This page is updated approximately every 2 weeks. Much more will be filled in for June.
Send us your contest URL and deadline or your opportunities and we’ll list them. Click on the Contact button on the home page. We want to share your opportunities. We believe that writers are a community.
Markets Seeking Personal Essays
ongoing deadlines posted with thanks to The Write Life
Boston Globe
The Boston Globe Magazine Connections section seeks 650-word first-person essays on relationships of any kind. It pays, though how much is unclear. Submit to magazine@globe.com with “query” in the subject line.
You can also submit to Boston Globe Ideas, which accepts pitches and submissions for first-person essays ranging from 650 to 1,000 words. All pitches and submissions should be sent to ideas@globe.com.
Dame Magazine
“For women who know better. Smart, fast-paced news and opinions on what matters most in our lives — That’s DAME.”
If you’re up for the challenge, send your pitch to editorial@damemagazine.com. Aimed at women in their 30s, the publication covers politics, race, civil rights, disability, class, gender, sex, reproductive rights, LGBTQ issues and much more. Rates are based on type of features, but they typically pay $200 for essays.
The Christian Science Monitor
Have an upbeat personal essay between 400 and 800 words on everyday life, like travel, parenting, home, family, gardening, neighborhood, or community?
Submit to The CS Monitor’s Home Forum. Send your completed essays to homeforum@csmonitor.com. They accept essays on a wide variety of subjects (and encourage timely, newsy topics), but steer clear of topics like death, aging and disease.
Kveller
Want to write for this Jewish parenting site? To submit, email submissions@kveller.com with “submission” somewhere in the subject line. Include a brief bio, contact information, and your complete original blog post — you can either attach it as a Word document or paste it into the body of the email. Suggested word count: 500-800. Per a well-loved private Facebook group for freelance writers, pay is about $50.
The Sun Magazine
Publications in The Sun Magazine have won Pushcart Prizes and been selected for Best American Essays — so if your story gets chosen, you’ll be in good company. And since the editors “tend to favor personal writing,” that I-driven nonfiction essay might just be the perfect fit. (Fiction and poetry are also accepted.)
Pay ranges from $300 all the way up to $2,000 for accepted personal stories and fiction prose. The easiest way to send your story is online through Submittable, but check the guidelines first before submitting.
Creative Nonfiction Magazine
One unique aspect to Creative Nonfiction Magazine is their high acceptance rate of unsolicited pitches. It’s a great stop for blossoming writers, as well as those with more experience.
To submit online, a $3 reading fee is charged to non-subscribers (and the magazine no longer accepts paper submissions). The fee ensures you will be paid if your work is accepted, which typically adds up to a $125 flat rate plus $10 per printed page. Plus, they often run essay contests with prizes ranging from $1,000-$10,000 per winning entry, and reading fees help offset that expense. Read over their submission calls before pitching since each issue sticks to a theme and may have different guidelines.
Contests With No Deadlines Specified
The Fictional Cafe a virtual coffee shop and multi-media arts magazine created especially for writers, artists, and podcast lovers, seeks new material year round.
Make a Living at Writing–Lists 161 markets divided into a variety of categories. Peruse. Let me know if you find dead links and I’ll add that info here, okay? Thanks!
Chill Subs is a new website to help poets and writers find the right home for their work “without wasting too much energy, losing your shit and hating yourself for being unproductive.” You can browse magazines or search with a variety of helpful filters, such as magazine name, contributors, response times, genres, specific demographics, and one of my favorites–vibe.
Poets Reading the News, founded in 2016, publishes original poetry about current events from around the world. We are currently open to submissions.
CHESTNUT REVIEW seeks submissions year round.
- Vita Poetica Journal Seeks Creative Work Explored Through a Spiritual Lens
- Deadline: Year-round
The Vita Poetica Journal is an online quarterly publication of creative work explored through a spiritual lens. This may be engaging directly with religious faith or a broader inquiry into meaning and the human experience. Submissions of fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, essays, and visual art are welcome year-round. Please see our submissions guidelines at www.vitapoetica.org/journal/submissions.
June Deadlines
Writer Advice’s Flash Memoir Contest — Deadline is June 2.
