Submission Sunday 6.9.24
At Length, Joyland, River Styx, Lit Hub, Red Hen Press, The Downtime Review, Prime Number Magazine, and Vermont Studio Center
Happy Sunday, writers! Thank you for subscribing. Every other Sunday, you’ll receive eight literary submission opportunities, varying in audience and genre, that have been selected for quality and relevance.
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This edition of Submission Sunday has calls and contests from At Length, Joyland, River Styx, Lit Hub, Red Hen Press, The Downtime Review, Prime Number Magazine, and Vermont Studio Center. More details below.
At Length Call for Submissions (Deadline End of Summer)
At Length has been publishing long-form writing—poetry, fiction, essays, & more—for over 20 years. Under its founding editors, Jonathan Farmer and Dan Kois, the journal appeared as a print quarterly, focusing on poems and stories. In 2009, Farmer expanded At Length’s offerings to include art, photography, and music; he also moved the journal online. In 2023, Derek Mong and Anne O. Fisher took the reins from Farmer, redesigning At Length’s website and branching out into literary translation.
Throughout its existence, At Length has offered a venue for in-depth writing that’s open to possibilities that shorter forms preclude. We publish long poems (and poetic sequences), novellas, narrative non-fiction, literary criticism, and translations from all of the above. Our authors have won Pulitzers, Guggenheims, Whiting Awards, and National Book Awards. At Length strives to publish new work a few times each month.
Founded in 2008 by Emily Schultz and Brian J Davis, Joyland is based on the idea that fiction is an international movement supported by local communities. Our editors work with authors globally to highlight the most exciting voices in literary fiction and creative nonfiction.
Several of our stories have been included as Notables in Best American Short Stories and published in the Journey Prize Anthology. We’ve been the first publisher of some of today’s most compelling emerging writers, and have published work from acclaimed writers, including Roxane Gay, Leopoldine Core, Zinzi Clemmons, Lydia Millet, Amelia Gray, Marina Endicott, Ottessa Moshfegh, Lynne Tillman, Peter Orner, Chris Kraus, Emily St. John Mandel, Mona Awad, Rachel Khong, and Sarah Gerard.
Above all, it is our mission to be a place where writers can tell the stories that matter to them most.
River Styx Castro Prize 2025 (Deadline September 30)
The Castro Prize, named for our founding editor, Michael Castro, is a new prize awarded annually to exemplary works of poetry and fiction. River Styx editors carefully read and discuss contest entries and ultimately submit the strongest ten entries to the judges. For our 2024 contest, Christopher Castellani will judge fiction and Dg Okpik will judge poetry. We will award one winner for fiction and one for poetry, with one runner-up in each genre. The first-place prizes are $1000 each, plus publication in print and online.
River Styx remains dedicated to publishing the works of writers and artists we believe represent current and future movements in society and culture at local, national, and global levels, whether that work is embedded in historical, contemporary, future, abstract, or impossible contexts. In other words, we seek out work which protests, proclaims, fumes, experiments, innovates, elevates, ruminates, and rushes ahead. And the form that work takes is often surprising, occasionally challenging to our sensibilities and ossified narratives, and always feels urgent and alive in some way.
We’re looking for stories about literary life and culture. We’re interested in the ways that books or their authors fit into the culture at large, and we enjoy rigorous criticism for a general audience.
We’ve published essays on craft, those that veer into criticism, and reported pieces on literary issues. If you’re pitching a personal essay on writing life, it helps to describe how an incident in your life speaks to larger issues in the literary world. We’re also looking for stories that talk about upcoming nonfiction books and address the broader cultural issues around them by adding your own analysis or reporting.
Send us a brief (2-3 paragraph) description of the story and give us an idea of what makes it interesting, why it matters now, and what perspective, analysis, or reporting you will bring to it. The pitch is a great place to give us a sense of your writing style and tone. Include links to previous work, if you have them. It’s okay to send us full, finished essays, if you have them, with a brief description of the piece in an email. We do not accept original poetry or fiction.
📚 Every other week, I’ll be making space for up to three online writing classes or programs (and the occasional retreat or conference) to advertise their upcoming offerings here. Learn more about getting your own classified ad. 📚
Red Hen Press Call for Manuscripts
Red Hen Press is an independent, nonprofit press that publishes about twenty books of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry every year. We’re looking for novels, memoirs, creative nonfiction, hybrid works, essays, and poetry collections of exceptional literary merit that demonstrate a high level of mastery.
Red Hen publications are diverse in style and subject but tend to have in common a certain wildness. Representative fiction writers include Aimee Liu, Martha Cooley, Donna Hemans, Judy Grahn, Yuvi Zalkow, and Andrew Lam. Representative poets include Chris Abani, Katharine Coles, Camille Dungy, Eloise Klein Healy, Brynn Saito, Peggy Shumaker, Doug Manuel, and Francesca Bell.
The Downtime Review Call for Submissions
A literary journal publishing as regularly as possible through our newsletter (launching on Substack at the end of May), The Downtime Review collects our favorite flash and short fiction pieces from emerging authors. We’re not looking for a specific genre, although stricter genre work isn't usually our cup of tea. Our aim is to spotlight the work of authors writing outside of typical creative spaces, i.e., schools and residencies. We’re most interested in work that means something to its author, the kind of work that affirms your own love of writing through its reading. We want to read what matters to you, so please send it over.
Prime Number Magazine Monthly 53-Word Story Contest (Deadline June 15)
Our Prompt for June: Dr. Seuss asks, “How did it get so late so soon? . . . December is here before it’s June.” Indeed, how is it time to say farewell to spring? Do the seasons get shorter as the days grow longer? This month those will shorten too; it seems we will open our eyes to winter soon.
Write a 53-word story about a blink. The winner for June will receive a free copy of What Are the Chances: Flash Fictions by Robert Scotellaro, and their story will appear on this page for the month of July and will be published in Issue 263 of Prime Number Magazine on September 1, 2024.
Vermont Studio Center Open Call for Fall 2024 & Early 2025 Residencies (Johnson, Vermont – Deadline June 15)
Vermont Studio Center is accepting applications from May 1st to June 15th for residencies from November 2024 to April 2025. Vermont Studio Center (VSC) welcomes visual artists and writers for 2-, 3- and 4-week residencies to an inclusive, international community, honoring creative work as the communication of spirit through form. Nestled in the Green Mountains of Vermont, VSC provides private lodging, studios, fresh meals, and a vibrant visiting artists and writers program.
Vermont Studio Center (VSC) was founded by artists in 1984. For four decades, our residency program has offered residents and the general public an opportunity to engage with global creative communities. We invite Visiting Writers and Artists from around the world to join us during our residencies to mentor residents, present readings, facilitate craft talks, and give lectures that are open to the public.
Here’s a reminder of the deadlines coming up from previous posts. Please note that archived posts might also include calls that are open year-round. If you sign up for Substack Notes, I also post deadline reminders there. If you submit to any of the Submission Sunday calls and publish or win, let me know and I’ll broadcast your success in a future post.
Nat. Brut Call for Submissions (Deadline June 15)
Uncharted Magazine Cinematic Short Story Contest (Deadline June 16)
The MacGuffin Call for Submissions (Deadline June 30)
Bellevue Literary Review Call for General Submissions, 2025 Goldenberg Prize for Fiction, 2025 Felice Buckvar Prize for Nonfiction, and 2025 John & Eileen Allman Prize for Poetry (Deadline July 1)
Epiphany Call for Submissions (Deadline July 8)