaced in 12pt Times New Roman or a similar serif typeface.
• Memoir & Personal Essay (3 per issue)
  • Word count: 6,000 words or less
  • Please submit a single piece of nonfiction personal essay or memoir to this category. Texts should be double-spaced in 12pt Times New Roman or a similar serif typeface. Journalistic works, criticism and commentary, and texts containing substantial background research should be submitted under Cultural Critique.
• Cultural Critique (2 per issue)
  • Word count: 8,000 words or less
  • Please submit a single piece of cultural commentary or critique. We accept both casual and academic-style manuscripts for this genre. These may be essays regarding US or non-US culture. Texts should be double-spaced in 12pt Times New Roman or a similar serif typeface.
  • Memoirs and personal essays should be submitted under that category.
• Cover Art
  • Image count: 6 images or less
  • The cover art will be used in both the online and print editions of the issue. Art submissions can be uploaded as six separate attachments in one submission or, preferably, in a single .ZIP file—please do not send multiple submissions. Please save original images for each piece as a separate .TIF file no larger than 6 x 9 inches and at a resolution of 600dpi for line art and 300 dpi for all others. If your piece is chosen for the cover, you may be contacted for a larger file. Digital submissions that do not adhere to these guidelines will not be considered. Please email us with questions or for alternate submission methods.

10. Ninth Letter Special Web Edition: “Reversal”

Deadline: May 1, 2025

About:

The theme for this special web issue of Ninth Letter is “reversal”. In this winter of transition send us stories, essays and poems that portray the speaker’s u-turn, characters making their about face or the self coming full circle. We welcome reversals big and small, tragic or fortunate, long coming or sudden. We’ll be on the lookout for reversals of structure and form, theses refuted or contradictions embodied. In the best submissions, readers should feel the pull of two directions – in space, or time, or spirit. 

Guidelines:

• You may submit up to three poems, or one piece of short prose (fiction or nonfiction) of up to 3500 words; please also include a cover letter that briefly explains how you see your work connecting to the theme. Note: work submitted without this information may be withdrawn. Acceptable file formats are .doc, .docx, .rtf, and .pdf.
• Submit your work for this special feature at ninthletteronline.submittable.com. Submissions sent via snail mail will not be considered for this issue. Email submissions are not accepted and will not be read.
• Unless otherwise requested, please submit only once per reading period. We do not accept submissions of previously published work (including work published on personal blogs or social media sites). Please do not send multiple submissions within the same genre.

Submission Page: ninthletteronline.submittable.com

11. The Black List 2025 Unpublished Novel Award

Deadline: June 27, 2025

About/Prize Offering(s):

The Unpublished Novel Award celebrates stellar unpublished manuscripts in seven genres: Children’s & Young Adult, Crime & Mystery, Horror, Literary Fiction, Romance, Science Fiction & Fantasy, and Thriller & Suspense. A panel of esteemed, shortlist judges with backgrounds in book publishing, film, and television will select one exceptional manuscript in each genre to receive a $10,000 grant to support it on the journey to publication. Judges include LeVar Burton, Marie-Helene Bertino, Radhika Jones, Tananarive Due, Mike Flanagan, and Roxane Gay.

Guidelines: (read here)

(NOTE: there is a submission fee for this contest; however, any writer who receives a manuscript evaluation on this site (cost $150) has the option to opt into consideration for this award for free. Recipients will retain all rights to their manuscript and will be free to sell them whenever and wherever they please. (Manuscripts cannot be under contract at any point during award consideration; self-published novels will not be accepted).

Submission Page: (click here. Participants must first create an account before submitting their work.)