Guest editors Khairani Barokka and Cyree Jarelle Johnson are soliciting work from writers who identify as D/deaf, disabled, chronically ill, mentally ill, and/or neurodiverse for a special issue of Massachusetts Review. The journal intends to increase publication of artists from these communities going forward. Click here for more information (including audio instructions). Deadline: June 1
Solstice Literary Magazine Annual Literary Contest
Deadline: June 6, 2022
Solstice‘s annual writings contests are underway! Submissions are now open, and the contests will run until June 6. The prizes are: $1,000 Fiction; $500 Stephen Dunn Poetry Prize; $500 Michael Steinberg Nonfiction Prize; and $500 Graphic Lit. Our judges this year are Jabari Asim (Fiction), Tomás Q. Morín (Poetry), Alysia Abbott (Nonfiction), and Josh Neufeld (Graphic Lit). The entry fee is $18. Further details are on our Contest Page.
Deadline: June 15, 2022
Lynx House Press seeks submissions of full-length poetry manuscripts for the annual Blue Lynx Prize for Poetry. The winner will receive $2,000 and publication. Entries must be at least 48 pages in length. The fee for submitting is $28. Previous judges include James Tate, Yusef Komunyakaa, Dorianne Laux, Dara Wier, Melissa Kwasny, and Robert Wrigley.
Swan Scythe Press Announces its 2022 Poetry Chapbook Contest!
xssDeadline: June 15, 2022
Swan Scythe Press announces its 2022 poetry chapbook contest. Entry fee: $18. We are accepting submissions from March 1 to June 15 (postmark deadline). Winner receives $200 and 25 perfect-bound chapbooks. The 2021 winner is Rae Gouirand for Little Hour. For full submission guidelines, visit the Swan Scythe Press website.
Alternative Field Notes seeks poetry for consideration for publication in our bodies. period: a poetry anthology on menstruation. our bodies. period is an anthology highlighting the stories of those who have experienced menstruation. Up to 5 pieces may be submitted, as well as any favorite tips, salves, and wisdom you’d like to share. Deadline: June 21
For a special expanded anniversary edition of I Wasn’t Strong Like This When I Started Out: True Stories of Becoming a Nurse, Creative Nonfiction/In Fact Booksis seeking essays by and about nurses, especially pandemic-era stories which examine the complex and essential role nurses have played. Essays can be from 1,000 to 4,000 words. Deadline: June 27
Capsule Stories’s Autumn 2022 Edition theme is Falling Leaves. We’re looking for stories, poems, and essays that explore a season of change in life. For short stories and essays, we’re interested in pieces under 3,000 words. You may include up to five poems in a single poetry submission and only one story or essay at a time. Deadline: June 30
North Street Book Prize for Self-Published Books–-Deadline is June 30, 2022
Now in its eighth year, the North Street Book Prize is sponsored by Winning Writers. Self-published books in seven categories can win up to $8,000 plus additional benefits. Submit online or by mail. Winning Writers is a partner member of the Alliance of Independent Authors, and this contest is recommended by Reedsy. Entry fee: $70 per book. Free gifts from our co-sponsors for everyone who enters. Deadline: June 30. View guidelines here.
July Deadlines
Ruminate. The Waking‘s Flash Prose Prize. Fiction, Nonfiction. Entry Fee. 7/1
The Saturday Evening Post. Great American Fiction Contest. Fiction. Entry Fee. 7/1
Southern Humanities Review. Editors’ Chapbook Prize for Fiction. Fiction. Entry Fee. 7/1
Sunspot Lit welcomes fiction, poetry, stories, essays, scripts, screenplays, and graphic novels from flash up to 49,000 words. Open to genre as well as literary works, art in all formats, and translations.
Note that the closing dates have been modified. Longer categories, like novella and novelette-length works, are now open for shorter periods. Novella-length submissions close July 1; novelettes close July 15; and the Supernova option, for very long-form works, closes Aug 1.
Sonder Magazine. Morning Coffee Writing Competition. Fiction. Entry Fee. 7/15
Free Spirit Publishing. Black Voices in Children’s Literature: Writing Contest. No Fee. 7/24
F. Scott Fitzgerald Literary Festival. Short Story Contest. Fiction. Entry Fee. 7/3
The Story Prize. Book Award. Fiction. Entry Fee. 7/14
Free Spirit Publishing. Black Voices in Children’s Literature: Writing Contest. No Fee. 7/24
F. Scott Fitzgerald Literary Festival. Short Story Contest. Fiction. Entry Fee. 7/30
California State Poetry Society. Annual Contest. Poetry. Entry Fee. 7/31
Longridge Review. Anne C. Barnhill Prize for Creative Nonfiction. Nonfiction. Entry Fee. 7/31
Narrative Magazine. Spring Story Contest. Fiction, Nonfiction. Entry Fee. 7/31
Oxford Flash Fiction Prize. Summer Flash Fiction Prize. Fiction. Entry Fee. 7/31
MORE OPPORTUNITIES COMING SOON. WATCH THIS SPACE.
