The Journal Submission Journal Issue #5
8/23/20
Dog Days, Rolling Submissions
8/23/20
Dog Days, Rolling Submissions
22 Journals That Read Free, Year-Round Submissions
And of course, from earlier in the summer I hope everyone read "Poems to Quarantine With: National Poetry Month in a Time of Pandemic".
What else... um, I started a little video-themed column for ekphrastic writing called Jukebox Sundays, and I posted another Friday Flash Fiction with more microfiction, both of which will be continuing in an irregular fashion. Annnnnd, onto the good stuff. Check the bottom of the post if you'd like some more awesome resources to find hundreds of additional journals to submit your poetry, short fiction, nonfiction, hybrid or anything in between.
22 Journals that read Free, Year-Round Submissions
on the accessible side
Apple Valley Review From the Journal: "The Apple Valley Review is an online literary journal. It is published twice each year, once in spring and once in fall. Each issue features a collection of beautifully crafted poetry, short fiction, and essays. Prose submissions may range from approximately 100 to 4,000 words. Shorter pieces stand a better chance of being published, but we are not strict about word counts and will read and consider slightly longer work. Preference is given to short (under two pages), non-rhyming poetry."
They also give us their 'hard sells' which is always a useful tool. They say: "We are very picky here. Please do not send us—true genre fiction (though literary pieces with genre elements are welcome); work that is scholarly or critical, inspirational, or intended for children; erotica or work containing explicit language; or anything that is particularly violent or disturbing.
Blue Earth Review From the Journal: Blue Earth Review publishes fiction, creative nonfiction and poetry. We try to publish the very best submissions we receive. Blue Earth Review is Minnesota State University, Mankato’s literary magazine. Before being wholly revamped and renamed in 2003, BER was published under such titles as Medicine Jug, The Muse, and Minnesota River Review.
ND Note: They have little in way of guidelines online, sorry.
Chestnut Review From the Journal: We are always interested in work that speaks to the season, even if it is in unusual and contradictory ways, but that is in no way a requirement. We are an open journal that accepts any artistic work which interests us. We do not judge based on the reputation, origin, or experience of the author, nor do we solicit written submissions: 100% of our selected work comes from the open calls. We seek storytellers—not just for fiction, but in all the genres we publish. We love clarity in art, but that doesn’t necessarily mean simplicity. Tell us a story. It could be a story in a poem, an essay, an image, but it is still a story. You tell it because it needs to be told. If you can make us feel the same way, we’ll work together to bring that story to the world
Craft Literary From the Journal: CRAFT explores the art of prose, celebrating both emerging and established writers. We focus on the craft of writing and how the elements of craft make a good story or essay shine. Established in 2017 as a literary magazine for fiction, CRAFT has grown in 2020 to include creative nonfiction as well. We explore how writing works, reading pieces with a focus on the elements of craft, on the art of prose.
Dodging the Rain From the Journal: Dodging The Rain has evolved into a poetry journal, having been founded and edited by MA graduates of NUI Galway and Uversity. It provides an internet platform that showcases poetry to the world. Galway, Ireland is its spiritual home.
From the editor of DtR: “I want poetry that feels – each poem to have its own personality and voice. Writing that experiments and challenges our preconceptions of poetry, that looks forward. Don’t pay tribute to poets past; hit me with concision, directness, ‘new.’ “I lean towards first-person poems with intense or unreliable narrators, third-person poems that are remarkably precise, and poetic experiments that may surprise and engage our readers.
Front Porch Review From the Journal: "We publish thoughtful, provocative fiction, poetry, essays and visual arts. Fiction can be up to 5000 words. It should be relevant to a general audience, compelling and thought provoking. Finally, it should contain a protagonist with a positive, articulated, universal goal (e.g., freedom from oppression) who actively struggles to achieve that goal, overcoming emotional obstacles in the process. We expect the protagonist’s values and beliefs to be reflected in his or her behavior, which behavior initiates conflict with other characters. Ideally, the protagonist is motivated by a past wound which he or she attempts to heal. By story’s end the protagonist learns something significant about human behavior. Essays can be up to 5000 words. We do not publish essays which are life stories. We do publish essays which express perspectives about topics of general, timeless interest. That is, we are not interested in essays about current events but are interested in essays about the vagaries of human behavior. We are interested in poems which contain vivid images, resonating voice, rich language, discernible rhythm and thoughtful messaging. An example of of these attributes is Mary Oliver’s Wild Geese.
