Hump Day Submission Carousel 4

#4: 2/17/21

It's Wednesday, so you know what that means! HUMP DAY SUBMISSIONS! Because it's easy to fall off the submission train during the week I'm presenting you with 3 cool journals currently open for submissions to save you research time! Pick one of the three journals presented and read some of the pieces in your genre. If you're not digging them, check the next journal. Don't agonize over it, if you're not enjoying the writing or you don't feel your writing would fit in there move along to the next journal. If none of them seem to fit... maybe next week? 

Journal 1: Eastern Iowa Review. This online journal reads no fee submissions in creative nonfiction and prose poetry for the theme "Water" until February 20 via Submittable. 

"We seek the linguistically unique and beautiful: lyricism is prized here so it stands to reason that our favorite writing forms are the prose poem and the lyric essay... Do remember, there's enough darkness and sadness in the world -- we want your GOOD SPACES. We are 'a journal of good spaces.'"

Journal 2: Harpur Palate. No fee submissions in poetry, fiction and nonfiction via Submittable.  Check out their interview with Duotrope here.

"Harpur Palate has no restrictions on subject matter or form. Quite simply, send us your highest quality short stories, flash fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction... Harpur Palate is managed by graduate students in Binghamton University’s Department of English."

Journal 3: Kestrel. Kestrel: A Journal of Literature is the print lit mag out of  Fairmont State University. $3 submissions in all genres via Submittable.

Regional preference? While they publish anyone, their website does state "We are especially happy to publish work by West Virginia and Appalachian writers."

What do they want? Poetry: Kestrel welcomes poems of all genres, styles, and traditions, including experimental and hybrid forms, as well as poetry in translation. Send 3-5 of your best poems during one of our reading periods.

Fiction: Kestrel is open to any genre of short fiction that questions assumptions and moves us to reconsider everyday life. We enjoy stories with believable plots, developed characters, consistent points-of-view, vivid and symbolic settings, true dialogue, and thought-provoking themes, though we also enjoy experimental writing that makes new the expected conventions. 5,000 words maximum.

Non-Fiction: Creative nonfiction, memoir, or literary essays are preferred. Subject matter may vary but attention to writing as craft and art is paramount; the attention to diction, syntax, and detail should delight and surprise. We appreciate writing that makes a subject's complexity understandable and its familiarity new. We expect non-fiction to be non-fiction.

Get your writing out there! You got this! I know it's mid-week, but spending just a little bit of time with reading well-crafted creative writing in the middle of the week it can keep your creativity a little fresher when the weekend comes around. I think, at least.

Also a gentle reminder that Sparked is reading submissions of writing from Notebooking Daily prompts, so send them work now! And if you thought this post was helpful, consider shooting me a buck or two for my own future submissions or to help pay writers for Sparked (which comes out of my pocket). No pressure though. I'm just trying to get better with the begging for pennies, submission fees in 2020 are pretty monumental and 2021 is shaping up to be just as bad!