K'in Literary Journal From the Journal: Experimental, traditional, playful, prayerful, celebratory, challenging: human—try us. Show us a new way to tell one of the millions of stories under that glorious sun. Fiction: We welcome short stories of all shapes and sizes, from the mind-blowing traditional story to fiction that blurs the lines between forms, genre fiction, experimental fiction, etc. We also welcome flash and micro fiction. Please submit only one story or flash fiction totaling to no more than the word limit at a time. Nonfiction: We're looking for slow burns in a world of hot takes, questions asked instead of answers proved. We welcome a wide variety of nonfiction—traditional essay, narrative nonfiction, micro/flash memoir—and encourage experimentation, though not at the expense of factual truth. Too many true stories go untold, and we want to offer space to honor those voices. Please submit only one essay or flash totaling to no more than the word limit at a time. Poetry: 3-5 poems, open to content, form, structure. Submit all poems in one document. Do not submit individual poems separately. Please don't forget the power voice, sound, and time can have in poetry.
Lily Poetry Review From the Journal: The Lily Poetry Review is interested in promoting contemporary poets, poetry, art, flash fiction and literary citizenship. Lily Poetry Review features work with great imagery and authenticity, work that surprises both the writer and the reader a little bit, work that lifts off the page to follow the reader home.
Sow's Ear Poetry Review From the Journal: A beautiful, distinctive, cohesive venue linking poetry and kindred fine arts in print. Based in Winchester, Virginia, Sow's Ear Poetry Review (SEPR) has been publishing since 1989. Our mission is to: Encourage and give voice to fine poets and artists. - Move, delight, and humanize our readers. - Support fresh ways of writing, understanding, and using poetry. Sow's Ear Poetry Review welcomes submissions of fine poetry in any style and length. We want work that is carefully crafted, keenly felt, and freshly perceived. We like poems with voice, specificity, delight in language, and a meaning that unfolds.
The Sun From the Journal: The Sun is a reader-supported ad-free magazine. We’ve been described in many ways: celebratory, fierce, unflinching, thoughtful, truthful, dark, darkly funny, tender. We publish personal essays, fiction, and poetry. Personal stories that touch on political and cultural issues are welcome. Surprise us; we often don’t know what we’ll like until we read it.ND note: The Sun has one of the largest circulations of any magazine that publishes creative writing, and they also strongly discourage simultaneous submissions.
Thrush Poetry Journal From the Journal: THRUSH – a journal of poetry that will appear 6 times a year. (January, March, May, July, September and November) We believe in showcasing the best work we receive. We will present a select number of poems per edition. We recommend reading current and archived issues to familiarize yourself with the poetry we select for publication.
ND note—They ask that you don't submit again for 6 months after receiving their response, and they respond quickly.
on the experimental side
A Velvet Giant From the Journal: A Velvet Giant is soft & ferocious. Goofy & smart. Gorgeous & gross. A Velvet Giant likes to feel unsure. A Velvet Giant is an online literary journal. We love ambiguity: flash pieces, found pieces, cross-genre experiments, the "poem" that thinks it might be a story, the "story" that thinks it might be a poem. Retellings and reimaginings. Work that chips away at institutional structures. Work that breaks everything down so that it can build. A Velvet Giant is a collective space for work that exists outside the boundaries of genre. We recognize that it can feel impossible to talk about writing without categorizing it. When we say genreless, we don’t mean apolitical. Writing that resists binary categories such as fiction/nonfiction or poetry/prose is inherently queer and inherently political. We want writing that exists in the world, that resists tradition and expectations to build towards new ways of creating, feeling, and being.
Bitter Oleander From the Journal: We believe in bringing our readers and writers face to face with each other, with the reality of our uncommon world, like the one that exists in grape seeds blown by hurricanes into hidden corners doors form when closed. We publish well-known, little known and unknown poets and writers side by side. Published in English, most if not all of our translations include their originals. We demand a serious poetry. A poetry devoid of clichés and predictable twists of well-worn or entrenched truths. We prefer a heightened music driven by a profound linguistic rhythm. We strive to preclude the conventional issues and sentiments on which mainstream poetry thrives, with a poetry not only rich in its imagination but one that treats words as sacred rather than vehicles to the same intersections and experiences over and over again. As always, your work should be as imaginative as possible, not bound by any conventional attitudes outside yourself, while inspiring yourself as you write. Once you've done that, slip those exact poems (no more than eight please) or pieces of fiction into the appropriate file and attach it for our consideration.
CALAMITY From the Journal: CALAMITY is a poetry & art journal. Send us something new, something urgent. Send us something that will wreck us. Send us your best disasters. Send us ghosts. Weird us out & confuse us. Make us uncomfortable & ashamed. Send us a middle finger (a symbolic one, please not an actual severed one). Make us laugh or sob or both simultaneously. Baptize us in the gauntlet of your art then release us out the other side gleaming & disoriented.
Clade Song From the Journal: Clade Song is a space dedicated to the literary examination of the animal world and all of its behavioral niches from the bacterial mat to the predation of the auk, all of which impact and interrelate with the humanosphere. We are curious about how animal behavior shapes meaning for own species and how it informs moral minds both anthropic and not. We are attentive to how the consciousness of an animal is defined and how systems of social justice are developed as a result of the definitions. At Clade Song we are interested in the evolution of poetry from the phoneme outwards, from raw, exclamatory yelping to the insect hymns sung to enshrine the concrete and the nonce. The drive to the herd found in individual expression. Fusion of eye and ear and mind. We believe writing of necessity must evolve at all points—from syntax to the kinds of interactive changes that take place between an animal (writer) and its environment. We promote a deep ecology which accepts poetry’s resistance to the paradigm of use value.
diode From the Journal: We welcome all types of poetry (including, but not limited to, narrative experimental, visual, found and erasure poetry). We also accept poetry in translation, and collaborative poems.
Figure One From the Journal: Figure 1 is a digital poetry journal founded in 2017. We’re committed to writing that reconfigures how we see the world. We aim to publish new and underrepresented voices that push against any slack thinking in the current literary scene. Send us poems, send us sharp-edged word-objects you can’t quite call poems.
Graviton From the Journal: GRAVITON wants your finest POETRY or ART that is based loosely around science. Send a third-person bio & in one sentence your favourite conspiracy &/or theory. NO JERKS ALLOWED.
Indefinite Space From the Journal: from minimalist to avant-garde---open to innovative, imagistic, philosophical, experimental creations---poetry - drawings - collage - photography - paintings. reads year round. guidelines do not exist
Oxidant|Engine From the Journal: Oxidant|Engine is a journal of contemporary poetry that publishes online two times a year. We have eclectic tastes. It's not that we don't have aesthetic preferences; it's just that we can't settle on what they are. Check out our online issues to get a better sense of what we like.
Rascal From the Journal: Rascal is an ecology, literature and arts journal operating out of several parts of the world as a movement of the Earth. We publish poetry, essays, photography and art, along with a smattering of genre-blending and genre-defying work. We want work that steals the breath out of your mouth, punches you in the gut, or both. Our overriding aesthetic is fourfold: 1) quality craftsmanship, 2) heightened attention, 3) good sense, and 4) good health. Work that induces care, enhances lives and contributes to vital efforts of sustainability is overwhelmingly encouraged. So is work that takes a broader-than-human perspective on its subject. Themes that will always catch our eye include attention, affection, ecology and human-to-nonhuman relationships. More themes we like: holonic or holistic investigation, original mythology, non-dualism and poetics. Art for art’s sake isn’t for us. Work that exhibits a strong ethical spine is. Pith and concision will increase your chances. So will correct punctuation, grammar and capitalization. Hifalutin language should be used sparingly and only when essential to an aspect of craft. We love the concrete; we love the abstract; both should refuse to relinquish our attention. Passion and compassion are your guiding stars.
Rumble Fish Quarterly From the Journal: Rumble Fish Quarterly is a Richmond, Virginia-based publication founded in February 2017. We started this thing for a multitude of reasons, some of which are romantic and made up to impress you, others of which are slightly more honest. We wanted writing that would entrance us, whisper in our ear at midnight, and seemingly infuse itself in our coffees and vodka tonics alike. It is nothing short of a rendering of artistic conscience of the highest order.
***
A Confluence of Chapbook Contest/Submission Deadlines
August 31
Autumn House Press 2020 Chapbook Contest
Entry Fee: $20
Manuscript length: 15-30 pages
Final Judge: Danusha Laméris
Genre: Poetry
Winner receives $1,000 and publication
Fjords Review Summer Chapbook
Submission Fee: $20
Manuscript Length: Poetry up to 46 pages, short fiction up to 68 pages, hybrid work up to 68 pages, flash fiction up to 50 pages, unclassifiable works up to 60 pages.
All submissions receive a free download link to our latest print edition featuring an interview with Philip Metres.
Star 82 Press Chapbook
Do you have a strong, publication-ready manuscript of short fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry and/or art? For its inaugural chapbook, Star 82 is looking to publish one author, artist, writer/artist, or a two-person collaboration of a writer and an artist. We value kindness, humor, subtlety, and fresh imagery, but enjoy a sly edge, too.
Submission Fee: $7
Manuscript Length: 50-100 pages.
Genre: Poetry, Flash Fiction, Flash Creative Nonfiction; High-contrast black and white photographs, prints, paintings, collages, erasures, spot comics, or drawings
Tebot Bach Poetry: Clockwise Chapbook Competition
Entry Fee: $25
Manuscript Length: 24-32 pages
Genre: Poetry
Winner receives $500
Winner announced November 1, 2020 with publication in March 2021.
Judge: Gail Wronsky
Munster Literature Centre: Fool for Poetry International Chapbook Competition
Entry Fee: $27
Manuscript Length: 16-24 pages
Genre: Poetry
Winner receives $1090
September 1
American Poetry Journal: Chapbook Series - Summer Reading Period
Every year, American Poetry Journal will publish a number of chapbooks from new and established poets. We're looking for work that knows itself, and we simply can't to put down.
Submission Fee: $15
Manuscript Length: up to 42 page.
Genre: Poetry
Steel Toe Books Open Chapbook Submissions
Steel Toe Books will publish 1-3 chapbooks of poetry, short stories or other types of literary or hybrid work.
Entry Fee: $25
Manuscript Length: 20-50 pages.
Prize: Authors of selected submissions will receive ten copies of the book, a $50 honorarium, and a $200 value promotional campaign.
Genre: Poetry, Short Stories, Hybrid.
Summer 2020 Poetry International Chapbook
Poetry International prides itself on featuring chapbooks (or “portfolios”) both in English and in translation. We have featured Jane Hirshfield, Carolyn Forché, Jacquelyn Pope, Christian Wiman, Amy Gerstler, Bob Hicok, and new translations of Anna Swir, Osip Mandelstam, Yannis Ritsos, Tomaz Salamun, and René Char. We would be delighted to have the opportunity to include your name in this list!
Entry Fee: $20
Manuscript Length: 7-24
Genre: Poetry
*
Entropy Mag's list of where to submit is a great resource and while this is the list for June/July/August, there' s a good amount of places that have rolling deadlines or aren't until sometime in the summer.
Derek Annis' Submission Calendar. He has a long list of journals with rolling submissions and a calendar with journal openings linked in the calendar (not closing, when they start reading). Very useful resource.
Zebulon's Flash Fiction Submission Guide. Yeah, I'll admit I referenced this, I put a lot of work into it, and though it's almost 5 years old and needs an update, there are a lot of smaller and lesser known journals I reminded myself with using this guide.
Duotrope. Always. A great search and browse function.
Submittable Discover Tab. Good for deadlines. There are a few June deadlines and definitely some end of the month/July 1st ones to keep your eye on.
Poets & Writers Contest Calendar. If you've got a little extra scratch and want to enter some contests this is one of the best places to go.
New Pages Calls for submissions. New Pages is a tremendous resource, they have lots of supplemental information about hundreds of journals including lit mag reviews, which you don't see too many places.
Check out the lists and get your work out there! I'd love to hear other journals you fine folks have found recently, or are your favorites too. And if this post or my blog in general has been helpful, I'd really appreciate any donations you might be able to spare. Submission fees can add up for me too.
Other Lists
 |
| Photo by Sebastian Herrmann on Unsplash |
Entropy Mag's list of where to submit is a great resource and while this is the list for June/July/August, there' s a good amount of places that have rolling deadlines or aren't until sometime in the summer.
Derek Annis' Submission Calendar. He has a long list of journals with rolling submissions and a calendar with journal openings linked in the calendar (not closing, when they start reading). Very useful resource.
Zebulon's Flash Fiction Submission Guide. Yeah, I'll admit I referenced this, I put a lot of work into it, and though it's almost 5 years old and needs an update, there are a lot of smaller and lesser known journals I reminded myself with using this guide.
Duotrope. Always. A great search and browse function.
Submittable Discover Tab. Good for deadlines. There are a few June deadlines and definitely some end of the month/July 1st ones to keep your eye on.
Poets & Writers Contest Calendar. If you've got a little extra scratch and want to enter some contests this is one of the best places to go.
New Pages Calls for submissions. New Pages is a tremendous resource, they have lots of supplemental information about hundreds of journals including lit mag reviews, which you don't see too many places.
Check out the lists and get your work out there! I'd love to hear other journals you fine folks have found recently, or are your favorites too. And if this post or my blog in general has been helpful, I'd really appreciate any donations you might be able to spare. Submission fees can add up for me too.
